“Were you a part of the terrorist plot to blow up our embassy?”

“Yes.”

“Did you kill Xola?”

Matata reared up, both hurt and angry at the accusation. “No.”

“Would you even know if you were used as the weapon?” Ishant turned his back to him. “We’re sending you back to the Dreaming City. They’ll know how best to deal with you.”

Lebna stood up and stared at Matata one last time. “Nanny fe Queen.”

Lebna escorted Ishant toward the door. They shuffled out of the room without a sound, leaving Matata without any sense of community or belonging.

“You did well in there,” Lebna said once the door sealed behind them. “The evidence you gathered, your final report has all been sent to Maulana. What will you do next?”

“My job here is done. I need to return to Muungano to aid in the search for Amachi.”

Lebna brushed his shoulder, halting him in his tracks. “I have an offer from Maulana.”

“What’s that?” Ishant lingered, not freeing himself from Lebna’s touch.

“To join the Niyabinghi.”

“What?” Ishant’s eyes widened in amazement. “No obroni has ever been a member of the Niyabinghi.”

“You’d be the first.”

“Why me?” Ishant glanced down at Lebna’s hand.

Withdrawing it, Lebna backed up half a step, but was still well within Ishant’s personal space. “This affair has shown us a few blind spots that we have.”

“The Night Train?”

“That’s part of it. We need well-placed operatives of our own. Is that something you’d be interested in?”

“Yes. Right after we find Amachi,” Ishant said.

“I’m afraid your asset training would take precedence. And deployment beginning immediately.”

“What’s the rush?”

“You already have an assignment,” Lebna said.

“What’s that?”

“To return to O.E.”

26 EPYC RO MORGAN
Eshu

Epyc Ro saw her first dead body during the Montes Caucasus conflict of the Lunar Ukombozi War. The O.E. ambush made little sense other than to send the message that every square meter of First World was going to be contested. By the time the skirmish was over, she’d lost two people. O.E. forces lost nearly two dozen, about what she’d predicted, considering her people knew the lunar ridges like the backs of their hands. Epyc Ro replayed the horror in her mind. People being blown to bits. The fervor of bloodlust. The violence, desperate and brutal, she had to inflict. And endure. She feared for her humanity.

“There is the person I was, the person I am, and the person I want to be.” She wondered about her future, her hoped-for self. If she had served her people.

“You need to make peace with the fact that they are all the same person,” Robin said.

“How?”

“Let them continue to be in conversation with one another. Never forget the mother and scholar you were, the warrior you have to be now, and…”

“And what?” Epyc Ro asked.