I find myself staring and wish I could tear my eyes away from him. He looks like Vander, vaguely, as though he were his wrinkled and aged grandfather. He is almost bald, wispy lengths of white hair waving in the air.

"Another of the afflictions of the Sick," Gault whispers to me in his quavering voice. "I doubt those like me last long up above, do they?"

"No," Beckett says softly. "I've heard of this, but never seen it with my own eyes."

Gault nods slowly. "I'm ...