“In order to obtain the information, someone has been to Outside.” Even though thrilled with the news, I wondered how long ago the data was collected. Everything changed with time. “Can you find out when?”

“No. The information was pulled from various files and dumped together. A few sentences are incomplete, and the topic changes abruptly. Some of the files are damaged and I can only read about half of what’s in them.”

“It doesn’t matter when,” Domotor said, dismissing my concern. “Most likely it was before the Travas took control. Perhaps after the scouting mission, the Travas panicked, thinking they would lose power in such a big place. We know it’s safe to go to Outside.”

“And we know the code to open Gateway.” Logan typed at the keyboard and numbers marched across the computer screen.

I committed the code to memory.

“Something else…” He pointed. “Colored buttons. Green to open. Red to close. Any ideas?”

“To get back to Inside,” Domotor said. “There would have to be controls on Outside. Proof that no people live there or they would have opened the door by now.”

He had a point.

Finally, Logan announced he had no more useful info. “Wish we had those last three passwords.”

“What about the file with my birth week on it?” I asked.

Domotor glanced at me in surprise. “There’s a file with your birth week on it?”

“And the hour of her birth. I forgot about that one.” Logan’s fingers flew and he hummed to himself. A white screen flashed and he paused for a second. “Uh…Trell, you’d better read this. It’s from your mother.”

I backed away. “She couldn’t have…No way to know I would be involved…A trap?”

Domotor leaned closer to the screen. “No. She admits the chances of you finding this letter is little to none.” He continued to read. “It’s similar to a diary entry. Written more for herself than you, explaining what had happened. Interesting…A confession. Why didn’t you tell me Kiana was the spy?”

I plopped on the couch. “A lot has happened since I last saw you.”

“Do you want to know her reasons for—”

“No. Four people were recycled because of her. I’ve no desire to hear her pathetic excuses.”

He frowned at me. “Someday you’ll want to know.”

“Then I will ask you. It’s not important right now—she isn’t one of the uppers who have agreed to help us.”

Domotor brightened when he heard this, and I explained what I had been doing in the upper levels, but I didn’t tell him Doctor Lamont’s name or Riley’s cousin. He knew of the others, but those two were new. Despite my conviction that Kiana was responsible for my father and Riley’s mother’s fates because she had spied for the Travas, Domotor had been the one to name them.

“Excellent news,” he said when I finished updating him. “Just imagine, we’ll open Gateway and usher out all the scrubs and uppers who want to go, leaving behind the Travas with no one to rule.”