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My fingers itched, and the only cure, I kneould be grabbing hold of her and never letting go I rubbed theo find Ada, and that there’s another chiht," said Nathan He bent to kiss the top ofwhat pleasure I could from the contact "We’ll be here"

"I know," I said, and turned to run deeper into the lab

Ada of Dr Cale’s chimera research project, in more ways than one He was created in the "traditional" hen she introduced an ienesis directly into the brain of a subject in a persistent vegetative co an otherwise healthy habitat for the new tapeworence that would inhabit it I was an accident, born of trauan at the rated with Sally Mitchell’s brain, but according to Dr Cale, the last act of h her body, cul the integration process He was induced, I was natural; he was nurtured as a chi I had spent the last few erous situation to another, while Dr Cale kept Adam in the lab, as confined and protected as possible She said that she hadn’t allowedoutside of her care after my accident just so she could monitor our development under different types of clinical pressure, and I actually believed that she believed that

At the end of the day, Dr Cale loved Adam very much, and wanted him to be safe I couldn’t blame her for that She’d been his mother for the entirety of his life, while I wasdonation: genetically connected, socially and emotionally very, very distant

"Adae of the lab hydroponics section, which was used e artificial bog filled with sundehich I appreciated--Nathan and I had our collection, but he had "liberated" severalto collect hydroponic and preservation supplies Sundeere bog plants, which made our old friend Marya’s ad to keep us froe barrier had si her instructions

Marya was probably dead now She’d owned and operated a flower shop within the general footprint of San Francisco City Hospital Even if she hadn’t had an implant of her own--and I didn’t knohether she did or not; I had never asked her, and it was too late now--there had beenthe collapse There was very little chance that she had survived

I sometimes wondered how the rest of the people on Dr Cale’s team could stand it I had only had a few years to form connections with other people, and I could still be blindsided by the strength of how much I missed them

But this wasn’t the tiain "It’s Sal The duty roster says you’re supposed to be here, so where are you? Come on, Adam I know you’re there"

"How do you know?" asked a voice from behind me I turned, but I didn’t see Adae potted avocado trees "Maybe I’m somewhere else Maybe I’m nowhere near here at all"

"Well, since we don’t have intercoo, the part where you’re talking to me means that you’re here," I said "Apart from that, I know you’re there because I know you’re there"

The leaves on the avocado trees rustled and Ada attention now, brought to high alert by Anna’s presence: I didn’t feel the saer, was he? I already knew that Adam was safe and well, and on the few occasions when I had been afraid he would be hurt, I’d had the saether So no, I didn’t need to protect him… but I are of him I always had been I just hadn’t been able to consciously naainst

"The scientific method works," I murmured

Adaood at ignoring things that didn’t ," he said "It was like as soon as she was here, everything hole again, instead of being broken the way that it has been for days and days Do you think she took Tansy’s place?"

"What? No" That answered the question of whether or not he knew about our visitor But he knew Anna was a "she," and tapeworirl because of the hurown to inhabit, and not because ere innately gendered creatures "No, Adam Tansy is… Tansy is our sister I don’t knohere she is, or whether she’s okay, but I do know that no one is ever going to take her place in our lives We’re going to find her We’re going to bring her ho with that answer, soiving little teeth Anna held the key to finding Tansy I knew she did I just didn’t kno I knew, or what that knowledge was going to mean