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looked past Mara’s shoulder and yelled, “Jack! I need one of those sustainment units!”
    Mara turned to see a young orderly grab something from a cart next to the front desk. He jogged up to them and handed to Jazz a glass and metal rectangle that reminded Mara of a smartphone. The nurse raised her hand and said, “Okay, take me to this friend of yours.”
     

CHAPTER 6
     
     
    Barely nodding at Ping and Sam as Mara made the introductions, Jazz crossed the storage room directly to the side of the gurney and pulled the sheet off Cam’s headless torso. The nurse stiffened for a moment and cocked her head as if considering something. Her eye twitched slightly, then she seemed to reanimate and turned to glare at Mara.
    “Why did you bring him here after receiving the Return to Repository alarm?” Jazz asked. “There’s nothing we can do for him without his receptacle.”
    Mara looked back blankly. “I don’t know. I didn’t know what to do.”
    Jazz leaned over the body and placed on the center of Cam’s chest the glass and chrome rectangle Jack, the orderly, had given her. It attached with a soft hiss, seemingly snapping in place by means of something akin to a magnetic seal. The device hummed lightly and went silent. Lit numbers scrolled across the screen of the attached mechanism.
    “The sustainment unit will keep his processes active for twelve more hours. Since his repository is local, that should give you plenty of time to transport him,” Jazz said. “Where’s his head?”
    “I don’t know. This is how we found him, on the side of the road,” Mara said. “Can you give us some idea of how we can locate this repository?”
    Jazz looked askance at her. “You’ve got the repository number—97210—it’s across town. Take Cam to a transport on the loading dock out back and get to the repository. They might be able to track down his head if it’s still intact. If not, Cam will have to make do with a new head. Understand?”
    Mara’s eyes darted over to Ping, who shook his head and widened his eyes, at a loss about how to respond.
    “Look, odd people in the basement, we’re in the middle of a major crisis upstairs, and I can’t stay here and connect the dots for you. If you can’t handle this, I’ll have to hand you off to the security folks, and they can sort out why you’re running around with a headless body.”
    Mara’s phone vibrated in her pocket. She held up a finger for Jazz to wait and grabbed it. Cam’s name was on the screen. She tapped it and read the message.
    Tell her that you understand. I’ll walk you through what you need to do.
    Mara looked up and said, “I understand. We’ll get him to the repository immediately.”
    Jazz nodded, walked to the door and paused. “Just roll him to the elevator and go up one level to S1 and take a right. Keep rolling until you see the signs for the loading dock.” She left.
    Mara let out a loud sigh of relief and held up her phone screen for them to see.
    Ping smiled. “Excellent. So all we need to do now is get Cam to this repository, and then we can return home. Perhaps this won’t be the challenge I was anticipating.”
    “I don’t know,” Sam said. “What exactly is this repository place where we’re going?”
    Mara shook her head. Her phone vibrated—another message from Cam.
    “Repository 97210, Receptacle 7531-12-7250 is where my biological body is stored. The fabricators will harvest engrams from my brain to fashion a new cranium.”
    Sam wrinkled his nose. “Yuck.”
    * * *
    After tucking the book bag under the sheet just above Cam’s neck where his head would have been, Sam pushed the gurney, while Mara walked on one side, looking at her phone in case a new message arrived. Ping kept pace on the opposite side. They did not cross paths with anyone as they took the elevator up one floor and followed Jazz’s instructions to turn right, where the hall ended at a cavernous loading area marked by three deep bays designed