Father Obregón returned to his own body to try to figure out what his next move should be. The Soulnet link to Naima was still open--he didn't dare risk being cut off from her--but he kept her on hold as he pulled himself back together.
What did the patchwork lifeforms want? And how could he stop them?
He knew only one thing for sure: he had to get to the lab in person as soon as he could, whatever the cost. He had to rescue Naima, for what she'd once meant to him...and what she meant to him still, in spite of the mistake that had come between them.
Never mind that she was nearly two hundred miles away. No one else was answering his calls; there might not be another living soul in the whole world who could come to her rescue.
The first thing he did before taking Naima off hold was
