With a herculean effort Samm moved his foot, planting himself in Armin’s path. He stared at the man with clenched teeth, too rigid to speak, but determined to defend her.

Armin stopped in surprise. “Impressive. But it doesn’t matter. Jerry has reset the planet, and I’ll start over with a new species, built as one from the beginning instead of this ham-fisted attempt to make two coexist. They will inherit the Earth, and you will be their mother, and they will go on to greater and more glorious things than any of us could imagine. You don’t understand this yet, and I suppose you never will, but that’s the greatest goal of any parent: to be surpassed by his children.”

“So let me live to surpass you,” said Kira. “It can’t be that hard—I’m already not a psychopath.” She forced her legs backward—first one, then the other, draining every ounce of her will. She didn’t know if she could take another step.

“Shortsighted comments like that are the surest sign that you’re already not worthy of the new world.” He stepped around Samm, holding up his knife, but with a guttural roar the Partial moved again, barring the Blood Man’s way. “Don’t make me kill you, too,” said Armin calmly. “I don’t wish to harm anyone, but I will have her DNA at any cost.”

“If you want a new world, a world that can live in peace, you have to let go,” said Kira. “From the beginning of this whole thing, the creation of the Partials and the formation of the Trust, you’ve been trying to control it, to manage every step of every process. That’s what failed, Armin. Not the biology, but your attempt to control it. We have to be able to choose. We have fallen, and we have to rise up again.”

“Humans have had their chance,” said Armin. “They failed, and they nearly took the entire planet with them. That isn’t going to happen again.”

“Damn straight it won’t,” said a voice. Armin turned in surprise, and Kira forced her head sideways.

Heron was walking slowly out of the trees, playing idly with a handgun.

STOP

Kira felt Armin’s new link data batter at her will, at her very sense of self, but Heron simply smiled and kept coming.