Before she could even voice her anger, he continued, “First, try to get him to come back here. We’ll be waiting with carbon-fiber nets that might be able to hold him. Tell him you found tunnels. He’s been in a birthing unit and he’ll see that as a chance to do some damage.” Then Dr. Turner put the disk in her hand. “If he won’t come, use this on him.”

She looked down at the blue metal. It was cold, thick, and heavier than it appeared, a dark, iridescent blue.

“It’s powerfully magnetic,” he said, “don’t let it near any metal or you won’t be able to pry it off. It just needs the lightest touch to either of his temples. It’ll do its work immediately.”

Intellectually, she knew that to do this would be wrong, but the knowledge seemed abstract. Emotionally, all she could think about was helping Mark to see his mistake.

She slid the disk into her pocket. But as she turned to go, Dr. Turner gripped her arm.

“Gina,” he said in a clenched voice, “I’ll be watching, and if you don’t do this—if there’s still some bad code in you somewhere—I’ll know and I’ll take action. I will not hesitate, and I will show no mercy, but my heart will be broken, Gina.”

“What about San Francisco? I saw it from a helicopter. It was war. Carnage.”

“Whatever you think you saw, it’s wrong. When you go there, you’re going to see the truth. Peace and happiness. A tranquil society, beautifully organized. And you’ll feel in your blood that the new people belong to you, and you to them.” He took her face in his cool, firm hands—and when his face came close to hers, she was startled to see that something was wrong with it. Was this a mask? Was something else under it?

She reached up to touch him, but he drew back.

“Just help poor Mark, honey, so he can enjoy the future, too.” Dr. Turner hugged her, then stood back. “I’ve been underground for a long time.” He lifted his face to the cathedral of forest above them. “I want us all to enter the light.”

She wondered who this really was.

“What about Kelly? What do I say?”

He blinked, made a dismissive gesture. “You couldn’t save her.”

“Couldn’t save her?” Gina turned around. “She was—where is she?”

“How should I know?”

Gina stepped into the woods. “Kelly! Kelly!”

Only silence.

“He sent me to save her.”

“You failed. Tell him that. Now go.”

As she began her long walk back to the road, hybrids came with her, slipping from tree to tree, watching her with their intent, robotic eyes. She heard them whispering together in their rasping voices, so mysterious, and thought that they were the voices of hungry ghosts.

Chapter Eighteen

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN