Page 60 of Rupture

“You released them, didn’t you?”

“Nothing can evolve in a constrained environment, Rose. You know that as well as I do. It’s not natural. It prevents natural selection. Once we combined them with the Ceto bacteria, provided it for their nano assemblers, there was a shift. Evolution. Hints of developing intelligence. The lab was too constrained.” She lifted her chin. “Science never advanced without taking risks.”

Behind Rose, Luca made a sound like he’d been punched. “Risks? You’re talking about risks while all this fuckery is going on?”

“You risked your entire team, Thea. People’s lives.” Rose gripped the bed rail, her knuckles smarting. “What kind of scientist does that? Do they even know what you did?”

“Of course you don’t understand.” Thea’s voice dripped with the same dismissive tone she’d used when they’d worked together so long ago.

“Don’t understand what?” Rose slammed her palmsdown on either side of Thea’s pillow, caging her sister in. For the first time, Thea flinched.

“They were learning. The Ceto bacteria changed something. I saw...” Thea’s voice softened with wonder, her eyes taking on a fevered gleam. “I saw flashes of intelligence, learning, innovation. Don’t you see? This could change everything we know about artificial intelligence, about evolution itself!”

“Jesus Christ,” Luca paced like a caged animal behind Rose. “She’s actually proud of this.”

Rose pulled back, finally seeing the truth on her sister’s face. To Thea, this was everything—the pursuit of knowledge atanycost.

“Thea, they’re dangerous. And if what you say is true, they are only going to become more dangerous, more unpredictable. We need to stop them.”

“They are my life’s work.” Thea’s voice hardened. “I will not take part in anything that will harm them.”

“Thea, we have to stop this. Now.”

Thea shook her head, the stubbornness Rose remembered from childhood arguments settling over her features.

“Why are you like this?” Rose crossed her arms tightly across her chest, fingers digging into her biceps to keep from slapping some sense into Thea. The urge to shake her, to make her see what she’d done, beat through her like acid.

Thea shifted upright, her eyes narrowing to cruel slashes. “Everything has always been easy for you. Scholarship to the best university. Science awards at school. Companies fighting to hire you when you graduated. You’ve never had to take risks.”

Rose gasped, gut-punched by the venom in her sister’s voice. “I can’t even?—”

“Evolution. Scientific advances.” Thea’s voice pitchedhigher, taking on a zealous edge. “They need people who can see the bigger picture. There’s a reason Triton hired me.”

“Fucking fuck,” Luca muttered.

Rose turned to see a muscle jumping in his jaw. He’d jammed his hands in his pockets, but tension pinged on his forearms where he’d rolled his sleeves up. He was holding it together, but only just.

She faced Thea again and took a deep breath. There had to be a way forward.

She spread her hands placatingly. “Okay. Let’s try to find some common ground. They’re dangerous, Thea. The behavior I’ve seen so far is predatory. They cannot be allowed to leave the habitat even if that is what Triton wants.”

Thea gave a slow shake of her head and tilted her chin upward.

Rose had nothing else. Except?—

She laid the photograph on the bed. “I found this in your room. You kept it because we have a shared history. Because I mean something to you.” Her voice wavered. “I’m asking for your help.”

Thea picked it up, a smile warping the corner of her mouth. A dark light gleamed in her eyes. “I kept it because I was a sentimental fool and the wrong things were important to me.” Her icy tone cut deep. “I’m not that person anymore.” She dropped the photograph on the bedsheet. “I think this conversation is over.” She retrieved her book and made a show of looking at it.

“That’s all you have to say?” It was painful for Rose to speak against the emotion welling in her throat.

Thea shrugged. “I’m sorry.”

“Are you?”

Thea blinked, her expression inscrutable. Once Rose would have known what she read there. But not any longer.

She turned her back on her sister, and the scrap of hope she’d carried all the way from England—the one that had whispered she could make peace with Thea, find a way back into each other’s lives—vanished.

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