I brushed him off. “You’re being ridiculous. I know what I saw on that posternkey, Ceilos. I spent over a year working on the plans for the time postern with Gitrin. I know those coordinates better than my own face. How would the Liberator know about that? He’s a terrorist, not a scientist. And besides.” I gestured to Isaak. “Look at him. Have you ever seen a modern Iamoi that looks like him?” Only a world with a thick, stable atmosphere could sustain a complexion like his. The Iamos of the future must look so different than it did now. Clearly, from Isaak’s confusion and unfamiliarity with the System, it must be different. But that was unimportant. Who cared what the future was like, thousands of years from now? All that mattered was that we survived.

This wouldn’t be my last annual.

Ceilos locked eyes with Isaak for a long moment. Isaak’s defiance seemed to have eroded as much as the surface outside the dome. Now he looked despondent. Harmless.

Ceilos sighed. “Fine. But what do you propose we do about it?”

I reached up to my earpiece, pressing the comm button. “I need to talk to Gitrin.”

“Gitrin? Are you sure that’s a good idea, after last week?”

“Well, what else can I do?” The thought of seeing Gitrin again tore at me from the inside like the talons of a gamada, but I needed answers, and she was the only one who could possibly have them.

“Subject Gitrin unavailable,” the System said in my ear.

“Try again,” I said.

Ceilos leaned against one of the empty hospital beds. “What’s wrong?”

“She’s not answering,” I said. I pulled open a System panel. “Show subject coordinates.”

“Coordinates not found.”

I stared at the blank map of the citidome, mouth moving soundlessly. “Ceilos, did you modify her earpiece?”

“Of course not. You’re the only one who knows about my cloaking program.”

“But look at this,” I said, swiveling the panel around for him to see. “It says she’s not here.”

He stood, gesturing for the map of the citidome to expand. There was no record of Gitrin’s presence anywhere in the dome.

“Did she transfer to another city?” Ceilos asked.

“She couldn’t have,” I said. “That medic…” I glanced over at Isaak and quickly added, “Uh, Heros—he said he’d spoken to her earlier today.”

Ceilos said nothing. He scrolled silently across the map, looking for anything we might have missed.

“Would it be the hackers?” Isaak said. His voice was gravelly, and he cleared his throat. “You know, the Liberator or whoever?”

“Of course not,” I said defensively. “What would a terrorist group want with my tutor?”

“The time postern,” Ceilos answered.

I swallowed. “All right, then. We’ll just have to tell the geroi. I’ll show them the plans again, and the posternkey.” I opened another System panel.