"And I'd better do it too," says Robin. "For Ethan."

"And I could let Bella check me if she had to - what about you, Robin?"

"...Ethan. Maybe," she says. "Maybe Trouble. But I'd really rather not, either way."

"I don't think anybody would rather, I mean, ew."

"How much do you want to bet on that?"

"...Huh? Why?"

"Ethan. And Trouble." She thinks about it. "Mostly Trouble."

"...Okay, Trouble's pretty weird, no bet, but Ethan, really?"

"I bet he'll want to try it," she says. "With me as the Yeerk, obviously, he'd never trust anyone else."

"Huh. So I guess we all should acquire it when we get it out of Charlie."

"Yep. And when we're done we can squish it before it comes out of sedation, in case that helps, no point being unprofitably sadistic."

"But profitably sadistic's all right?"

"Well," says Bella. "I still plan to kill it, this without knowing how good a painkiller the acquisition trance happens to be."

"Are you going to experiment with that?"

"If someone's going to acquire Trouble and hasn't yet, it's worth checking."

"I might," she says thoughtfully. "And me and Ethan haven't acquired each other yet, either."

"Are you likewise up for investigating how good an anaesthetic we're carrying around?"

"Sure."

"Do inform us, then."

And Bella writes.

Bella opens the door to the garage. "Renée's not home," she says. "You can demorph and come in and get dressed the rest of the way."

Well, Andi averts her eyes, but does not faint.