Outside, the rain was falling so heavily they couldn’t hear the intervals between when each drop struck the roof anymore. It was just one endless, rolling roar.
“I was transferred to Delhi after Hemu died,” she told him once they found flashlights and a spot on the floor. “They set up another research facility there. On my way home one night, some men grabbed me, threw me into a van. I thought maybe it was the family of a shadowless we were failing to cure, but it turned out they were U.S. Marines.” She shook her head, as if still amazed. “They smuggled me onto the last flight out of India hidden in a body bag. It was the fastest and safest way they could think of to bypass Indian security and avoid being attacked by the angry crowds flooding the airport. Everyone thought a shadowless was inside. They stayed far back.”
“Marines kidnapped you?” The amnesiac stared.
She sighed. “Well, we all wanted the same thing. To stop this. The president apologized to me when I made it to Washington, D.C. He had asked the prime minister to send me first, because he already had other doctors from Germany and Japan, and a huge classified facility in Washington, D.C.—he just wanted to fix things as fast as he could. When the prime minister wouldn’t agree, your president figured it would be better to do whatever he had to do to give his international committee the best chance at succeeding and deal with a diplomatic disaster later, rather than to back off and then maybe fail.”
“Failed anyway.” The amnesiac sighed.
“I think he was right to do it,” Dr. Avanthikar said, a little angrily. “Of course I didn’t want to turn my back on India. But it was just me and one other team from Mumbai, and it was already too late. Half the country was afflicted. Your president had fifty of the most respected medical researchers in the world, and all the money, all the equipment. If I didn’t go, there wasn’t going to be an India anyway.”
“I’m sorry,” the amnesiac said. “I didn’t mean any offense.”
She waved his words away with a hand, calm again. “We’ve all done what we had to,” she continued. “I’m just glad I made it here, once the classified facility—fell apart. I didn’t know if anything would still be standing in New Orleans either, but I couldn’t think of another place anyway. I don’t know anyone else in the United States.” She rubbed her hair gently, to loosen some of the mud from it. “I got lost for six months in the north of Florida.” She laughed. “Did you know that now the crocodiles are the size of cruise ships? But they’re lit up like them too, and you can hear the music from a mile away. They’re probably in more danger of extinction now than they were before, even though they’re a hundred times more terrifying. Probably the only thing they can catch is one another.”
“It’s good to see you again,” the amnesiac said, smiling.
Dr. Avanthikar hugged him. “I’m so glad you’re alive,” she whispered. Her tiny arms were almost crushing. He let her hold on until his back started to cramp from leaning so far over. “And . . . Dr. Zadeh?” she finally asked when she pulled back.
Telling her was not as hard as the amnesiac thought it would be. It wasn’t as hard as going into his office alone had been.
When he’d finished, Dr. Avanthikar turned back to look at the door, to see how many locks they’d managed to add to it. “Exterminators,” she murmured, shuddering. “That’s monstrous.”
“It’s all right now. There are other things, but the exterminators aren’t a threat anymore, at least,” the amnesiac said. She glanced at him, brow raised. “Whoever was running things from inside city hall, funding them, lost their shadow, too. The exterminators went right in and did their job. Then there was no one left to keep paying them.”
Dr. Avanthikar stared blankly at the amnesiac for a few moments. Then she burst out laughing.
Finally he did, too. They laughed so hard their eyes stung with hot tears, and Dr. Avanthikar fell over. Some of the shadowless who remembered the most even joined in, chuckling in spite of how much they missed Dr. Zadeh.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Dr. Avanthikar finally said, wiping her face. She struggled into a crouch. “I’m sorry, dear. It’s all right.”
“Scared,” Adam whimpered. He was down to just a few words now, but they were all useful ones. “Scared.”
“It’s okay,” Marie said to him.
Adam shivered and went to sit by her. “Scared,” he said. “Who?” he asked when he looked at her.
“Marie,” she said, pointing at herself. “Adam.” She pointed at him when his expression conveyed that he hadn’t been asking about her. “Dr. Avanthikar,” she tried again, to no avail.
Adam made a confused face, but stayed sitting there. “Who . . . ,” he murmured, looking absently around the room.