Lily was breathing evenly. Her eyes were clear hazel again. “Daddy?” she whispered. “The music stopped. I can’t hear the man in the floor anymore.”
Elena wept: “It’s over. We can disappear. We can start over.”
Then Mark’s cracked phone vibrated. An automated message from an unlisted satellite-relayed address:
SUBJECT 44-B: LOCAL NODE TERMINATED. SATELLITE UPLINK SYNCHRONIZED. COMMENCING PHASE THREE IN SIXTY SECONDS.
Beside him, Lily’s grip on his thumb tightened with bone-crushing, inhuman force. She raised her head, looked past him toward the cold uncaring stars — and smiled.