* * *

For the first time Iona was taking part in the kind of discussion the citizens had been engaging in for years, but which she had always felt excluded from. Without turning around the guard spoke to her in a calm, measured voice, explaining the latest thinking on how the door used by the figures could be opened. The citizens had built a virtual model of the door in their minds and all of them now shared it. The guard described the theoretical opening device they were designing. Iona, who knew a thing or two about doors and locks, responded with ideas of her own.

The only frustrating part for Iona was that she couldn’t tell the citizen to open her cell. She could ask it for information and she could feed it information, but she couldn’t give it commands. It ought to obey her—that was why it had been made in the first place—but someone had gotten inside its programming and locked her out.

Down the years, citizen had talked to citizen about the problem of the door but they had never spoken to the humans about it: they had just gotten on with the job. The guard now had access to a whole new perspective. It was the cognitive equivalent of a sprint for the finish line.

Iona wasn’t sure just how close they were to finishing when she heard footsteps approaching from down the corridor. She stepped away from the door. The guard had fallen silent and from outward appearances it seemed just to be guarding. A voice told it to move aside and it did so. Then the door to the cell opened and Saori Kagawa stepped inside.

Saori had not been involved in Iona’s interrogation. A great deal had changed since Iona last saw her at the site of the fire. The true nature of the citizens had since been revealed to Iona and now she could see Saori was not one of them. She was human. Everyone else she’d spoken to at the bureau had been a citizen.

But why was Saori here in person? Was there something else she needed to know? They’d told the bureau staff everything. They’d even explained the nature of the cage, but to no response—as if the citizens weren’t supposed to acknowledge this fact, not in the presence of humans.

Saori didn’t take a seat. She looked Iona up and down.

If Saori was a human then presumably she came here on the ship. Which meant it was also possible she was the Poramutantur. The situation required caution.

“Can I help you?” Iona asked.

“How long had you known Alyssa for?”

“Only a few days.”

“Because there’s no record of her, you see. We have records of everyone in the city but not her. Did you steal her record? Destroy it? Or did she?”

“No. Alyssa comes from—”

“She’s dead,” said Saori and Iona could hear something unsteady in her voice. “We burned her. She was plotting to kill the king.”