That made him laugh again, very quietly. "No," he said, "no, it's not." Definitely not telling the kid what he was, then--not if it tweaked him out so much. Ryder kind of liked the kid--Nny reminded him a bit of himself, when he'd been younger, though Ryder had never had anything living in his head. Hell, he'd been the one living in other people's heads. "A lot of people who have picked me up have found that out the hard way, too. I should know better."

He crushed out his cigarette, and realized he still didn't know the kid's name. "Hey, what's your name, anyway?" he asked.