Afa didn’t answer, and Kira paused again to watch him. There was something wrong with his mind, she was certain—something about the way he moved, the way he talked, even the way he sat. He didn’t think as quickly, or at least not in the same ways, as anyone Kira had met before. How had he survived on his own like this? He was cautious, certainly, but only about certain things; his home was miraculously well defended, filled with ingenious traps and security measures to keep himself hidden and his equipment safe, but on the other hand, he’d gone outside unarmed. The best explanation, Kira told herself, is that there’s somebody else with him. Based on what I’ve seen, there’s no way he’s capable of defending himself this well, and certainly no way he could set up all this equipment. He’s like a child. Maybe whoever’s really running this safe house uses him as an assistant? But as much as Kira had tried, she hadn’t been able to see or hear anyone else in the building. Whoever it was was hiding too well.

Talking about ParaGen just makes him clam up, she told herself, so I need to try a different tactic. She saw him eyeing her half-eaten can of fruit and held it out to him. “Do you want the rest?”

He grabbed it quickly. “It has cherries in it.”

“Yes, it does. Do you like cherries?”

“Of course I like cherries. I’m human.”

Kira almost laughed, but managed to stop herself. She knew plenty of humans who hated cherries. Sharing the fruit seemed to undo the nervousness she’d caused by mentioning ParaGen, so she probed him about a new topic. “It’s very brave of you to go out at night,” she said. “A few nights ago I got attacked by something huge; I barely got away with my life.”

“It used to be a bear,” said Afa, his mouth full of fruit cocktail. “You need to wait till it catches something.”

“What happens when it catches something?”

“It eats it.”

Kira shook her head. “Well, yeah, but I mean why do you need to wait for that to happen? What does that mean?”

“If it’s eating something, it’s not hungry,” he said, staring blankly at the floor. “Wait until it eats, and then go outside to get water while it’s busy. That way it won’t eat you. But always remember to take the backpack,” he said, pointing in front of him with his spoon. “You can’t ever leave the backpack.”