“Well, it’s cute that you think that,” Gilly said. “But you don’t have as much free will as you think. Every time we think we’re choosing to be selfless, or noble, or doing our patriotic duty, or sacrificing ourselves for our kids, we’re really obeying a hardwired genetic instinct. We wrap it up in a nice story, but it’s just biology. The closer any two people are genetically, the more likely one is to make sacrifices for the other. The same goes for animals. And salamanders.” Results from the scans began to fill his board. “I mean, fundamentally, the war isn’t even between people and salamanders. It’s between human genes and salamander genes. They’re just using us to fight it, as their throwaway survival machines.”