Rylee would have scoffed to know that he thought she made a good leader. She could hardly take care of herself according to most people's standards - how could she be trusted to take care of other people?

"Yeah, well. It's interesting stuff," she said with a shrug. She looked at him with a kind of sparkle in her eye and very nearly launched into one of those over-exuberant explanations of the current most-interesting-thing-in-her-research story, but stopped herself when he asked his question.

"Sometimes," she said with a grin. "But actually, we go way back. We knew each other in school. He took a lot of shit, and I had his back." She shrugged again. No big. "He transferred schools but we kept in touch. He's a good guy." He really was. And that's why Rylee looked after him. Someone that good needed to keep on spreading the good he had. It was the way to make the world right, if only just a little bit.

"What about you? How do you know Felix?"