“A Partial killer, like they wanted, and the human flu that Graeme and Nandita built as part of our plan. The Partial Failsafe was never put into production, of course, but I still created it, as a cover for the rest of our plan. The board could see the Partial Failsafe, could get progress reports and testing data, and content themselves that we were following orders; meanwhile, the other Failsafe is what we eventually incorporated into the mass-produced Partial models.”

“Wait,” said Kira. She opened her backpack and rooted around for the old computer handle from Afa’s broken screen—the one with all the info they’d downloaded in Chicago. “Do you have a monitor I can plug this into?”

“Of course.” He offered her a cable, and she powered up the handle.

“Before we came here,” she said, “we pulled a bunch of records from a data center in Chicago. One of them was a memo from the ParaGen chief executive officer to the board of directors; we read it because it mentioned the Failsafe, but it didn’t make sense at the time. In light of what you just said, though . . .” The list of files appeared on the screen, and Kira scrolled through it quickly, looking for the one sent by the CEO of ParaGen. “Here.” She opened it and read the pertinent line: “‘We cannot confirm that the Partial team is working to undermine the Failsafe project, but just in case, we’ve hired engineers to imbed the Failsafe in the new models. If the team betrays us, the Failsafe will still deploy.’”

Vale’s jaw dropped. “They went behind our backs.”

“That’s all we thought when we read it,” said Kira, “but after what you’ve told me, it’s got to be more than that—if the board didn’t know about the human Failsafe, then the only one they could add to the new models was your decoy. The one that kills Partials. That means it might still be out there, and if it kills the Partials, it will kill everyone, since that’s our only source for the cure.”

“True,” said Vale. “But look at the time stamp: July 21, 2060. That was two full years after the final batch of military Partials was created. I can only imagine that this email referred to the line of Partials that was never put into mass production.”

“New models . . .,” said Kira, trailing off. It’s me, she thought. That’s what I am—a new Partial model. That’s even the year I was born, five years before the Break. It’s talking about me.

I’m carrying the Partial Failsafe.

“You look terrified,” said Vale.

Kira brushed her hair from her face, trying to control her breathing. “I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine.”