“Heron is much higher on the link hierarchy than most of us,” said Samm. “It’s part of the independence built into the espionage models.” He paused, thinking silently, then sighed—a distinctly human action that he must have picked up from so much time spent with Kira. She found it fascinating. “Still,” he continued, “she was subordinate to Morgan, and I imagine Vale is similar in his command of the link. He could have her imprisoned somewhere.”

“It’s also possible that she detected him first,” said Kira, “and stayed back. Knowing Heron, that seems more likely to me. For all we know, she might be trying to find the answers we’ve been looking for in another part of the compound.”

“The central spire,” Samm said again. “Since all the buildings here are apparently powered, she’d be able to access the computers pretty easily. That doesn’t mean she can access the information, though. Without Afa to hack through the security, I don’t know how any of us are going to do that.”

“Then she’d start with physical records,” said Kira. “Assuming Dr. Vale hasn’t just destroyed them all—if he’s trying to hide his identity, he might have destroyed a lot of old data.”

“Assuming he’s even trying to hide,” said Samm. “There’s always the chance that we’ve just completely misinterpreted everything about this place—maybe everybody knows who he is. We could learn a lot more if we had somebody here we could trust for straight answers.”

“I don’t trust Calix,” said Kira quickly, cutting him off before he could suggest it. “She’s clearly loyal to Vale.”

“He’s their leader,” said Samm. “Why wouldn’t she be loyal him?”

“That’s my point,” said Kira. “I’m not saying she’s a spy or anything, just . . . if we ask a lot of questions, it’ll get back to him.”

“And now you’re assuming there’s a conspiracy,” said Samm. “Just because Vale is shifty doesn’t make everyone here an enemy. The most likely scenario is that everyone here is just happy and oblivious.”

Kira shook her head. “Likely but not guaranteed. I don’t want to trust anyone until I know more of what’s going on.”

“That’s the one thing this society isn’t ready for,” said Samm. Kira looked up, and Samm smiled, just slightly, in the corner of his mouth. “You’re a rebel, Kira Walker. Even when there’s nothing to rebel against.”

Kira smiled back. “Maybe I was made this way. Are there any rebel-model Partials?”

“We started the Partial War,” he said simply. “Rebellion is the most human thing about us.”