Virga looked toward the source of the voice, off to his right.

Virga didn't know if he could trust this man or not.

I'm told there's no other place like it in all of Virga.

He looked directly at Virga as if he'd known all along the other man had been standing there.

Virga felt the need to back away a few paces.

Virga felt that this man was trying to pick an argument.

How far into the desert they were Virga had no way of knowing.

It was a very long time before Virga reached the rim.

"Your hand was infected," said the man, not looking at Virga but rather through him.

Virga looked also but could see nothing beyond the silent wall of smoke.

Virga let his voice trail off; the answer was too terrible to consider.

Vincent Virga, a picture editor, he talks often to young people.

Virga knew that he had entered the land of the insane.

He looked away from Virga, directing his attention toward the fires.

"We want to return to the old ways of government, from the days before Virga turned its back on advanced technologies."

Virga closed the magazine and pushed it across the desk.

Virga had decided he would have to see Baal more clearly.

The man's eyes shifted from the fires to Virga and back again.

"Thank you for waiting," Virga said, and the other man nodded his head.

The man and the team were at one with each other, Virga thought, through long hard years of companionship.

So what were you doing floating alone in the skies of Virga?

It can produce light precipitation, often in the form of virga.

Virga said he would be in touch again and hung up the receiver.

Virga thought the man was smiling, just a trace of it, but he couldn't be sure.

Virga felt its rage underneath the ice on which he stood.