The young Earth human’s eyes went wide. Mouth ajar, she asked, “Why?”

It was a debate Romy had on the way here. She didn’t want to endanger Nancy by telling her too much, but she knew if she didn’t give her enough information the plan could explode in their faces.

“The Orbitos are coming to kill us,” she explained quietly. “I can’t tell you much. But you need to know that everything is not as it seems. They want to silence us because we uncovered something we were never meant to.”

Nancy sat down at the table, expression unchanging.

Leaning down, Romy gripped the girl’s shoulders. “You know me. You know I wouldn’t ask you if there were any other choice. Please, Nancy. We need your help.”

The girl from space and the girl from Earth looked at each other for a long beat before Nancy swallowed.

“H-how?” her voice cracked. “How do I help?”

* * *

Romy crept out of Nancy’s bungalow. Her last warning—“Don’t breathe a word to anyone. Trust no one”—lingered on her lips.

“Where’s Lucas?” Phobos asked.

“He’s in a room just off the clearing.” It explained how the soldier was somehow able to know exactly when Romy arrived at the storage building and when she was alone.

The twins led the way, with Romy following on quiet feet.

In the darkness, the sound of their footsteps and breathing seemed to carry forever. Phobos motioned for them to hide in the shadows as they reached the front of Lucas’s bungalow.

“I don’t like it,” Deimos decided. “He’s too close to the clearing. There are lights on in Atlas’s office. What if Atlas or Tina are in there?”

Their roughly assembled plan consisted of breaking in and overpowering him. But he was too close to the offices and other houses.

The three shared helpless looks. But a quiet thought nudged Romy.

Her heart took off in a gallop at the mere thought of doing it, but she knew it was the only way.

“I … might have an idea.”

* * *

Romy knocked on the door, wiping her sweaty palms on her beige cotton shorts. She couldn’t believe she was about to do this. Flashes of Lucas’s hands down her shorts made her swallow back bile. It was the worst plan ever—a desperate plan. She’d lied to the twins and sent them to retrieve a book from the archives that “Lucas was searching for yesterday” while she “practised what she’d say”. They didn’t expect the lie from her, so they didn’t hear a lie. They would be back in a couple of minutes.

All she had to do was get in and incapacitate Lucas. Incapacitate a trained soldier. . . . Suddenly she realised what a terrible plan that was.

The door swung wide, and she blinked into the barrel of a gun.