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wondering what, exactly, is in the syringe I see next to her on the counter.
    â€œNo, I’m not crazy,” she says brusquely. “But I will get angry if you don’t give me your arm back. Your father is very much alive and living up north in the Broughton Archipelago. Or at least he was six months ago, which is the last time he managed to get word to me.”
    I stare at her in disbelief. I hardly notice the coolness where she’s swabbing my arm with alcohol.
    â€œNow I know you’re crazy. Dad died two years ago.”
    â€œNo, we faked his death during that storm so that the secret police would believe he was dead.”
    â€œDad’s alive?” At first I can’t believe her, but I see the truth in her eyes. I feel like screaming for joy. My father is alive! And then I want to hit her.
    â€œYou lied to me. You know I cried for months. How could you do this to me?”
    â€œBecause we both felt that the work he was doing was too vital and too dangerous. We couldn’t risk you telling anyone that he was still alive, nor could we take a chance that the secret police might someday torture that information out of you.”
    The level, matter-of-fact way she speaks gives me chills. She takes advantage of my momentary shock and confusion to plunge the needle deep into my arm.
    â€œOw, that stings!”
    â€œSorry, sweetling.” I see a flicker of humor in her eyes as she kisses my forehead. “I’d give you a candy, but I don’t have any.”
    She turns to Robry, who already has his sleeve rolled up. “All right, my brave boy, it’s your turn now.”
    â€œThis is going to change us all the way, isn’t it?” he asks her quietly.
    My mother looks startled. Then she searches his face carefully. “How long have you known?”
    â€œSince we studied the Eugenics Wars in school, and I came home and took a long look at my feet. I’m glad, though, truly. I’m ready to go.”
    â€œWhat do you mean this is going to change us all the way? Where are you ready to go?” I can’t help yelling again.
    â€œInto the ocean, for always,” Robry says calmly as my mother gives him his shot. “I think your parents altered our genes before we were born to create a new species of human that can survive under the waves.”
    I stare at Robry, trying to sort through his impossible words. Suddenly, I hear a scraping sound overhead. Someone is moving the table back from the trapdoor.
    We freeze. Have the soldiers found us? My heart gallops in my chest. Gillian calmly takes a lethal-looking solar pistol out of a drawer, powers it up, and points it toward the trapdoor. My mother owns a solar pistol? I can’t believe that she has one, or that she looks so comfortable handling it.
    My mouth goes dry as the trapdoor swings open.
    â€œIt’s all right, Gillian, it’s me,” I hear Mr. McFadden, Lena’s father, call down the ladder to us.
    â€œI don’t want to go down there,” I hear Lena whine.
    Lena’s here? I’m trapped in a nightmare where nothing makes sense. I hear raised voices upstairs, and seconds later a red-faced Lena comes stomping down the ladder. The trapdoor shuts, and I hear the rug and table getting moved back into position.
    Lena’s eye makeup is smeared from crying, and her long hair is in a wild tangle.
    â€œWhat is she doing here?” I ask Gillian while Lena crosses her arms and glares at us.
    â€œHer parents brought her because they know she’ll die, just like you will, if the Western Collective moves her inland.”
    â€œSo whatever you did to us, you did to her, too?” Now I’m furious for Lena’s sake. “What Robry said is true?”
    My mother nods and tries to speak, but I cut her off.
    â€œSo you’re the reason why I’m a freak!” I shout at her. “We’re all experiments. How could you do this to us?”
    â€œBecause