The-Infinite-Sea-Pdf

Recommendations

Info

57 CLAIRE TIES a rubber strap around my arm and taps the inside of my elbow to bring up a vein. Razor stands on the other side of the bed. The man in the white coat—I never got his name—is by the monitor, holding a stopwatch. Vosch leans against the sink, watching me with bright, flinty eyes glittering, like the crows’ in the woods on the day I shot Teacup, curious but curiously indifferent, and then I understand that Vosch is right: The answer to their arrival is not rage. The answer is rage’s opposite. The only possible answer is the opposite of all things, like the pit where the farmhouse once stood: simply nothing. Not hate, not anger, not fear, not anything at all. Empty space. The soulless indifference of the shark’s eye. “Too high,” murmured Mr. White Coat, looking at the monitor. “First something to relax you.” Claire slides the needle into my arm. I look at Razor. He looks away. “Better,” White Coat says. “I don’t care what you do to me,” I tell Vosch. My tongue feels bloated, clumsy. “It doesn’t matter.” He nods at Claire, who picks up the second syringe. “Inserting the hub on my mark,” she says. The hub? “Uh-oh,” White Coat says. “Careful.” Eyeing the monitor as my heart rate kicks up a notch. “Don’t be afraid,” Vosch says. “It won’t harm you.” Claire gives him a startled look. He shrugs. “Well. We ran tests.” He flicks his finger at her: Get on with it. I weigh ten million tons. My bones are iron; the rest is stone. I don’t feel the needle slide into my arm. Claire says, “Mark,” and White Coat clicks the stopwatch. The world is a clock. “The dead have their reward,” Vosch says. “It is the living—you and I—who still have work to do. Call it what you like, fate, luck, providence. You have been delivered into my hands to be my instrument.” “Appending to the cerebral cortex.” From Claire. Her voice sounds muffled, as if my ears have been stuffed with cotton. I roll my head toward her. A thousand years go by. “You’ve seen one before,” Vosch says, a thousand miles away. “In the testing room, on the day you arrived at Camp Haven. We told you it was an infestation of an alien life-form attached to the human brain. That was a lie.” I can hear Razor breathing, loud, like a diver’s breath through a regulator. “It is actually a microscopic command hub affixed to the prefrontal lobe of your brain,” Vosch says. “A CPU, if you will.” “Booting up,” Claire says. “Looking good.” “Not to control you . . . ,” Vosch says. “Introducing first array.” Needle glinting in fluorescent light. Black specks suspended in amber fluid. I feel nothing as she injects it into my vein. “But to coordinate the forty thousand or so mechanized guests to which you will play host.” “Temp ninety-nine point six,” White Coat says. Razor beside me breathing.
“It took the prehistoric rats millions of years and a thousand generations to reach the current stage in human evolution,” Vosch says. “It will take you days to achieve the next.” “Link with the first array complete,” Claire says, bending over me again. Bitter almond breath. “Introducing second array.” The room is furnace-hot. I’m drenched in sweat. White Coat announces that my temperature is one hundred and two. “It’s a messy business, evolution,” Vosch says. “Many false starts and blind alleys. Some candidates aren’t suitable hosts. Their immune systems crash or they suffer from permanent cognitive dissonance. In layman’s terms, they go mad.” I’m burning. My veins are filled with fire. Water flows from my eyes, trickles down my temples, pools in my ears. I see Vosch’s face leaning over the surface of the undulating sea of my tears. “But I have faith in you, Marika. You did not come through fire and blood only to fall now. You will be the bridge that connects what-was to what-will-be.” “We’re losing her,” White Coat calls out, tremble-voiced. “No,” Vosch murmurs, cool hand on my wet cheek. “We have saved her.”
Page 3 and 4:
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS Published by
Page 5 and 6:
Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Ch
Page 7 and 8:
For Sandy, guardian of the infinite
Page 9 and 10:
THE WHEAT THERE WOULD BE no harvest
Page 11:
BOOK ONE
Page 14 and 15:
“Because bad thoughts do what?”
Page 16 and 17:
2 UNDIMMED, THE STARLIGHT sears thr
Page 18 and 19:
3 BY SUNRISE, I reach the southern
Page 20 and 21:
The pellet in its bed of blood. The
Page 22 and 23:
It isn’t fear that will defeat th
Page 24 and 25:
I scan the woods but don’t hear o
Page 26 and 27:
7 I FEEL HIM THEN, the one standing
Page 28 and 29:
“Here’s how the bishop moves, T
Page 30 and 31:
9 I SEE THE CHOPPERS closing in thr
Page 33 and 34:
11 FROM THE TIME I could barely wal
Page 35 and 36:
A lead ball of silence the size of
Page 37 and 38:
I looked at her for a minute. “Le
Page 39 and 40:
to do was sit back and let the stup
Page 41 and 42:
I shook my head. He didn’t unders
Page 43 and 44:
ack, hitting the edge of the mattre
Page 45 and 46:
Up to now, I always thought that th
Page 47 and 48:
helpful was the fact that the Walke
Page 49:
14 I STEPPED INTO the lobby, our br
Page 52 and 53:
16 HE WOKE TO PAIN. Blinding pain i
Page 54 and 55:
she floated in the water stained pi
Page 56 and 57:
18 GRACE’S STATION WAS an old, on
Page 58 and 59:
19 HE WAITED UNTIL her footfalls fa
Page 60 and 61:
20 NIGHT HAD FALLEN by the time Gra
Page 62 and 63:
21 WHEN IT WAS DONE, he crawled to
Page 64 and 65:
23 AT DUSK, the lights of the Ferri
Page 66 and 67:
24 THE CAR’S UNDERCARRIAGE agains
Page 68 and 69:
25 LATER THAT EVENING on the day th
Page 70 and 71:
“It would be like one of them fal
Page 72 and 73:
naïve, kind, cruel, soft as down,
Page 74 and 75:
29 FOR OVER FIVE YEARS he’d relie
Page 77 and 78:
30 THE BOY STOPPED talking the summ
Page 79:
ate all his baby brother’s mac an
Page 82 and 83:
deer-in-headlights look, like You g
Page 84 and 85:
His lips moved and a word leaked ou
Page 86 and 87:
34 I STAYED WITH HIM till dawn. Sit
Page 88 and 89:
“Oh. Good.” He seemed relieved.
Page 90 and 91: That’s when the girl appeared, st
Page 92 and 93: He rubbed his chin. I rubbed my nec
Page 94 and 95: the lip for an eternity. Before ete
Page 96 and 97: “That doesn’t answer my questio
Page 98 and 99: I wasn’t holding up well. He was
Page 100 and 101: lowered her carefully onto Evan, le
Page 102 and 103: 41 “IT’S A TEST,” Evan said.
Page 104 and 105: 42 OH, BROTHER. Guys. I tossed Bear
Page 106 and 107: “No, and you want to know why? Be
Page 108 and 109: 44 THEN DUMBO, with perfect timing,
Page 110 and 111: “Evan, I’m not even sure I unde
Page 112 and 113: “Don’t be an idiot!” he shout
Page 114 and 115: 47 THE SPOTLIGHT HIT NEXT: Brillian
Page 116 and 117: 48 I PAUSED FOR a half second at th
Page 119 and 120: 49 HE DIDN’T LIKE being around th
Page 121 and 122: from melted snow, rising up, floppi
Page 124 and 125: 50 I’M SITTING ALONE in a windowl
Page 126 and 127: “You’re referring to the Wonder
Page 128 and 129: 51 MY REACTION IS months in the mak
Page 130 and 131: This is the bind. This is the trap.
Page 132 and 133: Now I’m standing on the shores of
Page 134 and 135: teacher. “That’s what I’ve co
Page 136 and 137: Nodding seriously. “I’ll get ri
Page 138 and 139: “I needed to prove something to m
Page 142 and 143: 58 THERE IS NO DAY or night anymore
Page 144 and 145: He turns, surprised. My face is hot
Page 146 and 147: “You said you didn’t play,” I
Page 148 and 149: “He’s safe!” Razor bellows. N
Page 150 and 151: the truth was that most days my fat
Page 152 and 153: He’s quiet for the next couple of
Page 154 and 155: 64 I HADN’T SEEN Vosch in days. T
Page 156 and 157: when the door opens and Claire come
Page 158 and 159: “Seriously? You don’t know?”
Page 160 and 161: 67 CLAIRE STAGGERS AWAY, blood pour
Page 162 and 163: 68 JUMBO SHOULD HAVE a knife on him
Page 164 and 165: doesn’t like dogs wouldn’t be G
Page 166 and 167: 70 IN THE BATHROOM, the gush become
Page 168 and 169: 71 THE WINDOW BESIDE the bed jiggle
Page 170 and 171: “Bob, we really have to go,” I
Page 172 and 173: “Don’t be racist. And I’m thr
Page 174 and 175: 73 I HEAD BACK to the cockpit, wher
Page 176 and 177: 75 I AM FALLING at terminal velocit
Page 178 and 179: the location.” “I’ve seen not
Page 180 and 181: 77 AS WE APPROACH, the complex seem
Page 182 and 183: 78 ROTTEN MILK. The stench of the p
Page 184 and 185: 79 THERE’S LITTLE DIFFERENCE betw
Page 186 and 187: 80 HE LIFTS ME from the floor. He c
Page 188 and 189: 81 FOR A WEEK, he is my sole compan
Page 190 and 191:
Outside, the bitter harvest burns.
Page 192 and 193:
83 ON THE EIGHTH DAY, the chopper r
Page 195 and 196:
84 COVERED IN ASH and dust, five gr
show all

The-Infinite-Sea-Pdf

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?