Kira shrugged. “I honestly have no idea. We’re talking about the biggest secrets of an incredibly secretive company, and the even more secretive inner circle that was apparently working both for and against them. Even the basic information is buried in layers of security and coded emails, and I can’t even be sure if the clues I’ve found are real or just disinformation designed to throw people off the trail. Afa’s spent years on this, even before the Break, but it’s just . . . incomplete. We don’t have the answers.

“He’s . . .” Kira paused, not certain how to articulate the big man’s condition. “He’s been alone for a very long time, let’s put it that way. I think it kind of broke his brain, but even broken he’s a genius. He was collecting information on the end of the world before it even ended. He’s got stuff about the Isolation War, and the biotech industry, and the Partials, and . . . everything. He worked for ParaGen, running part of their computer system, which is where most of this stuff comes from.” She gestured around the room, and Samm nodded appreciatively.

Heron received the information more passively, seeming to soak it up while studying a full array of documents at once. Her eyes flicked back and forth as she read the papers before her, and a dark frown crept across her face. “This isn’t good,” she said.

Samm looked up. “What?”

“Morgan is a part of the Trust—we have two conflicting ideas of what the Trust is, but they both say she was a part of it. And the Trust seems to be the group that created the Partials.”

“We know all that already,” said Kira. “None of it’s awesome news, but it’s not exactly terrible, either.”

“That’s because you’re not paying attention,” said Heron. “Start putting the pieces together: Morgan built the Partials, but she didn’t know about the expiration date until the first generation started dying three years ago. Why didn’t she know? The cure for RM is built into the Partial pheromone system, but she didn’t know about that, either. You’re some kind of new-model Partial, and she had no idea you even existed.”

The implications hit Kira like a punch to the gut, and she sank into a chair. “That’s not good.”

“I’m not seeing it,” said Samm. “The three things you just mentioned have nothing to do with the physical augmentation package she worked on, so it makes sense that she didn’t know about them. Why is this a big deal?”