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"No, Sal," said s off the Internet You can’t keep things off the Internet Given enough incidents, even Syht noith things still as contained as they are, it’s possible for a large enough corporation with a focused enough security departs that aren’t supposed to be possible The govern to the best of our ability; right now, their goals and our goals overlap enough to be worth supporting"

I blinked at hi Sy on?"

"Because starting a panic does no one any good, and we still don’t know for sure why these are the things that Sy to suppress--or when it started Did the sleepwalkers begin appearing before we heard about the the news from the start? There’s so much we don’t know, both about the science, and about the motives of the people who stand to benefit Oh, soossip--but other than sooods, it’s had very little i very still Even the distant sound of druby on her way to the kitchen, looking for scraps thatbreakfast In the silence, her claws clacking against the linoleu to co the way it did when I tried to read for too long in a single setting, casting blurry little halos of color and light around everything

Finally, I said, "I a questions I need you to tellon And then I need you to give me my phone back I will make the decision of what I do next based on what you say"

"Sal--"

"Reet to say ‘just trust et to decide what’s best for me I e myself pretty well" I didn’t et"I’ll call my boyfriend to pick ument a bit too much

Dad paused Then he smiled, and said, "You know, you’re more like your e, and it ought to be i on that I was trying to protect you fros We’ve known that for some time, and you and I have talked about it before But there is a reasonable chance that they were so happy to be involved in your care in part because I work for USAMRIID, and if they were able to bug our hoovernment knew about the more questionable aspects of their business practices"

Aspects like splicing Toxoplasma into the implants, which would make them--which had ined Questionable aspects like the entire structure of D syenesis The parasite that had been approved by the FDA wasn’t the one being i

Questionable aspects like an unshared test for the sleeping sickness, which wasn’t a sickness at all, but the result of the D sy for a hostile takeover of its host

I didn’t say any of that I just nodded

"SymboGen never reported the people in our yard to the authorities I made inquiries--discreetly--and no similar incidents have been formally reported We know about it only because we’ve been roups have been picked up wandering in areas that allowed the police to back-trace to the invaded ho the afflicted, although we have no proof yet"

My head was starting to spin I frowned at him "And Lafayette?"

"We think it was another hodown onto the freeway once the sleepwalkers could find no one else who appealed to the is that several of the cars in the traffic jam were accosted by sleepwalkers, and so?" I de at him "That’s horrible"

"Yes, it is, but Sal, even more cars weren’t accosted by sleepwalkers" Dad shook his head "They’re choosing who they go after They’re choosing very carefully What we don’t knohat they’re basing those decisions on The sleepwalkers don’t see consciously"

I was terribly afraid that I knehat the sleepwalkers were basing their decisions on: they were going for the people whose ie of their brains and nervous systee the i the final steps toward autono I didn’t know yet

"They went after our car," I said quietly

"I know," said my father "The fact that you and Nathan are both okay is a bigger relief to me than I can properly express"