Chapter 161: EPILOGUE. Do na-bots dream of electric sheep?

"What are you two doing out there so far from the base, kids?" the man asked them.

Clarissa began to think that the man wasn't the smartest one in the bunch. "Robby just told you, we were looking for mice," she stated it as the obvious thing it was. Then it clicked with her: he probably was more concerned with two unsupervised children so far from the base where, as far as he knew, all children lived. "Us and our parents live in a house nearby," she explained.

Clarissa inclined her head sideways, inspecting the man while he inspected her. He had a very tanned skin, almost brown, not like the pale faces of her parents and aunts she was used to. Though she had seen people like him before when she and Robert visited Radiant Base. Some wrinkles gathered around his eyes and mouth, like from smiling. His hair, black just like hers, was so curly it floated around his head like a cloud. A black cloud. What a strange thing it was.