by Emily Suvada
I can hear the cries of pigeons.
They’re flying closer, their silhouettes arcing through the treetops, their wings an iridescent green. They swoop down to the valley, flying low across the lake, forming a glowing, raucous carpet of light as they settle in the trees.
“It’s a new strain,” I say in awe.
Cole’s eyes rove across the forest, squinting in the dim light. There’s a basic ocular suite running in what’s left of his panel. I offered to work on a better one for him, but after years of living in a hyper-enhanced body that didn’t feel like it belonged to him, he’s enjoying being simply human again—flawed, weak, and limited. “I wonder who made them,” he says. “I could get you one to check.”
“I don’t think you need to.” I let a pulse ripple out from my cuff. The valley fades to black and white in my vision, but new pinpricks of light glow through the trees. There are panels in this flock, just like the one Agnes created. Only, instead of carrying apps to control them, these birds are seeded with what looks like a strangely coded wireless transmitter.
And there’s something else they’re carrying. A familiar piece of code, altered to run through the pigeons’ DNA. It almost looks like a section of Jun Bei’s Panacea—but it’s simpler and more tightly designed. An idea lifted from the original code, sliced off, and turned into something new.
“That’s strange,” I murmur, sending another pulse, trying to figure out how the code is running in the flock. Each of the pigeons is connected to the others, forming a rudimentary network that seems to stretch for miles. I reach out with my cuff on a whim, trying to connect to it like a typical network, and freeze.
It’s hard to describe the feeling that rolls through me as my panel links up with the birds. Nothing appears in my vision, and no sound crackles in my ears, but there’s definitely something. A sense. It’s almost like a thought. But it’s in a shape and texture that I’ve never felt before.
“What is it?” Cole asks.
“I don’t know,” I whisper, focusing on the sensation from the flock, trying to understand it. “I think they’re… they’re thinking, but they’re doing it as a group. Like a hive mind. Someone has finally done it.”
Cole’s eyes widen. “You mean they made animals sentient?”
I shake my head. “They’ve always been sentient—our brains just work differently. But I think someone has figured out a way for us to communicate with them.”
The thought makes my head spin. Jun Bei told me that her code wouldn’t be wasted—that even if people weren’t ready for it yet, the work she’d done would be put to good use. She said there were a thousand ways she could use what she learned working on the Panacea to build something new. I just didn’t realize that this could be one of them.
I tilt my focus into the pigeons’ network. The flock rises from the trees, flying above the lake in a fast, complex pattern. Their glowing wings trace out arcs of light against the darkening sky, strange formations streaking through the air as they swoop and dive. They’re trying to talk to me.
I cover my mouth, stifling a laugh. There’s no doubt about who wrote this code or who created this strain of the birds. There’s only one mind capable of this—one person wild and brilliant enough to take the Panacea and use it for this.
“It’s her,” I whisper, staring at the birds. “I think she sent them here to us.”
Cole’s shoulders tighten. “Jun Bei? She’s okay?”
There’s emotion in his voice, and it’s rippling through me, too, spreading out into the flock, sending the pigeons into wild, fractal patterns in the air. The sunset was beautiful, but this is on another level. This is deep and true, and it’s a blazing glimpse into a future I can’t even begin to imagine.
This world won’t be the same for long, and neither will we. I don’t know what’s lying ahead of us. But I can’t wait to see it.
“Yeah, she’s going to be okay,” I say, tears filling my eyes. “She’s going to change everything.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it turns out that it takes an amazing team to publish a book on time when its author has a baby in the middle of writing it! Thank you to my incredible editors, Sarah McCabe and Tom Rawlinson, for your vision, patience for my missed deadlines, and understanding for my lapses in logic. Thank you to my copyeditors, upon whom I relied very heavily—Brian Luster, Wendy Shakespeare, and the marvelous Jane Tait. Thank you to the wonderful teams at Simon Pulse and Penguin Random House Children’s UK for taking a chance on this series. Thank you to DongWon Song, Heather Baror-Shapiro, and Caspian Dennis for your incredible support of these books.
My family and friends have listened, cheered, and shouted about these books from the start—thank you. Thank you, Lora Beth, Kristin, Brooke, Laini, Fonda, Shea, Emily, Amie, Jay, Scott, Justine, Maura, Mallory, and the rest of the YA Twitter community. Thank you to Darbi Seely, Karen Johnson, Kristen Gilligan, and Jess Gibson for your help and friendship. A huge thank-you to the wonderful booksellers and librarians who have championed this book.
To my readers—I adore you! Thank you for connecting with me online, for sharing your drawings and reactions to these books, and for forcing your friends to read them. You are incredible, and I couldn’t have done this without you.
To my husband, Edward—thank you for handling everything while I was pregnant and drafting, for taking care of our newborn son while I was on deadline, and for telling me from the start that you believed in me. You are the reason I am able to write. I love you so dearly.
To my son—you have my heart completely. For you, I want to be as strong as my characters and fight as tirelessly and fiercely as they do to save the world.
More from this Series
This Cruel Design
This Mortal Coil
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2017 by Britt Q.Hoover
EMILY SUVADA was born and raised in Australia, where she went on to earn a degree in mathematics. She previously worked as a data scientist and still spends hours writing algorithms to perform tasks that would only take her minutes to complete on her own. When not writing, she can be found hiking, cycling, and conducting chemistry experiments in her kitchen. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and son.
Visit us at simonandschuster.com/teen
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Simon Pulse
Simon & Schuster, New York
ALSO BY EMILY SUVADA
This Mortal Coil
These Precious Scars
This Cruel Design
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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First Simon Pulse hardcover edition January 2020
Text copyright © 2020 by Emily Suvada
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Series designed by Regina Flath
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Jacket photograph of small tendrils copyright © 2020 by Mina De La O/Getty Images
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Suvada, Emily, author.
Title: This vicious cure / by Emily Suvada.
Description: First Simon Pulse hardcover edition. | New York : Simon Pulse, 2020. | Series: [This mortal coil ; 3] | Audience: Ages 14 up. |
Summary: “Cat is desperate to find a way to stop Cartaxus and the plague, but to do so, she’ll have to face her most devastating enemy yet”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019029486 | ISBN 9781534440944 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781534440968 (eBook)
Subjects: CYAC: Hackers—Fiction. | Genetic engineering—Fiction. | Plague—Fiction. | Science fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.S886 Thm 2020 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019029486
