I’m sorry, he tried to tell her. I’m so sorry.

Distantly he could sense that he was on the ground, that he was writhing in pain, his muscles contorting.

YOU’RE NOT SORRY YET, she told him. BUT I HAVE A GIFT FOR YOU. YOU’RE GOING TO LIVE FOREVER.

Digital. She was going to make him digital, the pattern of his brain, the wiring of his neurons and synapses, like her. She was going to upload him.

SO YOU CAN SUFFER EVEN MORE.

No… No… he begged. Please let me die.

BUT FIRST, she sent. YOU’RE GOING TO HELP ME.

WHERE ARE THE OTHER CUBES?

And then he felt hot fingers of her thought violate him, penetrating through his mind, taking whatever they wished.

As he screamed and screamed and begged her to let him die.

Tao leaned back in the plane as they headed north.

His brothers were as quiet around him as they had been on the flight down. But the mood had changed. He could feel them all in his mind. He could feel what they felt, think what they thought.

He looked over at Sun Liu. The politician’s screams had stopped. But his face was ashen. His mind was sealed up tight.

But not tight enough.

Now and again, shards of agony lanced out from him.

Torture.

Tao turned back, faced straight ahead. Then he pulled out his weapon, and started checking and rechecking it.

They had their next target. They had their next mission.

It would be a test of the endurance of these aircraft. A test of their ability to bluff their way through Air Defense zones yet again. A test of their own skills at penetrating a much more secure location, probably under enemy fire.

Probably while killing more soldiers.

But at least they had something to do.

Tao glanced again at Sun Liu. The man’s face twitched, and another shard of horror leaked out into the minds around him.

The sooner they were done with this mission, the better.

What the hell am I doing here? Sam asked herself again.

She looked across the body of the aircraft, and there was Feng, familiarizing himself with the Indian commando gear.

She sighed, and looked down at the gear in her own hands.

I should be with Sarai, with Kit, with Mali, she thought.

Except that they were all on a plane with Ananda now. On a plane to Thailand, to do something she didn’t fully understand.

Her mind flicked back to Ananda’s last words to her, in Bangalore, just before they’d lifted off.

Samantha, he’d said. These children I take with me. Twenty-two of them are Thai. Things have changed since you fled here. Thailand is prepared to protect them now. And you.

He’d held open an offer of asylum. A home. Bangalore still didn’t feel like home. It felt like a research project.

What about Kade?