“Just a moment—Adam is here. We’ve got House of Wisdom, sir.”

Orvar spoke quietly for a few moments, relaying to Adam what I had just told him. A shiver of nerves passed over my skin. We had lost so much, and I did not know how Adam would respond. Both profound sadness and fiery rage would be justified. I had not seen him in about a month, not since we had left the family to embed ourselves into SPEC under our false identities. I did not know how to brace for his mercurial temperament when I could not read his face and voice and whims every day.

“Zahra,” Adam said, and I tensed. He spoke my name with an exhaled breath, like the swoop of a hawk that had spotted its prey. “Listen to me. Boudicca knew the danger when she chose this mission. She would have thought it worth it, for a chance to bring our family to freedom. She knew her sacrifice would not be in vain.”

What Boudicca had wanted was to fly again, after having been forced to give it up so long ago. She had wanted to push aside the tragedies of her past and return to space. She had known this mission, our dream, was dangerous. But anticipating danger and going happily into death were two very different things. She had only wanted to fly.

Now was not the time to argue with Adam and open myself to his anger and recriminations. I said, “I have to tell you about the virus.”

“Ah, yes,” said Adam, chuckling softly. “Dr. Lago’s infamous virus. It has always fascinated you.”

He put a sly emphasis on my father’s name. I had to ignore it. I had to make him understand this wasn’t about me or my father. “It isn’t what we thought. The symptoms don’t match Zeffir-1, so we can’t trust the vaccine to work.”

“Zahra.” In Adam’s voice I heard a familiar note of exasperation, the same one I heard every time I doubted, every time I hesitated, every time I questioned the path we had set ourselves upon. It made me feel like a small child, and I cringed. “Zahra, my dear, you would have us tremble in fear like the cowards who abandoned that ship to space? You would have the memory of a single Councils-brainwashed madman keep us from our new home?”