The mask made it easier now for Romy, but she wished Zero had waited outside with Patrick and Tome; she was still uncomfortable with him, especially standing next to him like this. And she didn’t want to feel uncomfortable, hated herself for it.

But…how elsecould she feel? She was fighting her way through an emotional maelstrom and still hadn’t regained her bearings. She’d admired Zero so; he’d become a hero in her eyes and in her heart, and that was fine, but she’d also been sexually attracted to him, had fantasized about him, and now…now to learn that he’s not human.

So what?said the ghost of Raging Romy, ever ready to shoutUp yours! to the world. It’s not as if he’s a squid or a plant—he’s a fellow primate.

That was true and real and forward thinking, but another more primitive part of her was repulsed and kept damning her, whispering that in another time, or in a SimGen-less world, Zero would have been born a chimpanzee, destined to spend his days sitting in a jungle sucking ants off a stick.

Sicko evil girl! Wanting to make love with a monkey! Sick! Sick! Sick!

Romy did her best to shut out that voice, but it wouldn’t go away, couldn’t because it was part of her, and that was what so dismayed her. She’d always thought she was better than that.

“How much longer?” Zero asked.

Betsy Cannon brushed back strands of graying hair from her face. “Hard to say. If this were a sim baby I’d say she’s almost due. If human I’d say premature. But this baby…I don’t know. And there’s another problem: Meerm’s uterus is small, smaller even than a breeder sim’s. That baby is packed tight in there, so tight I can’t determine its sex.”

“We could lose the baby?” Romy said.

“It’s a real possibility.”

Romy stared at the color image on the monitor, watched the rapid filling and emptying of the chambers of its little heart, saw the baby move, squirming for comfort in the confines of the too-small womb.

We can’t lose you, she told it. Youmust live. We’re so close now and…the salvation of an entire species rests on you.

“We could lose the mother as well,” Betsy added. “The baby is going to be premature, and I can tell you right now that a vaginal delivery is out of the question. This baby is coming out by section.”

“Cesarean?” Romy said, looking at Meerm’s distended belly. “How…where…?”

“I don’t know.” Betsy’s expression was grim. “Not here, that’s for certain. It’s major surgery and I’m not equipped for that, not unless we intend to sacrifice the mother.”

Romy’s gaze darted to Meerm’s face. The poor sim didn’t have a clue as to who or what they were talking about.

“That’s not an option,” Zero said. The finality in his tone stabbed Romy with a reminder of why she’d been so attracted to him. “Tell me what you need and I’ll arrange it.”

“A sterile operating room and a skilled surgical team,” Betsy said. “Can you manage that?”

“Tall order,” Zero said. His voice had lost some of its confidence.

And then another voice spoke.

“Why Meerm sick?”

They all stared at her a moment, then Betsy spoke.

“You’re not sick, Meerm. You’re going to have a baby.”

Her sloping brow furrowed. “Baby? What is baby?”

“You know babies,” Betsy said. “You must have seen many babies on television.”

The brow furrows deepened. “Baby?”

“Only this won’t be like the human babies you’ve seen. This will be asim baby.” She gave a little shrug as she glanced at Zero and Romy, signifying that she was simplifying the situation as best she could for Meerm.

“Where baby?”

Betsy tapped the sim’s abdomen. “Right in here. And the baby will come out soon.”

“Baby here?” Meerm said, a slow smile of wonder spreading across her face as she gently rubbed her hands across her belly. “Baby inside? Baby kick-kick-kick?”

“Oh, yes!” Betsy laughed. “I’ll bet that baby’s been kick-kick-kicking like crazy!”

As they all watched Meerm gaze at her belly, a question occurred to Romy.

“Will she be able to care for a baby?” she said softly.

“She won’t have to worry a bit,” Betsy said. “That baby will getgreat care. As a one-of-a-kind species, it will belong to the world.”

“No, it will belong to Meerm. It will beher baby. We’re not going to forget that, are we?”

“Ah, Romy,” Zero said through a sigh. “That’s why we need you: to ask the tough questions.”

Something in his voice struck her…did Zero…could Zero feel about her the way she…?

No. Out of the question. He couldn’t. He simply couldn’t.

13

SUSSEX COUNTY, NJ

“Let’s get this started,” said Sinclair-1, spinning his chair away from the winter-browned hills beyond his office window to face Luca and Abel Voss. “I’ve still got a lot to do today.”

Luca thought the CEO looked particularly irritable this afternoon. That was going to get worse when he heard Luca’s news. Normally he’d relish the prospect of upsetting him, but not now. All the blame rested squarely on him.

“We’re waiting for your brother.”

Voss shifted his bulk in his chair to face Luca. “I thought he wasn’t comin.”

“I called and told him this was too important to miss,” Luca replied.

Sinclair-1 gave him a questioning stare. Luca only nodded. Yes, they’d agreed that Ellis would be excluded from tactical meetings, but Luca had a reason. He was sure Sinclair-2 already knew that Meerm had been snatched from under SIRG’s nose, and damn well knew who had done it; he was going to use Sinclair-2 to bait a trap for the people he’d been supplying with information.

They included Cadman and Sullivan, Luca knew, and at least two or three others. Whoever they were, they’d all vanished. He’d hoped to nab either Cadman or Sullivan and wring the pregnant sim’s whereabouts out of them, but since he couldn’t find them, he was looking for a way to make them come to him.

Because heneeded that sim. Lister had thrown a shit fit this morning when he’d heard about losing Grimes and, of all people, Snyder. Grimes had been something of a jerk, but Snyder had been their most dependable man. Luca had stashed the bodies in the woodshed behind his cabin—he hoped the cold weather held—and Lister was keeping the news from the higher-ups for now, but couldn’t cover it up indefinitely. If Luca could produce the pregnant sim, however—say, today or tomorrow—the deaths wouldn’t matter.

The office door opened and Sinclair-2 entered. The older brother looked strange today. And then Luca realized what it was: His usual down and dour demeanor was gone and he looked almost…happy.

You son of a bitch.

He fought the urge to grab him by his scrawny neck and twist it till he spilled everything he knew. Every last thing.

But that was not an option. Even though Mercer Sinclair was considered the true untouchable—his was the public face of SimGen, so closely identified with the company that if he went down, so would the stock that made SIRG an entity unto itself—Ellis Sinclair was also considered off-limits. No move could be made against him without direct authority from the Old Man himself.

What Luca couldn’t understand about Ellis Sinclair waswhy . Why would anyone in his right mind want to kill this golden goose called SimGen? So that had to be the answer: The older Sinclair was out of his mind.

Which didn’t make Luca want to kill him any less.

He swallowed his bile and said, “I won’t waste anyone’s time here: We have it on good authority that the pregnant sim is in the hands of Patrick Sullivan and Romy Cadman.”

“Oh, Christ,” Sinclair-1 groaned, closing his eyes.

“That tears it,” said Abel Voss.

Sinclair-2 leaned back in a sofa and said nothing.

“When?” the CEO said, recovering quickly. “Where are they now?”

“This morning. And if I knew where, we wouldn’t be having this meeting.”