The Blonde

… 35 seconds

Kelly White—which wasn’t her real name, at least not the one her parents had given her—knew she was going to die.

It would take only eight seconds, and the throbbing of the veins in her head would grow worse, the Mary Kates rushing north to expand and destroy all they encountered, and then the gushing …

And then it would be over.

She knew it would happen sooner or later. At least she had been able to choose it.

The elevator car continued its ascent.

But in the passing of one second to the next, her brain ignored the invading swarm of nanomachines, and a series of synapses fired.

An idea.