Misato jumped to her feet, squaring herself in front of Rosalyn. “I destroyed JAX’s hard drive before you could get here. Mother told me to do it and I . . . I couldn’t resist her. You’re the record now, Rosalyn. Go. One of the engineers tried to trigger the reactor breach before the Foxfire took him. Mother—Angela—was furious. I can finish it.”

Misato turned, staring straight ahead, in profile to Rosalyn from where she stood near Angela’s desk. “They are mindless now, monstrous. They’ll try to stop you, but Edison can get you to the evac pods.”

“You’re both coming with me,” Rosalyn shot back stubbornly. “This can be over. She’s gone now. That has to mean something.”

But she knew she was outnumbered. Edison was giving Misato’s shoulders one last squeeze before continuing on, arriving at Rosalyn’s side to take her gently by the forearm. He slid an arm around her waist, saying softly, “The worst thing you could do right now is argue.”

“Then I’m doing the worst thing. We can all fit in an evac pod.” Rosalyn jumped to see over Edison’s shoulder as he hid Misato from her view. “Misato? Come with us. Come with us.”

She heard the engineer give a husky laugh. “It can be brave to run, Rosalyn. Don’t forget that.”

43

It was impossible to find the edges of her relief. At last, all the voices in her head were silent. She couldn’t sense Edison, or the seething mass of thoughts and feelings assaulting her from the concentrated hive of the cluster. It was just input from her eyes, her ears, her nose, and the jarring silence of her own mind.

If left to ponder it, she might consider it lonely, but there was no time for reflection. She didn’t watch Edison as he dragged Rosalyn away. In the end, the salvager went freely. That was good. Misato would have forced her on the pod if she had to, but she trusted Edison to do the right thing. They had shared half a mind for so long, she could practically guess each word before he spoke it.

That left the reactor. The remaining Foxfire-infested humans were in a frenzy. They were far, far gone, not a shred of human thought remaining in their minds. The jittery, crazed ramblings she had heard from them when she was still connected through Angela left her skin cold. It was hunger. Fungus needed nutrients, after all, and the cluster had spread through the station too quickly, consuming everything, leaving very little for food. They wanted her for food, of course, and Edison and Rosalyn. She would make sure they understood not only true starvation, but destruction.