Toni was looking at me with sympathy. Her hands were still moving. She was apparently more than capable of typing blind—that, or she was just keysmashing to have something to do. I would have believed either.

“Excuse me?” I said.

“Sixty-three percent of verified invaders did not survive to reach adulthood. About half died of allergic reactions or autoimmune conditions. As far as I know, none had the sort of autopsy that would have told us exactly why their DNA didn’t encode correctly—Wait.” She turned to David, frowning. “Do plants have DNA? Or are they something weird, like RNA or whatever?”

“Plants have DNA,” said David, in a tone that clearly stated that he had encountered this question before, multiple times. “They have chromosomes, too.”

“Huh.” Toni shook her head. “Okay, that’s weird. Why do plants need chromosomes? Do you know, Peony?” Her eyes were suddenly, unnervingly back on me. Again, there was that shock of recognition: I knew her. I just didn’t know how.

“Um,” I said. “No? I’m not a botanist.”

Toni blinked. “You’re not? Why the fuck not? You should be. I would be, if I hadn’t managed to get away. You stupid, Hyacinth?”

“Uh, my name is Anastasia,” I said. “‘Stasia’ is fine.”

“Oh, like ‘stamen.’”

“No, like a nickname for Anastasia,” I said, and glanced at Graham. He looked as confused as I felt. “I don’t have a plant name.”

“But you are one,” said Toni. “A plant. You didn’t run, run as fast as you can, and so the thing from space gobbled up the little gingerbread girl. I assume you’re here about my signal?”

“I—” I began.

Graham squeezed my fingers hard enough to break my train of thought. I glanced at him. He was shaking his hand, not vigorously, but just enough for me to see. I stopped talking.

“Yes,” he said. “We called before coming. I really want to see the source data.”

“Are you an astronomer, or an astrophysicist, or anything with ‘astro’ in the name?” She managed to make the question sound mild, but there were teeth in it. I could see them in the shadows around her smile.

“No,” said Graham.

“So you are…?”

“A herpetologist.”

“A herpetologist. I see. Do you normally figure out where the lizards are by listening to celestial signals? Because if that’s so, I may have missed my calling. I’m great with celestial signals, and I never know where the lizards are.”

“No,” said Graham. “I usually figure out where the lizards are by finding the places the lizards aren’t, and then following the lizards I know about back to the rest.”