Kira looked at Jayden, who shrugged and set down his rifle carefully by his feet. Marcus and Xochi followed, and Kira did the same. If we’re about to get robbed…, she thought, then shook her head. We have nothing—surely he can see that. The only valuable we have is the cure, and nobody knows about it.

“There you go,” said Tovar. “Now, say hello to my friends.” A bush moved to the left and Kira flinched, and then another bush moved, and a boarded-up window swung open, and suddenly the backyard was filled with men and women in various forms of camouflage and homemade armor, all of them armed.

“Easy,” said the woman in front, and Kira thought she recognized the voice. “Keep your hands in the air and step away from the guns.”

“Gianna,” said Kira, realization dawning. “You were with us last time we came here—you were on the salvage run that found the bomb.”

“Kira Walker,” said Gianna with a smile. She glanced at Jayden, and her expression soured. “And the fascist plague baby. Keep those hands where I can see them.”

“What is this?” demanded Kira. “Are you … the Voice?”

“The very same,” said Tovar, stepping out of the back door with his fat black shotgun on his hip. “The new regime is out in force, rounding up refugees and runaways. I don’t know if it’s good luck or bad that we found you first.”

“You’re the Voice,” said Marcus, as if still trying to get his head around it. He laughed. “That might be the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard—and you,” he said, turning to Gianna. “Were you the Voice back then, too?”

“Not until after,” she said. “I get testy when I’m detained without cause.”

“Still, though,” said Jayden, “you were a sympathizer. I was right not to trust you.”

“Even a paranoid clock is being followed twice a day,” said Tovar. He gestured to the open door. “Come inside so we can reset our trap. If the Grid does drop by, I don’t want to be caught in the open flapping my gums.”

They filed inside while the Voice went back into hiding. Tovar led them down one hall while Gianna locked the door and took their guns down another. Inside, the house was more or less as Kira remembered it, including the laconic camel in the living room.

“Hello, Dolly,” said Marcus. “Long time no see.”

Xochi offered her hand to Tovar. “Looks like you know everyone else. I’m Xochi.”

“Xochi Kessler,” said Tovar, ignoring her hand as he searched in his wagon for food. “Or should I say ‘the infamous Xochi Kessler.’ Your poor mother is worried sick.”

“My poor mother can go and hang herself.”