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Chapters (58)
  1. DEDICATION
  2. PART 1
  3. CHAPTER ONE
  4. CHAPTER TWO
  5. CHAPTER THREE
  6. CHAPTER FOUR
  7. CHAPTER FIVE
  8. CHAPTER SIX
  9. CHAPTER SEVEN
  10. CHAPTER EIGHT
  11. CHAPTER NINE
  12. CHAPTER TEN
  13. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  14. CHAPTER TWELVE
  15. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  16. PART 2
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY
  34. PART 3
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. PART 4
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  55. CHAPTER FIFTY
  56. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  57. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  58. ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

“No, we can’t,” said Heron, standing up and throwing her rudder over the side. “Save what you can.” She grabbed Dug’s reins from Kira’s hand and seemed to be readying the horse to jump over the side. Samm looked at the impending crash, then dropped both sets of reins and ran to Afa. The horses pranced back skittishly, and the sudden shift in weight caused the damaged barge to warp, knocking Kira off her feet and sending Oddjob completely over the side. Kira clung to Bobo’s reins, trying to stand, when the barge slammed into the mass of debris and crumpled like a foil model. Kira went down, and the river swallowed her.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Water lapped against the sides of their boat as the soldiers pushed away from the dock. Marcus clung to the railing of what used to be a luxury yacht, retrofitted by the Grid soldiers and filled with a tank of the cleanest gas they could make. There were ten of them, including Marcus and Senator Woolf—though all the men here called him Commander Woolf, and Marcus could tell he was much more in his element here as a soldier than he was as a politician. They were setting out from the extreme southwest corner of Long Island, from an industrial wharf ominously labeled Gravesend Bay. Marcus tried not to think about the implication.

Their plan was simple. There were potentially some unfriendly Partials in Manhattan, but everything they’d learned from Samm suggested that Manhattan was about as far south as they ever ventured, being too busy securing their fragmented outposts in New York and Connecticut. Commander Woolf had charted a course across the Lower New York Bay, miles away from any watchmen on Manhattan, skirting the southern shores of Staten Island to the mouth of the Arthur Kill canal. From there they would travel north through the ruins of New Jersey, ideally staying well out of view to anyone watching Manhattan, all the way to the Tappan Zee Bridge and across into White Plains. If Morgan’s Partials saw them, they were dead; if the other faction of Partials saw them at a bad time, or in the wrong light, or they were just in a killing mood, they were dead. The Grid soldiers were armed to the teeth, but Marcus knew that wouldn’t matter if they met a platoon of Partials who didn’t fancy a chat. Which was precisely why they were going so far out of their way not to encounter any.