“It is not an old life, it is survival. They may return him alive, but he will not survive the Superorganism. They will spare him now only to kill him in the long term.”

“He is a murderer,” she said, her blood pressure rising. “He is a monster. He . . . Think of what he did to me!”

“WE ARE ALL MONSTERS, LITTLE COUSIN.”

“And your first priority, in all of this, is him?” she continued, ignoring Enola, ignoring Kaveh, the heat under her skin rising to a boil. “Why? Enola ripped a hole in space for you. I have given up my life for you. I died for you!”

“Immaterial. If I can suppress Obelus’s memories and keep him in that body, he is not a threat.”

“You’re delusional.” She took a step back from him, shaking her head incredulously. “You don’t care.”

“If you want me to survive, this is what I must do.”

“You don’t care.” By now, her breath was going in and out of her lungs so fast it was starting to burn her throat, her blood coursing through her like electricity, every nerve in her body on fire.

“Calm yourself.”

“You don’t care. You do not fucking care!” Now she was shouting. “He fucking ripped me in half, and you do not fucking care!”

“Cora.” Kaveh’s voice. She looked over and realized what he already knew. She was spiraling, and fast.

“Oh, God. Oh, God, no . . .”

“Stop this. Calm yourself.”

“I can’t help it!” Kaveh moved toward her. “Stay back!” she yelled. She backed away from him, back against the wall. The figure in front of her morphed, grew several feet in height, bulged out on its sides. Oh, God!

Not Obelus. Obelus is dead.

Obelus is not dead!

He isn’t in that body anymore.

He could be! He could be anywhere, anything.

Where is the body? The government took the body! Obelus’s old body still exists, he could be in it, he could be in it right now!

Her mind was scrambled, screaming electric nonsense, as though her brain were trying to escape from her skull. Her vision blurred, and she shrieked with each gasp of air she pulled in. She clapped one hand to her chest, holding up the other one in a futile attempt to keep the monster away.

The monster moved toward her until it was over her, on top of her, grabbing her with one of its meat hook hands as a syringe formed in the other one. Obelus standing over her, crushing her rib cage, trying to rip out her throat with his other hand. She could feel her abdomen being ripped open, her guts pouring out. Not again, not again, not again!