Elara pushed off the wall. “Well, I, for one, would really like to know what the hell is going on. Now,” she snapped. Phobos stepped beside her, supporting her without words.

All four of them turned the heaviness of their stares on the man who had the answers.

Atlas surveyed the group, unfazed, and clasped his hands behind his back. It was a soldier’s pose. That was what didn’t make sense. If he was from Earth, why did he stand like a soldier? How did he know so much about the Orbitos? And if he was from the Orbitos, what was happening? Why were there so many people here? Had the humans survived after all?

And why did he not tell her this? Why did he lie?

Romy stood, fist clenched at her sides. She’d never been so angry, nor felt so violent in her life. “Tell us.”

Atlas stopped before her.

“Why did the woman call me a ‘sacrifice’?”

A smile cracked on his face. Romy blinked at him. That wasn’t the reaction she was expecting. A wheezing noise came from behind Atlas.

She peered past Atlas and saw the doctor had his fist shoved in his mouth and was . . . crying. Tears streamed from his eyes. She shared a baffled look with Phobos.

Atlas smoothed the smirk from his face with one hand and rubbed the back of his head. The wheezing continued behind him.

“I can see how Meredith’s words could be construed that way,” Atlas started.

The wheezing behind him turned to howling laughter.

Atlas coughed and glanced back. “Houston, give us a moment.”

“S-sure.”

The doctor left them through one of the nearby exits. They listened to his laughter recede down the hall.

“Follow me,” Atlas commanded.

He didn’t wait to see if they would follow. It was almost exactly like the first time he’d said the words to her. He was arrogant enough to expect her knot would just stand and shadow him. And Elara and Phobos did.

She looked to Thrym, who stared back at her. Steel passed between them. There were only four people she trusted in the world, and Thrym she trusted more than any other.

“There’s only one way we’re getting information,” he muttered.

Romy sighed and trailed after her friends.

Atlas didn’t take them far. Not even out of the building. Romy assumed they were in one of the important buildings.

They crossed down a hallway to a room full of tables and benches. All of the furniture faced the front, kind of like a more informal orbito lecture theatre. He waved the four space soldiers to the front row, not making any move to sit himself.

Atlas ignored Romy’s friends for the most part, watching her closely. And Romy had absolutely no idea what he was searching for. She couldn’t glean anything from his body language at all.