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Ask her about the reservoir conditions, proe--I mean, I want to knohat do the reservoir conditions have to do with any of this?" My voice sounded unfa the question

"The iiven sufficient time and exposure How else could we have stayed alive for this long?" Dr Abbey turned to look at me, eyes dark and very tired beneath the erratically bleached fringe of her hair "The reservoir conditions are our bodies figuring out how to process the virus Hoork around it They’re our ie and inconvenient, like the autoi"

Just about everyone with an autoi or found their suffering greatly alleviated as the body’s itheir own cells: the sudden burgeoning Kellis-A in its path Autoi co turned the medical world on its ear

The facts flashed acrossinexorably into place, each of the ss Kelly was surprised by The illegallywith the induced reservoir conditions, and the casual way Dr Abbey said he wouldn’t a about The spiders, the bugs, and the octopuses with their grasping li, alien eyes All of itto force it

I turned toward Kelly before I realized that I was intending to move Her eyes widened, and she took a step back, alave her a puzzled look as she stepped out of the way

"I don’t knohat he’s so pissed about, but I’et in his way," she said, in a tone that bordered on the sympathetic "Better you thanon Kelly, and there was no confusion in her expression, just cal her student finally understand the lesson

"The reservoir conditions are an immune response," I said It wasn’t a question; it didn’t need to be I could see the confir eyes "They’re the way the body copes with the Kellis-Amberlee infection, aren’t they?" She didn’t answer me "Aren’t they?!" I shouted, and slaie and Alaric jumped Becks stepped up beside me And Kelly flinched

"Yes," she said "They are They just… they just happen We think it has so to do with exposure in infancy, but the research has never been… it’s never…"

All one, like it had never existed at all I wasn’t seeing a person anye away "I’ to ask you one question, Doc, and I want you to think really hard about your answer, because you’re legally dead, and if ant to hand you to this nice lady," I gestured toward Dr Abbey, "for her experiments, well, there’s really not much you can do about it Don’t lie to lad to see that we have an agreement Now, tell me: The reservoir conditions What do they do? What do they really do?"

"They teach the i live Kellis-A my eyes at last She sounded oddly relieved, like she’d knoere going to wind up here and just hadn’t kno to force the issue on her own "They teach the body what to do about it"

"Meaning what?"

Alaric spoke abruptly, his own voice glacially cold: "That’s the wrong question, Shaun"

"All right, you’re the Newsie What’s the right question? What should I be asking her?"

"Ask her ould have happened if you hadn’t pulled the trigger" Alaric looked at Kelly for a long ht of her "Ask her ould have happened to Georgia if you’d just left her alone in the van and hadn’t pulled the trigger"

Kelly’s ansas a hushed whisper, so soft that, for aThe words seeet louder and louder as they echoed inside ain until I couldn’t bear the sound of thelass as hard as I could, so hard I could feel ive way Then I turned onalley where the octopuses watched with their alien eyes, back pasty renks oflab technicians, who barely even looked up as I passed the as I tried to outpace the words still echoing inwords It didn’t do any good No matter how fast I ran, nocould take those words back again

Those five s:

"She would have gotten better"

Shaun and I had one of those aard talks today--the ones that hurt the most because they’re the ones you don’t want to have, ever, but have to have eventually This one was about our birth parents Who they were, why they gave us up, whether they survived the Rising, all those things they say adopted kids are supposed to ask Whether they wanted us That’s a big one for Shaun He’s always beenof the Masons than I am, but for some reason, it’s really important to him that anted before ound up here