The expressionless stillness of his face was unnerving, but more impressive than that was the sway he seemed to hold on his surroundings. Wallner was insane, and a criminal, but Teresa found herself thinking that perhaps his theories on child number 39 might have been more than just the ramblings of a madman.

She’d thought long and hard about how to establish a rapport with Andreas. She didn’t think words were worth much to a creature who’d grown up immersed in the silent world of the forest and solitude. He understood words, and he could even utter a few himself, but they certainly weren’t his natural language.

Andreas communicated through the senses, just as a deer or an eagle would have done back in the world he came from. He understood the world through nature. So Teresa had followed her instincts and decided to reach out to him through the place his mind still lived.

It was time to show him the gifts they’d brought.

They put a photograph of a woman breastfeeding her baby on the table. Teresa had downloaded it from the Internet, but she was sure it would make no difference to Andreas: he would regard that child as his own, as little Markus, the heir he’d picked out for himself. Teresa was trying to tell him that Markus was all right.

Andreas had been staring at the wall since they’d arrived, but that photograph immediately caught his attention. He picked it up and inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with its scent. Before coming to the rehabilitation center, Teresa had placed the photograph next to the child. She was astonished to see that Andreas could tell.

The second gift was a sprig of mountain pine that they had picked near the mountain shelter that had been his home. Teresa watched his expression as she offered it to him: the change was minimal, a barely perceptible dilation of the pupils. The smell of that evergreen plant was the smell of his world. Andreas closed his eyes for a moment, and Teresa could see that he was there again, back on his mountain.

The third gift belonged to the nameless child. It was a scrap of fabric they had found on his remains. Teresa had had to fight to obtain permission to bring it to Andreas, but she had stood her ground until the “no” had turned into a “yes.”

Andreas recognized it. He would have recognized it among thousands of scraps. He picked it up and Teresa saw his hands shake for the first time since his life had been transformed. He ran the cloth over his face, his lips, and down to his chest, where he let it rest against his heart. His eyes closed and he mouthed a series of low sounds that Teresa couldn’t understand.

What she did know was that Andreas was rocking the baby.