When she finally turned, she scowled. “Why are you really here? Did you not catch that this is a suicide mission?”

“I knew.” I’d known the risks, but as much as I had to lose, there was so much more to gain. “I still came.”

“And Eva let you?”

“Eva doesn’t tell me what to do.” I wouldn’t have let myself be sent off to die for no reason. I’d chosen to be here, and that made all the difference. Still, Quanta was forgetting her value. “You have to know how much you mean to her. Regardless of your powers, Eva wants to bring you home.”

“It’s too dangerous.” Quanta’s fingernails bit into her arms, making white crescents in her skin. “Your being here puts Eva and everyone else we care about in danger.”

“I know.” Despite the gravity of the situation, that ‘we’ gave me hope. “But it’s too late to go back and I wouldn’t anyway. I believe in the cause.”

Quanta wrinkled her nose. “If I can figure it out, I’ll tell you where the leak came from, but that’s where this ends.” Her eyes slipped out of focus and she was probably already scanning some other reality, but I needed her in the present. Darren would only let us have so much time alone.

“What about Hunter Marquez?” I raised my voice, and she blinked, coming back to Earth. “He and the Red he was protecting were ambushed after someone from the lab sold them out.”

“And you think it was me?” Quanta’s hands bunched into fists as she paced the forest floor.

“Maybe not intentionally, but I’ve seen enough of the holo room footage…” Sometimes she told specifics, and sometimes Darren pulled them out of her. I shouldn’t be pushing her but I wanted to know—had to know—how her visions worked.

How she worked.

“It was intentional.” Quanta folded her arms and glared, a challenge in her eyes. “Still want to be allies?”

Did she want me to believe the worst of her? Or was she trying to drive me away?

Neither strategy was going to work. I shook my head. “If you did, then you had a reason.”

Her fingers dug into her arms. “I did. I’m cooperating with Nagi.”

She was lying.

Her pupils didn’t dilate and her voice didn’t waver, but she’d survived this long by lying so it reasoned that she’d overcome the normal cues. “You’re not.” But she was trying to distance herself from me and that didn’t settle well.

“You don’t know me, Altair.” Distaste dripped from my name. “Don’t trick yourself because you watched a few videos.”

“I know enough.” I planned to learn more, but I’d seen plenty to make a judgment. “Whatever you’ve been through, you’re fundamentally good.”

“You don’t know that.”