Page 13 of Monster Queen Rising

"Daron."

He comes through the door and takes her right side. I take her left. She is slow, but her legs hold her, and we turn her for the door. At the threshold she stops. Her eyes have gone to Fen, pressed against the wall, wings tucked, not coming in.

"He looks more scared than I am."

She studies him a second longer.

Fen looks away.

She isn't wrong. Daron has her chart tucked under his arm. We start down the corridor. Madison between Daron and me, walking slow but walking. Harek a step behind. Crull has Vance. Dean is at his elbow, his other hand on Vance's zip-tied wrists.

I do not stop.

"How long will it take you to get the reversal?"

"Five minutes," Dean says.

"Go. Meet us outside the South door."

"On it."

They break off toward the basement stairs. We keep on down the corridor the way we came in — past the doors standing open, past the guards still down. Nothing between us and the exit.

Daron pushes the south door open.

The morning is cold and the sun is up across the Cascades, and the trucks are in the stand of firs. The two retrieval agents from Theresa are still zip-tied in the cargo box of the second truck.

I walk Madison to the work truck. Daron opens the back door, and I help her into the back — settled against the seat, a blanket from the floorboard around her. She does not let go of my hand until I have her arranged. Then she lets go, and her eyes close, and she is asleep before I get the door shut.

"Daron, let me see the chart.”

I read it.

It shows — blood panels, the pregnancy protocol, the IV nutrients. Then a fresh page for this morning, where they started the cascade. At the top, the demographic block.

Subject Hollens, Madison. F. Age 26. Six-point marker. Gestational carrier — Cohort B-7. Donor cellular material: Subject Griggson, Jennifer L. Extracted 03/05/26. Paternal cellular material: Subject Vex - Field Name Fen. Extracted 11/14/23.

Years.

They took pieces of Fen for a long time before they came for me. They weren't improvising. They'd been waiting for me.

I look up. Fen is not looking at me. He is looking at Madison in the back seat. Then at me. Then at Madison again.

He doesn't say a word. Neither do I. Madison's in the seat. The reversal's on its way.

Except the patch hasn't gone quiet. It's pulling down.Something's still in there.

I don't get in the truck.

Chapter eight

Jen

The patch under my sternum is pulling me back into the building. Down. Through the concrete to the level below.

Madison is asleep in the work truck. Daron is behind the wheel, engine running. I am at the south door with Thaw, Fen, and Harek.

"It's pulling down," I say looking at Thaw.