Izzy’s face is suddenly there, enlarged on my monitor. Thick geeky-chic glasses, spiky short hair. She does look really cute, and not the slightest bit surprised to see me.

“Hello, Ada Castle.”

“Hello, Izzy King.”

“Long time no see.”

“I wish it hadn’t been so long,” I say, words full of hurt I don’t have time to feel right now. I’m unsure where to begin. But nothing is worse than an empty page, so I splatter paint on it. “I need to know everything you know about Operation Genesis.”

She doesn’t look particularly surprised. “From what I hear, it’s only happening because of the information you provided.”

In the other window, Georgie’s eyes widen, and she sucks her cheeks into a ridiculous fish face, but she doesn’t say anything.

“Well, now I want to stop it.”

“And how do you know I want to stop it?”

“Well, don’t you?”

“Hell yeah.”

I smile. And Izzy smiles back.

Georgie’s face relaxes.

“So, Purple Boots,” Izzy says to Georgie, “you’re actually one of the Hidden?”

Georgie smiles sheepishly. “Kind of? And you can call me Georgie.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Izzy looks as if she would like to call her many things, but I’ve got a crisis on my hands.

“So, what’s with the radio silence?” I ask. “And the big middle finger to everything our families believe in?”

“Yeah, right. None of this extremist stuff the Oculus is up to has anything to do with our families’ beliefs.”

I’m so relieved to hear her say this. It’s been hard to rely on my gut that all of this is wrong when the people I trust the most think it’s okay. Knowing Izzy feels the same confirms that I’m not overreacting. And it means that the Oculus is diverging from the Families’ values, as opposed to the other explanation that I was starting to dread might be true, that this is who they have been all along, and everything I grew up knowing was a lie.

Now that she’ll finally speak to me about it, I’ve been squeezing Mom for as much information about the Families as I can. It seems the Oculus has always had grander plans than the mere stewardship of the rest of the Families. Kor’s father, Aragon, had dedicated his life to finding the exiles so their innovations could be shared and had passed this passion on to Kor. But now, as more of the Inner Chamber are being brought into the new operation, there are many who don’t agree with the radical changes.

Izzy is surprised that I’m choosing to act against Kor.

“I tried to warn you, but you were never going to listen to me over him.”

“You didn’t warn me. You just told me not to go to Italy without any explanation. I thought it was a drunk text!”