Duckquackprep !!top!! -

Eloise smiled—a sharp, wild thing. Then she quacked once, softly, a note of such profound and amused farewell that the reeds along the pond bowed in her direction.

Then she opened her mouth and unleashed the full Subsonic Mating Resonance —not just the wah-wah, but the deep, chest-rattling undertone that Carter felt in his molars. duckquackprep

Carter followed him past a crumbling Georgian building. In the back, instead of a football field, there was a sprawling, meticulously engineered wetlands. And in that wetlands, forty-seven children in navy blazers stood knee-deep in cold water, their mouths pursed, their throats bobbing. Eloise smiled—a sharp, wild thing

They drove off as the Hesitant Feed drill resumed behind them, forty-six voices asking the universe a question it had already answered, once, in the form of a muddy girl who laughed like a bird. Carter followed him past a crumbling Georgian building

Wetherby’s face went gray. “Where did she learn that?”

Wetherby clutched Carter’s arm. “She’s not supposed to be able to do that for another four years. Do you understand? She’s a duckquackprodigy . And she knows it.”

It was a laugh. A duck laugh. Disgustingly wet. Deeply judgmental.