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"What do you mean, ‘maybe’?" I asked

"Like Dr Abbey said, an insect vector for Kellis-Amberlee didn’t just happen They’re probably the product of some lab like hers, full of scientists who think ‘I wanted to see ould happen’ is a perfectly valid justification for doing anything they want"

"Yeah, and?"

George looked up again, brushing the hair out of her eyes with a quick, economical wave of one hand This time, she looked al I can tell you that you don’t already know Why are you pretending you need ed, trying to keep et so wrapped up in arguing with her that I needed to pull over; not only would that potentially attract attention, but it would annoy the hell out of Becks if she woke up before we started s I don’t know, but I need you to be the one who says thee, sick little hed "The mosquitoes were oing to build killer bugs to spread the zoue, wouldn’t you put in a little planned obsolescence?"

Despite the fact that George could only use words I knew theof, I had to pause while I tried to re having hallucinations that make me feel dumb "YouI have to wonder whether the ical weapon, ould they have given the to do is increase the chances of the to protect"

"So how did they wind up in Cuba?"

"Weapons test Cuba did too well during the Rising It was al to certain people I’m sure they would have loved the opportunity to run a little fear-inducing trial on soil close enough to ours that they could look horrified and appalled when so to do with it"

"George…"

"I’ht, and you know it"

"Yeah" I glanced out theat the high concrete fence dividing the tiny back road ere on from the safe concrete river of I-5 "I just wish I’d stop reone when I looked back I shook ht on by her last state channels until I found so with a catchy beat and simplistic lyrics Then I switched to NPR

National Public Radio is a dinosaur in the e of podcasts and Internet radio stations, but that’s part of whatthe thoughts and opinions of the part of the population that has not yet s still itally slow--I’ve read the history books, I kno long a single story used to do or two, if you’re willing to listen

Two experts were arguing about ways to save the Everglades One wanted to send in CDC teams in full-on moon suits to rescue as h DDT into the water table to sterilize the ecosystem for a hundred years "We can breed thelades are safe, and then return theuenerations of zoo-bound living and lead to an immediate, complete return to the wild as soon as thedecided it was tio

The other expert claimed this would result not only in the perical diversity, but render ot rid of the et into the hu thousands of insectivores into the is the natural way And by "insectivores," he ather as lades, where they could do their batty thing and eat all the mosquitoes Because the people of Florida would, of course, be totally cool with this

At no point did either of them mention the idea that thea natural worst-case scenario All their solutions started from the premise that the ht them to our shores Soht So to have a way to deal with theht, just like they’d waited for the tis out of the box in the first place

Becks cliot really involved in yelling at each other Yawning and ru her hair with one hand, she squinted at the radio "Do I wanna know?"

"I can’t get a good wireless signal out here," I said "So we’re listening to the radio"

"Listening to the radio talk about what?"