I WAKE UP EARLY. AFTER I DRESS, I THINK ABOUT SENDING Elder a com or even going up to the Keeper Level to see him. I want to see Elder. But—he has a ship to land.

To land. On the new planet. I release a shaky breath, full of relief and joy. Nothing else matters. Not Orion’s stupid clues or Bartie’s ridiculous revolution—we have the planet.

I head straight to the cryo level. It feels strange to do this now, even though I’ve done it every day for the last three months. I did it then because I believed I’d never see my parents alive again. Now, with my back to one row of cryo chambers and facing my parents’ frozen bodies, it feels false.

Maybe it’s because I know how close we are to waking them up for good.

I have so much I want to tell them—about how I’m stronger than I was before. About Harley and Luthor and Elder. I want to spill out every memory and every worry and every thought.

But I also know that I don’t have to. We’re there.

In the distance, I hear the unmistakable sound of a heavy door slamming shut. It’s not the gen lab behind me. It’s one of the doors down the hall past the cryo chamber . . . one of the locked doors.

This is it. This is whoever’s tampering with the clues. It has to be.

I tear off down the hall, determined to catch whoever it is.

But no one’s here.

Then I notice a crack of light seeping from the armory door.

I catch my breath. The armory door . . . that means whoever’s in there has all the weapons. I, on the other hand, have none . . . unless you count the pocket-full of Phydus med patches I took from Victria.

I creep forward. The smart thing would be to run. But if I can just get an idea of who has been playing with us . . .

The door creaks loudly. Of-freaking-course it would creak loudly.