“How did you survive?” he asked.

“I didn’t want to. Everyone I loved was gone. I had no extended family; my parents were already dead and I had no siblings. My body was crushed, I would certainly never walk again. Even if I wanted to leave and return home, I couldn’t. But I kept hearing their whispers, their suggestions. You may find in life, my boy, that anger can keep you alive.”

“Whispers? Suggestions? From whom?”

She folded her hands on her lap. “From the very organization that is hunting you. The same agency that constructed the building in Mexico, that collected the abducted who were returned. They are not characters in a movie or comic book. They are very real, with a very real purpose. And I became one of them.”

William’s ears flushed. “You joined them? Even though they knowingly took your daughter? And then gave her something that erased her memories?”

“And now you know they did it to you as well. And I know that must make you angry.”

William frowned. “I don’t think angry comes close to how I feel about it. It took years for me to adjust to the strangers who claimed to be my family. I just … can’t understand why you would join a government operation responsible for what they did to your daughter.”

“The SSA isn’t just a US government operation. It’s in every country in the world. And yes, I did. And I know you’re angry. But trust me, your anger doesn’t begin to compare to mine when I realized what had been kept from me. I lost out on an entire life with my daughter and husband.”

The anger building within him began to quell at the bitterness in her voice. “I don’t mean to blame you. I’m just confused.”

“Understand that I was told that my family was dead, but that I could help others like me. I could devote my life to a cause that was trying to understand why people, like my Lynn, were being taken and returned to earth. That I could avenge her, and my husband, by seeking the answers. All this planted in me by the extremely encouraging agents who routinely visited me in my recovery. It lit a fire within me. Ultimately, it gave me a reason to live. Ultimately, they were successful in keeping me silent.”

She motioned to the wheelchair. “My legs were shattered. But in time, the rest of me healed. Enough for me to quietly be wheeled into the new, tiny, research facility in Mexico run by the SSA. Everyone there spoke Spanish, so it took me a long time to learn the language. But I did. And my life’s work began.”

“All this time … you’ve been in Mexico?”