“It’s me, Kenz.” He hugged me again, and for a moment I forgot everything: the bounty hunters and the aliens and Matt and my friends and the chip, and I trembled with relief that I still had a parent, and one who loved me. “Kenz,” he murmured. “I’m so sorry. I . . .”

“Don’t apologize.” I buried my head in his shoulder and tried to channel everything I couldn’t say into my voice. “I know why you chipped me. I understand, and Dad, I don’t . . . I can’t . . .”

“Oh, honey.” He pulled me closer, and I let him cradle me like a child. Relief flooded me. For the first time since Cage and Alexei had taken me hostage, someone older and stronger was in charge, someone who would listen. He just needed to know the whole story, understand what he was facing.

But that meant I had to detail what had happened to Mom, and the words stuck in my throat like molasses. “Dad,” I managed at last, “Mom, she . . .”

“I know, honey. Matt told us everything.”

“He couldn’t have told you everything. Not how vicious those things are, how single-minded. They came to kill and harvest and nothing else.” I searched for a way to make myself clear. This was my last chance. I had to get through to him. “There’s no reasoning with them, no fighting them, no resistance. They’ll just kill and slash until they get what they want.”

“Kenzie,” he said, very softly. “I know.”

I closed my eyes against a sudden rush of terror. Dad’s words made it impossible to stay in my happy bubble. I couldn’t pretend he was ignorant. “If you know everything, why are you going along with this plan? Those things killed Mom. They killed Rita. They tried to harvest me. And you, what, opened the door and invited them in?”

Dad sighed heavily. “Sweetheart. You’re not seeing the big picture.”

I withdrew a few steps, examining my father. He was so familiar to me and yet so strange, too, like someone else wearing my dad’s face. “What happened to you?” I whispered.

All at once his lips drew together, his jaw tightening, his eyes narrow. “What happened to me? You’re the one running around the solar system with escaped criminals! Blowing up spaceships! Ignoring company laws!”

“Because I’m one of them,” I said slowly, watching his reaction. “I’m an anomaly too.”

“It’s not the same.”

“No, because I had parents who could help me.” I started to reach for him, but the cuffs caught my wrist again. I waved my bound hands impatiently. “You and Mom loved me enough to chip me. You lied to me because you thought I’d be better off not knowing. I get that now.” His expression melted, the hard lines of his Omnistellar mask melting into the father who loved me, but I pressed on before he could interrupt. “Now I need that same trust from you. Dad, you haven’t encountered these things. I have. You can’t go along with Omnistellar’s plan.”