The Toll (Arc of a Scythe, #3)

by Neal Shusterman

Sappho and Confucius are dead. Self-gleaned. The world mourns, but does anyone suspect what I suspect? They were the two most vocal opponents of our choice to create the scythedom. They still pressed for their own alternate solution. Were they so despondent that they chose to take their own lives? Or did one of us end them? And if so, who? Who among my comrades, who among my friends? Which founding scythe could have done such a thing? Prometheus is constantly reminding us that everything we do must be for the greater good—but the darkest of deeds can be hidden beneath shining armor that claims to protect the greater good. And if we are already compromising ourselves at the beginning, what does that say for our future? My friends are dead. I will mourn them. And if I learn which of us killed them, I will avenge their deaths without mercy. Although some of the others lobby to have their efforts on Kwajalein dismantled, I have convinced Prometheus to let Kwajalein remain untouched. It will be a fail-safe, and although there will be no direct proof of its existence, that will not stop me from leaving clues and evidence everywhere I can. I will embed the memory in unlikely places. The rhymes of children. The tenets of a fledgling religion. It will be found if it is needed. And heaven help us all if it is. —From the “lost pages” of founding scythe Da Vinci