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gruff voice.
    Georgianna laughed.
    “But you are the marshall! Always will be.”
    Beck rolled his eyes as he lifted a large hand and patted her cheek, plastering her wavy hair to her tanned skin.
    “Whatever you say,” he agreed with a reluctant shake of his head. “Looking for Lacie?”
    She nodded, turning to look at the rest of the car. One portion was cornered off, a thick burlap sheet hanging from where it had been nailed into the ceiling some time before. Behind it, she knew stood a bed lashed together from old car seats and a trunk of clothes that belonged to Beck’s adopted daughter, Lacie. Unlike the other times Georgianna had climbed into the car looking for her, the sixteen-year-old had yet to stick her face out from behind the makeshift wall.
    Georgianna had once asked why Beck didn’t have his own section cornered off; it was his home after all. Lacie had explained in his stead that the Belsa marshall rarely slept long, and even when he did, he felt guilty keeping space to himself that he didn’t need. Instead, he would sleep on the chairs used as his work space, covered only in a tattered blanket if Lacie saw fit to throw one over him.
    “She’s gone already, said she was heading over Medics’ Way,” Beck explained.
    Georgianna knew that she should be surprised, but she couldn’t say she was. Lacie spent a lot of her time in Medics’ Way, especially recently. The arrival of a young man with injuries he had suffered from his Adveni owner had sparked interest in the sixteen-year-old.
    Glancing past Beck, she looked at the other man in the car. His lips were split into a broad smirk, revealing a line of white yet uneven teeth.
    “Alright, George?” he asked.
    “Morning, Wrench.”
    Wrench shifted the strap of his weapon against his chest and glanced at Beck. Wrench was a large man, easily a head and a half taller than Georgianna and half again as broad. Beneath a tattered shirt, his chest heaved and he let out a slow, resigned breath. He reached up and rubbed his hand over his hair, cut so short against his scalp, that against his dark skin, he almost looked bald in the low light.
    “We about done, Marshall?”
    Beck nodded.
    “Guess I should go make sure Lacie doesn’t kill anyone,” Georgianna teased, stepping back towards the door.
    “Go easy on her,” Beck chastised.
    She nodded. It was the same advice Beck gave her every time she came to collect Lacie. Each time, she rolled her eyes and told Beck she wouldn’t promise, though he knew from experience that Georgianna was one of the more easy-going people to help Lacie in her hopes of becoming a medic.
    She’d already jumped down from the train car, heading out towards Medics’ Way when she heard the crunch of his boots. Glancing over her shoulder, she smiled when she saw Wrench jogging down the line to catch her up.
    “Everything alright, Wrench?”
    “Oh it’s nothing,” he sighed as he fell into step with her. “Si was meant to take over the shift before sun up. Never showed.”
    “Do you know why?”
    “Marshall says he ain’t seen him, but thought I’d head over to Medics’ with you and ask Jaid.”
    “Well, if anyone would know…” Georgianna left the suggestion hanging in the air. She knew Si’s wife Jaid much better than she knew Si himself. He did sometimes stop by Medics’ Way when he was off duty. He was always kind to her, Georgianna liked him.
    “You coming from Zanetti’s?”
    “Compound.”
    Wrench wrinkled his bulbous nose into a grimace at the mention of the compound, but it was quickly replaced with a smirk.
    “He was pretty sour when he got called in to take over the shift down Guard’s Sight,” he answered. “Figured you may have been keeping him up last night.”
    “He been bragging?” she asked, shaking her head.
    Wrench cocked his head to the side.
    “Were you expecting him to keep your virtue intact?”
    It was clear from his tone that he already knew that the answer was no. Keiran Zanetti