We stare at each other as his words settle like a blanket on the darkness.

“He’s missing, and no one knows where he is or even if he’s alive.”

Atlas’s voice cracks and I let go of the door handle.

Atlas shoves his hands into his pockets and looks up into the black above us. “My father and your mother were working with someone on an important project before her accident. I have no idea what it was or who they were working with. They kept it secret from almost everyone—including me. So when I saw you following me the other day, I thought your mother told you about Verify, like my father and grandfather told me. That you were like me and maybe because of your mother and what she told you, you might know something that could help me figure out where he is.”

The rest of my anger fades. If my mother had gone missing, I would have done the same. I stare at him in the darkness. A sliver of light from the next room casts a shadow across his face, but it doesn’t hide the hurt and the hopelessness that I know far too well. We’re both alone. Both trying to find someone. We both need something to hold on to. Quietly, I ask, “What’s your dad’s name?”

Hope flickers in his eyes. “For safety, we all have code names. Your mother would have known him as Atticus. That’s a character from an important book I guess you never read and . . .” His expression goes blank as he studies my face. “Atticus. You’ve never heard of him, have you?”

I wish I could say yes. But I would have remembered a name like that. “I’m sorry.”

He shakes his head and turns so I can’t see his face in the shadows. “It’s not your fault. The Engineers told me to leave it alone.” There’s a pause. Then, “I screwed up everything tonight.”

My heart twists. I don’t want to feel for Atlas. He’s irritating and self-important. There are so many reasons for me to question whether he’s telling the truth—and yet, I recognize the hopelessness in his voice. And maybe it’s foolish, but I feel as if I know him because of it. Rose would tell me to be logical. She would warn me not to trust the connection I feel, but I do.

I step away from the door and turn my back on the exit. “So I’m a disappointment because I didn’t know anything about Verify and you screwed up everything about my ‘train ride’ in order to learn more about your father. Does that about sum it up?”

He stares at me and there is a moment where it feels like time stands still. Then relief fills his eyes and the corners of his mouth twitch. “You forgot to say that I’m a pain-in-the-ass know-it-all who acts more like he’s two than eighteen.”

“Wow. Eighteen. I’m only two years younger than you.” More like one year and a handful of months, but who’s counting.