“That night you woke up from the flu, and you were so angry with me,” Daiyu murmured. “I told you I was starting to see. Starting to learn more and more about what my father was doing. How truly horrible it was for meis in our country. But I also saw that you couldn’t trust me.”

I looked at her then, and she graced me with a sad smile.

“You couldn’t truly trust me,” she repeated. “And I didn’t blame you.”

“I was the one who kidnapped you, Daiyu, who stole from you. Why did you trust me?”

She took my hand then. “I took a leap of faith.”

We exited the restroom, and Daiyu led me to another set of silver curved doors, following the shape of the circular building. A palm scan and they slid open without a sound, disappearing into the walls. The lights within the inner chamber came on and Daiyu stepped inside. It was a hall, probably seating no more than one hundred, cozy and intimate. A raised circular dais stood at the center of the room, with plush chairs surrounding it, all reclined. I glanced upward at the high, domed ceiling, an expanse of white.

“A theatre,” I said with sudden understanding. “You’ve built a dome theatre?”

These were popular a few decades ago, and there had been one in Taipei. But it soon went out of fashion, being too expensive for most meis and not high-tech enough for the yous, who preferred putting on sim suits for a fully immersive experience. Daiyu’s eyes flicked toward me, and she gave an enigmatic smile. She went to the dais and pulled a blanket and pillows from beneath it, making a nest for us on the small stage. Climbing on, she lay down and patted the space beside her. Although her pose was natural, she was exuding nervous energy, some unspoken tension that made me jittery in turn. What was she going to show me? What had been her story all this time? I got onto the platform and stretched out beside her, our shoulders touching.

She was avoiding eye contact, focused on her Palm, typing one-handed. The lights in the theatre began to fade, and I felt my pulse pick up, not knowing what to expect, yet filled with wary anticipation.