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Nathan nodded "It seeotten ambitious encounters one that hasn’t, there’s a chance the second implant will learn about freedom from the first"

"But… how does that even work? They’re parasites They can’t communicate And sleepwalkers don’t talk" Except to say ooseflesh break out on ht that they were almost painful

"Pheromones, most likely Parasites have extremely prih chey It’s how they can say ‘food here’ or ‘no roouests’ Or even, in the case of sexually distinct parasites, ‘I’ister pheroenesis can es in the host’s biochemistry…" Nathan’s voice trailed off

"We ned them to be able to tinker with our bodies for the sake of our health" I tossed the rest of my clothes into the dresser and shoved the drawer shut I looked down atit again, without looking up "I know your mother thinks of the implants as her babies, but Nathan, we can’t just let this happen How are we supposed to stop them? Can we put antiparasitics in the water?"

"If they were just tapeworht work Neither of those things is true There’s too hof Beverly’s owner and the glowing roots spread throughout his arm "Oh," I said

"Oral antiparasitics would lose too ot anywhere near the site of the infection," Nathan continued "And if the implant doesn’t die, we can’t be cos worse"

"The hu

Nathan nodded "The hu SymboGen has done, to suit the more advanced implants to the specific needs of their hosts That’s part of why Mo test subjects She doesn’t entirely understand the geneticSyht move them away from their expansionistic tendencies"

"It sure hasn’t done that," I said flatly "How fast is this going to spread?"

"Fast enough that we need to be very, very concerned," said Nathan "According to my projections--"

I never did find out what his projections said Two things happened before he could continue Beverly’s head came up, lips suddenly drawn back in a snarl, and the doorbell rang Nathan and I exchanged a look

"Were you expecting company?" I asked