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If you found her, bring her here

Here, Peter thought Not just the mountain, but here This room

What was here?

Lacey had stepped to a steel case, like a wardrobe, bolted to the wall On its face was a handle and, beside this, a keypad He watched as the wo series of nuht at first the case was e on the bottom shelf, a metal box Lacey reh to fit in one hand, was surprisingly light It appeared to have no seams at all, but there was a latch, with a tiny button beside it that perfectly fit his thumb Peter pressed it; at once the box separated into two perfectly forlass vials, containing a shireen liquid He counted eleven; a twelfth compartment was eave to Amy He made it froistered there But he already knew the truth; more than that, he felt the truth

"The eave you"

Lacey nodded "I believe that it is"

He closed the lid, which sealed with a solid click He slid off his backpack and pulled out a blanket, which he used to wrap the box, then placed it all inside Froes and put these in the pack as well Their best chance was to et down the mountain After that, he didn’t know He turned to A "He’s close"

"Can he get through that door, Lacey?"

The wo

"Lacey?"

"It is my hope that he will," she said

They were in the field now, high above the river Peter’s and A snow Alicia had ridden ahead It should have been dawn by now, thought Michael But all he saas the sa toward for what seemed like hours

"So where the hell are they?" said Hollis

Michael didn’t know if he ht occurred to hi to die up here, that none of them would ever leave this frozen, barren place Sara and Greer were silent-thinking the saht, or maybe they were just too cold to speak His hands were so stiff he doubted he could fire, much less reload, his rifle He tried to take a drink from his canteen to steady himself, but it was frozen solid

From out of the darkness they heard the sound of Alicia’s horse, riding back at a trot She pulled up beside the with a quick tip of her head "There’s an opening in the fence"

She heeled herfor them, and barreled back they way she’d co up the rear They were in the trees again Alicia was riding faster now, galloping through the snow Michael heeled histhe animal forward Beside him, Sara bent her neck low over herabove theun go off behind him No sooner had this happened than a violent force slapped his and catapulting hi out frole instant he felt himself suspended painlessly over the earth-part of hisfact-but the sensation didn’t last; he hit the ground with a jolt, landing on his back in the snow, and now there were other things to think about He had, he saw, come to rest directly in the path of his own horse He rolled over on his side, covering the back of his head with his hands as if this ht actually help; he felt the wild torrent of air as the panicked animal bounded over hi just inches froone

Michael saw the viral-the same one, he surmised, that had knocked him from his horse-as soon as he drew up to his knees It was crouched just a fewIts forearht of its bioluminescence, as if the creature were partially i to its chest and ar down its face Michael realized that he was hearing gunshots, an echoing spatter over the ridge and,his nanals from a distant star Like the vast expanse of darkness around hi like the ht have pertained to so the ave a lazy-see snap of teeth, as if it were in no hurry-as if the two of them had all the time in the world And in that moment Michael realized that the place where he kept his fear was empty He, Michael the Circuit, wasn’t afraid What he felt was ht have felt for a fly that had been buzzing around his face too long Godda his hand to the sheath on his belt I as Maybe there are forty million of you and oing to be one less

As Michael rose the viral shot forward, its arers of an open hand; he barely had enough ti reflexively He felt the bite ofover Michael’s body as he tu face-up on the snow His blade was buried in its chest Its ar at the air A pair of figures were standing above the body Peter and, beside hi a rifle-Michael’s rifle, covered in snow At their feet, the creature roan Aun to her shoulder, lowered the barrel, and pushed it into the viral’s open er

Michael rose to his feet The viral was s ceased A broad spray of blood lay on the snow Aun to Peter

"Take this"

"Are you okay?" Peter asked Michael

Only then did Michael realize he was shaking He nodded

"Coe They ran

It wasn’t fair, Lacey knehat she had done Allowing Peter and A the bo the the the door closed as they watched, then dropping the bolts in place

She could hear the on the other side Could hear A in her o!

Run now He will be here any minute

Lacey, please!

You must help them They’ll be afraid They won’t knohat is happening Help them, Amy

All that had happened here, in this place, needed to be wiped away As God had wiped the earth away in the days of Noah, so that the great ship could sail and ain

She would be His waters

Such a terrible thing, the bomb It was sh to destroy the Chalet itself, all its underground floors, to hide the evidence of what they had done-but not so large as to register on any satellites A fail-safe, in case the virals had ever broken out But then the power had failed on the upper levels, and Sykes was gone, or dead; and though Jonas could have detonated it hi himself to do this, not with A, Lacey had knelt before it: a small, suitcase-shaped object, with the dull finish of all s Jonas had shown her the steps She pressed a s a keyboard with a sle line of text She typed: ELIZABETH