“It’s not about control,” said Marcus, looking up at Ariel. “How much do you know about the scientific method?”

“I saw what I saw,” she insisted.

“Of course you did,” said Marcus, “but you were ten years old and you didn’t know how to interpret it. When a scientist does an experiment, they always have at least two subjects: the experiment, which they screw around with, and the control, which they don’t. It’s a baseline, unmodified test subject intended only for observation, so that whatever happens to the experimental subject has something you can compare it to. Nandita could have been using Madison as a control subject to help her understand her observations of Kira.”

“She’d never raised children before,” said Ariel, seeing where he was going with the line of thought. “When Kira did something weird, Nandita had no way of knowing if it was weird because all kids are weird, or weird because of . . . whatever stupid thing we still don’t know about Kira.

“So we were all control subjects,” said Ariel, slowly understanding. “Three controls against one experiment.” She frowned. “It makes sense, I suppose, but it doesn’t answer anything. We don’t know what she was testing for, or why, or what any of it has to do with ParaGen.”

Marcus shrugged. “There are only three people who do know,” he said. “Kira, Nandita, and Dr. Morgan. I’d bet you anything Morgan knows at least some of it, or she wouldn’t be tearing this island apart trying to find the other two.”

“Well I’m not going to go up and ask her,” said Ariel.

“And Kira won’t tell me anything,” said Marcus. “I hear from her about once a week now, and never more than a few seconds. Wherever she is, the signal’s incredibly weak.”

Ariel looked around at the ransacked house, now more of a junkyard than a home. “If there was ever any sign of Nandita, the Partials got it before we did. Even if we find a hint of where she might be, we’re weeks behind them, and we’re hopelessly outnumbered. There’s no way we’re going to find Nandita before they do.”

“Don’t give up yet,” said Marcus, and waggled his radio. “Most of the reports I get on here are Partial battles—one of the other factions is still attacking the ones who have occupied the island.”

“So we get crushed between two Partial armies?” asked Ariel. “I thought you were trying to cheer me up.”

“What I mean is that they’re distracted,” said Marcus. “They can’t focus all their energy on finding her, because they spend half their time fighting off other Partials.”

“And we spend almost all our time hiding from Partials,” said Ariel. “They still come out ahead.”