Samm stood in shock, trying to process what she’d said. “Why would anyone do that?” he asked. “Why make a person, and then take away everything that makes them a person?”

Heron’s link data was as empty as always. “Because it helps us survive.”

Chapter Thirty

CHAPTER THIRTY

Some of the Partials Kira met by the seaside were from Morgan’s faction, out on patrol; by the time Jerry Ryssdal died and the first great snowflakes fell, they were all deserters like Green, too shocked by what they’d seen and felt to ever go back again. The world had changed, pivoting too far, and at too violent a velocity, to ever be the same again. Some of them fled east, trying to find old friends from other divisions who’d already joined the outlying factions. Three others joined Kira, swayed by her promise of a cure for expiration. She was open with them, and with Green, telling them that no matter how certain she was, there was still a chance that her plan wouldn’t work. The leader of the squad, a soldier named Falin, simply scratched his head and looked out across the sound.

“If it doesn’t work, and we die, at least we tried.” He looked at Kira. “I don’t know that we can expect any better than that. Not now, not ever.”

“Not everyone’s going to be so open-minded,” said Kira. “The humans are just as likely to resist this as the other Partials.”

“The sooner the better, then,” said Falin. “I’m only one batch away.”

One batch away, thought Kira. Green will die in a month, and Falin the month after.

How much longer does Samm have? Will I ever even see him again?