PeterWatts_Blindsight

Peter Watts 8 Blindsight
yelped and ducked out of reach.
"Oh," I said. "Sorry."
One thing lay motionless. The other moaned and held its head
and curled up in a ball.
"Oh shit," Pag panted. Blood coursed unheeded from his nose
and splattered down his shirt. His cheek was turning blue and
yellow. "Oh shit oh shit oh shit..."
I thought of something to say. "You all right?"
"Oh shit, you—I mean, you never..." He wiped his mouth.
Blood smeared the back of his hand. "Oh man are we in trouble."
"They started it."
"Yeah, but you—I mean, look at them!"
The moaning thing was crawling away on all fours. I wondered
how long it would be before it found reinforcements. I wondered
if I should kill it before then.
"You'da never done that before," Pag said.
Before the operation, he meant.
I actually did feel something then—faint, distant, but
unmistakable. I felt angry. "They started—"
Pag backed away, eyes wide. "What are you doing? Put that
down!"
I'd raised my fists. I didn't remember doing that. I unclenched
them. It took a while. I had to look at my hands very hard for a
long, long time.
The rock dropped to the ground, blood-slick and glistening.
"I was trying to help." I didn't understand why he couldn't see
that.
"You're, you're not the same," Pag said from a safe distance.
"You're not even Siri any more."
"I am too. Don't be a fuckwad."
"They cut out your brain!"
"Only half. For the ep—"
"I know for the epilepsy! You think I don't know? But you were
in that half—or, like, part of you was..." He struggled with the
words, with the concept behind them. "And now you're different.
It's like, your mom and dad murdered you—"
"My mom and dad," I said, suddenly quiet, "saved my life. I