Kira looked at him, at his face, at his eyes. She’d felt so close to him, and now… Was it the link? Maybe she really could do it, in some smaller way, and that’s what she’d been feeling. She shook her head, lost in conflicting emotions. Had their connection been nothing but some kind of Partial biological quirk, or had it been real?

If it was only the link, did that make it less real? And if she could connect that deeply with someone, did it really matter how?

“You really didn’t know?” He squinted at her in the fading sunlight. “You really thought you were…” He trailed off, and Kira felt grateful he hadn’t said it out loud.

“I had no idea. I’m still not convinced.”

“You’re definitely not like me,” he said, “but you’re”—he nodded at her friends—“not like them either. You can’t link, and yet I almost feel like you can, like there’s something between us that… I don’t know. I don’t know what you are.”

Kira opened her mouth to respond, but she didn’t know either. “I’m Kira Walker,” she said finally. “What else is there to know?”

Samm said nothing, merely gathered the gas cans.

“You can come with us,” she said. “We can hide you somewhere, in the farms or some little community. You’ll be safe there.”

Samm looked at her now, brown eyes as deep as wells. “Is that really what you want? To hide and be safe?”

Kira sighed. “I know even less about what I want right now than about who I am. I want to be safe. I want to know what’s going on.” She felt her resolve stiffen. “I want to find who did this, and why.”

“ParaGen,” said Samm. “They made us, they made you, and if your theory’s right about the pheromone, they made RM too.”

Kira smirked. “You always said you didn’t do it.”

The corner of Samm’s mouth turned up, just a bit, in the tiniest hint of a smile. “When did you start to believe me?”

Kira looked at the ground, kicking at a rock with the toe of her shoe. “I said what I want.” She looked up. “What about you?”

“What do I want?” Samm paused, considering the question with his typical solemnity. “The same thing as you, I guess. I want to know what’s going on, and why. And I want to fix it. After everything that’s happened, I’m more convinced than ever that peace—”

“Isn’t possible?”

“I was going to say that it’s the only chance we have.”

Kira laughed dryly. “You really do have an amazing knack for saying exactly what I want to hear.”

“You learn what you can,” said Samm, “and I’ll do the same. If we ever see each other again, we’ll share.”