He nodded once. “Once we were able to decipher her message, I was determined to get her out and bring her home. Lynn needed to know her own mother was alive. Rudd, with his military background, was essential in coordinating the effort. And we almost slipped her out without notice.”

“Almost?” William asked.

“We were discovered. We lost two good people. The SSA lost more. But we succeeded in getting to the private plane. As soon as we landed in Florida, we took her into hiding.”

Blue shook her head. “We had to wait two months before we felt it was safe to even leave Steven’s house. It isn’t far from here, but still very remote. Once again, Dr. Richards came to my rescue.”

Steven smiled wearily. “We old people have to take care of each other. For your daughter, it was the least I could do.”

“I don’t understand … you never reached out to my grandmother? After all that … you never told her you’re alive?”

“Trust me, my boy. It has pained me every single moment since I returned to US soil,” she said. “But that terrible escape from Mexico made me realize that the closer I got to Lynn, to your mother, and her daughters, and even you, the more danger you all would face. If they learned I had gotten to her … there would be a freak gas explosion, or car accident, or something awful. I couldn’t risk it.”

“It weighed heavily on all of us,” Steven continued. “All I ever wanted was for your grandmother to know the truth. But I’d seen too much as well. I know what the SSA is capable of doing; no one, and I mean no one, is safe when they determine you know too much. They’ve been permanently removing witnesses of abductions for decades. We didn’t just keep ourselves from your grandmother, but from everyone and everything. We’ve lived in isolation.”

William let that sink in. “So ever since my grandmother found me…”

“I’ve been watching. From afar. As long as life appeared to go on as normal for you and your family, and I never surfaced, the SSA wouldn’t dare touch you. As I began to share with the Corcillium what I knew about the abductions, including the files I stole on your mother and yourself, I became an asset to them.”

“More than an asset,” Steven said. “For the first time in the history of the Corcillium, we had someone with direct knowledge of how the SSA worked and their purposes. To us, there is no one more valuable in the world.”

“And also dangerous,” she added softly. “And we all knew that no one, save for a few of our members, would know who I truly am.”

“Listen,” William began, “I know people have died, and I’m truly sorry for that. But the fact that my grandmother was unaware of all of this—”