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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

“The Trust,” said Kira, forcing the word out. “The Trust created RM.”

Afa nodded again, never stopped nodding, rocking his whole body slowly back and forth.

“So the people who destroyed the human race were . . . humans.” She groped for a chair, realized they were all full of documents, and sat heavily on the floor. “But . . . why?”

“I know everything,” said Afa, still rocking back and forth. “I know almost everything.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Kira stared at Afa. “What do you mean, you know almost everything?”

“Nobody knows everything.”

“I know,” said Kira, struggling to keep her temper from flaring up. “I know you don’t know everything, but you have so much.” She picked up a handful of printouts from the nearest box, shaking them tightly in her fist. “You have hundreds of boxes in this room alone, and more all over the building. You have files in every room, you have cabinets in the hallways, you have at least twenty salvaged computers in the room we ate dinner in last night. How can you have so much—the entire history of the Partials—and not have a scrap about the people who made them?”

“I have scraps,” said Afa, holding up his hand. He shuffled out of the corner, jogging awkwardly to the nearest door. “I have scraps in my backpack—I’m never supposed to leave my backpack.” He ran down the hall, shouting over his shoulder, and Kira followed close behind. “I’m never supposed to leave my backpack. It has everything.” Kira caught up with him in the cafeteria, the makeshift computer lab where they’d eaten fruit cocktail the night before. He crouched down in front of his massive backpack and zipped it open, revealing thick sheaves of paper.

“That’s what’s in the backpack?” she asked. “More papers?”

“The most important papers,” said Afa, nodding. “All the keys to the story, the biggest steps, the biggest players.” He thumbed through the papers with lightning speed, his fingers guided by an obvious familiarity. “And the biggest players of all were the Trust.” He pulled out a slim brown folder, holding it in the air with a flourish. “The Trust.”

Kira took it gingerly, as she might have touched a baby in the old maternity ward. It was thin, maybe twenty or thirty sheets of paper at the most—pathetically slim next to the massive bulk of papers bursting out of the overstuffed bag. She opened it and saw that the top sheet was an email printout, framed by layers of meaningless symbols. At the top of the page was the name she hadn’t dared to hope for:

Armin Dhurvasula.

Armin.

Her father.

The email was date-stamped November 28, 2051, and the list of recipients was illegible—another string of random symbols. She read it breathlessly: “‘So it’s official. The government has placed an order for 250,000 BioSynth 3s. We’re building the army that will end the world.’” She looked at Afa. “He knew?”