In that illumination, I could see that there was a metal panel on the wall in the adjoining room with a little switch on it.

There were too many possibilities, and we’d left Indigo alone to murder a bunch of Children. We had to divide and conquer. “Tamara,” I said, and she came over swiftly, club still upraised. “I’m going to check the other room,” I said, pointing at the panel visible through the glass. “In the meantime I want you to try these five buttons, okay?”

“Sean, I can’t read Ameng.”

“Look.” I grabbed her hand, held it over the buttons I wanted. “See? This says lock, this says seal, and then these,” I brought her hand over to the computer screen, lacy with Ameng’s black script. “This menu has something to do with doors. Try these buttons.”

Tamara nodded, sharp, and I let go of her bony wrist to hurry into the brightness of the adjoining room, setting my flashlight on the counter beside her hand as I went.

The other room was small, hardly more than a closet. The air smelled stale, like the ship’s ventilation hadn’t been working in here. It took me barely two strides to reach the panel on the far wall, where there was a little mesh grate over a single button.

The button was labeled ‘Talk’. Not useful, then. I turned to go back the way I had come just as a door shot out of where it had been hidden in the wall and sealed the exit to the little windowed room with an aerated hiss.

There was no knob or handle on this side. I rapped on the glass separating me and Tamara, even though she was already staring straight at me, lantern-eyes wide. “Care to let me out?”

She shook her head at me, then mouthed something.

No, not mouthed something—she was saying something, I just couldn’t hear her through the glass. So that explained the button, then. I reached back to the wall and the button labeled Talk. “Can you hear me?” I asked.

Tamara nodded furiously, but when her mouth moved, I couldn’t hear a word.

“Look for another panel like this one; I can’t hear you unless you press the button,” I said. “It should… No, never mind. Can you press whatever button you just pressed and let me out?”

She gave me a severe look and jabbed two fingers down at the counter.

“Okay, you’ve been pressing it,” I realized. “I’m safer in here than you are right now. Just try those other buttons I said; let’s figure out how to get the main door closed before Indigo gets here, then we can let me out.”

She nodded, then made some arcane gesture through the glass at the space around me.

“What?” I said.

Her eyes narrowed again. She pointed once, sharply, at me, then turned those jabbing fingers at her own eyes, then pointed at the space around me. Then, for good measure, she mimed looking around, shielding her eyes against the light with one hand like a sailor at sea.