“The police aren’t with us, Stasia,” he said quietly. “It’s safe. Come out.”

I stepped out from behind the tree, not missing the way he sagged in sudden relief at the sight of me. “What happened?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” he said. “When I told them you’d seen police cars coming, they insisted on coming with me. We barely made it into the trees before they pulled up outside.”

“That’s not so bad,” I said. “Maybe I was overreacting.”

“They shot the receptionist,” said David flatly.

There didn’t seem to be any appropriate reply to that. I just stared as he shook his head, still holding Toni up.

“Not with a bullet,” he said. “I’m not sure a Taser is any better, but at least she’s not dead. She’ll be able to sue the pants off of them.”

“Assuming they don’t disappear her to some secret prison in the middle of nowhere,” said Toni. She jabbed a finger at me. “This is all your fault.”

“How the hell is—?”

“You’re the one who had to tell the world you were an alien! You flying to see me right after the signal went public must have thrown up a million red flags. Even people who didn’t want to believe this was really happening would have questions about that. You needed to stay down.”

I frowned. “You’re the one who said disclosure was a compulsion for us.”

“Yeah, and if you’ve lived with a compulsion for your entire life, you learn how to deal with it. You learn how to make it not so damn bad.” Toni cast a frightened look back over her shoulder. “If they come looking for us, they’re going to find us. Who knows what happens then? I’m too young and brilliant to go to prison. I need to stay wild and free and join the Earth resistance against the invasion.”

“I’m a little more concerned about what happens when we try to fly home,” said Graham grimly. “If they’ve put us on a no-fly or tagged us for the TSA to detain, we’re never going to make it back to the West Coast.”

“Yes, that’s far worse than getting shot,” said David.

“It might include getting shot,” said Graham.

“I have an idea.” I looked at my phone, and then back at the others. “But you may not like it very much.”

“What is it?” asked Graham.

I told them.

4.