Parasite p-1 Read online

  The noise of the machine blended into the sound of drums, becoming a backbeat that filled the world. Please, I thought. Please, it’s something else. Please, it’s not what I think it is. Please, there’s another answer…

  The machine shut off around me, and the automated bed slid back out into the open. I slid back to my feet and walked over to where Nathan was pulling up the first images of my insides.

  In my abdomen, where the white mass of the SymboGen implant should have been, there was nothing; just normal organs and the residual scarring from my accident. I was clean. The blood tests had been truthful. I did not have a D. symbogenesis living in my digestive system. Or in my lungs. Or in my spinal cord.

  It almost wasn’t a shock when Nathan pulled up the images of my head, where white spools of tapeworm wrapped themselves around the brightly colored spots representing the regions of my brain. The worm was deeply integrated. It had clearly been there for quite some time. And I’d already known, hadn’t I? I’d figured it out when I met Adam and Tansy. I simply hadn’t wanted to remember.

  I’d never seen a picture of myself before.

  “The protein markers couldn’t cross the blood-brain barrier in a detectable form,” said Nathan quietly. “It’s why we couldn’t detect…” He stopped, obviously unsure how to finish the sentence. I suppose saying “you” would have been a little too on the nose.

  “Mom was right,” I whispered. Her daughter—Sally Mitchell—really did die in that accident. I really was a stranger. I was a stranger to the entire human race. “Oh, my God. Nathan. Do you see…?”

  “It doesn’t change anything,” he said, a sudden sharp fierceness in his voice. He stood, taking me in his arms, and held me so tightly I was afraid one or both of us might be crushed. In that moment, I wouldn’t have minded. “Do you understand me? It doesn’t change anything.”

  I looked over his shoulder to where Dr. Cale sat in her wheelchair, watching us. So much made sense now. So much still had to be made sense of. “No,” I whispered. “It changes everything.”

  The broken doors were open.

  We had so far left to go.

  TO BE CONTINUED…

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  No book is written in a vacuum. I am fortunate enough to have a support crew that consists of some truly amazing people, ranging from medical professionals who work with both humans and animals to parasitologists, epidemiologists, and even civic planners. Parasite has been a labor of love from the very beginning, and as with all labors, there was some heavy lifting involved.

  Let it be said, without question, that Michelle Dockrey went above and beyond the call of duty in pulling this book into shape, as did Brooke Lunderville and Diana Fox, who is probably the best agent a girl like me could possibly have asked for. Most of the Newsflesh Machete Squad carried over into this new series, and all of them have put in countless hours making sure that every detail was correct. They all have my thanks, always.

  Switching gears between Newsflesh and a new series involved many challenges, and my new editor at Orbit, Tom Bouman, was there every step of the way. The cover, provided by Lauren Panepinto, took my breath away. I am very fortunate to have the support of Orbit, and all the talent that it contains, to back me up.

  Finally, and once again, acknowledgment for forbearance goes to Amy McNally, Shawn Connolly, and Cat Valente, who put up with an amazing amount of “talking it out” as I tried to make the book make sense; to my agent, Diana Fox, who remains my favorite superhero; to the cats, for not eating me when I got too wrapped up in work to feed them; and to Tara O’Shea and Chris Mangum, the incredible technical team behind www.MiraGrant.com. This book might have been written without them. It would not have been the same.

  To learn more about parasites, check out Parasite Rex, by Carl Zimmer. There are many, many books on the subject, but his is one of the most accessible jumping-on points you’re likely to find.

  Welcome to the war.

  By Mira Grant

  Parasitology

  Parasite

  The Newsflesh Trilogy

  Feed

  Deadline

  Blackout

  Countdown (e-only novella)

  San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats (e-only novella)

  How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea (e-only novella)

  Writing as Seanan McGuire

  Rosemary and Rue

  A Local Habitation

  An Artificial Night

  Late Eclipses

  One Salt Sea

  Ashes of Honor

  Chimes at Midnight

  Discount Armageddon

  Midnight Blue-Light Special

  Copyright Notice

  In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Copyright

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Copyright © 2013 by Seanan McGuire

  Cover design by Lauren Panepinto

  Cover image © Shutterstock

  Cover copyright © 2013 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Orbit

  Hachette Book Group

  237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

  orbitbooks.net

  orbitshortfiction.com

  First ebook edition: October 2013

  Orbit is an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Orbit name and logo are trademarks of Little, Brown Book Group Limited.

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to www.hachettespeakersbureau.com or call (866) 376-6591.

  ISBN 978-0-316-21893-1

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