She paused, and murmurs rumbled across the crowd. She held several papers with notes in front of her, and stared at them now, her face betraying that she was extremely unsettled. Placing the papers down on the podium, she looked up and scanned the audience.

“I can’t say what they told me to say. I’m sorry, but I can’t. This is absurd. This is absolutely absurd.”

“Cowan!” a man shouted from behind her. It was the Vice-Chairperson, Wilhelm. He stood up and walked briskly to stand right behind his immediate boss. He leaned forward and whispered fiercely into her ear. Although the acoustics picked up a series of sharp S and P sounds, no words were discernible.

Ms. Cowan swept the papers off the podium and they floated toward the stage like autumn leaves. Another member of the Congress whom Isaac did not know rushed forward to gather them up before a member of the crowd could grab them.

“I don’t care!” Ms. Cowan shouted, having spun around to face Wilhelm. “I don’t care about the rest of the world—I care about this one!”

She brushed past her second-in-command and had to step around the man scooping up her papers. Then she hurried down the steps descending from the stage.

The crowd was hushed. Wilhelm stood stock-still, his face as pale as the crest of a wave. Isaac looked at Sadina, who seemed way too calm for the situation. Ms. Cowan was her mom, after all.

“Sadina?” Isaac questioned, “What . . .”

She looked at him. “It’s me, Isaac. They want to send me back to the old world.”

Sadina had gotten up right after her explosive pronouncement and squeezed past the others on their bench, then taken off in a run after her mom. Miyoko had also heard what she’d said, and followed right on Isaac’s heels when he followed Sadina. He had no clue what had just transpired, with so many layers to unravel. But instinct took over and he swore to himself that he wouldn’t let Sadina out of his sight. Behind him, as he ran on to the beach, the temporary state of shock had worn off the crowd and now they were in an uproar, shouting so many things that he couldn’t make out a single word.

“Mom!” Sadina shouted.

“Sadina!” Isaac shouted.

“Isaac!”

He looked over his shoulder. Dominic. Trish was right by his side, everyone chasing someone.

Ms. Cowan finally stopped, a good half kilometer from the amphitheater. She hunched over, hands on knees, catching her breath. Sadina reached her, then Isaac and Miyoko, then Trish and Dominic. They all stared at each other while heaving air into their lungs, waiting for someone to explain.

Ms. Cowan surprised him with her first words.

“Isaac, go back. Go back right now. You’re not a part of this.”

“What . . . what’s . . . not a part of what?” He floundered like the idiot he felt like.