'I would,' she said.
'You killed Ellis,' said Slater quietly. 'When would you kill me?'
'Neil,' she said gently. 'You are one of us -- a soldier and a true believer. You made your choice long ago -- long before I met you - and you confirmed that choice the night you rang me. "I am what I am", you told me.'
Neil Slater looked around him. Swallows dipped and swooped at the flies that danced over the river's surface. A faint vapour hung over the rain-heavy fields. Beyond them, he knew, waited only the Darklands and the crowding ghosts of the men he had killed. Was that Joey Delaney there, with his child's eyes and half his head shot away?
He was who he was.
'Let's talk about replacing Andreas,' he began.
455