Casey, staggered on her feet, gray eyes clearing. “Why? What do they want with her?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Vik does. She still locked in the lab?”

“Last I heard.”

“Come on. Let’s go get her. If nothing else, the lab’s the final stronghold.”

“What if Saleen’s down in the personal quarters, you know, left in a crib while Mikoru went—”

“Casey, the first level is gone! I just came from there. Barely made it. There’s slime all over the floor, tendrils of it everywhere. I had to leap across thick ropes of the stuff. It was eating Mikoru. By now, it’s covering the hall floor, slipping down toward Iso’s room. We’ve only got the second level.”

Michaela stared back at the weather door. “Seems to me the only chance we’ve got is to get Vik, rope our way down to the seatruck where Kevina’s holed up, and fly to the beach.”

Casey swallowed hard, eyes pained. “It’s got my baby.” She choked back a sob. “What does it want from us? Why is it doing this?”

Michaela indicated Casey’s rifle. “That thing loaded?”

“I think so.” Tears broke loose at the corners of her eyes.

“Let’s go then. And Casey, you see any of the kids, if they start toward you, you’re going to have to shoot them.”

“I can’t shoot one of the children.”

“Then we’re already dead.”

86

As they flew east from PA across the rumpled forest, Talina unstrapped and walked back from the cockpit to seat herself across from Kalico in the cabin. Up front, Dek sat composed at the controls, watching the course and trim as the white aircraft jetted its way toward the Gulf.

Dropping into the seat, Talina studied Kalico, who was giving her that old ice-blue stare. Looked just like the old Kalico. The one who’d first landed on Donovan. The hard and uncompromising Corporate slit. Kalico’s expression had all the give of granite; the faint white lines of scars crisscrossing her face added to the effect. The wealth of the woman’s black hair was pulled back, pinned at the nape of her neck. Talina’s delicate sense of smell could pick up the familiar scents of Kalico’s dried sweat, the curious nervousness. The woman had perfect control of her expression.

“Let’s talk.” Talina kept her voice low enough Dek couldn’t hear over the airplane’s cabin noise. “Dek and I, that’s my doing. Out at his claim, I wasn’t thinking about quetzal molecules. He got more than resuscitation. On top of Flute’s genetics, I dumped a whole lot more quetzal into his system. I had to keep him from hurting himself or anyone else. Things . . . happened. I let them.”

“Dek’s all right with this?”