We left Seyðisfjörður behind over eight days ago, and in less than a day, we would reach Reykjavik. The journey was long, tedious, and neither Eveline nor I spoke very much. The terrain was mostly to blame for this lack of communication, because while my nanocloud could do much to alleviate the concerns of navigating treacherous rocky slopes or gravel-strewn mountainsides, it could only do so much. My mind therefore had to be involved in the process, so I spent most of our journey time concentrating on this aspect of the journey.

When we did stop to camp at the end of each night, I was too tired to do much talking anyway, and Eveline seemed even less inclined to discuss anything.

A few times, I would try to get my flask back from her, either by grabbing it from her backpack, or taking it from where she had stashed it in her tent. On one occasion, she had even gone as far as to carry it openly on the trail, but on every occasion, she had managed to wrest it away before I could get my hands on it.

I could swear that it was like she had expected me to try and get it back somehow, and she kept an eye on it at all times. She even took it with her when she went hunting.

The few times when I resigned myself to losing it for good, she seemed to notice, and started taunting me with it, as though she wanted me to try and take it back. I had no idea what this was that she tried doing with me, but it was significant enough that I kept at it.

It seemed to be important to her that I keep up the effort.

We still maintained brief training sessions, and I appreciated the difference in her teaching style to that of a traitor like Lena, who taught me very little that might save my life in the future. I was already starting to notice the differences, both in the strength of my body as I trained, the steady footing of my combat stances, and the ease at which I was beginning to chain together different combat techniques.

For once, our silences were comfortable and welcome.

It also seemed that Eveline was slowly, by miniscule degrees, coming out of her shell. She was still somewhat disdainful in her mannerisms with me, but I saw occasional flickers of amusement as we walked. Also, more often than not, she would come back from one of her jaunts with a gift of some kind, which could be anything from an interestingly-shaped pebble to a pelt. I kept every single one of them, even if they seemed to be utterly pointless, though her choices were interesting in any event. Just a few days earlier, she had given me what appeared to be a strangely-shaped volcanic glass shard. It was almost iridescent in its sheen, and if I wanted to polish and grind it down, I could make an interesting gem shape from it.

This morning, we decided to make a few changes in our routine. Eveline had already launched off on her prowl as usual, while I continued the forward pace along our route. I spent most of that time engaged in adapting the code I'd developed for the imprint control project I was trying to get finished, and this had taken my attention right up until the moment I saw Eveline come sprinting back, her body flush with effort, her lungs heaving with exertion, her face otherwise a mask of indifference.

Some things stayed the same, I thought to myself in amusement.

"Trying to burn off energy?" I quipped, causing her to frown as she started to recover from her exertions.

"You're a regular comedian," she huffed back to me, her tail twitching briefly. "Perhaps you could do something useful with your time instead of sitting around trying to come up with witty comments?"

"Suits me," I replied, shrugging my shoulders. "What do you have in mind?"

Eveline still knew nothing of my side project, and I was determined to keep that private for now, until I could be confident I had something functional that would help without causing any harm. The tests I'd conducted on the project had worked fine on me without causing any issues, but I had a nanocloud that immediately halted execution of anything dangerous to myself, and I also had no imprinting ability I was aware of. What I would eventually need is a willing volunteer. Iceland was unusual, in that it didn't have a hybrid population; every single person we saw here was fully human.

Maybe Canada had some beast folk who were connected with the Cuissets?

"Come, let's work on your defensive posturing," Eveline ordered, her tone surprisingly animated. "You still slouch like a sack of shit."

I smiled at her with the biggest shit-eating grin I could muster, and she narrowed her eyes, her tail twitching in annoyance.

We trained for a good two hours, the exertions exhilerating, the techniques flowing together from one to the next like I felt I'd been doing it for months instead of days, and my mind was beginning to come up with novel combinations without my nanocloud giving me a visual overlay or muscle-memory prompts first.

Hopefully, this meant I would soon become a natural at this.

Eveline narrowed her eyes at me, as I thought all of this, calling a halt to the sparring session we were just getting into. "What is going through that idiotic brain of yours?" She asked, rising out of her own combat stance.

"Nothing special," I told her. "It's just my mind is beginning to think of ways to combine attacks without my nanocloud giving me prompts now."

"Ugh," she sighed disdainfully. "So now you think you're an expert in combat because now you don't need your nanocloud to do the thinking for you?"

I frowned. Way to pour cold water on my victory, I thought to myself, feeling irritable all of a sudden. "I never said that," I retorted. "I just felt good that I was finally beginning to put together the moves without any assistance, that's all."

"Congratulations, Rick," Eveline gave me the most insincere toothy grin she could, which immediately vanished to be replaced with a look of such sheer contempt that I'd abruptly tired of this exchange. "You just graduated from hopelessly inept to complete novice."

"Fuck sake, Ev," I raised my voice in exasperation. "What the fuck is going on with you all of a sudden?"

"You!" She retorted with a sharp bark. "Thinking you've become some knife expert-"

"I never said that," I interrupted her, deliberately moderating my tone, but she kept going.

"-who can go toe to toe with bandits out in the wild, just because he can do some moves without nanites assisting him!"

I let out an exasperated sigh, taking a deep breath as I did. "Let's just get to the city."

"Great," Eveline muttered. "So you'll just ignore me and keep walking."

This was ridiculous. "Look," I turned and told her, my voice as tired as I felt. "Nothing I say is going to go well with you, and whether I acknowledge your argument, dispute it, agree with it or simply keep my mouth shut so as not to make you any more angry, it makes no difference. All I ever do is just piss you off. And you know what really bothers me about all this?" I breathed in, never taking my eyes off of hers as she continued to glare at me. "We were finally starting to get along better."

"The only reason we seem to be getting along is because all we've done here, is train or spar with each other and walk along a road. What have we ever spoken about since leaving Hamburg?"

"It's a little difficult to hold a conversation while navigating tricky terrain," I muttered under my breath.

"Not so much that it makes it impossible to talk," Eveline snapped, her tail swiping the air angrily now, her arms out to her sides in a gesture of helpless exasperation.

"Because when we do talk, all you ever seem to want to do is get into a confrontation about what I've done wrong, or how I'm not good enough at this or that. It's tiring, Eveline." I stopped and closed my eyes for a moment, striving for calm. "Let's just get there, shall we? Then if you still have an issue with what I've said or done, we'll deal with it while we wait for our ship."

"We wouldn't even have to take this trip in the first place if you'd have been more wary of your companions in Dortmund," she snapped back at me, her expression angered. "Lena and Suzie killing your volunteers prevented you from talking to them and getting information that might have meant this trip wasn't even needed at all."

"You don't know that," I retorted. "Neither do I, but all you're doing now is guessing, and I can't help feeling-"

"What you can't help feeling, Ricardo," and she poured scorn on my name for some reason. "Is other women."

"Are we really going to do this again?" I asked. "You know what? I've already apologised for trusting the wrong people before. I'm not doing it again, and I'm not going to apologise again for the fact that I felt like a used sex toy when you kicked me out that night."

"You felt," Eveline sneered. "You felt. What about how I felt when I found out-"

"What?!" I cut her off. "You sent me away. Up until you suddenly turned hostile with me that night, things were going well, I was enjoying being with you, and then, after you'd had your fun, you decided-"

Eveline interrupted, yelling. "Don't tell me how I felt or what my intentions were! That's my job!"

"But you never told me!" I shouted back. "Not once, did you ever explain to me why you suddenly switched to being cold and adversarial that night."

"I don't have to explain anything to you-"

"Then how do you expect me to understand what I am supposed to have done wrong?" My patience was frayed, and I couldn't resist the urge to raise my voice again. "What if the situation were reversed?" I asked, then waited until Eveline stopped glaring at me like she wanted to cut my balls off with her claws. "What if, that night, you had been really enjoying the way I reacted to you, then you asked if I was enjoying myself, and for no reason you could understand, I immediately pushed you away, angrily told you that the night was over, had no intention of explaining what you supposedly did wrong, but just got angry at you and told you to leave? How do you think you would feel?"

Eveline's stare was stony, but she said nothing.

"How would you feel if I did that to you?" I persisted, refusing to let this drop.

"I'd be fine with it," she said.

I decided to call her out. "Really? If you feel so little emotion for me that you would honestly not feel even a little bit rejected and hurt if i'd done the same thing to you that night as you did to me, then why are you on my back about me going off and sleeping with Lena all the time?" My anger was beginning to grow. "Either you're lying when you tell me you'd be fine with me kicking you out coldly after what we did, or you really don't care anything for me, so that it shouldn't bother you who I sleep with or what I do with other people, and so, the only reason you're arguing with me, is to be difficult."

The glare that she gave me after I stopped talking lasted for several moments. "You trusted the wrong person that night, and for many days since," she hissed. "And now we've been forced to travel-"

"No," I cut her off. "I'm sorry, but I'm not letting this go. This isn't about who I trusted with information I should have kept between you and I. We've been over that, and I've already said I'm sorry countless times."

"It doesn't change the fact that we now have to-"

"No, it doesn't change that fact!" I barked harshly. "We still have to travel half way around the world because of my mistake. You've made that very clear, and I have no dispute with you on that. I get it. I seriously fucked up by being too trusting. Now stop it already. If you really weren't bothered by my sleeping with someone else, then you wouldn't keep bringing it up."

She said nothing in response to that, but I wasn't finished.

"Ev, I don't know what possesses you to want to fight with me all the time, but we were getting along a lot better in the last few days," I said quietly, watching to see if what I was saying registered with her. "I really don't want to keep fighting with you all the time. It's almost as though you want me to dislike you."

She still said nothing, but I registered a brief thinning of her lips and a widening of her eyes.

Then, she turned and walked ahead.

"Okay," I sighed, following after her as she retrieved her backpack. I did the same with mine, and we resumed our journey toward Reykjavik.

For all we were just a few metres apart from each other, we might as well have been miles away.

Neither of us spoke again that night, other than to ask if we needed anything or to clarify which of us were going to perform which tasks needed to set up camp for the night. The same was true for the following morning, and as Eveline disappeared on her usual ritual, I packed up our gear, hauling both packs this time, and set off west toward Reykjavik. If my timing was good, we would reach the walled city within four hours at most.

Barely ten minutes after I started walking from our camp, I was alerted to danger.

ALERT: Detected (3) bipedal humans attempting stealth approach.

Combat mode engaged.

As always, my nanocloud flooded me with adrenaline and diverted resources to increasing my synaptic processing speed, giving me an increased sense of awareness and faster reflexes. I started to look about, my visual overlay searching for possible hostile contacts.

I spotted one of them almost immediately, and sought the others within the same general region, only to come up blank. The first appeared to know he had been spotted, and launched himself into a run, letting loose a war cry of some kind. I prepared myself to repel the attack, but where were the other two? I quickly looked around, and spotted the second one, nine o'clock to my original assailant.

Well, shit, I thought. They were looking to surround me.

I immediately widened my peripheral vision by instructing my nanocloud to focus additional resources to my visual cortex, and my eyesight sharpened up almost immediately, allowing me to spot the third assailant... Who was now launching herself in the air, her sword swung high overhead, both feet now poised to kick out at me, the boots looking like combat footwear from the old world. I parried her sword attack with my combat knife as I sidestepped the kick that was aimed at my head, and tried to catch her back with a downstroke as she passed.

Shit.

I missed. I wasn't that good. As she hit the ground, she rolled expertly, coming back up onto her feet just as one of the other two assailants launched himself at me, a pair of combat knives in his hands, swinging one overhead while the first reached to skewer me from below. I barely evaded both blows, my arm caught by the overhead swing as I desperately back-stepped away from the man, frantically swinging so I could keep the female assailant in my sights. Desperately, I tried to fight off both of them at once, but my knife skills, while far improved from when I started out, were barely adequate against two others, one armed with far deadlier blades, more of them, and they were far longer.

As I sidestepped a series of thrusts from the female sword bearer, I rolled to avoid the combat blades of the first assailant.

Where the fuck had the second gone?!

My head swivelled around desperately, not entirely sure how I was keeping out of the blows of the two who were effectively cornering me. Then I heard an angry cat-like screech which caught my attention. Sighting the source of the sound, I watched as Eveline engaged in a fierce fight with the second assailant, another woman, this one with clawed gloves.

I was relieved that Eveline was taking her off of my hands, and that caused me to relax fractionally.

That had been a costly mistake.

The male attacker skewered me with his combat knife through the lower intestine, and I let out an inchoate roar that was cut off as the pain overwhelmed me. My nanocloud dumped a shit-load of notifications in my periphery, but I was in the middle of a fight right now, thanks very much, and couldn't pay any attention to them. As I desperately tried to fight while incapacitated, I lapsed in concentration again for just a moment, giving the female sword-bearer an opportunity to stab me in the back, where one of my kidneys was.

That did it.

I collapsed to my knees, feeling weak, losing strength every moment, as I began to topple forward, face first onto the concrete road. I barely registered the first of the attackers standing over me with a sneer on his face and a combat knife that was fast approaching my neck, but I did manage to hear the almost rabid cat-like screech as my senses left me, and everything went dark.

Everything was a strange melding of experiences for a while after that, as I went in and out of consciousness. The only thing that made me aware of what was really happening was my nanocloud still had the ability to communicate with my memory centres. I had apparently wrestled with my nanocloud to regain consciousness in order to get back in the fight, the last thing I remembered seeing was that deadly-looking blade hurtling toward my neck. No matter how I fought against my blackout, I could never maintain cohesive thought for more than a brief moment.

The first time I had tried, I could briefly hear the sounds of combat, knives slashing through air, the most furious of screeching and roaring.

The second time, I could only hear wildlife noises. Whatever had happened in between those two moments, the fight was long over, though I was still alive. My nanocloud once again forced me back under, and I was powerless against it.

The next time I had conscious thought, I was not laying down on the floor, but sat at an awkward angle. My mind sharpened in little more than an instant, my hearing came back almost fully, nearly overwhelming me. I kept my eyes closed while everything seemed to adjust. Finally, when I felt ready to deal with what was going on around me, I consulted my notifications.

CRITICAL: Deep abdominal wound detected. Intestinal puncture.

High risk for blood loss internal and external. Prioritising wound sealing.

CRITICAL: Blood loss during combat.

Current readiness state cannot be maintained.

Combat mode conclusion recommended ASAP.

CRITICAL: Deep lumbar wound detected. Kidney damage.

Increased risk for blood loss.

Diverting nanocloud resources from non-essential functions.

CRITICAL: Unable to sustain conscious functioning.

Engaging deep coma to extend preservation of life functions.

ALERT: External data collection impaired. Limited range information only.

While my Nanocloud may have felt this was a good choice at the time, some of these concerned me. Trying to preserve my higher brain functions might well have been necessary, but doing so during combat was dangerous. I still had no idea how the fight went, and for all I knew, I could be captured right now. I could have been killed while my nanocloud was working to keep me alive by forcing me into a coma during combat. Still, it may not have been possible to continue fighting if the bleeding was a factor.

I continued with the remainder of my notifications.

Combat mode terminated.

Engaging full medical triage.

ALERT: Critical medical status detected.

Suppressing attempt to force consciousness.

External bleeding has stopped.

ALERT: Diverting nanocloud resources to combat internal haemorrhaging.

ALERT: External blood loss has passed 500ml.

Recommend rest and sustenance when able.

Internal wounds have been sealed.

ALERT: Critical medical status detected.

Suppressing attempt to force consciousness.

ALERT: Wound sites are still fresh.

Avoiding strenuous activity for the next six hours.

Critical medical status has been suspended.

Entering convalescent stage and bringing host consciousness back online.

There were other notifications, but they were low priority, so I ignored them. I needed to know what was happening around me right now.

Opening my eyes, I looked about; the sight I was greeted with was astonishing. Above me, and in my line of sight, I saw Eveline, her body covered in blood, her clothing torn in various places, as she looked off in the distance. Her densely-muscled arms rested at her sides, and then I realised that her hands were on my chest, the warm fingertips in contact with my skin.

Then, I realised that my upper body was naked, and that I was beginning to feel sore throughout my lower abdominal region, with an equally searing pain in my right lower back. I knew at that moment, I would need to assess the damage and work out if we needed to set up camp until I was healed, or if we could move on to the city in time to catch the freighter to Canada.

Really wishing I didn't have to do so, with a pang of longing in my chest, and wishing that things were different between us, I tried to speak, only to let loose an unexpected cough, my throat dry from dehydration.

Eveline looked down, startled, as her eyes grew wide, then moist, and then she let out an exasperated sigh, turning her head away from me, taking both hands off of my chest, and wiping her eyes with the back of a wrist.

"You're awake then," she spoke in her usual disdain.

This time, I wasn't falling for it. While I may be weakened through my injuries, my mind was as sharp as ever. My nanocloud had done a fine job protecting it. "Ev," I said with a slight rasp. "W..t..? Pl..z?"

So much for being able to speak properly, I thought irritably, and swallowed to try and encourage some moisture to ease my parched throat. At the same time, Eveline had pushed herself off of the ground and walked to her backpack, fetching a flask and bringing it back over to where I now lay on the ground, my own backpack propping my head and upper body upright. With rapid, practiced movements, she uncapped the flask, poured a measure of water out, and gently reached toward my mouth with it. For all she was abrasive and argumentative at practically every other time I'd ever known her, she was surprisingly gentle with me right now.

The water helped, as I sipped from the cup, swallowing to clear my throat, then drank some more as she carefully poured the cup just enough to allow me to take some from the edge of the cup. She was clearly skilled with this, and I thought with some amusement that she probably had to do this a lot with the cubs she helped out with at the orphanage in Eindhoven.

"Thank you," I whispered, feeling better. I then raised my arm, which though I felt weaker than usual, was easy enough. I reached for her wrist, intending to give her a grateful squeeze, but she moved her arm away before I could, and I was too weakened to try and persist, so I let my arm drop clumsily back to the ground, feeling awful both physically and emotionally. "Sorry. You're still mad at me-"

"Shut up!" She hissed, her face turning away again, and she angrily wiped at her eyes once more. "What the hell is wrong with you, Rick? You let your guard down! I told you never to do that! You could have been killed!"

I couldn't help let out a sigh as she berated me, feeling conflicted. On the one hand, she was giving me a hard time for a situation in which I barely had time to take a fucking questionnaire on whether or not I should appreciate her timely assistance in battle, or bravely fight on as though I had never seen her at all. For fucking hell's sake, I didn't have time to think about any of that shit! I was relieved she had been around to stop me from being killed, and had she not been around, I would now be dead! I knew it with the same certainty I knew I had two eyes and a nose.

On the other hand, I was feeling sick to my stomach that she was distressed over my state of health, and my heart gave me several pangs in response to the occasional sob I could hear from her direction.

"Ev, it's killing me to see you like this-"

"It's killing me, he says!" She coughed out in astonishment, sniffing hard, wiping her eyes with her hand this time. "You saw me out there in the middle of a fight, and you- you fucking let your guard down! They skewered you because of that! They very nearly killed you! Damn you! What the fuck am I going to do if you die?"

Right, I thought to myself as she pushed herself up and thrust the flask back into her backpack in quick, angry motions, her tail twitching in annoyance. "If I died out here, I'm sure you'd have found someone who can make sure you get back to your family, without too much issue," I told her in a gentle voice.

"That's not even fucking close to what I meant, you moron!" She hissed, then let out a low moan, before hissing again, wordlessly this time. For some reason I couldn't quite work out in my head, it seemed that her tail motions were not as violent as they would be when she was truly angry, but her tail hung low in the air, though what that could mean, I had no idea.

"Ev," I spoke again.

"What?!" She snapped in my direction, not turning to face me.

"Ev, listen to me," I insisted.

"I'm listening!" She barked, still refusing to face me.

I sighed. She clearly wasn't ready to face me, at least not physically. I decided to speak anyway. "Ev, I'm sorry for distressing you."

"I don't wanna-"

"I'm not done," I cut her off, though I wasn't really in a position to do much raising of my voice. "I can't imagine what it must be like to see a travelling companion come to harm on the trail." Well... That wasn't strictly true. If Eveline were injured similarly, I imagine I'd feel pretty fucking devastated, if I were being honest with myself. "You're too good a fighter for that. But..." I swallowed, my throat going dry again. "Sure, I may have been careless and let my guard down-"

"You fucking think?" She snapped angrily, her voice ending on a choked sob.

"Still not done, Ev," I said gently. "But if you hadn't been there at that time, I know for certain, as I know your tiger stripes are very pretty-" What in the fuck possessed me to say that, of all things? It caused me to pause for a moment, and a slightly incredulous bark of laughter escaped Eveline's throat. "I'd be dead now if not for you."

The silence was agonising, and lasted for at least a minute. Finally, she spoke.

"I need a minute," her tone was strangled, like she was trying to get it out, and she stalked off a fair distance, though she remained in sight, stopping, and then sagging slightly as she did, her arms going to her head.

I experimentally tried to exert a grip with my fist, only to realise I could barely apply any pressure. Those attackers had really done a number on me, and I was as weak as a kitten. Still, I had to get moving. I queried my nanocloud, and was told that over six hours had passed where I'd been out of it. That made sense, given the sun was now setting in the sky, but it meant we would be cutting it close for our crossing.

With some difficulty and a lot of pain, I managed to get to my feet, walking over to my pack and dropping to my knees, opening it to take my flask out. It was still stocked with a good supply of water from when I'd last refilled it, and I took a few sips from it, put it back, and ensured my backpack was secured and tightened.

Oddly, getting back to my feet was a challenge. Having damage to your core abdominal group and your kidney region was a bitch when you needed to use those muscles.

"How many different kinds of idiotic are you?" Eveline startled me when she let loose an exasperated sound right near my elbow.

"Shit the bed, Eveline!" I exclaimed.

"Shit... The bed?!" She asked, clearly confused at my euphemism, as I turned to face her. "Isn't that what infants do when they haven't been trained how to use a lavatory?"

I snorted at her indignant expression. "It's just a phrase! You made me jump!"

"Whatever," She dismissed that consideration irritably. "Rick, why are you-" she started what was probably a tirade about pushing myself, but I cut her off.

"We have to get moving," I told her, immediately becoming serious. "The freighter is due to depart tomorrow morning, and we're already cutting it fine. If we don't leave right now, we'll have to wait another two weeks for the next one."

"That doesn't matter," she retorted, waving a hand toward my lower torso, indicating my injuries. "You need time-"

"We don't have that time!" I cut her off again. "How do we know that my pursuers don't already know what it is I'm looking for, or who? For all we know, we might be in a race against time to get to IBM Watson before they get the data I need and delete the originals."

"But your injuries-"

"They'll heal, Eveline," I told her. "My nanocloud is already working to heal them much faster than most other people. A wound like this," I gestured toward my lower abs. "That would take at least a couple of months to heal in the old world without nanomachines to assist, and just stopping the bleeding would need a trauma team and a lot of stitching. My nanocloud stopped the bleeding pretty quickly, I'm sure you noticed, and the alerts it prompted me with, told me there's no internal bleeding either. Don't worry!" Her eyes narrowed, her glare hinting at her displeasure, but still held remnants of distress over my injuries. I felt sorry for her for that. It had to be tough to see someone go through injuries like that, even if you disliked them intensely. "Come on, we need to get there. I can rest and recuperate on the freighter."

"You're seriously doing this?" She asked, blowing an exasperated breath out of her nose, her nostrils flaring.

"Yes!" I barked impatiently. "Look, if there was any risk of further exacerbating my injuries just by walking, then my nanocloud would be pinging me with alerts."

"It could be doing that now, and I'd have no clue!" She retorted, and before I could protest, she capitulated, though she was clearly furious with me. "Fine! But no arguments. We get to Reykjavik, we see how your injuries are. But you even so much as stumble at any point, we're stopping and setting up camp, you hear me?" Her expression was uncompromising, her eyes intense, her mouth in a thin line. "I don't hear you!"

"Jeez, Ev, fine!" I exclaimed in irritation. "I agree already, now let's go! We're running out of time!"

"Fucking stubborn arse," Eveline muttered under her breath as she stalked off to the west.

Coming from Eveline, that was amazingly hypocritical, I thought with some amusement.