Jeff didn’t have that option. I felt a pang of relief that my skin had started ripping in a place I could cover so easily, and smothered that feeling quickly in a veil of guilt. Jeff hadn’t chosen to have his face start melting into green. Neither of us had ever had a choice, in any of this.

“You went somewhere last night,” said the agent, once the last of the scientists was gone. “Where?”

“I didn’t go anywhere. I was right here all night. I’m a plant invader, not a ghost.”

“Your arm tells me otherwise.”

“What’s your name?”

“That information is classified.”

“Well, so is any information relating to where I may or may not have gone last night.” I leaned back, looking at her coolly. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

“Do you honestly think we can’t make you tell us anything we want to know? We had a deal. We let your friends go, and in exchange, you answer our questions. Do you want to face the consequences of going back on your word?” The corner of her mouth twitched in what might have been the beginning of a smile. “I promise you, you’re not the only one who would regret that.”

“I’ve answered all your questions up until this moment. You haven’t answered a single one of mine.”

“That wasn’t our agreement.”

“Maybe not, but how am I supposed to know what you need to know if I don’t have any information?” I glared at her. “I didn’t know there was a wireless field around this place. Why the hell is there a wireless field?”

“Because you invaders seem to know what’s coming before it gets there,” she said calmly. “We don’t know how you’re sharing information. We would very much like to know. You’re going to help with that.”

“No, I’m really not.”

“Again, you promised—”

“I’m not, because I don’t know anything.” I allowed myself to smirk. Trying to school my emotions was just going to make me look like I was hiding something. And I was hiding something: I was hiding the fact that Jeff was nearby and gathering an army to recover me. As long as she didn’t catch on to that, I was in good shape. “Until you told me, I had no idea a wireless field could interfere with anything. I sleep, I dream, sometimes I wake up knowing stuff I didn’t know when I went to bed the night before. I thought it worked that way for everybody. Aren’t dreams supposed to organize things you learned the day before?”

“It doesn’t work that way for humans,” she said, through gritted teeth. “What else have you been hiding?”

I sighed, frustrated. “I’m not hiding anything. I wasn’t hiding that. I didn’t know; that’s not the same as hiding something. Unless you have a complete, totally accurate map to the way humans are supposed to work, I can’t tell you where I deviate from it, because I don’t know. I’ve been what I am for my entire life.”