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and I going to stay?”
    Jeth stood up from his chair, stretching. His maroon hair swayed across his shoulders. “I suppose it’s time we talked to the scientists about your accommodations.” He motioned to Echo. “It’s better to ask in person.” Then the two of them walked toward the door.
    “Don’t leave this room,” Jeth called over his shoulder. “The scientists wouldn’t like you wandering the building unescorted.”
    Sheridan didn’t care what the scientists liked. Perhaps this was evident in her expression. Echo looked at her and added, “The Enforcers wouldn’t like it either.”

chapter
6
    Jeth and Echo walked toward Lab Fifteen. Echo waited for his father to say something about the girls being identical twins—the coincidence of it, or the irony. Jeth didn’t. Was it possible his father hadn’t noticed? Echo decided not to ask. The subject would lead to his brother.
    “Taylor and Sheridan are quite beautiful,” Jeth said. “I had expected girls from that era to look sickly and weak, malnourished from a constant diet of sugar and fat.”
    “Historians must be wrong about their diet.” Echo didn’t say more about their eating habits.
    “I suppose we’ll find we’ve miscalculated lots of things,” Jeth said. “I expected the girls to be happy to be here, away from the anarchy and danger of their time. Instead they’re quite unplugged about it.” Jeth mulled this over. “I guess the unknown is always feared.”
    “They have a different way of thinking about things. It might be hard for them to understand our culture.” Echo was midway through this sentence when he realized the mistake he and Jeth had just made.
    They hadn’t been thinking of the twenty-first-century culture when they left the girls alone in the Infolab. Back in the early twenty-first century, people didn’t have crystals implanted in their wrists. They could move around freely without being tracked. The girls were upset about being brought here, and in all probability they had bolted from the room as soon as Jeth and Echo turned the first corner.
    “Sangre,” Echo swore softly under his breath. At this very moment Sheridan and Taylor were probably wandering around somewhere, untraceable because they had no crystals, trying to … but what would they try to do?
    They couldn’t understand the language, had nowhere to go and no way to even activate food dispensers.
    And if the wrong people found them …
    Echo stopped in the hallway. “We should go back and make sure the girls haven’t escaped.”
    “Escaped?” Jeth said the word with disdain. “Where would they escape to?”
    “Nowhere, but they don’t know that. They don’t understand our society.”
    Jeth and Echo had reached the elevator, and Jeth pushed the button. “I didn’t find them stupid. In fact, I was surprised at Taylor’s intelligence. She learned the computer functions after seeing me do them only once.”
    Echo didn’t move toward the elevator. “I never said they were stupid. I said they didn’t understand.” The elevator door opened. Echo remained where he was. “I’m going back.”
    Jeth stepped into the elevator and waited for Echo to follow. “They ought to have time alone. If one of us stays to guard them, they’ll feel like prisoners. It’s better to let them know we trust them.”
    Echo sighed, looked down the hallway, then stepped into the elevator. As he watched the floor numbers change, he told himself he didn’t have time to worry about these girls. He had other problems. He had plans to make.
    It didn’t work. He worried about them anyway, kept thinking about what it would be like to wake up and find yourself uploaded into another century.
    A few minutes later, they reached Lab Fifteen. Several scientists were there, going over data at various computer terminals. Jeth headed toward one of the lead scientists, and Echo followed.
    The man’s name was Anton. Echo remembered him from this morning because of the red