A rusted van awaits them. At first, Ify doesn’t see it, blanketed as it is by giant red and dark green leaves. But Ngozi yanks open the back door and gestures for Ify and Grace to get in. Grace is first to head into the darkness, but she spares a tight, warning glance at Ngozi before climbing in. Ify follows. Then Ngozi enters, pulling the doors closed behind them.

It feels like a different age, without the ever-present hum of always being connected. Without the hum against her body of her bodysuit at work, regulating her temperature, checking her vital signs, beaming her location to whoever needed to know. She winces at that last.

“Don’t try connecting anywhere,” Ngozi says, lying on a bed of pillows with her rifle draped across her body, as though she’s reading Ify’s thoughts, even though she’s staring at Grace when she says it. “All your electronics have been deactivated. EMPs.” Electromagnetic pulses. “Otherwise, the government’s gonna be able to track you. Which gets us all in trouble.”

A quick glance at Grace tells Ify that they’re both trying to figure out which question to ask first.

Ngozi stares at Ify. Squints a little bit like she’s measuring the face before her against some old, fuzzy holograph. “She never told us about you,” Ngozi says suddenly.

Breath leaves Ify’s lungs. “Sh-she?” Ify manages to say at last. But Ify knows there’s only one person Ngozi could be talking about. Onyii.

Ngozi shakes her head. “Never told us a single thing. To be honest, I don’t know what she’d make of you now.” She gestures with her hand to indicate the entirety of Ify, not just her outfit, Ify feels, but her carriage, her voice, the way she takes up space. The fact that she is a Colonial official. “It’s clear that you are just as smart as others have said.”

“Why did you bring me here?” Her patience is running thin. She welcomes the new hardness in her voice.

“Like I told you in the hospital, they were going to erase your memory.”

“Who’s ‘they’? And why would they perform an invasive operation on a Colonial official without consent?”