Suffocation, a huge spasm, and the explosive force of a cough unlike any cough he has ever before known, so intense that it is body-consuming, so protracted that it almost robs him of his consciousness, so big that it shatters his awareness even of where he is and leaves him struggling and gasping in his straps.

Then a cool cloth was laid on his head, and Theo’s gentle eyes were gazing down at him.

“Don’t strain, Mark, you can’t bust out of these straps, not even you.”

He had never felt hate for a human being before, but it was all he could do not to hate those sweet eyes and the condescension in that honeyed voice. At least he could move his head now, and he experienced the luxury of observing his surroundings on his own, rather than looking through a fixed lens.

As he had thought, the thing he had been in was the editor, a mass of cables so black that they looked not like objects but like shafts of pure darkness.

“That’s the editor, Mark,” the professor said. “It came from another world. It’s the most advanced piece of technology on Earth. It’s where we move you to when we need to make adjustments.” She gave him a conspiratorial smile. “But you’re the smart one. We just kind of hunt and peck.” She put a hand on Mark’s shoulder.

“We—did we lose San Francisco?” he asked.

“If any part of them is still alive, they are deep underground and they’re trapped. We’re still cleaning out surface nests here and there, but it’s basically just mopping up. They have a major weakness, needing to be in a microwave field to be fully functional. A last gift from Turner. He was counting on that as a fail-safe. Even if they escaped, they couldn’t leave the field without losing their network and going blind.”

“Am I like that?”

“Not at all. You’re free and independent. How are you feeling now?”

“Just fine.” But he was not fine and these damn straps were not fine, either. He folded his thumbs across his palms, then made a tight cone of his fingers. His hands slid out easily, and he leaped from the table.

Theo and Frank jumped back, but Doc Emma stood her ground and said, “My husband told me this would happen. Don’t hit us, Mark, we’re friendlies.”

“Get away from it!”

He did not like being with these people, and the editor over there on the other side of the room was threatening as hell, a place where he could be killed without dying.

“I know it scares you,” Doc Emma said. “It scares us, too, it’s an incredibly awesome machine. But, Mark, look at it this way. If it didn’t exist, you would be dead.”

“Maybe I have a right to be dead!”

“What about Gina, then?”