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.”

“That’s not true.” Her face lit up, and for a moment, she looked like nothing more than some grand predator preparing to pounce. “Anastasia Miller, age three. Human. Disappeared in the woods behind her grandparents’ residence for several hours. Returned claiming to be from another planet. You killed that little girl. You stole her life. You took her place. You know you’re not human.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “I’ve always known I wasn’t human. I told everyone who would listen. I told people I knew would want to hurt me for being a weirdo. I never lied. I never concealed anything. And look where it got me. You still won’t admit this place is a … a Habitrail for aliens. All I’m missing is an exercise wheel.”

If the agent was disappointed that I wasn’t more upset, she didn’t show it. Instead, she shook her head, and said, “You don’t understand how good you have things right now. You don’t see how lucky you are. We’d be within our rights to take you apart.”

“Okay,” I said. “I mean, you’re mostly going to find human bits, at least if what your scientists say is anything to go by—they sort of assume that since I’m not one of them, I’m stupid, and they let a lot slip. Nothing useful unless I want to fully understand my own currently hybrid biology, but hey. Everything’s got to go somewhere.”

“You need to cooperate.”

“I am cooperating. You need to tell me what you think I’m supposed to be doing that I’m not. I can’t be a good little test subject with no information.”

“All you’re supposed to do is answer our questions and tell us what we want to know.”

“I can’t do that if I don’t know what you want to know.” I couldn’t miss the fact that she’d made those things different clauses. She wanted me to answer the questions I was asked, and volunteer the information I wasn’t asked for. There was one big problem with that: I was telling the truth when I said that I didn’t know what was remarkable. I was concealing the existence of the forest, yes, but until she’d interfered with my connection to it, I hadn’t realized it was something that could be blocked off.