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"You have kids," Bryn said "Two kids"

"Yes"

"Well, I won’t," she said "Ever I alanted kids--two, hter, especially And you knohat I have now? Nothing A future of survival Of being twisted into some shape that isn’t human anymore, because you wanted to play God You want that for the death?"

"I want them to be safe," he said "That’s what any parent wants for their children They should become adults first, of course; they have to reach full maturity or the nanites will simply repair them to a permanent childhood But yes, that’s what I want for them A future without disease and decay and death And you knohat? Ask any parent who’s watched a child suffer, and they will agree with me"

How in the hell could a ? He was endorsing torture and et it

She wanted to force hi, bloody ways that the nanites seeer and shatter his skull all over the nice, clean kitchen

And then eat his brain, soe

"You’re going to help us stop it," Patrick said

"I won’t"

"You don’t have a fucking choice, Doctor" He took the gun frooing to show us to your office, where you’ll give us all the information you have on the Fountain Group, who’s involved, where they are, and anything else you can think of s and settled back in his chair, and sipped his tea As if he didn’t have a care in the world "Or you’ll kill me?"

"Yes," he said, very calmly "I’ll kill you quietly, and bury you somewhere your kids won’t see You’ll justvanish Maybe the cops will find your rotting corpse, , fancy dream ends here, today You can end with it, or live to see your kids grow up Your choice"

"You wouldn’t"

Patrick gave hi, still very caler looking all that confident "Let’s go to your office," he said "I really don’t want your kids to be involved, and neither do you Right?"

When Reynolds didn’t get up immediately, Bryn helped him with a hand under his arm His ht about trying to yank free, but then good sense prevailed She walked hi rooh the s of a tree-filled valley and river

"It’s upstairs," he said The three of theroup, and just before they made the turn Bryn saw the kids’ door open up, and a s’s okay," she told the boy, and s us for a minute You just stay in there, okay?"

He nodded and shut the door She hoped he wasn’t--as she would have been at that age--curious enough to try to sneak up and observe as going on Better keep an eye out, she thought

Reynolds kept his study locked up, which was probably wise, and it required a key code to get in No way to knohat he punched in was the real number, or a secret alert code that would sound alarms yet stay silent in the houseprobably the latter She knew Patrick would think of it, too, so she didn’t bother to say it

"You go with him," she told Patrick "I’ll stay out here and keep watch"

He nodded, probably also understanding that Reynolds’ s, brazen attitudeshe was , even at the best of tiels, not at all Better if she worked off her tension by watching for unwelco

At least we’re reht She took astruck her as odd It wasperfect Movie-set perfect In fact, even the books seeht by the yard by a set designer, not things people chose for their own reasons Norive you a sense of who they were, what they believed ineven if the person idely read, there was still some sort of a core to it

But thisIt was random books, shelved for appearance and not content