“I actually extended an offer to your grandmother to join the Corcillium,” Steven said. “I even told her that letters existed from her father that she hadn’t read. I fully intended on her having it all. And when I first learned that Blue might be alive, I only told Lynn that I was trying to find something of significance to her. But when Mexico went so badly, and we knew the SSA would be desperately searching for Blue, we had no choice. To protect Lynn, she had to think the Corcillium—including myself—had disappeared.”

Blue trembled. William reached out and took her hand, cold even in the summer heat. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what you’ve had to go through.”

She smiled through her tears, her voice choking. “But here you are. My great-grandson. My whole life, all I’ve been awarded with is time. And now that I need it, we have none.”

“What do you mean?”

Blue looked across the yard to Lily, now sitting by the fountain, trying to convince one of the dragonflies to land on her finger. “It stopped, you know. After the abducted vanished from Argentum and the others sites, the disasters ceased. The diseases slowed, even the violence. And the numbers of missing people dropped dramatically. But last year, the fires out west started without a clear ignition source. Hurricanes in the south started churning, one after another. Increased violence on the East Coast and widespread, unexplained diseases in the upper Midwest. Similar disasters are now unfolding in every country. And we knew.”

“Rudd is a talented hacker,” Steven continued. “With Blue’s assistance in unraveling their security codes, we’ve kept tabs on the SSA. And a year ago, they detected four single beams of light from the sky on a single night in every major country around the world. Then, a day or so later, it happened again. But not in Argentum, or the Yucatan, or the other locations where you and the other abducted were returned.”

Blue motioned slightly to Lily. “What do you know of her?”

William watched the girl for a moment. “I only know what an agent with the parks service told me: She was found somewhere in a national park in North Dakota just a few days ago, wandering alone. I can’t get her to tell me anything else. She just tends to repeat one saying, over and over.”

“And what is that?” Steven asked.

William exhaled through his nose. “Something about being a monster in a mountain.”

Blue tilted her head. “What does that mean to you?”

William stood, wincing as a final beam of sunlight cast across his face. The pained look on his face remained as he moved from the light.