Ruins

The command rolled out across the link, freezing Shon and his Partials midstep, binding Samm like a man of stone, stopping even the Ivies. Kira stumbled, overwhelmed by the order, by the word, by the entire concept of NO. It seemed to fill her link, her mind, her entire body. She gritted her teeth and put her hands to her head, as if she could somehow shut it out.

“That’s better,” said Armin. He looked at Kira, walking toward her slowly. “You were right about one thing,” he said. “This is the end. Maybe not of your war—they look to still have some fight left in them—but of the war’s importance. I have all the DNA I need now. The humans and Partials, so desperate to end each other’s existence, can now do so without harming our future.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way,” said Kira, forcing the words out. “It’s your plan—the one you made all those years ago. It can still happen.”

“For the moment, perhaps,” said Armin. “But eventually they’ll start fighting again. They’ll blame each other for your death, for not saving you or killing me. They might even try to work together to leave this island before it irradiates them all beyond recovery, but it won’t last. Their differences are too great, and the biological peace I tried to force with RM and the Partial DNA wasn’t enough.”

With a herculean effort Samm moved his foot, planting himself in Armin’s path. He stared at the man with clenched teeth, too rigid to speak, but determined to defend her.

Armin stopped in surprise. “Impressive. But it doesn’t matter. Jerry has reset the planet, and I’ll start over with a new species, built as one from the beginning instead of this ham-fisted attempt to make two coexist. They will inherit the Earth, and you will be their mother, and they will go on to greater and more glorious things than any of us could imagine. You don’t understand this yet, and I suppose you never will, but that’s the greatest goal of any parent: to be surpassed by his children.”

“So let me live to surpass you,” said Kira. “It can’t be that hard—I’m already not a psychopath.” She forced her legs backward—first one, then the other, draining every ounce of her will. She didn’t know if she could take another step.

“Shortsighted comments like that are the surest sign that you’re already not worthy of the new world.” He stepped around Samm, holding up his knife, but with a guttural roar the Partial moved again, barring the Blood Man’s way. “Don’t make me kill you, too,” said Armin calmly. “I don’t wish to harm anyone, but I will have her DNA at any cost.”

“If you want a new world, a world that can live in peace, you have to let go,” said Kira. “From the beginning of this whole thing, the creation of the Partials and the formation of the Trust, you’ve been trying to control it, to manage every step of every process. That’s what failed, Armin. Not the biology, but your attempt to control it. We have to be able to choose. We have fallen, and we have to rise up again.”

“Humans have had their chance,” said Armin. “They failed, and they nearly took the entire planet with them. That isn’t going to happen again.”

“Damn straight it won’t,” said a voice. Armin turned in surprise, and Kira forced her head sideways.

Heron was walking slowly out of the trees, playing idly with a handgun.

STOP

Kira felt Armin’s new link data batter at her will, at her very sense of self, but Heron simply smiled and kept coming.

“I see,” said Armin. “One of the Thetas.” He set his glass jar carefully on the ground and straightened up with knife in hand. “This is just what I was talking about, Kira. The Thetas have free will—the others told me I was crazy to make a Partial model that couldn’t be controlled through the link, but I was an idealist. I believed then, as you believe now, that the element of choice was too important to completely cut out of the species. Now I know better. I gave them choice, and all they used it for was disobedience.” He tilted his head, looking at Heron with cold, calculating eyes. “I thought I’d hunted all of you down.”

“You were the one who killed the other spy models?” asked Heron. “Every word out of your mouth is another reason to kick your ass.”

Armin shook his head. “I might not be able to control you, but I have gene mods you can’t imagine. Attacking me would be folly.”

“More and more,” said Heron, reaching a distance about ten feet away from him, and slowly circling to the side. “Kira, sweetie, I’m going to murder your dad.”

Kira tried to answer, but the link still held her locked in place.

“I designed you to be an evolution of the Partial template, Theta, but now I know you’re exactly why we need to start over,” said Armin, and Kira could hear the impatience rising in his voice. “We need a species that dreams of the stars, not one that lurks in the shadows and kills for sport.”