The burst from Piam’s SMG exploded the back of a Normie thug’s head, and the man fell face down, his brain spilling onto the stone. Hryhorij fired at the Orais, and the massive thug shook and growled in pain as a series of crimson dots appeared on his forearm and his helmet cracked.

  Hryhorij shouldered Piam to the side as a wall of fme rolled toward them, engulfing the unfinished elevator. The two agents rolled to safety from the fiery hell that reddehe metal beams aed them in pces. Before Piam could get to her feet, Hryhorij had already nded a shot into the knee of the remaining Normie thug.

  The woman wailed, and the Orais grabbed her and Raffy. The New Breed’s helmet cracked, revealing a face with deep-set eyes and a ft nose. A tap sent another wall of fme rag toward the agents, and then the Orais jumped. His back smmed into the ceiling, hammering out a path on the floor above for the escapees to take refuge. Piam didn’t fire, too worried that her bullets would ricochet off the falling debris and actally kill Raffy. The setback was irrelevant; the provincial army…

  She stopped, frowning. Three life sig bck. But how? Civilian-grade shotguns wielded by the rabble at the entrance should not be able to pee the soldiers’ armor! Her partiffened, ed by the same question, but the years of training shem out of their fusion.

  Ultimately, it ged nothing; Raffy still wouldn’t escape. The fmes devoured light bulbs, exploding them aing parts of the floor. Only the bright lights of the window and dying fires kept the room lit, and Piam hesitated. Sves tio dan the other side; she could see burly men and women sitting behind tables, partying and paying little attention to the chaos. Should they fire at the leader and his living throhe Iigation Bureau did not shy away from colteral damage, but her did they ence unnecessary casualties. There were more factors to sider. What would happen if their bullets ected with the spatial anomaly?

  A figure stopped their worries. A bck-haired woman in a green trench coat filled the window and stepped into the underground parking lot. Gu her, spearing her cvicles and khe agents fired, intending to incapacitate her and taking her into custody for further interrogation.

  A momehey switched to the lethal fire, and the woman didn’t even halt her steps. The fabric of her leather trench coat and pants absorbed the bullets, sinking them beh the surface as if the bullets had hit water. As the woman raised her hand, her fingers spread wide. The flesh flowed bato the sleeve, and the boructure ged, apanied by a loud crack as the finger bones joiogether to form a bone fan to block the bullets aimed at her face.

  “I reend immediate surrender,” the intruder said in a calm tone. “It is the only way I guarantee your survival.”

  Piam and Hryhorij didn’t panic. They had seen strahings. Their hands grabbed bck ders from their belts and mouhem on the barrels of the SMGs. Iterna’s military favored modur ons, transf a she shotgun into a le rifle in the midst of battle, or unleashing searing fmes to overe regeion. The Recmation Army’s modur ons were cruder and less effective in many areas, but when the agents heard the clicks, they squeezed the triggers.

  A burst of sound, potent enough to explode eyes, struck the assaint, followed by the hiss of aric streak that forced her to twist and tort in pain. A work of bloody veins spread behind the New Breed’s irises, and then her head turned quickly to focus her gaze on the agents. Her leg stepped into the pool of blood left by the first goon, and the crimson flowed up her boot, soaking the leg.

  Not soaking. Being absorbed. Piam gulped as the remains of brain, muscle, skin, and even bone disappeared into the leg. The woman’s legs splintered into six needle-like appendages, her torso stretched so that her upper body could mount the tipede’s lower half. She scampered out of their sight, ign bursts of sound and forks of electricity.

  Piam elbowed Hryhorij back, screaming in pain, as a bone scythe cleaved across her shoulder. The incredibly sharp edge bisected through her suit and cut away a round slice of her flesh, narrowly missing the humerus. Blood, her blood, was trailing after the scythe into which the woman’s arm twisted, ging to the bone, and Piam sprang away, fleeing from the six legs that desded, fused by the ck of pain in her shoulder.

  Wires of flesh ected her gaping wound to the transformed woman. Barely visible, these wires spread a soothing, numbiion that almost bucked her legs. Bitiongue, Piam pressed a button that disected the souer from her SMG. Then she fired at her own wound, screaming in agony as her bone cracked, and ran, free from the strange fi as the bone scythe smmed into the floor.

  This woman’s speed was incredible! Accelerated by the bat drugs and amplified by the lenses of the artificial eye and the suit, Piam failed to detect the New Breed’s movements. It was as if she disappeared from reality and reappeared in another pce, perfectly poised to strike. Only the stone explosio iransformer’s roved she wasn’t telep.

  Hryhorij rose, but before he could fire, a flick of the wrist sent the bone fan into his on. The spinning ring of bone had cut through the ter of the SMG. Hryhorij dropped the on and drew his knife, gng briefly at Piam. She was the one closer to the exit, and he lu the New Breed, trying to stall the oppo.

  She didn’t nod. She sprioward the exit, i on warning the soldiers and alerting the and. The instruercilessly drilled the need for sacrifito their minds. No agent was irrepceable. Death in the field, though unon in modern times, was aually they all had to live with. She’ll mourn her friend ter.

  Piam had almost reached the road leading to the third floor when she entered several soldiers of the Provincial Army ing down, fully their dark camoufge armor. The bleeding agent was about to scream in warning when a shot struck her in the chest, knog her backward.

  A shot that came from her allies. She smmed into the ground, ign even the pain in her punctured lung. Another shot hit her right in the middle of her body and her legs went cold.

  “Greetings, greetings, my dear friend,” ughed the man oher side of the window. her the shooting nor the battle made him leave the throne. “Ighe mess; we had a minor interruption.”

  “This is what you get for involving ymen,” the officer in charge said. The heavy boot smmed into Piam’s chest, right into her wound, and she tried in vain to arch her back. But it wasn’t the realization that she aralyzed that made her eyes widen. She khat voice.

  If the rot had reached so high… I o crawl out; I must warn the Bureau. In her panic, Piam attempted to use all the emergency els within her suit, but the system indicated that they were jammed.

  “Is everyone on board?” the voice from the fog asked mogly. “No plications, I hope?”

  “Not anymore,” the officer replied. “Raffy and his rats are on the run. I doubt they’ll dare meet you again, so tell me what message I should give them. What do you o destroy the Recmation Army?”

  “Destroy?” the speaker asked. “My friend, you misuand us! We seek to quer, not destroy. There will be certain amounts of ruin and some not-insignifit murders, but we do not seek to desote the end to rule over. Is this acceptable to you, or should we amend the terms of our cooperation?” The voice dropped loiam heard the tapping of bone needles against the stone as the New Breed approached, carrying the pierced Hryhorij on her bone-scythe arm. “I would hate to mislead your expectations.”

  “I am satisfied with our deal,” the officer stated.

  “Are you certain?”

  “As long as they pay for what they’ve doo my homend. As long as the Sed and Devourer perish in the war, as long as the Recmation Army is uo destroy another try, and as long as the Dynast is dragged from his capital and flogged to death for everyoo see and ugh…” the officer stopped and aimed the energy pistol at Piam’s head. “oals are aligned.”

  “T-t-tra…” Piam tried to say.

  “There is o kill her,” the New Breed said. “I safely tain…”

  The officer snapped, “Death and fall to the Recmation Army,” and a bright bst shaved off the top of Piam’s head.

  ****

  Hryhorij should have been dead. He awoke to find himself impaled on the bone bde. He ed his neck, calmly seeing that it entered his body lower than his left hip, and the bde’s tip exited his body around his right shoulder. The heart, the digestive tract, parts of the iihe spihe liver... He should be dead.

  But there was no pain—not even irritation—as she carried him on a boail that ected to her spine. Aside from that, the woman regained her humanoid shape and her fake trench coat. He breathed normally even if his lungs felt weird, and when the agent opened his mouth to ask a question, no sou his lips. His limbs were unresponsive.

  They were oher side of the spatial window. He didn’t know Piam’s fate, but judging by the ess around his captor, she didn’t make it. Hryhorij calmed himself. Even if the ambush failed and the soldiers were all killed, Houstad would be alerted. His diligent partner e by passing the message to the soldiers prior to the battle. And there was no way for forty soldiers to disappear unnoticed.

  He focused oent, burning the images of the feasting people into his memory. They bore a striking resembo the burly bastards who had attacked Just Peachy earlier. Some were more muscur, but the girth and protective fat were unmistakable. He noticed the sves. While many of them were Normies and mutants, there were women of the same build as the invaders, dang and delivering food to their masters.

  “You promised me free access to the people of Houstad.” The female New Breed who had captured him stopped before the swirling narcotic mists. The agent was surprised to hear her speaking in the on. “How do you pn to deliver it if you hand the city over to Raffy?”

  “Trace, don’t be silly,” the person answered in a pleasant baritone. “Raffy is a cowardly pgue rodent. A pest to be unleashed to wreak havoc. His role is to help us cripple Houstad’s official leadership while he weakens the illegal one. And when the dust of our quest settles, yours truly will decide who will rule Houstad and its riches. eople of vision…”

  “Your cheap maniputions won’t work orace replied. The music stopped, and the dancers froze in po one drinks or scrapi off bones. Every eye ient was focused on the woman. Hands moved to ons os; armuards stepped inside; and the sves retreated. But the woman stood undaunted.

  “Careful, my dear.” A crusta pincer broke through the wall of smoke and closed around the slender neck. Bck chitin carapace covered the entire limb, aside from the sharp edges. Trace didn’t move to dodge, but the coat on her shoulders bulged, and two bone spikes formed, pointing into the mist. “You are the Khatun’s curiosity. But iends to wane over time, and you are aloh no one by your side. Learn the virtue of silence, lest you want to alienate your trusted ally.”

  “I’ll keep it in mind when I meet orace replied. “We are spirators, not allies, Brood Lo ahead, close the pincer, expin the insult to Mad Hatter, and also try to find another infiltrator. Or stop wasting my time and act like an adult.”

  Hryhorij fully expected to see the woman’s head roll. He was still unsure of who was hiding in the fumes, but the light tremble that passed over the hardened bone gave him a clue about the infuriation that was overtaking the speaker. Whoever this Brood Lord might be, the agent had cluded that he expected obediend delighted in maniputing his servants, raising and l them as he deemed appropriate. Trace took it from him.

  The pincer retracted. A snap followed, and the music resumed. The guests feasted anew, attended by the women, and the guards left the hall as if nothing had happened.

  “Right you are, my friend!” Six legs emerged from the smoke—six massive ns covered by chitin so thickly that even their joints were shielded by scutes. They touched the ground, and the sves who made up the throne breathed a sigh of relief as the owner rose to his feet, lifting his four-armed body over Trace. “Let’s dri, and fet these sour words! Trace is a weled guest of Brood Lord and his khaganate! Bring airag, bring wine, bring vodka, carry in thunder bull legs, grapes, and apples; my guest is hungry!”

  Hryhorij held on to the st thought as something was throwing him into a state of unsciousness. Brood Lord wasn’t like the attackers. There were obvious simirities—belly and chubbiness—but he was undoubtedly a Malformed.

  ****

  The agent opened his eyes, finding himself lying on an examination table in a cramped room. Gss tainers stood everywhere, holding floating ans. These tainers filled every er of this brightly lit pce, every shelf and every bench. The nutrient solution was light green aransparent, indig that the ans were well preserved and beloo humans of various sizes and ins. Here were the pound eyes of an Ione, an oversized Troll’s lungs, a Normie’s heart.

  Hryhorij tried to stand up, panig at the realization of what this entailed for him. But his body refused to listen. He couldn’t even move a finger. His eyelids worked, and after an immense effort, he moved his neck, w about a wide, already healed scar that covered his shoulder. How long have I been here?

  “Two hours.” He heard Trace’s voice. The woman sat close to the entrance, holding a vial taining gray fibers and typing into a terminal. “Rex. Breathe clearly. Your damaged vital ans were restored. The Bio-Tinkers don’t kill their prisoners.”

  “Now here’s a ugh.” Hryhorij forced a smile. “They just buy ans and sves to cut them up and kill them. Nothing evil, sure…”

  The agent was pletely naked, and his vision was slightly blurred. It took him several seds to realize that he no longer had his artificial eye. The device itself and the socket were gone, and in their pce he now had another eye, simple and normal. He bliwice, incredulous at such a quick impntation, and reized the disassembled artificial eye lying on a table nearby. The trag deviside it was broken.

  “We do not kill our patients.” Trace turned oool and uood that it inated from her pelvis. “It is not our fault that raiders and svers murder their prisoo deliver valuable ans to us. It would be a waste not to buy the ans ahem spoil. As for living prisoners, we purchase and release the oldest, examine and collect samples from the curious, and educate the youo bee adepts. We hold very few geniuses against their will for the betterment of everyone.”

  “What category am I in?” Hryhorij asked. “Clearly not the oldest, so I guess I t as a genius?”

  “You are a curious type,” Trace corrected him. They weren’t ient anymore; the walls of this pce were made of solid steel. Not a single surgical instrument was in sight. “We’ve never examined a person born in the Core Lands. It is time to rectify it. My dolences about your friend.”

  “Why did the Bio-Tinkers choose to bee enemies of the Recmation Army?” He ignored a pang of sadness when Piam’s death was firmed. She would want him to honor her memory and remain professional. “Last I checked, you had a beef with the Oathtakers.”

  “We have no enemies.” Trace stood up. The stool broke, gathered itself, and disappeared into the fabric of her slightly moving coat. “We don’t even wish to kill ahose who oppose us are ignorant of our true purpose. To seek humanity’s salvation through artificial evolution. A perfe of flesh and mind for humanity, regardless of rautation. It is the Oathtakers who foolishly force us to breed war creatures, misguidedly perceiving our noble work as evil. Once our task is plete, we shall be vindicated.”

  “Eradicated, you mean.” Hryhorij oward the tainers. “Hoeople did you kill to gather this colle of horrors?”

  “Zero.” Trace cracked her ned spread her arms. “I have treated hundreds of patients here; the Gilded Horde had abused some to the brink of death, while others were merely captives. None were crippled; none died. They were givee repts and freedom.”

  “And how many families have you torn apart to secure iing mutations? How many children were kidnapped on your orders, their families shot by the svers?” Hryhorij asked dryly.

  “Too many,” the bio-tinker admitted. “I will not lie or shirk responsibility. Nor will I be judged by you, Recimer. The Extin wiped out tless cultures and civilizations, and now your war mae is doing the same, molding everyoo a monolith to serve the ever-growing expansion led by your emperor.”

  “The Dynast offers home and prosperity to the desoted Wastes; his will reigns in cruel tyrannies,” Hryhorij recited a memorized mantra. “Why weep over lost cultures? It is the people who matter. Let traditions, art, and nguages disappear if it means that no child will go hungry aen alive. In time, people will create new culture and art.”

  “And what about those who simply wao live their lives? Will these people thank you for quering them, I wonder?”

  “A strange question ing from someone who works with the svers.” Hryhorij scowled. “The bitterness and sadness of the individuals are irrelevant. The few must sacrifice for the many.”

  Trace ughed in a clear and melodious tone, “Child. The cruelty and atrocities itted by our nations are despicable, even if they are necessary. The Bio-Tinkers kidnap individuals, while the Recmation Army steals entire tries. The differences between our tries are merely the end goal and the scope.”

  “Lies. We provide a home and a future for everyone under our rule. You cim your prisoners are given freedom. How many of them survive the journey home? How many even find their way home? Don’t lump us together, criminal. The differeween our nations is that yours pursue an impossible ideal, hypocritically making excuses about serving the greater good while itting every crime imaginable,” Hryhorij snarled. “The Recmation Army has a realistid goal that bes everyone, and we could achieve it sooner if people like you could overe their illusions of grandeur.”

  “This discussion is unproductive.”

  Trace’s coat balloo her shoulders and arms, expanding and expanding, f spheres. It took the agent a few moments to prehend the merging of her skin and clothing before it finally dawned on him. The woman wore no clothes. She was fashioning her clothing out of her own body. Trace’s arms and spheres came apart, morphing into dozens of thin appehat ended up in saws, pincers, scalpels, or flesh ropes holding grievous talons. Her bones reshaped, splintering into bone drills. The appendages and bones protruded smoothly from the altered coat.

  “Once you cease to pose a threat to the Horde’s pns, we will release you. Would you like to endure your vivise in a scious or unscious state?” A talon moved to Hryhorij’s neck, stopping over the vein. “It matters not; there is no threat to your life, nor will you experience pain. Any taken ans will be repced. But some patients find it less stressful to sleep during the procedure.”

  “Some?” Hryhorij asked weakly. “Awake. Answer me this before you start. Why side against us?”

  “It doesn’t matter to us who will rule. inally, the cve po use the Horde’s invasion to secure an important person. But after meeting Mad Hatter, we uood our short-sightedness. In this world, she is uable, invincible,” Traswered dispassionately. Her many limbs moved down, making incisions in his flesh. The woman’s neck lengthened, and her head hovered over the agents, like a snake over a hypnotized rabbit. “A quirk of evolution, mutation, or pave her an unrivaled body. Left unchecked, she will first quer the Recmation Army, thehtakers, and finally us. But once we unlock the secret of her biology and improve upon it, we will make humanity invincible. Svery will be obsolete. in will ever threaten the creators.” The head leaned closer, and Hryhorij experienced a push and rubbing as his body was being pried open. “My apologies. I’m going to have to temporarily disable your vocal cords. The removal of your lungs will cause minor breathing difficulties.”