“Hello again,” said Barnes.

The boy looked at him but did not answer. More youthful arrogance—and maybe something more.

“What’s this about?” asked Barnes. “Where are we going?”

The boy, it seemed to Barnes, had picked up on his fear. Zack looked away with a mixture of dismissal and disgust.

“The Master needs me,” said Zack, looking out the window as the chopper started to rise. “I don’t know why you’re here.”

Interstate 80

THEY DROVE ALONG Interstate 80, west through New Jersey. Fet drove with his foot to the floor, high beams all the way. Occasional debris, or an abandoned car or bus, slowed him down. A few times they passed some skinny deer. But no vampires, not on the interstate—at least, none they could see. Eph sat in the backseat of the Jeep, next to Mr. Quinlan, who was attuned to the vampires’ mental frequency. The Born was like a vampire radar detector: so long as he remained silent, they were okay.

Gus and Nora followed in the Explorer, a backup vehicle in case one of them broke down, which was a real possibility.

The highways were nearly clear. People had tried to evacuate once the plague reached true panic stages (the default human response to an infectious disease outbreak—escape—despite there being no virus-free zone to escape to), and highways jammed all across the country. However, few had been turned in their cars, at least not on the highway itself. Most were taken when they pulled off the main routes, usually to sleep.

“Scranton,” said Fet, passing a sign for Interstate 81 North. “I didn’t think it would be this easy.”

“Long way to go,” said Eph, looking out the window at the darkness rushing past. “How’s our fuel?”

“Okay for now. I don’t want to stop anywhere near a city.”

“No way,” agreed Eph.

“I’d like to get over the border into New York State first.”

Eph looked out at Scranton as they navigated the increasingly cluttered overpasses to the north. He noticed a section of one block burning in the distance and wondered if there were other rebels such as themselves, smaller-scale fighters in smaller urban centers. Occasional electric lights shining in windows drew his eye and made him wonder at all the desperation going on there in Scranton and in similar small cities all across the country and the world. He wondered also where the nearest blood camp was.

“There must be a list of Stoneheart Corporation meatpacking plants somewhere, a master list that would clue us in to the blood camp locations,” said Eph. “Once we get this done, there’s going to be a lot of liberating to do.”

“And how,” said Fet. “If it’s like it was with the other Ancients, then the Master’s clan will die out with him. Vanish. People in the camps won’t know what hit them.”

“Trick will be getting the word out. Without mass media, I mean. We’ll have all these little duchies and fiefdoms popping up across the country. People trying to take control. I’m not so sure democracy will automatically bloom.”

“No,” said Fet. “It’s going to be tricky. Lots of work. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

Eph looked at Mr. Quinlan sitting next to him. He noticed the leather sack between his boots. “Do you die with all the others when the Master is destroyed?”

When the Master is obliterated, his bloodline is no more.

Eph nodded, feeling the heat of the half-breed’s supercharged metabolism. “Nothing in your nature prevents you from working toward something that will ultimately result in your own demise?”

You’ve never worked toward something that went against your own self-interest?

Eph said, “No, I don’t think I have. Nothing that could kill me, that’s for sure.”

There is a greater good at stake. And vengeance is a uniquely compelling motivation. Revenge trumps self-preservation.

“What is it you’re carrying in that leather pack?”

I am sure you already know.

Eph remembered the Ancients’ chamber beneath Central Park, their ashes set inside receptacles of white oak. “Why are you bringing along the Ancients’ remains?”

You did not see that in the Lumen?

Eph had not. “Are you… intending on bringing them back? Resurrecting them somehow?”

No. What is done cannot be undone.

“Why, then?”

Because it is foretold.

Eph puzzled over that one. “Is something going to happen?”