David are in if he was a new recruit. He’s probably been around for a while. They have to trust him with you two.” Julian scrolled down the page. “The real question, though, is whether Randall knew about Vargas’s connection to CASS when he was working for her reelection campaign.”

She sat on the floor, crossing her legs. “Because if the president knew…” She raised her gaze to Julian’s. “You think that CASS was behind her reelection campaign?”

“Maybe not behind, but part of?”

“I got the impression from Lovick that CASS was sort of independent of presidential administrations.”

“Then why would one of their lackeys be working for the Randall Administration?”

She looked down at the black-and-white photo of Mr. Hernandez as Andrew Vargas. “Maybe… maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe the Randall Administration is working for CASS.” She thought about the document from the avian lab she and David had stolen from Blue Base. Blue Base—under the orders of CASS—had been genetically experimenting on birds. Those birds had been the cause of the June Disaster. “What if President Randall is involved with CASS and their projects with the Imrian DNA? Didn’t she come out of the military?”

“Yeah, that was the big thing about her campaign,” Julian said. “First female veteran to run for president, blah blah, all the brass loved her.” He seemed to struggle to contain his excitement. “Whoa. You think maybe Randall was involved even before she ran for office? Like, maybe CASS and Blue Base or whatever picked her to run because they knew they could get her elected, and then they’d have their figurehead as commander in chief?”

Reese paled. “Jeez. Maybe? But even if she wasn’t working for them before, she had to have known something about the birds, don’t you think? She’s the president. And she gave all those speeches at the beginning of the June Disaster. She visited those bird disposal facilities. She was like, ‘We are figuring things out, trust me.’ But what if she was lying the whole time?”

“We have to do more investigating,” Julian said. “Talk to more people. You have to talk to the Imria and find out if they know anything about it. All we know for sure about the June Disaster is from that piece of paper you and David lifted from that lab, and we don’t have that anymore. Yeah, Blue Base was genetically modifying birds, but the question is why. It’s all related somehow. This thing with Mr. Hernandez isn’t enough. We need more.”

She folded the ID and put it back in her pocket. “I know. I agree.” She stood. “Let me talk to David. We’ll figure something out.”

“Okay.”

“I better get back downstairs. My dad’s gonna freak out if I leave him alone with your mom for too long.”

Julian scrambled to his feet. “All right. And hey, I’m glad we talked.”

She paused halfway to the door. “Me too.”

He came over to her and pulled her into a hug. “I’m serious, you dork. I don’t like fighting with you.”

Startled, she quickly withdrew into herself as Eres had taught her so that she couldn’t sense Julian’s emotions. She wouldn’t invade his privacy now that she could avoid it; she owed him that much. He was tall and wiry and strong, and all she could feel was his arms around her. It felt good: normal. “Me either,” she said, her voice muffled against his shoulder.

All of a sudden she realized the significance of what Amber had done. She had lied about a lot of things, but she had never pushed herself into Reese’s consciousness, never taken advantage of her untrained mental state. She had always respected Reese’s personal boundaries. Reese had never understood that until now.

CHAPTER 21

On Saturday during the ferry trip to Angel Island, Reese kept remembering what Julian had said about Amber. She’s been avoiding you. Reese didn’t see any sign of Amber during the drive to the ship, or while Nura Halba escorted them through the steel corridors to Eres Tilhar’s room. As the lesson began, she tried to forget about her in order to concentrate, but she couldn’t entirely erase Amber from her mind. She knew Amber must be nearby, and her unseen presence was like a phantom in the room. Reese was aware that Eres might be able to sense it in her; she only hoped the teacher wouldn’t mention it out loud.

“Last time you learned how to center your attention on yourself so that you are anchored in place,” Eres said. “Today you will learn how to maintain your position in your mental map while you connect with someone else.”

“I have a question,” Reese said, interrupting Eres in an effort to distract herself.

David shifted nearby. What are you going to ask? he thought.

We do have to get info for Hernandez, she reminded him.

“What is it?” Eres asked.

“With humans who aren’t adapted,” Reese said, “I know they can’t do susum’urda, but we can still sense their emotions, right? When we touch them, I mean.”

Eres regarded the two of them with an expressionless face that nonetheless made Reese feel like she had spoken out of turn during class. After a long moment of silence, Eres said, “Yes, you are able to sense human emotions when you touch them. I believe you’ve both already experienced this.”

“Yeah,” David said. “With my parents.”

“I felt it with mine too,” Reese said.

Eres adjusted the sleeves of the gray robe as if buying time. “It is true that humans are vulnerable to our abilities,” the teacher finally said. “That is why we must refrain from reading their feelings without their permission.”

They seem to want us to refrain from a lot of things, David noted silently.

Reese bit her lip to hide her smile. “So you’re saying we could do it, but we shouldn’t?”

The walls of the triangular room shimmered from blue to green. “Yes,” Eres said. “It isn’t ethical to access someone’s consciousness without their permission.”

“I get that,” David said. “But are you telling me that you guys have never done that? If you’re so interested in finding out about humans, wouldn’t you do it?”

Eres’s lips pressed together for a moment. “It is tempting to use our abilities to understand your people, but it is wrong for us to take those liberties with people who cannot resist.”

That doesn’t mean they’ve never done it, Reese thought.

“I see that you both doubt me,” Eres said. “Perhaps that’s because humans have a looser understanding of ethical behavior than we do.”

“That’s not fair,” Reese said immediately.

“Am I incorrect?”

“You can’t say that all humans do one thing or another,” Reese said. “We’re different. Some people are more ethical than others.”

Eres nodded. “Exactly. We Imrians are not like your people in this matter. We understand it would always be wrong to cross those lines. There are very few exceptions. Parents teaching their young children, or when trying to help someone in pain, but that’s all.”

“But you’re fine with lying,” Reese said, more harshly than she had intended.

Eres seemed surprised. “Lying? I think you mean with words, as I have told you that it is impossible for us to lie during susum’urda. Words are superficial. They are meaningless when it comes to true connection.”

“We humans only have words,” Reese said. “Why do you think they’re important to us?”

Eres’s surprise seemed to deepen. “I see that I have upset you both. I apologize. I may not understand your people as well as I should. That is another reason it is important for us to have these lessons; you can teach me as well. Shall we begin again?”

Reese and David traded brief glances. Well, we have our information, Reese thought. And I bet Hernandez is gonna love it.

“Okay,” David said aloud.

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