Kira fell silent, trying to imagine what it would feel like to know you were going to die in one month—and worse, that you knew there was nothing you could do about it. But we can, she thought. This plan will work.

I think.

Green stopped suddenly, putting up his hand to stop her too. “Do you feel that?”

Kira concentrated on the link but felt nothing. “What is it?”

“I have no idea,” said Green. “Something big—like a whole squad’s worth of link data, that kind of signal strength. It’s just that . . . it feels like a single person.” He turned his head slowly, as if trying to pinpoint the exact source of the data. “This way, come on.”

Kira ran a few steps to catch up with him. “Wait, you’re going to look for it?”

“Of course.”

“But we’re in a hurry,” said Kira. “We don’t have time to stop and maybe get captured by a patrol squad.”

“I’m telling you, it’s one Partial,” said Green, still walking.

“But you’re dying,” said Kira. “What changed?”

“Don’t you see? We have to find it because . . .” His voice trailed off, and he shook his head. “Because we have to. Because he has something to tell us.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“How can it not make sense?” Green sounded almost frustrated, as if he were explaining that that water was wet to someone too thick to understand.

Kira shook her head. “Green, listen to me. This is the link—whatever you’re sensing right now is luring you in, on purpose.”

“Maybe. We can handle it.”

“No, we can’t,” said Kira. She thought about Morgan’s arrival in the Preserve, when she and Vale had used their own fierce control over the link to force the nearby Partials to obey them. “I’ve seen this kind of intensity in the link before, and it only comes from a member of the Trust. The people who made the Partials. There are two of them in this area—Dr. Morgan and Dr. Vale—and we don’t want to meet either one of them.” She planted herself in front of him. “If you keep going, we’ll be caught and imprisoned, maybe executed. You do not want to do this.”

He pushed past her and started running.

“Green, wait!”

She took off after him, but he was running at full speed now, arms pumping at his sides, and she struggled to keep up. Kira had something of a Partial’s physical prowess, but she wasn’t trained like he was. She sucked in breaths of freezing air, feeling her arms and chest grow sweaty with effort, and shivering almost immediately after as the sweat cooled and evaporated.