Bella Maharaj smiled, her indigo eyes glittering bright violet in the morning light. “What a bizarre question. Who else would I be?”

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m in charge of the arboretum. What are you doing here?”

“I’m hiding from those spider creatures. Bella, these bat humans … the infants that are being harvested in those hives … Who’s responsible for all this?”

“Dr. Eisenbraun, do you recall our conversation in my garden aboard Oceanus? We spoke of biomimicry—the conscious emulation of nature; the study of how organisms resolve their specific challenges through their programmed DNA. What we are witnessing is evolution with intent, a divine plan at work.”

“When you say divine, it sounds like you actually believe God created all this.”

“God, Buddha, whatever label you wish to toss around, it’s still a higher power.”

“More like a maniacal power. Bella, this is genetic manipulation at its worst. It began with GOLEM tinkering with the crew’s DNA aboard Oceanus.”

“You really must speak to the Creator. She can resolve all this for you.”

She? “Maybe another time. For now, you’re coming with me!” Pushing aside the ferns, I reached for her hand, dragging her with me—only she refused to move.

Bella giggled, then pointed to the ground, and what I saw made me swoon.

From her knees down, the Indian botanist was rooted into the soil, her lower limbs fused together to form the narrow twisting trunk of a young sapling.

“Oh, Bella … I’m so sorry.”

“It is I who am sorry for you.”

With that, the front gates of the arboretum flew open, revealing three transhuman spiders.

“Bella, is there another exit?”

“Follow the blue moss past the rodent trowel, then turn left at the pond, the path will lead you out.”

“Thanks.” I yelled, wondering what a rodent trowel could be if rodents stood nine-feet tall. Sprinting across the thick blue carpet of moss, past strawberry fields beneath fluttering skies, I ducked and ran as the ceiling unleashed its transhuman brood, the creatures swarming at me and then at each other while ABE guided me through the chaos past a large pear-shaped pit the size of an Olympic swimming pool, bordered by a thicket of jasmine shrubs.

Running alongside the pit, I stole a quick glance to my left.

Sweet Jesus …

Twenty feet below, packs of black rats, moving in panicked multitudes, were fighting each other to avoid being snatched by twelve-foot-long, lime-green creations that sprouted the hydralike head of Lara Saints! Each creature possessed an elongated neck which melded into a thickly muscled serpent’s body that split into five long tentacles. A half dozen of these coiled genetic nightmares lashed out at their rodent prey from centralized stakeout points, occasionally snatching one in a barbed appendage, which fed the squirming rat into Lara’s hideously fanged bloodstained mouth.