“I’m calling from outside a house in Bushwick, here in Brooklyn. I’ve got two dead eclipse hysterics in the basement. Who didn’t like the sun. This mean anything to you?”

Eph felt a tingle of excitement. “Who is this?”

“My name is Fet. Vasiliy Fet. I’m with the city’s pest control, an exterminator who’s also working a pilot program for integrated pest management in lower Manhattan. It’s funded by a seven hundred and fifty thousand dollar grant from the CDC. How I have this phone number. Am I right in guessing that this is Goodweather?”

Eph hesitated a moment. “It is.”

“I guess you could say that I work for you. Nobody else I could think to bring this to. But I’m seeing signs all over the city.”

Eph said, “It’s not the eclipse.”

“I think I know that. I think you need to get over here. Because I’ve got something you need to see.”

Stoneheart Group, Manhattan

EPH HAD TWO STOPS to make on the way. One alone, and one with Nora and Setrakian.

Eph’s CDC credentials got him through a security checkpoint in the main lobby of the Stoneheart Building, but not past a second checkpoint on the seventy-seventh floor, where an elevator change was necessary to gain access to the top ten floors of the Midtown building.

Two immense bodyguards stood upon the massive brass Stoneheart Group logo, inlaid in the onyx floor. Behind them, movers in overalls crossed the lobby, rolling large pieces of medical equipment on dollies.

Eph asked to see Eldritch Palmer.

The larger of the two bodyguards almost smiled. A shoulder holster bulged conspicuously beneath his suit jacket. “Mr. Palmer does not accept visitors without an appointment.”

Eph recognized one of the machines being dismantled and crated. It was a Fresenius dialysis machine. An expensive piece of hospital-grade equipment.

“You’re packing up,” said Eph. “Moving house. Getting out of New York while the getting’s good. But won’t Mr. Palmer need his kidney machine?”

The bodyguards didn’t answer, didn’t even turn to look.

Eph understood it then. Or thought he did.

They met up again outside Jim and Sylvia’s place, a high-rise on the Upper East Side.

Setrakian said, “It was Palmer who brought the Master into America. Why he is willing to risk everything—even the future of the human race—in order to further his own ends.”

“Which are?” said Nora.

Setrakian said, “I believe Eldritch Palmer intends to live forever.”

Eph said, “Not if we can do anything about it.”

“I applaud your determination,” said Setrakian. “But with his wealth and influence, my old acquaintance has every advantage. This is his endgame, you realize. There is no going back for him. He will do whatever it takes to achieve his goal.”