Trae finally snapped out of his daze. “I swear on my maker that you’ll regret this, Tangent,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. Then he turned from the barracks. Michael expected him to command his people to leave. But instead he just slowly walked away, the others who’d come with him following. Michael watched as they vanished into the trees like wispy ghosts.

“We better have a meeting,” Helga said, suddenly not sounding so confident. “There’s going to be hell to pay.”

3

They met in a room at the far end of the barracks, an old office with a desk and chairs. There was a cot in the corner, and Michael wondered if this was Helga’s private quarters.

“Sit,” the woman said as she took the chair behind the large wooden desk. Michael, his friends, Sarah’s parents, Walter, and the woman named Amy had been invited into the room. Everyone sat down except Walter, who stood behind them all with arms folded. “I know you’re upset,” Helga said to him. “Which is why I owe you an explanation. And, Michael, all of you deserve to know what happened as well.”

“You got that right,” Walter said. It seemed to Michael like he might say more, but he went silent.

Helga sighed. “Only two of them died.”

That was enough to set Walter off again. “Only two? Only two. I think you mean four. You gave the true death to two people, so two humans and two Tangents. Four beings who will never exist again. Without consulting any of us, you decided to go against every principle we agreed to when we joined you. And you’re supposed to be our leader!”

Helga stood up and slammed her hand on the table. “Yes! I’m your leader! And I did what I had to do! A lot more people would’ve died if I hadn’t done that—you know it, Walter!”

“We could’ve fought them,” the man countered. “We could’ve stood our ground and fought. Or we could’ve surrendered and started over. Or tried negotiating more. Anything but resorting to the one thing we’re trying to prevent!”

“He gave us an ultimatum,” Helga said more calmly. “I couldn’t risk him blowing those explosives and killing every one of us. Including four people”—she pointed at Bryson, Sarah, Gerard, and Nancy, one by one—“who aren’t backed up on the Hive yet. You want to talk about true death—well, these people are our friends, and I wasn’t going to sit back and allow that to happen to them. I had no choice!”

“You did have a choice,” Walter answered.

Helga sat back down. “A lot more lives were saved than lost.”

“But—” Walter started, but Helga cut him off.