“IT BINDS ONE TO ANOTHER, IT DOES NOT INDUCE FEELINGS OF LOVE. ONE CAN LOVE NON-SYMPHYLES, AND ONE CAN DESPISE THEIR SYMPHYLES. THAT WOULD BE TERRIBLE, THOUGH.”

“Is it possible that he . . . chemically manipulated her somehow? Injected something into her, implanted some sort of devotion device into her brain? Did he make her love him?”

“I CAN STATE WITH CERTAINTY HE IS NOT PRESENTLY CAPABLE OF THAT.”

This surprised Kaveh. He’d have figured that would be an easy one for a species so advanced; induce feelings of love, induce feelings of loyalty, a handy thing to have in a liaison. “How do you know, if he’s keeping everything from you?”

“MANIPULATING THAT LEVEL OF EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT IS FAR TOO ADVANCED. WE SIMPLY DO NOT KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT THE HUMAN BRAIN TO MANIPULATE IT WITH SUCH SPECIFICITY. PERHAPS WITH ENOUGH TIME AND ENOUGH STUDY, WE COULD. BUT WE DON’T HAVE THAT SOPHISTICATED AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE HUMAN MIND YET.”

Then where does this devotion come from? Kaveh wondered. Why throw yourself in front of a gun for—oh wait, I did that, too, didn’t I?

He leaned his head against the cold bark of the tree. Occam’s razor, he concluded. The simplest explanation is likely the correct one. There wasn’t any weird alien implant or injections; she fell in love with him the old-fashioned way.

“I just don’t understand why,” said Kaveh. “Every time I’ve seen them together, he seems so cold and cruel to her.”

“PERHAPS HE WASN’T ALWAYS.”

Kaveh pulled the collar of his peacoat tight around his neck, hugging himself against the chill. “I’ve been thinking about your proposal, and I can’t help but think, since we do have a bit of time before we really need to make a decision, that I’m really not the right person to help you smuggle out the human genome.”

“WHO WOULD BE THE RIGHT PERSON, DEAR CLEVER CREATURE?”

“I mean, I don’t have any skills relevant to this. I’m a writer, my skill set is taking information, parsing out what’s relevant to public interest, and presenting it to people in an accessible manner.”

“YOU ARE A PROPAGANDIST.”

“Insofar as any information that could influence politics is propaganda, sure. I’m not a state propagandist but . . .” He scratched his head. “We are getting off topic. My point is, we have so many people who would be more appropriate for what you want—astronauts, geneticists, researchers, scientists, people who’ve dedicated their lives to being the type of person you’d need.”

“I DID NOT ASK FOR A MORE QUALIFIED PERSON, FOR THERE IS NO QUALIFIED PERSON. THIS IS NOT AN ENDEAVOR FOR WHICH ONE CAN TRAIN.”