“Lately they’ve been studying patterns in the Tangents that Kaine has sent into the world,” Helga answered. “Trying to figure out their purpose. Gathering data. In the Sleep, I had people working hard on the Mortality Doctrine program, trying to deconstruct it, figure out how to reverse it. How it connects to the Hive, how the humans taken over by Tangents connect to their counterparts within the Hive.” She sighed. “But we have a long way to go.”

Michael asked the other, more obvious question. “So where is it that you think we can meet up with some fancy government types?”

They all bounced half a foot off the seat when the car lurched over a huge bump in the road. Michael’s head actually hit the roof.

“Whoa, there! We’ll never make it to the airport if you crumple us in a ditch,” Helga scolded Walter.

“You said you were in a hurry,” their driver grumbled. He obviously hadn’t forgiven Helga for inflicting the true death on two Tangents—and two humans—yet.

“Airport?” Sarah repeated. “I thought you said flying wasn’t safe right now.”

“Don’t worry. We have a private plane,” Helga answered. “I didn’t just randomly download my people into whoever happened to be walking by on the street. We have connections.”

“Nice,” Bryson said.

“So you were saying?” Sarah prodded.

Helga went on. “There’s a World Summit in London three days from now. It was called by the Union of Earth to discuss all the things I showed you. A lot of important people will be there. And I assume they’ll be arriving very soon. We’ll be going virtually—from a small embassy in Washington, D.C., that we’ve almost completely infiltrated. I’m eager to get there as quickly as possible so we can maneuver ourselves in.”

“Let me guess,” Bryson said. “More human bodies taken over?”

Helga grimaced. “None that we haven’t made the same promise for as the others: to bring them back.” She winced again, and Michael felt sorry that she had to bear so much guilt. “Anyway. It’s a very small embassy—Latvia—which will help us keep a low profile. We should have enough credentials to get ourselves into the meeting virtually. But it won’t be easy. We need to get there ASAP to make preparations.”

They went on talking for a while, but Michael tuned out. He laid his head back and closed his eyes, trying to sort through his many thoughts. He kept coming back to Gabby. He’d felt bad about her from the beginning because she seemed to genuinely, and deeply, care for Jackson Porter. How ridiculously unfair to feel close to someone like that and then have them literally swap their mind with a stranger’s.