“So you created the Partials,” said Isolde. “That doesn’t explain why you disappeared.”

“When we created them, we built them to carry the plague,” said Nandita. “Not exactly what came to be known as RM, mind you: The plague that was released was more virulent than even we intended, and for reasons we don’t fully understand. But we also made a cure, carried by all Partials, that could be activated by a second chemical trigger. And then, as you can see, everything went to hell.”

“You’re still not telling us where you’ve been,” said Ariel, her arms folded tightly across her chest. She was so used to hating Nandita that this string of confessions was leaving her deeply confused: On the one hand, it gave her more reasons to hate the woman, and to justify all her suspicions and accusations. On the other hand, though, how could she trust anything Nandita said? Even when it was self-incriminating?

“Have patience,” said Nandita. “I’m getting to that. You need the proper setup first.”

“No, we don’t,” said Ariel. “We need answers.”

“I taught you better manners than that.”

“You taught me to distrust everything you say,” said Ariel. “Stop trying to win us over and just answer our questions, or every woman in this room will gladly turn you over to the Partials.”

Nandita stared at her, fire lighting up her ancient eyes. She looked at Ariel, then at Isolde, then back to Ariel again. “Fine,” she said. “I was gone because I was trying to re-create the chemical trigger to release the cure.”

Xochi frowned. “That actually seems pretty easy to understand.”

“That’s because I gave you the context for it,” said Nandita. “I worked on it for eleven years, as best I could with the facilities I had, using herbs to distill the chemicals I needed. Last year while I was out searching for ingredients I found something I never imagined still existed—a laboratory with operable gene-mod equipment, and enough power to run it. I tried to get back here, to bring you to it and explain the entire thing and solve the problem once and for all, but a civil war and now a Partial invasion have made safe travel very difficult.”

“But why us?” asked Ariel. “Why take us to the lab—why use us for your experiments?”

“That’s the part you don’t yet have the context for,” said Nandita. “The chemical trigger was for you—the cure is in you. Kira, Ariel, and Isolde.”

“What?” asked Madison.

Isolde stared in shock, covering her nine-month swollen belly with her hands as if to protect it from Nandita’s words.

Ariel smiled thinly, her confusion and terror leavened by a victory so long in coming she couldn’t help but revel in it. “So you were experimenting on us.”

“I had to re-create the trigger from scratch,” said Nandita, “which required a lot of trial and error.”