Letti’s eyes were bloodshot and she winced with every move, even the workings of her jaw as she spoke. “It never pays to be a traitor. A lesson people always learn too late. Including me. Looks like our friends that, um, I’m sorry, but the ones that helped us take you from that house . . . Well, it appears they weren’t friends after all.”

Timon grumbled and darted a hard look at Sadina, then at Isaac, but soon returned to stuffing his mouth with meat and beans.

“Does anyone know what happened to Minho?” the woman named Roxy asked. She seemed a sweet, matronly lady, and the concern in her eyes also hurt Isaac’s heart. He set a goal to stop looking at people altogether. “Anyone? I haven’t seen him or heard a thing about him.”

Orange stepped up to her, put a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “He’s fine, ma’am. On the other ship and totally fine. I bet you see him soon.” Her eyes found Isaac as she said that, staring at him with intensity. Trying to say something but he didn’t know what. “But if I were you I wouldn’t call him Minho while the bosses are around. They don’t like that sort of thing. You know, names and such.”

The other guard, Skinny, stood by the door, fidgeting and rocking back and forth on his feet. The bulky, sparkling, tight-wound suit that he wore creaked with all of his movements. Artillery suit, Isaac thought. What in the world does that mean?

“Why would you do this to us?” Trish asked Letti. “Why would you kill Kletter, take my friends away, lead us to all this?” She gestured at whatever it was that ensnared them within its belly. “How could you do that to such innocent people? I wish you’d died when that guy whacked you over the head. I hope you still die, and I’m glad you were betrayed by your so-called friends.”

“Hey!” Timon shouted, spitting out a tiny bit of food. “Easy for you to talk like that, growing up on your safe little island. Things aren’t so easy in the real world. We’ll see how you get along, kid. We’ll see what you do when it comes down to it. You or them. It’s not a hard choice. So shut your mouth until you’ve lived a real life.”

Sadina wasn’t having any of that. She stood up, threw her plate at Timon’s head. He ducked, picked it off the floor, threw it back. Trish knocked it aside right before it struck Sadina’s face. Then there was a lot of yelling and Isaac didn’t hear a word of it.