“You heard them talking just now,” said Delarosa. “This warhead is an excuse. You said it yourself—they’re an army, bred for battle; the humans are just as desperate. War is inevitable.”

“So you wanted to end it before it could start.”

“It seems like the only moral option.”

“‘Moral,’” said Vale. “That’s an interesting adjective to apply to ‘genocide.’”

“Destroy White Plains and the Partial population drops to whatever’s on Long Island,” said Delarosa. “We’ll be back on even footing again, give or take. The Partial leadership will be dead, and the ones left will stop waiting for orders that are never going to come. Maybe they’ll make a treaty with the humans, I don’t know, but even if they attack, the humans will be able to fight back. They’ll have the courage to fight back. They’ll have a chance.”

Vale nodded, thinking, staring at the bomb. “The situation I spoke of earlier wasn’t just smoke,” he said softly. “It’s real. Kira Walker discovered the biological mechanisms, and since then I’ve had the chance to study it out, to dig down into the science of it, and it’s real. It could save everyone.”

“Do you think anyone will go along with it?”

“I thought so,” Vale said, closing his eyes. “A long time ago. But then the Break happened and . . . No, I don’t. I told Kira that if Dr. Morgan found out about the cure for expiration, she’d enslave the entire human population. It took four soldiers less than three minutes to propose two different versions of that worst-case scenario.” He tapped the bomb, listening to the metallic clang. “I had to choose once before, you know. Humans or Partials. I chose to save a group of humans, and enslaved ten Partials to do it. It was the only way.” He sighed. “What else can I do?”

Delarosa furrowed her brow. “What are you saying?”

Vale took the cap off the warhead and looked at the jury-rigged switches. “I’m saying that I still think the end of all this is a choice between the species.”

“Are you serious?”

Vale flipped a switch. “There’s a combination, I assume?”

Delarosa took a deep breath, her voice almost reverent. “Yes.” She hesitated. “Okay. On, off, on, off. Right to left.”

Vale raised his eyebrow. “That’s the secret password?”

“It kept it from going off accidentally,” said Delarosa. “Beyond that, the simpler the better. I figured if I made it easy enough, even if you caught me someone might trigger it accidentally.”

Vale looked at the switches, flipping the first three in turn. “On, off, on.” He looked up. “Any last words?”

“My shoulder hurts,” said Delarosa. There was steel in her voice. “Get it over with.”

Vale closed his eyes, speaking not to her but to the entire world. “I’m sorry.”

Off.

Part 3

PART 3

Chapter Thirty-eight

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT