A virus that can kill the birds. But they can’t deliver it without someone on the ground. That someone is going to be me, Rangi, and Mira. We leave tonight.” A murmur ran through the crowd. A woman near the back—a former schoolteacher named Leilani—stood up. “Why you three? Why not send the army?” “There is no army,” Mace said flatly. “There’s us. And we’re the ones who’ve been inside the nest zones before. We know what we’re walking into.” “Do you? Rotorua isn’t like the other places. The geothermal vents have changed the birds.
