PROLOGUE
The end of the old world surprised few.
It announced itself violently, year after year, as massive storms ravaged everything that stood, and the oceans rose, swallowing low-lying land that once held the great cities of the earth—one devastation after another.
The inhabitable zones grew fewer and farther apart, famine bred war, and war bred only more war and destruction. What the world faces now could once have been solved. A pandemic, a wave of human migration, a hurricane, an earthquake—in the past, these were merely logistical problems, tragedies nonetheless, but the whole of civilization could have absorbed them. Now they happen all at once, compounding one another. The world itself has turned on humanity.
The population knew it would happen—most people understood what was coming. The common people of the earth pleaded for help, demanded the powerful few reckon with them—that those with wealth and influence wield their precious resources to bring about necessary, wholesale change. The world begged them to stand up and fight alongside the people, against the imminent destruction of our species and the world in which they lived.
It should have been such a logical choice: Do you wish to save the world? Or do you not? But man’s greed is relentless and devoid of logic. They could have made changes to protect us all. Instead the powerful chose to do nothing, to let the world burn.
Now that is in the past, decisions left out of the hands of those who followed. Humanity must turn to the future—not for itself, but for all who are left to follow when the chaos ends.
The new plan for humanity must work. The survivors see that now, and yet the plan itself chills many souls to the core. “Everything has a price,” wise confederates say, and some bite their tongues so as not to remind them that the civilization that created this phrase unwittingly choked to death on it. Yet they are not wrong: there is much more than conscience at stake.
This is the world’s last chance. Ultimately, humanity must choose to save humanity. To save the world … no matter what the price.
CHAPTER ONE
“THERE HE IS,” NAOMI SAID IN A LOW VOICE.
Gabriel nodded. “I see him.”
“Of course you do.” She smiled, sipping her tea.
Gabriel took a small device from his pocket and turned it on, holding it under the table as the screen lit up. Quickly, he took control of the cloaked drone already tracking their subject and brought the picture up on his screen. The man they were tracking was a block away from where they sat in the cool shade of an outdoor café. He was walking slowly down the bustling city sidewalk. He seemed to be staring straight ahead, but even from this distance Gabriel could tell he was darting his eyes back and forth, his shoulders hunched forward as if danger might come from any direction.
Naomi sighed.
“What went wrong?” she asked softly.
Gabriel didn’t answer; he knew she wasn’t really expecting him to. John Philip Horizon was a normal man, as far as anyone knew. He had a wife and a three-year-old daughter, and plenty of friends. Yet a few months ago, the drone feeds had been registering anomalous behavior from him: outbursts of temper, retreat from his usual friends, and this quiet paranoia Naomi and Gabriel now observed. Three days before, he had shouted at his wife, Katherine, with such ferocity that the drone outside their home had sent an emergency alert, flagging him as potentially violent. Naomi and Gabriel, Authority Figures of the State—specifically Contract Enforcers for District 7C of the city of Horizon—had been assigned to him, and now they watched as he turned onto a residential street and stopped in front of his home.
He stayed on the sidewalk, pacing back and forth. Gabriel directed the drone to zoom in, focusing on the man’s face.
“What is it?” Naomi asked.
“He’s muttering something,” he whispered.
Gabriel squinted, trying to make out the words, but it was impossible; John wasn’t talking, just moving his lips along to something in his head, as if he were reading something he’d seen a hundred times. He nodded his head decisively, and Gabriel stiffened.
“It’s happening,” he said, standing.
“He’s shown no sign of escalation,” Naomi protested, but she set down her tea.
“We have to go now,” Gabriel said.
He took off running toward the townhouse before she could respond.
By the time they got there, John was no longer on the sidewalk, and the front door to the house was ajar. Naomi pointed to Gabriel, then to the side of the house, and he nodded. He crept toward the back entrance, glancing back to see Naomi climbing the steps to the front door, her hand hovering close to her stunner.
Gabriel stepped in front of the facial scanner at the back door.
“Gabriel Ward, Contract Enforcement,” he said tightly, waiting impatiently as the blue light flickered across his face. When it was done, the door popped open, and he slipped inside.
“John, please talk to me,” he heard Naomi say as he crept through the kitchen toward the front of the house.
“I don’t have to talk to you, stalker!” John cried, an edge of hysteria in his voice.
“Of course not,” Naomi said calmly. “But I can’t help if I don’t understand what’s happening.”
Gabriel peered around the corner. John had Katherine pinned up against a wall, one hand pressed against her neck. In his other hand was a kitchen knife, and he was holding the point up to her throat, just below her jawline. Gabriel didn’t move, assessing: John could not see him from where he stood. Katherine was still breathing heavily. He was terrifying her, but not choking her—not yet. Naomi stood a few feet from John and was addressing him calmly, her hands behind her back in an unthreatening posture.
“I want to help, John, but I need you to step away from Katherine,” Naomi said, her voice never wavering. She sounded as if they were talking about something mundane. Please pass the salt. Come now, John, please don’t kill your wife.
“She’s my wife!” John exclaimed, but he stepped back with a flourish, taking his hand off her windpipe. He kept the knife at her throat, his arm stretched out across the distance between them. Katherine darted her eyes around the room and stopped in surprise when she saw Gabriel. Gabriel raised his index finger to his lips, gesturing for her to be silent, and she gave a tiny nod of her head. The knife scraped against her skin, and she gasped.
“Yes, John, she is your wife,” Naomi agreed. She stepped closer, and he stiffened but did not move. “You’re her husband, and when you married, you decided that you would care for one another. That you would be partners in all things, isn’t that right?”
John didn’t answer, but his hand wavered, and the knife moved minutely away from Katherine’s neck. “That’s right,” he said.
“Then please, care for Katherine now. Treat her as your partner. Give me the knife.”
John’s shoulders hunched forward. Gabriel couldn’t see his face, but he heard the man beginning to weep as he lowered the knife; he clutched it in both hands like a talisman.
“I’m sorry, Katherine,” John said, voice halting.
Naomi smiled. “Thank you, John,” she said. She took a step forward.
“I’m so sorry,” he repeated.
Gabriel froze, hit by a shock of adrenaline.