Hell, he’d even stolen all the research that had to do with both of them before the Trust could get their hands on it. Park had watched him shove it all into the cupboard. He could have looked at it himself any time. He was the one who said he didn’t want to. Too offended by the fanatic mind behind the research, too shaken by the way one person’s obsession with AQ had become so twisted and violent. He’d even apologized for being so curious and pushy about Cooper’s results beforehand. Said he wasn’t going to get so caught up in it again.

Looked like that was no longer the case.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were—why didn’t you tell me?”

“That the test was messed up?” Cooper asked, bewildered. “I did tell you.”

“You didn’t say you scored 100,” Park protested.

“Okay,” Cooper said. “Does it matter?”

Park didn’t say anything. Just kept looking at him.

“You told me that wasn’t a possible score,” Cooper continued eventually. “The doctor said it wasn’t a possible score. You literally said the test doesn’t hit zero or a hundred. Clearly, I screwed something up, as per usual, and I was embarrassed to talk about it. What does it matter what the exact error message was?”

“It’s not—it’s supposed to be impossible,” Park said. He opened his mouth. Closed it.

“All right,” Cooper said slowly. He glanced at Cola, who just looked thoughtful now. “So what’s the problem? I haven’t told you my SAT scores either. Why? Because they’re made up, nonsensical bullshit. And I certainly wouldn’t have told you them if I’d taken them dosed up on some mystery drug and the results came back as a unicorn doodle.”

“He has a point,” Cola said. “How’s he supposed to have known it might have meaning if you don’t tell him?”

“A minute ago you were gearing up to fight for our lives,” Park said accusingly. “Now it’s all eh, no big deal.”

“I’m revising my understanding of a situation based on new information; you should try it sometime,” Cola said. “You can’t keep picking and choosing which bits of our world to expose him to and then get angry when he doesn’t know that something’s worth mentioning.”

“I’m not angry, I’m scared!” Park shouted.

Cooper was so shocked all he could do for a minute was stare while Park’s words seemed to ring in the air between them.

“Not—not scared of me,” he said finally, and his voice skipped a bit. “Right?”