Mira Grant - Parasite

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.

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.

Parasite

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)

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

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 permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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 permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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First ebook edition: October 2013

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ISBN 978-0-316-21893-1