"The Information Division's been running a credential audit lately. Old passes got deactivated. Use this one for now."
That reply hit me like absolution.
I sucked in air, gasping, and felt reason flood back into my skull.
Piers was alive. He always handled my problems the moment they came in. Always.
The streets inside were packed with people, shoulder to shoulder.
No one noticed the gate crack open just wide enough for a body to slip through, then seal shut again.
And no one noticed the zombie disguised as a human trailing close behind me.
I called up the layout map Piers had sent me once and made straight for the laboratory. Room by room, I searched, until I found him in a sealed glass chamber at the end of the corridor.
"You came to see me!"
He bounced over like a rabbit, pressing himself against the glass, beaming at me.
My eyes dropped to his hands first. Clear palm lines. All ten fingers intact.
Then his body. Beneath the loungewear, both legs stood straight and whole.
My knees nearly buckled.
This was my brother. This was him.
Only—
"Why are you locked in here?"
Before he could answer, Muriel rushed in, breathless.