“Soylent gas is people?” Josh asked. “Ugh.”

“Yeah. I mean, it’s not even very efficient. You can’t run an army on a few truckloads of people.” Fox fired one more time, then started to jog around the building, trying to get to a better firing position. “They get most of their fuel from the same place the rest of us do. Bio-wastes. The kidnapping is just a terror tactic—and it builds their libraries.”

“So, um…where do I fit into all this?” Josh asked.

“Well…I didn’t mean for you to, not really. But…since you know, now, I was wondering if you’d consider being my partner.”

“Your partner?”

Silverfox poked the muzzle of her gun around the corner of the house, and a camera lens popped up and swiveled around. She pulled the gun back and moved on. “We all have human partners. Sometimes ‘mechs can go…all funny when they forget what it was like being human, and having a human around helps remind us how we’re supposed to be.” She chuckled. “Plus, it’s handy if we run out of gas in the middle of nowhere.”