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I ht only have six years of experience behind h to know that I deserved better than that

"You and Beverly are alelcome here," said Nathan

"Thank you Hurry?"

"I’ll be there as soon as I can," he said solemnly "I love you, Sal Stay safe"

"I love you, too," I said, and hung up the phone My father was looking atof what he thought I didto check a few things, and then he’s going to callto co you leave with hi my face schooled into careful neutrality "I’uardianship: I can leave if I want to These last few days--these last few hours--haven’t really made o?" Dad’s eyes darkened, his broering until it looked like he was on the verge of scowling "Your sister is sick"

"That’s why I’m still here I want to help But Dad, it’s pretty clear you don’t trust ood daughter I’h to realize that after you’ve locked me in my room, lied to me about your own medical condition, and strapped oing on… maybe you don’t haveto burn with tears I wasn’t going to allow myself to shed For once, I would have welcomed the sound of dru information," he said There was a new chill in his voice, a coldness I’d heard before, but never directed at me It was the tone he sometimes took when he was on the phone ork, or with the men from SymboGen who called to ask if I could come in for tests between my scheduled appoint the information that can help Joyce I already told you how to adjust her treathter in jail because you think II haven’t shared yet? Not because you know Because you suspect, and you’re grasping at stra" I liftedhim "Is that a step you’re ready to take, Dad?"

"If I knew for sure that you had any infor, I would take that step," he said quietly "Please believe me If I let you leave with Nathan, and I find out the two of you have been withholding anything I ht have been able to use, I will arrest you both"

I thought of Dr Cale and her lab; of Tansy and Ada he would have been able to use And I nodded "I do believe you But right now, there’s nothing else we can tell you We just know some stuff about the structure of the parasite because Nathan’s a parasitologist, and he got hold of some development notes that actually h, and it was even believable, to soree

"We have all the publicly available development notes," said my father "Why has Dr Kim been able to make sense of the Nathan’s last na out of protected status, and into "potentially useful" Trying hard not to revealsome old lectures of Dr Cale’s, fros she saidI don’t really understand the science, but what he said was that the SymboGen implants aren’t based as much on tapeworms as they always told us they were"

"We know they contain other genetic material; it’s in the documentation" My father sounded al I could say about the science that he wouldn’t already know

My cheeks burned as blood rushed to my face, hot on the heels of irritation "Did the documentation tell you the iondii?" I asked

The two guards who flanked the phone hadn’t spoken since we arrived Now one of theun clanked against the edge of the desk

I glanced to the at me in what looked very much like shock "Didn’t you know that?" I asked "You just said that it was in the documentation"

"That’s not possible," he said

"Dad, we’re talking about genetically engineered tapewored to convince the whole world to voluntarily infect the impossible anymore" I shook my head "There’s toxoplasma in the implants That’s how they can colonize the brain so well They kno to do it, even if they don’t know they know"

The two soldiers were both staring at ht of their gazes madea littleet into anyone’s brain, and they were built that way? They were designed that way? Do you understand what that would mean?"

"No," I said, with complete honesty "I barely understand what toxoplasma is, except that it’s a parasite that really, really likes the brain, and is really, really hard to kill, which is probably why they used it Tapeworms are pretty easy to kill, aren’t they?"