Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
No force. True choice.
Pax didn’t trust anyone but his twin.
He shook his head, stepping back from the tendril.
* * *
• • •
ZAIRA had become entangled in the spidersilk at emergence, her mind having been the one that held the shield over Auden. Within minutes, she knew her shield was no longer necessary, Auden’s mind engulfed by violent blue energy.
The spidersilk that had tangled her up fell away the instant she stepped back.
Aden’s mind appeared beside her at the same time.
“What is this?” she asked.
“A much more powerful version of the same ability that allows Ivan to hold the Island.” Aden touched a thread of spidersilk. “Young. Incredibly young. The infant.”
“I don’t believe in luck.” Zaira folded her arms on the physical plane.
A bloated black spider, hovering over a glowing blue egg. It scratched at the egg with its legs, creating a crack, an opening…that sealed up with luminous steel before the spider could insert its face inside.
“What the hell in creepy fuck was that?” Zaira sent the stream of eerie images to the man who was her love and her soul.
“I think that’s the NetMind telling us this has nothing to do with luck.” Aden’s voice held a taut satisfaction. “Whatever Shoshanna did to engineer Liberty, she gave the NetMind the perfect soil in which to plant a seed.”
“It’s using the baby?” Zaira would kill the damn neosentience.
“No, I think this is exactly what the child was designed to do—to supercharge Shoshanna’s abilities to harvest energy from others. We all know it had to be her in that initial island where she was sucking the inhabitants dry, even if no one has proof.”
Zaira had heard Ivan Mercant’s description of the spider he’d encountered, and she’d read the reports on the genetic connection between Ivan and Shoshanna. That particular ability seemed to exist in only a single familial line. “Agreed.”
Her lover’s mind pulsed as he considered things in that calm way of his that fascinated her. “I don’t think the NetMind did anything to either mother or child except help them win the battle against Shoshanna.
“It fixed the vulnerability that would’ve allowed Shoshanna to take control of Liberty, and there’s a high chance it helped Auden heal from her earlier brain injuries so that she could protect her baby. It explains her recovery in a way nothing else comes close to doing.”
“Hmm.” Unconvinced, Zaira touched the spidersilk.
It twined around her psychic finger like the tiny child she’d petted in the infirmary, the feel of it purest innocence. “Ugh. Fine.” When she accepted the bond, it settled into place like a cub snuggling into her.
Zaira refused to smile. “It’s not a telepathic or psychic bond. No link between minds, no chance of information being siphoned out or pushed in. It’s…a basic transfer of energy.”
“It might mature as the child grows, but even if it never does, look at the PsyNet.”
That was when Zaira realized: nothing had broken or crumbled or torn away since this began. The entire PsyNet was calm…was even being patched together in places as the excess energy from the network was sent into the psychic sphere to fix the battered fabric.
But Zaira had known happiness for only a short time and she saw the flaw. “One child,” she said. “A fragile, breakable infant. The entire PsyNet cannot rest on those tiny shoulders. It’s not fair to her, and it’s not fair to the millions who need this network to survive.”
A clock bloomed in her mind, the hand moving from midnight back to nine p.m.
“Got it,” Zaira said, assuming the neosentience could hear her. “Thanks.”
Black flowers showered on her head.
She scowled. “I don’t remember it being so chatty before.” Shaking away that question before Aden could answer, she said, “Did you see the clock?”
“Yes. This isn’t permanent. It’s a gift of time to allow us to rest and recover, and find the path forward.” Aden paused again. “If I had to guess, I’d say the web is spread too thin. An emergency measure only. It can only hold for so long stretched across the entire PsyNet before it begins to break.”
Zaira took his psychic hand. “We watch over the child.”
“We watch over the child.”
* * *
• • •
IT was hours later, when the first excitement had died down, that Kaleb received a visit from the NetMind. It was much stronger already, fed by the energy of a rejuvenated network. “How long?” he asked it, showing it an image of the web, alongside images of a baby, then a child of five, then of ten and so on.
He received the same nine o’clock image Aden had already shared with the Ruling Coalition, but the NetMind couldn’t clarify whether each hour meant a month, a year, a decade, or more.
Given the extent of the damage, Kaleb was almost certain it would skew shorter.