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extraordinary empowerment provision will be voided.”
    He made a sound that might have been a laugh. “You can hardly reject the job at this point,” he said. “By coming in here without protection, you’ve guaranteed a good long stay.”
    “Try me.” Isabel gave up trying to moderate her tone. “You can find a pretext to lock me up, I suppose. But if you do, I’ll make absolutely certain you have to explain it to someone.”
    He paused, as if considering. She regarded him with narrowed eyes. “Dr. Adetti. You wouldn’t dare cut me off from communication with my superior. You don’t have the authority. You’re part of a public organization, overseen by the regents of World Health and Welfare. Do you want to risk a lawsuit?”
    From the intercom they heard Boreson’s anxious voice. “There’s no need for that,” she said tightly. “We can work things out, Mother Burke.”
    Isabel glanced over her shoulder at the mirror. “Not without the medicator reports.”
    Adetti folded his arms. “They won’t change anything. You can stay here, with the child, or we’ll set up another room if you prefer. But you’re not going out until I’ve cleared you.”
    “You can’t silence me forever. Doctor. And I want those reports.”
    He moved to the door, and stood looking back at her. “I’ll have them sent over.”
    “Today, please.”
    “As you wish.” He spoke to the door and it opened.
    “Dr. Adetti—all of them.”
    “There are dozens,” he said. “They’ll take you days to read.”
    Her lip curled. “Well. Then I’ll be grateful to you for providing me with plenty of time.”
    He grunted, and went through the door into the quarantine bubble. The guard stepped back to let him pass, glancing at Isabel with a face full of apology. Isabel gave her a wry shrug.
    When the door closed, she went back to the chair and sat down. “Oa, I’m afraid you’ve acquired a roommate. I hope you won’t mind.”
    There was silence for several minutes, and then the girl began to uncurl her body. She unthreaded her tangled hair from the buttons of the sweater. With a rustle of bedclothes, she straightened her back and tucked her feet under her, eyes fixed on Isabel. Isabel thought she had never seen a child capable of such stillness.
    She let her head fall back against the top of the chair, and closed her eyes. It had been a long, long day. Despite her bravado, she supposed Adetti and Boreson could keep her in isolation as long as they liked. She didn’t really mind. There was no other place she wanted to be at the moment. She would need her valises, though, and her equipment. She could put the time to good use, and keep an eye on the child at the same time. Absently, she put her hand up to touch her cross, and then she remembered. She had taken it off.
    A soft noise made her open her eyes. Oa had climbed off the bed and moved to the chair where Isabel had laid her cross. The girl picked it up, and came to stand before Isabel, presenting the carved wood on her small pink palm. “A . . . gift,” she said.
    *
    IT SEEMED TO Oa that the slender bald woman confronted Doctor without any fear. Isabel must be strong in some way Oa could not recognize. She was too small to fight him with her hands or her feet. She had no knife, or even a stone to throw. She must have some other power. If Oa had stood up to him in that way, he would have snarled at her, dragged her into the little room with the spider machine to strap her to the high table again. People hurt anchens when they were angry.
    Oa remembered Mamah weeping while Papi dragged Oa down to the beach. The night had been clear and warm, the air full of the salt fragrance from Mother Ocean, the spicy scent of nuchi. The brilliance of the stars mocked Oa’s misery.
    The tatwaj was over. Her skin stung from the needle, but her arm hurt much worse where Papi’s hand gripped it. His lips pressed hard together, a thin line of fury. When Oa cried out, he released her arm and