“So,” Pander says, resting her chin in her hands, “no one could find them before the apocalypse, Happy can’t find them after the apocalypse—how the hell are we going to find them now?”

“Why can’t Happy find them?” Pod asks, his brow furrowing.

“How the hell should I know?” Pander replies.

“The Mosquitoes,” Pod continues, getting to his feet and beginning to pace. “They scan for Panoptic footage and tech generally, but they also scan for signs of life: heartbeat; body heat; movement. If the Missing aren’t using a scrambler, how are they staying hidden?”

“Do Mosquitoes scan the Red Zones?” Sam asks.

“Yes,” Igby replies.

“The junk barges?”

“Yep.”

“Underground?”

“They scan fifty yards above and below ground. They fly three miles out to sea, and they go deep into the most irradiated parts of the Red Zones. And that was their protocol before Happy took over. Who knows how far they go now,” Igby says.

I sit quietly, listening to this information, my heart sinking as I think of Molly, who was trapped underground in an old bank vault, Panoptic still intact, heart beating loud and clear for the Mosquitoes to detect. There’s no way she hasn’t been captured, no way she hasn’t been found by Happy, and Igby said she is not in the Block. I try to stop the thought from entering my mind, but I can’t.

She’s dead, I think. They’ve killed her.

“What about Alt tech?” I ask. “Mechanical hearts to hide their pulse?”

“No, the Mosquitoes can detect MORs and APMs just as easily as the real thing, plus it doesn’t hide body heat,” says Pod.

“So, what?” Igby asks. “They’ve found a way to mask all signs of life? Found a way to trick the Mosquitoes into ignoring their vital signs and any tech they’re using?”

“What about old tech?” Dr. Ortega asks from her book bed, Akimi now on lookout.

“Sorry?” Igby replies.

“Old technology,” she repeats, sitting up. “Freaking Wi-Fi, the internet, the cloud, all that kind of stuff? Do the Mosquitoes scan for that?”

“No,” Pod replies.

“No, exactly,” she says, and lies back down. “The Red Zones are filled with ancient tech; some of it is probably salvageable.”

“But, so what?” I say. “The Red Zones are irradiated; nothing can survive there.”

“That’s true,” Igby says, “but we’ve been looking at one point in the Red Zones where the radiation hasn’t receded at the same pace as all the other parts.”

“Doesn’t that just mean the radiation is stronger there?” Pander asks.

“Maybe,” Pod says, “but it’s irrelevant, isn’t it? So what if they don’t scan for old tech? The Missing would still have to hide all signs of life, and that’s impossible.”