Of the previous me, I knew she meant. ‘Of both of you,’ I said.

The two women looked at each other, then they both grinned and laughed as if I’d said something hilarious. ‘I’m sorry,’ said new-Rozalia. ‘I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around all of this.’

I noticed that the long, dimpled scar I had seen on Rozalia’s cheek the first time I met her was missing. She must have acquired it some time after her retrieval, I realized.

‘It takes time,’ I agreed. ‘Are you ready to see your new home?’ I nodded towards the jeep, then held up the clipboard in my hand. ‘We’ll give you a couple of days to get settled in and undergo a few more debriefings, then you’ll be due for your first training mission.’

‘Yeah.’ New-Nadia nodded, looking uneasy. ‘Is it going to be dangerous?’

‘It’ll be a cakewalk,’ I assured her. I looked at Rozalia. ‘Or at least, any potential danger will be minimal. I can promise you that.’

She nodded, absorbing this information. I could see how the two of them were still more than a little shell-shocked from their new circumstances, and I remembered all too well just how it felt to be in their shoes. Winifred had already taken charge of a number of their debriefings prior to their release from quarantine, clueing them in on their new reality and helping them to adjust to the learning curve involved. Even so, I knew they would adapt quickly. People who survive global extinction events tend to be good at that kind of thing.

I got back in the driver’s seat and they both climbed in back. ‘Hey,’ said new-Nadia, and I turned to look at her. ‘You’re like us, right? You were . . . someone’s replacement. That’s what Winnie said.’

I nodded. ‘It’s a long story.’

‘But there are others, right? Winnie said there are other new replacements, like us.’

I mentally damned Winifred for leaving me to have to explain so much. ‘Like I say, it’s complicated. We’re bringing back a lot of the people we lost.’

‘Most, but not all?’ asked Nadia, perceptive as ever.

I hesitated only briefly. ‘All but two,’ I said.

Because, of course, even the Authority was not so foolish as to bring Casey back. We’d already retrieved a new Randall, and a new Selwyn, and what they and all the new recruits had in common was that they had not been given any lies about retirement. They knew that, apart from the island and those alternates that the Authority was able to access, there was no going home.