“It works,” said Vale, raising his hands in a contented shrug. “What else is there to say? We inoculate each child as he or she is born, and RM can never harm them again. Not the best long-term solution, I’ll grant you—I’d hate to think that a hundred years from now we’re still giving shots to every human child ever born—but then that’s what we did before the Break as well, isn’t it? Vaccinations and antibiotics and a whole chemical stew. Even before RM, the world had become far more hostile to our species than we like to admit.”

There was something odd about him that Kira couldn’t quite put her finger on. She’d grown up as a medical intern, spending her entire life around doctors, and this Dr. Vale was . . . different. He didn’t talk like a doctor.

“What we need,” he continued, gesturing toward the darkened window behind him, “is a cure that works like our Preserve.”

“What do you mean?” asked Kira.

Vale smiled again. “The paradise we live in was once so deadly it was restricted territory, devoid not only of humans but of plants and animals as well. A barren wasteland, much like the one you crossed, but now the tables are turned, aren’t they? What nuclear technology destroyed, biotechnology resurrected.”

Kira frowned. “This place was nuked?”

“No, no, no,” said Vale, “or at least not in the way you’re thinking. The Rocky Flats Plant was a nuclear weapons facility for World War II, the first site chosen for the production of hydrogen bombs. More radioactive material passed through here than through the entire city of Hiroshima, but technology, as we have seen, has a way of getting out of hand. The facility became such a health hazard it was completely dismantled, and after decades of cleanup efforts it was finally deemed safe for habitation—not by humans, of course, it wasn’t that safe, but who likes deer anyway? Let them have cancer, we don’t insure them. Thus was born, in the year 2000, the Rocky Flats Wildlife Preserve, and thus it stayed for more decades, clean enough to mollify our consciences without actually being clean. Such is the human capacity for altruism.”

“You mentioned biotech,” said Kira. She wasn’t sure where he was going with any of this, but at least he was talking. Kira pushed him along, trying to learn more. “I’m guessing that’s when ParaGen showed up.”

“You guess correctly,” said Vale. “ParaGen, the front-runner in a burgeoning new industry. We weren’t always here—we started on the south side, in Parker—but our first foray into the realm of biotechnology was a series of hungry microbes designed to eat things that no one else wanted—”

“You worked for ParaGen?” Kira blurted out.