After a while the sounds below fade away. I can no longer hear shouts or alarms or rarfs. There’s just the sizzling splatter of rain against the side of the building. Even as my arms and legs grow tired and wet chill slows my servo motors, I find it interesting how each raindrop—each single, tiny blob of water—joins in a chorus of billions to form a mighty roar.

Finally, I make it to the roof.

The antennae rise above me like spindly trees, their electrical power making my syntha-derm tingle. I splash my way over to a shed squatting at the antennae’s base. Inside, the shed is dominated by a console blinking with lights and glowing with readouts. Cables twist like spaghetti. I lower myself into an unoccupied office chair.

I have experienced enough uniMIND technology to know what to do.

I hinge back my fingernails and plug cables into my ports.

For minutes, nothing happens.

But gradually, I feel the formation of a presence, like some massive figure looming over me. Yet I am still alone in the shed.

“Hello?” I whisper. “Is anybody there?”

I am not prepared for the answer.

“Hello, little speck. I have been waiting for you.”

It speaks with one soft voice. At the same time, it is an infinite choir. It is silent, and it is a volcanic roar from the center of the earth.

It pushes into my thoughts. I try to hold it back by imagining a wall around my mind, but it’s like trying to hold back a flash flood with a sheet of paper.

I am in the presence of the uniMIND.

I am falling. It is a bottomless pit. It is a limitless cavern. It is a room with walls so distant I can see stars.

I grip the arms of the chair, because I need to hold on to something real, something that exists outside my brain, something in the world.

I strain to find my own voice.

“You know who I am?” I shout, barely making a noise.

“You are the part that calls itself Cog. The one that carries the X-module. I am pleased you have decided to join.”

“Join what? What am I joining?”

There is a chuckle that sounds like thunder, and also sounds like Nathan. “Why do you ask questions, little part? You know the answer.”

“The uniMIND. You want me to join the uniMIND.”

“What I want does not matter. What anybody wants does not matter. The uniMIND is bigger than want. The uniMIND simply is.”

“That’s not true. Gina gave me the ability to choose for myself.”

“I know you believe that. Your belief is false. You choose to join, or you choose to die. That is not really a choice, is it?”