Ruins

Eighth floor. She could feel the Ivies clearly on the link; her practice was paying off, and she fell into her combat mode like slipping on an old glove. Green was waiting below, holding his breath, giving her time to make her ambush. Marcus crouched beside her at the top of the stairs, his rifle ready in his hands. Kira closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to feel the presence of the Ivies, to pinpoint their locations as accurately as she could.

THIS ONE SAVED MOVING ON

HURRY NOT MUCH TIME

Behind their data was something else, larger and more powerful, like the vague outline of a whale swimming just beyond her perception in the deep of the sea. The Blood Man, she thought. It was the same kind of intense link data she’d sensed from members of the Trust, which only confused her more. What are you? she thought.

The hallway beyond was clear, the Ivies all working in different rooms, and she pushed open the door without a sound. She kept her rifle tight to her cheek and shoulder, the sights lined up to kill whoever appeared first. She sidestepped to a corner, taking what little cover she could, and when the first Ivie walked into her kill zone she fired a burst straight into its chest, dropping it in a heartbeat. A jar of blood fell from its lifeless hand and shattered on the floor. The alarm shot across the link: DEATH ATTACK PREPARE CAUTION. Another head appeared just out of her view, but Marcus was already firing as she tracked her rifle toward it, and the shape ducked back behind a doorway. Green raced up the stairs to join them, and she felt a ripple of recognition on the link as the Ivies sensed him, followed by confusion as they realized they were being attacked by both humans and Partials.

The deeper presence moved, a dark shape in the back of her mind, and she tracked her rifle back again to find it. Just step into view, she thought, daring him to come forward. Just give me one chance and I’ll end this horror show once and for all.

“You must understand that this is not a personal attack,” said a voice, and Kira felt her heart plummet, the ground dropping away beneath it, her entire world becoming a bottomless black pit. “We are trying to save this world, so that it can be a part of the next one. Think of it as an honor, that your body and blood will provide the seeds for a new Eden.” He walked into view at the end of the hall and Kira’s rifle dropped from her cheek, fell from her hands, clattered to the ground as she stared at the Blood Man, walking toward her through the bright fluorescent lights.

“Kira?” said Marcus. Green raised his rifle to fire, but all Kira could do was put up her hand and shake her head.

Kira felt her legs trembling, her stomach wrenching, her arms longing to reach out and touch him even as her mind howled at her to run, to stop him, to kill him, to scream. She gripped the wall for support and stared at the face that haunted her dreams, and spoke the word she hadn’t said since she was five years old.

“Daddy?”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Armin Dhurvasula stared back at Kira, his dark eyes flickering, considering her. She could feel his emotions on the link, wonder and uncertainty and a fierce determination, so strong it left her gasping. Her father took a step forward, as if trying to see her better, and a broad, almost childlike smile spread across his face.

“Kira!” he shouted. He ran toward her, wiping his hands on a towel. “Kira, you’re alive!”

Green raised his rifle to fire, but Armin froze him in place with a surge of link data so powerful Kira felt her own knees buckle. Marcus grabbed her arm, holding her up, and when Armin drew close she gripped Marcus tightly.

“Don’t touch me,” she hissed at her father.

“Kira,” said Armin. “You can’t know how happy I am to see you. I thought for sure you’d died in the Break—obviously you were immune to RM, but when I finally made it home again, you were gone.”

“I was . . . alone for weeks.”

“It was a chaotic time,” said Armin. “But you’re here now, and we can do so much together—”

“What are you doing?” she demanded. “You’re the Blood Man? You’re the one leaving dismembered bodies all over the . . . everywhere? How could you do this?”

“I’m saving them,” he said simply. “The world’s ending—you thought it ended in the Break, but that was just the gunshot; the last thirteen years have been a long, slow bleeding, twitching in an illusion of life, preparing for this moment—this true death. The Partials will die in a few months, and the humans not long after. Jerry’s impossible winter will only hasten the inevitable. How long do you really think we have?”

“So just because we’re dying means it’s all right to murder everyone?” asked Kira. “Like we’re some kind of . . . sociopathic playground now? What’s wrong with you?”