There had to be a way—to find EOs, to contain them. Maybe, one day, to use them. EOs were dangerous, yes, some catastrophically so, but what if, among the lost and the deranged, there were those who could be fixed, given purpose, made whole? What if death didn’t change a person’s nature, only amplified it?

By that logic, a wounded soldier might still want to serve.

That was the focus, the sharp point at the center of Stell’s idea. A world where skilled EOs could help stop crimes instead of start them.

And where the rest could be contained, kept from committing more atrocities.

A short, bright ring signaled the incoming call.

The curve of screens on Stell’s desk lit up.

Stell brushed his fingers through the air, accepting the call, and seconds later a conference room appeared in front of him, five stern figures seated around a long wood desk.

The board of directors.

Three men and two women, all in dark suits—the standard uniform of government agencies and private ones alike. They looked like vague copies of each other. The same dark hair, the same narrow eyes, the same flat expressions.

“Director,” said a man in charcoal, “do you care to explain why you removed a valuable test subject from the lab and fired one of our most prominent—not to mention valuable—scientists?”

“He was dissecting an EO.”

The silence that followed wasn’t loaded; on the contrary, it was empty. The members of the board stared at him as if he hadn’t answered the question. As if they didn’t see the problem.

“Last time I checked,” said Stell, knitting his fingers, “I was the director of this institution. Are personnel changes above my pay grade?”

“Of course not, Director,” said a woman in navy. “You have an intimate understanding of the needs and challenges on the ground.

However—”

“EON may be your operation,” cut in a man in black, “but we are its bank.”

“And as its bank,” said the man in charcoal, “we need to know our

money is being well spent. In the interest of national security.”

That last sentence, like an afterthought. As if the five wolves in dark suits weren’t circling in search of profit.

“Haverty’s methods may have been questionable,” said the woman in navy, “but his research was promising. As for your EO, his ability made him uniquely qualified to undergo that research. Now you have deprived us of both scientist and subject.”

“Let’s discuss the EO,” chimed in a new voice, a woman in black.

“Eliot Cardale, alias Eli Ever. What have you done with him?”

“He’s been relocated to a cell in the containment unit.”

“To what end?”

“To contain him,” said Stell. “Eli Cardale killed nearly forty people.”

A man in gray sat forward. “They were almost all EOs, though, weren’t they?”

“Is that supposed to make it better?”