SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the
first book in the series, Partials,
Stop! I don’t want to ruin the story for you.
“Their world ended. Their war didn’t.”
Kira Walker
discovered the cure for RM but also discovered that she was a Partial. For now,
only Samm and Dr. Morgan know her secret. She hasn’t even told her best
friend/boyfriend Marcus the truth about herself. Kira may be a Partial but she
ages like humans do. Also she isn’t able to link up with other Partials and
lacks certain traits. Kira is on a quest for answers about herself.
Working from
a photograph of herself as a young child, Kira is shown as a young child with
her father and her guardian, Nandita, in front of a ParaGen building. Having
lived with Nandita for the past twelve years, Kira wonders how much she really
knew about her origins. Dr. Morgan was horrified when she found out what Kira
was. She decides to travel to Manhattan to search the ParaGen office for
answers. On her second day there, she discovers that Nandita was on the payroll
with one of the largest salaries. The following day, Kira searches the second
floor where she finds mostly cubicles. She sees evidence that two computers
have been removed sometime after the Break. Kira also notices a few offices along
one wall. One has been emptied of everything and recently. The office door is labeled
Afa Demoux, IT. Kira wonders who Afa is and why his office was emptied.
Madison’s
baby is the only newborn in twelve years to survive RM. Kira figured out that
the Partials carried the cure. Time is running out and infants are once again
dying. Marcus and the other medical research teams have repeatedly failed to
replicate the cure. Now there is talk of kidnapping a Partial to extract more
of the cure. On the other hand, Partials only “live” for twenty years and they
are now “dying off.” They believe humans are the key to survival. War once
again between humans and Partials seems imminent. Feeling the weight of human
existence on his shoulders, Marcus heads outside. Heron, a Partial, reveals
herself and asks Marcus to keep quiet. She shows him a photograph (the same one
Kira has) and he immediately recognizes Nandita. Heron tells him to look at the
child she is with. Marcus realizes that it is Kira. Heron asks him if he knows
where they are and he doesn’t. She tells him that Dr. Morgan believes Kira and
Nandita are vital to solving to solving the problem of the Partial expiration
date. She warns Marcus that things will get interesting if they aren’t found.
Kira
scavenges an abandoned electronics store. She notices that someone recently
took a generator and a HAM radio from the shelves. Kira realizes that someone
else is looking for the same information that she is and they are one step
ahead of her. Marcus is at another Senate meeting. Humanity’s situation is
growing direr. Word arrives that the Partials have come ashore and war may be
closer than anyone thought. Marcus knows their only hope is to stall the Senate
until he hears something from Kira.
When Kira
finds Afa Demoux, he is more than she bargained for. Alone for the past twelve
years, Afa believes that he is the last human on Earth. He has brief moments of
lucidity. At these times, he is a wealth of information, having collected
newspaper articles and every email message sent through the ParaGen server. Filed
in hundreds of boxes that make sense only to Afa, Kira is a bit disappointed that
he knows nothing about the Trust. Afa does have radios set up to monitor
Partial communications and Kira is shocked to hear her friends are being
attacked back home by Partial forces. Finding a microphone, Kira is able to
radio a warning to Marcus. Two Partials find Afa’s hideout and enter. When his
defense systems fail to stop them, Afa leaves for another safe house. Kira is
left alone to stop them. She is surprised to find that the intruders are Samm
and Heron. They heard her radio transmissions and they came to find her before
Dr. Morgan does.
Realizing she
was wrong about the Trust and needing to find out what she is before Dr. Morgan
locates her again, Kira decides she needs to get to the ParaGen server to find
the information she needs before anyone else beats her to it. With Afa’s
computer expertise and Heron and Samm’s military skills, the four set out for
Chicago where the server was kept.
Who and what
is Kira? What secrets did Nandita keep from her? What information does she discover
in Chicago? Why is Dr. Morgan looking for her? What is so important about Kira
to warrant a Partial invasion? Can Marcus and the others survive until Kira comes
back? Will the cure for RM and the partial expiration date be found? What is
the Trust and can Nandita be found?
The Partials
Sequence will be continued with book three.
