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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

“And Vinci?” asked Marcus. “Are they going to kill him, too?”

“I won’t be able to stop them.”

Marcus looked at Woolf, who nodded and spoke. “We’ll take him with us.”

“Hurry,” said Trimble.

Marcus grabbed his medkit and headed for the stairs at the side of the room. Woolf and Galen lifted Vinci—his body was stiff as a board—and carried him up after. Marcus stopped at the top of the stairs. “Thank you.”

“If you find Nandita,” said Trimble softly, “tell her . . . that I tried.”

“I will.” He slipped through the door into a small hangar beyond, and when Woolf and Galen passed through with Vinci, he sealed the door behind them. The Rotor was small, but looked like it would hold four people if they squeezed in tightly. As they maneuvered Vinci into position, he went abruptly limp, gasping for air and croaking out a plea.

“We have to go back.” A chorus of voices rose up behind them, a sign that the other Partials were also free. “We have to help her, they’re going to—” Gunshots echoed up from beyond the door, and Vinci hung his head. “Never mind,” he murmured. “Open the windows and spread the data. Let everyone know that a general has fallen.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Kira kept one eye on the sky as they traveled, watching for rain, and one eye on the fields around them. They could never afford to be far from shelter in the toxic wasteland, but in the great plains of the Midwest, they were often far from everything.

They lost another horse in the first acid rainstorm—But no, Kira reminded herself, we didn’t lose Buddy in the rainstorm, we lost him in the house—the house that I brought him into. The mad kicking of the horses, thrashing wildly with their hooves as the acid burned their flesh, had destroyed the room and everything in it, and by the time they’d washed them clean and calmed them down, Buddy had been kicked too hard, and in too many places; he had a broken foreleg, two broken ribs, and a shattered jaw. Kira herself put him out of his misery. There was nothing else I could have done, she told herself, probably for the hundredth time. It was either bring him inside or let him die in the acid, and I couldn’t do that to him. It didn’t soothe her conscience, but she pushed it aside anyway. The worst part of all was that it wasn’t even the biggest problem on her mind.