the box and handed it back to her. “Love the outfit, and you are going to love this. Trust me.”
The nurse she’d been talking to laughed. “Grace, Dr. Fielding is covering for our psychiatrist today. He’ll be right back to discharge you once he’s done with an emergency.”
Sure he would be. Just as soon as my immortal friend had a nice soft bed and a handful of anti-psychotics. “I’ll wait with Grace.”
Grace held up a bag full of journals. “I didn’t sleep much last night, and they woke me up at morning rounds. I made it through to . . . recent years.”
It would have hurt to say it before, but listening to Grace, nothing hurt. “The ones I’m not in.”
She nodded. “You or your mother. There’re three sequences I can’t make out that appear everywhere, but by that point he was pretty much inventing ways to express ideas. There’s no easy way to say ‘regret,’ for instance, so he writes it as ‘the sad yesterday.’ We thought there were lots of these, but most of them only cover a month or two.”
“I don’t really want to talk about my dad today. Have you reported to the director about your progress? She’s going to be delighted.”
Grace looked like a rainstorm on a sunny day, the worry that passed across her face cast her blue eyes downward. “Not yet.”
“Did you have time for my translation before your laptop got stolen?”
Again, worry shaded her beautiful smile. I cursed myself for bringing it up. They’d probably take it out of her check.
She finally looked at me. “Yes, I did, but I lost my notes with the laptop. The inscription referenced Ra-Ame. Last time you brought her up, I argued. This time, I want to hear what you think about her.”
Though the name confirmed my fears, I held myself calm for Grace. And as for Grace believing in Ra-Ame, I’d sooner believe Grace wanted me to cut her liver out. “You’ve met a Re-Animus. Remember how smart it was? How fast it was?”
“I remember.” The blood drained from her face, and Grace glanced quickly to the door.
“Ra-Ame is basically their God. Dad thought she might have been one of the first, or maybe just the oldest left. So when her name comes up, we pay attention.” When her name came up, I usually didn’t sleep for a few days.
Grace nodded. “And you believe this, too?”
How could I answer? I put one hand on her shoulder, careful to make sure it came across right. “I’m as sure of it as I am anything. You’ve heard the Re-Animus talk about her.”
“I’ve heard adults talk about the Easter bunny and honest lawyers. On the other hand, the Easter bunny hasn’t tried to kill me. Her name comes up in your dad’s journals quite a bit. I can’t quite decipher the surrounding text, but I’ll get there.”
Which reminded me of the other thing about Ra-Ame. “If you find anything about her, it has to be reported to Director Bismuth immediately.”
Grace sighed, her shoulders dropping. “I’ll call Director Bismuth tonight.”
With a rumbling like a thousand thunderclaps, the world exploded beneath us.
GRACE
The building shook, and a roar like a fighter jet broke all the windows, throwing me to the ground. Outside the windows, black smoke billowed. Brynner got to his feet first, sprinting to a broken window to look down. “Are you okay? Building’s on fire. Let’s get you out of here.”
“I’ll live.” I ran to my room, grabbed the bag with Heinrich’s journals, and followed him down a stairwell. Screams and shouts of chaos filled the dark, until Brynner kicked a door open, letting blinding sun in. “Get out.” With strong hands he forced me out, guiding a stream of patients behind him.
To the south, the front of the building lay in smoking ruins. I choked on the acrid black smoke and the reek of natural gas.
“Get them away from the doors, send them as far out into the field as possible.” Brynner squinted, looking out into the field. Bodies lay scattered like leaves blown by the wind.
Bodies that now moved, rising to their feet. They pivoted toward the exit door, and lurched forward, barely moving. These weren’t like the ones at the farm. Their motions seemed dull, their gaze unfocused.
“You deal with these. They’ll be easy kills for the time being. I’m going to go take care of the ones inside.”
I looked over to him. “I thought you said co-orgs couldn’t get past the barriers in this place.”