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a minivan. And if they waited a few more years… Her family genes were suspect.
    Walking back to Laura felt like walking a tightrope. Emily didn’t want her sister’s life, which was something she could never admit.
    She blurted other words instead. “I need to know what to do,” she said.
    “What do you mean?” Laura asked.
    “I have two speeches. Those notes you’re holding are the company version. But there’s another one.” Emily grabbed her handbag. She opened it and showed Laura a second set of note cards. “They only want me to say part of what I should say. I didn’t tell you because, uh, I’ve been working on more than gene therapies for babies and kids.”
    Laura stared at her. “Are you in trouble?”
    “Yes. It’s a prenatal vaccine. It would stop anyone from ever being born with ASD.”
    “What about people like P.J.?”
    “We’ve talked about this before,” Emily said quietly. “There will be complications with juvenile therapies. By their second year, kids are establishing their permanent neurological makeup even if some pathways are underperforming or missing altogether. The therapies… They’ll change him, Laura. He’ll become a totally different person.”
    “Isn’t that what we want?”
    At least right now you two can get through the day,
Emily thought.
P.J. would have to relearn everything, maybe even how to walk or use the toilet.
    But you’ll be angry if I say so.
    She understood Laura’s hope. Sometimes P.J.’s pixie face lit up. On his best days, Laura was able to coax him into sharing what he saw inside his head, stammering through discussions of his favorite toys and snacks. And if he lost his talent for math, Laura would gratefully trade that ability if P.J. gained new social skills and normal awareness.
    “We’ll help him, too,” Emily said. “That’s what my boss wants me to focus on. But our company will make plenty of money if we tell people we’re also refining our data for a vaccine. Selling out to Enring Corp. shouldn’t be the main point of the media release.”
    “Maybe your boss knows what he’s talking about.”
    Emily was shocked. “What?”
    “It sounds to me like you’re doing good things either way,” Laura said. “You don’t have any patience, Em. You never did. Why can’t you finish the gene therapies first?” Her smile was gentle, even pitying. “You know I’m right.”
    “I guess,” Emily said.
You’re wrong,
she thought.
If I don’t make my data public, they might bury the vaccine for years.
    But if she used the media conference to say what she wanted, she would lose her job. They’d probably hit her with a lawsuit. Even if she walked away free, even if another company hired her, DNAllied owned her statistical models. She would be forced to start from scratch if she could re-create her data at all, and once again the prenatal vaccine would be delayed or lost.
    Her idealism had a price. She’d made her deal with the devil. Now she was locked in.
    Worse, she’d shared her apprehension with Laura. She felt disloyal for not making P.J. her first priority.
    Laura turned away from her. She used P.J. as an excuse to rebuff Emily, walking across the room to her son, but she couldn’t have hurt Emily more if she’d slapped her.
    “P.J.?” Laura said. “Sweetheart? Let’s go to the bathroom before Auntie Em is ready for her talk.”
    He didn’t answer. Emily couldn’t speak, either, her insides whirling as Laura glanced back at her. For a long moment, the two women studied each other in silence.
    “What are you going to do?” Laura asked.
    Emily nodded, trying to reassure her sister. She wanted to say,
I’ll do it your way.
Instead, she thought,
We’ll see.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
    W e may be in trouble,” Marcus Wolsinger said as he shut the door to the control room. Dust and flies were anathema to their electronics, but Marcus closed the door harder than necessary in frustration.
    Most of his staff had yet to return to