“I warned you it would get bad,” said Heron. She gestured at the radio. “I warned him, too.”

“Shut up,” said Kira.

“You need to turn yourself in,” said Heron.

“I said shut up!” Kira roared. “Give me a minute to think.”

“I haven’t told anyone where she is,” said Marcus, still keeping up the ruse. “Not that I even know where she is, but I haven’t told anyone the parts I do know. If she turns herself in . . . it’s up to her. I’m not going to make that decision for her. Over.”

Kira stared at the radio, as if it could crack open and reveal some miraculous answer inside it. She’s killing someone every day, she thought. Every day. It seemed terrifying, horrible, unconscionable, but . . . Was it really any worse than what was already happening to the Partials? Sure, they weren’t being executed, but they were still dying. She had insisted to Heron that this quest was more important than stopping those deaths; it was more important to find ParaGen, to find the Failsafe. To see what answers it held and solve this problem forever, for both sides, not just a Band-Aid but a real, permanent cure. If she was willing to leave the dying Partials behind, she had to be willing to leave the dying humans, too, or it was all an act. It was all lies.

She shuddered, growing weak and nauseated at the thought of so much death.

“I don’t want to be in this position,” she said softly. “I don’t want to be the one who everybody’s hunting, who has to choose who lives and who dies.”

“You can whine about it or you can fix it,” said Heron. “Go back now, and you could save both sides: we have a shot at curing the Partial expiration, and Morgan stops killing humans.”

“It saves them for now,” said Kira. “I want to save them forever.” She paused, still staring at the radio, then turned to Heron. “Why are you here?”

“Because you’re too stubborn to turn around.”

“But you didn’t have to come with us,” said Kira. “You’ve been against this mission from the beginning, but you came anyway. Why?”

Heron looked at Samm. “The same reason you did.” She looked back at Kira. “The same reason you trusted me: because Samm trusted me, and that was good enough for you. Well, Samm trusts you, and that’s good enough for me.”

Kira nodded, watching her. “And if we keep going?”

“I’ll think you’re an idiot,” said Heron, “but if Samm still trusts you . . .”

“Your signal’s starting to break up,” said Marcus. His voice was growing garbled as well. “Where are you? Over.”