I almost died for this country. And I didn’t get any special powers out of it. I wish I had—instead, I got a body full of scrap parts, and a lot of pain, but I’m still here, still doing what I can, because I want to keep people safe. Now, if you don’t want to hire me, that’s your choice. But have the balls to make up a better reason than this . . . sir.”

Dominic sat back, breathless, hoping the outburst had been enough to convince the other man.

The silence stretched out. And then, at last, Stell nodded and said,

“We’ll be in touch.”

Dismissed, Dom rose from his chair and left. He went into the men’s room across the hall, and into the safety of a stall, before vomiting up everything in his stomach.

III

THREE WEEKS AGO

IV

EON

BARA smacked his palm on the table and got up.

“Hate to eat and run,” he said, “but I’ve got a mission.”

“No way,” said Holtz, “they cleared you for fieldwork?” He turned on Rios. “What gives? I’ve been petitioning for weeks to get on Containment.”

Bara smoothed his uniform. “It’s because I’m such an asset.”

Rios snorted. “It’s because you’re totally useless here.”

Bara put a hand to his heart, as if wounded, then shot back, “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“You don’t do fieldwork.”

She met his gaze, her gray eyes flat. “Someone has to make sure the monsters don’t get out.”

Dom was surprised. He’d been there for two years, and witnessed a handful of attempts—an EO managed to put a hole in one of the fiberglass walls, another tore free from restraints during a routine med check—but he’d never heard of an actual escape.

“Has an EO ever gotten out?”

Rios’s mouth twitched at the corner. “People don’t get out of EON, Rusher. Not once we put them here.”

People. Rios was one of the only soldiers who referred to the EOs that way.

“Who’re you hunting?” asked Holtz, who’d clearly resigned himself to living vicariously.

“Some crazy housewife,” said Bara. “Burns holes in shit. Found her husband’s secret apartment, at the Heights.”

Holtz—who had had many girlfriends—shook his head. “Never underestimate an angry woman.”

“Never underestimate a woman,” amended Rios.

Bara shrugged. “Yeah, yeah. Place your bets. Poke your fun. But when she’s rotting in a cell, you’re all buying me drinks.”

MEANWHILE, IN MERIT . . .

JUNE closed her eyes and listened to the rain beat against her black umbrella.

She wished she were in a field somewhere, arms spread wide to catch the thunder, instead of standing on the curb outside the sleek urban high-rise.