Michaela stepped close, looked down through the plastic to where Toni lay on his back. The IV in his arm looked incongruous, too large for a such a little boy. The half-lidded eyes remained vacant, the kid’s breathing oddly automatic, more like a machine’s than a person’s.

And yes, there, at the corner of the jaw, Michaela could see the swelling. It looked linear, running down on either side of the child’s trachea to just above the collarbones.

“Mumps?” Michaela asked, searching for anything in memory that might be similar.

“Mumps has been extinct on Earth for the last hundred years. Thought it might be an infection, maybe from a molar that was draining through a cloaca into the soft tissue. I’ve got a negative on any kind of titer or elevated white blood cell count. No sign of infection. If it was a swollen salivary gland, it wouldn’t be running down the neck that way. So, with nothing else left to try, I used a needle and aspirated the edema.”

Anna turned away, tapped a finger to the wall monitor, flipping through images to the one she wanted. “That’s what I got.”

“What am I seeing here?”

“Those are cells, Director. Donovanian cells interacting with human cells. The invaders are the ones without a nucleus. But look at the structure. This is ordered. Not random like cancer cells. These are forming a specific . . . God, what do I call it? I’m not sure that it’s an organ and not sure that it isn’t a tumor. It’s something new. Half-human, half-Donovanian.”

“What does Raya Turnienko say?”

“I don’t know. I’ve got a call in, but Two Spot said she was in surgery. Fixing some guy’s foot who got it run over at the mine. Said she could get back to me, but it would be late. I told him that I’d call back in the morning.” Anna ran a hand over the back of her neck, a soul-deep weariness in her eyes. “I thought I’d show you before we called Yosh and Mikoru.”

“Thanks.” Michaela stared down at the swelling. Shit on a stick, couldn’t the little guy get a break? What the hell was this going to turn out to be?

“If it’s a tumor, can we surgically remove it?”

Anna crossed her arms. “I can’t. I don’t have the implants or the experience. We’re going to have to fly Toni to PA. Turnienko’s the only person on the planet who can deal with this. Especially if it turns out to be malignant.”

“Malignant?”