“There’s a robot down in the utility rooms,” Park gasped, before he could beat her to the punch. “It isn’t data they’re keeping down there—it’s a robot. A HARE. They’ve been studying him, and the man I saw, he’s down there, too, dead—”

“I know,” Sagara said, his face shuttered. He moved over to Park and handed her a tissue, as if her face was the most pressing of his concerns.

She waved him off. “You knew?” Then: “Never mind. Natalya found me down there—attacked me. She’s coming after me now, she wants to kill me—and she has a gun—”

There were sudden steps behind her. The two of them turned sharply, Sagara pushing Park behind him—but it was Boone who came puffing up, his own electrolaser gun drawn. His eyes boggled when he took in the sight of her, but he said to Sagara, “What’s going on? I heard gunshots.”

“That would be Natalya,” Sagara answered, motioning for him to get out of the way.

Boone frowned. “She doesn’t have a gun.”

“Apparently she does.” Sagara scowled at both of them. “How did you get out of your rooms?”

“That doesn’t matter,” Boone said. He looked at Park. “And where the hell did you go? I turned around and you were just . . . gone.”

“Boone,” she said through gritted teeth. “Get the fuck out of the way!”

His brow was still furrowed in confusion, but the military specialist obeyed, stalking over to stand on Sagara’s other side and lifting up his gun. It wasn’t long before Natalya staggered up to the doorway, fierce red spots high on her cheeks and her eyes blazing with hatred. She was empty-handed, Park saw—she must have gotten rid of her weapon before Sagara or Boone could confiscate it—but Park stayed a little behind Sagara, anyway. If the surveyor came at her again, Park would take her eyes out.

“What did you do to the androids?” she asked her. Her voice again sounded strange to her, tight, as if her throat had shrunk.

Natalya ignored her. “Don’t listen to her,” she said to Boone and Sagara. “She’s gone the way of Holt and Ma. I found her sleepwalking in the utility lab—”

“No,” Park butted in fiercely. “I’m not insane; look what she did to my head. And Holt and Ma and the others were never sleepwalking. They were experiencing something called the unity rain—”

Boone turned to her. “The unity what?”

“It’s an effect of the Fold,” Park said, trying not to gabble. “It’s like a storm that rages across the planet intermittently—and like in the Fold, it collapses together space, and even—even—”

She faltered for a moment. How to explain it without sounding as mad as Taban? How could she even know if any of it was true?

And yet, what else would explain the nightmares?

“—causes people to see things,” she said finally. “Makes them behave strangely.”