The room was split into a central atrium. The ceiling looked like a hollowed-out step pyramid, rising one hundred feet at its core. This was surrounded by a ring of ten decorative columns where the ceiling was lowest, though to call them columns was a disservice. They were statues, each with hands raised to the ceiling, as though in supplication; a posture that didn’t quite fit their hulking, grim forms. The outer wall beyond the statues was covered in a combination of hieroglyphs and carvings.

Cainan’s attention remained on the bright orbs. He pointed to one. “Are these…?”

“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light,” Alpha said.

“God saw that the light was good,” Adam, whose voice was similar to Alpha’s but distorted, as though gargled, continued, “and He separated the light from the darkness.”

“Soon, Adam,” Alpha said. “Soon.”

Cainan held out a dirty white sheet laden with the weight of a small body. He placed it on the floor before Alpha and Adam. As he let go of one side it fell open revealing the sleeping face of a thirteen-year-old girl.

Alpha knelt down to Fiona and brushed her hair off her face. “She is the last?”

Cainan gave a slight nod. “And probably not cause for concern on her own. In fact, the danger she poses now is in bringing our enemies to us. Perhaps it would have been wise to kill her with the others?”

“I find live bait works best,” Alpha said. “And having one more test subject on hand never hurts.”

“You really want King to find us?”

“I want to take everything away from him. I want him to see it slip away.” Alpha rolled his neck to one side. “I am simply returning the favor he extended me.”

“There is nothing to fear from King,” Adam said. “With her here, he will approach with caution rather than overwhelming brute force.”

“She gives us the advantage,” Alpha finished. “Bring her.”

Alpha led Cainan down a short tunnel, stopping in front of a small, carved-out alcove that had once been used to store building supplies. “Put her in.”

With Fiona placed inside the space, Alpha crouched next to her.

Cainan leaned against the wall. “Even if King can find us, how do you know he’ll get here in time? If he’s out there”—he motioned to the cave ceiling but referred to the world beyond—“when the time comes he’ll change with the rest of them.”

“He’ll make it on time,” Alpha said before tugging something loose from Fiona. “He’s the kind of man who doesn’t miss a deadline, and the clock is ticking.”

Alpha held up Fiona’s insulin pump, stood, and smashed it against the wall. He picked up the ruined device and handed it to Cainan. “Put this someplace King will find it.”

Cainan smiled. “Tick tock.”