Samm let out a breath. “It can be hard to recognize,” he admitted. He paused, and the barest hint of a smile crept over his face. “Of course, for someone as pathologically independent as you, it might stand out a little more.”

Kira slapped him lightly on the arm. “I didn’t know Partials could tease.”

“I’m a good learner.”

“Either way,” said Kira. “I don’t think Nandita ever controlled me with the link, and I don’t know if Vale will even try.” She paused for a moment, suddenly concerned. “Whether or not he knows about me, though, he has to know you’re a Partial, right?”

“I can’t imagine he wouldn’t,” said Samm, “but then I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t say anything about it, either. What does he have to gain by keeping it secret? Unless . . . maybe he knows we’re both Partials, but doesn’t know if we know he knows?”

Kira glanced at the door again, still closed. “It’s very possible. I think we need to operate as if he’s hiding something. Even if it’s just in his own self-interest. He couldn’t expose you as a Partial without exposing himself as one of the scientists who created us. These people aren’t as militant as we are in East Meadow, but they still don’t seem to like Partials, either. If they found out their doctor helped build the rebel army, they might not take it very well.”

“That’s the best guess I’ve come up with, too,” said Samm. “Either way, it’s bad news for us. He has a good thing going here, with a perfect little society, and our arrival—our very existence—threatens all of it. If the Partials follow us here, he’s done. If the humans follow us here, he’s done. If the truth about you or me or him ever gets out, all the secrecy falls apart and he’s done. His best possible courses of action would be to kill us or to keep us here indefinitely. Which is perhaps why he didn’t offer to help us understand the cure for RM yesterday.”

Kira frowned, troubled by the apparent inconsistency. “Unless he was being truthful earlier,” said Kira. “He said it wasn’t ‘portable.’ That might mean it needs to be refrigerated. Obviously we can’t haul something like that back across the whole continent. That said, at the very least he could give us the formula, or teach me the process. But he refused. Whatever’s going on, you’re right about the danger.”

“And we still don’t know where Heron is,” said Samm.

“Right.” Kira drummed her fingers on the floor, trying to sort through the mess of possibilities. “If she got too close, he’d detect her. He might have used the link to capture her.”