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wars?”
    “Attacks on computer systems. When a civilization’s internal neural network is destroyed, it’s easy to take over. That’s why information isn’t available to the public anymore. It’s too hard to defend. It’s lucky we salvaged anything from your time period.”
    “Wait—what do you mean, information isn’t available anymore?”
    He wasn’t listening, though. His pace slowed to a standstill and he let go of her hand. He looked at her as though the reason for her denials about animals speaking had suddenly become clear to him. “You were one of the flesh eaters, weren’t you?”
    She nearly denied it. She didn’t want to give him the least bit of leverage in the argument. But he might ask Taylor about their eating habits, and then he would think Sheridan was a flesh eater and a liar as well.
    She lifted her chin. “Believe whatever you want. Apparently that’s what you do regardless.” She set off down the hallway, even though she didn’t know where she was going. “If the animals are really gone, though, couldn’t your scientists have used the Time Strainer to bring some back instead of abducting random people?”
    Echo let her walk a few steps, then took hold of her hand to stop her. He put his other hand on a button by a door, opening it, then led her inside.
    Rows of computers and chairs filled the room. Taylor and Jeth sat in front of a computer watching something on the screen. Taylor looked up when they walked in, and relief swept over her face. She stood up and gave Sheridan a hug. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”
    Sheridan returned the hug, then pulled away. “Taylor, tell the truth—did animals ever talk?”
    “What?” Taylor stared at her, perhaps mentally revising her assessment of Sheridan’s health.
    “Animals. Did they or didn’t they wear clothes and speak English?”
    Taylor put her hand across Sheridan’s forehead, checking for signs of fever. “Uh … no.”
    Sheridan turned to Echo and gave him a pointed look. “I told you so.”
    He crossed his arms and walked over to where his father sat, as though standing there reinforced his position. “Two testimonies don’t erase the records.”
    Taylor’s gaze slid back and forth between Sheridan and Echo. “What records?”
    “‘Little Red Riding Hood,’” Sheridan said, “and Winnie-the-Pooh .”
    Jeth leaned back in his chair, considering this. “Perhaps by your period in history, animals chose silence as a sort of resistance.”
    Taylor held her hand up to interrupt the conversation. “Hello—animals don’t talk now, do they?”
    “No animals are left,” Echo said. “The people of your generation ate them.”
    Sheridan wrinkled her nose. “Like I would eat a rat.”
    Taylor went back to her chair and sat down. “If all animals were extinct, the earth’s ecosystems would have crashed to the point that they couldn’t sustain human life.”
    “The ecosystems did crash,” Echo said. “That’s why people live in enclosed cities now—to protect the Agrocenters.”
    “And pollination happens how?” Taylor asked.
    “Done by pollenbots. Miniature droids.”
    “Right,” Taylor said, in the tone she used when she’d decided someone was so delusional there was no point arguing with them. Jeth and Echo didn’t know the tone, but Sheridan did and it gave her hope. As long as Taylor doubted Echo’s explanation, it wasn’t necessarily true.
    “How was food produced in your day?” Jeth asked, leaving the subject of the animals’ demise behind.
    “I don’t know much about it,” Taylor said. She ran her hand through her hair wearily. “Look, is there—”
    Taylor didn’t finish. Both Echo and Jeth were glancing about the room with puzzled expressions.
    “It’s a saying,” Taylor said, and her voice sounded tight. “It means, ‘Listen.’”
    “ Look means listen ?” Jeth’s eyebrows furrowed together with obvious skepticism.
    “Listen,” Taylor said slowly, “where are Sheridan