Even though the Orbit II tower had a gigantic parking lot that occupied half the block, surrounded by a gray wall almost thirty feet high, Uri and Malin had had to leave the SUV parked outside, on the other side of the avenue. The insistence of Uri had been of no use, who had appeared at the front desk claiming to have a special invitation from the board.

The parking meter robot had detected them leaving the building and was waiting for them next to the car. Uri entered the password into the robot terminal for the small sum to be debited and got behind the wheel.

“That video… It really screwed everything up,” was his first comment.

“Among other things,” Malin nodded.

Uri started the SUV, and hit the avenue.

“Do you think that—?”

“No,” she cut him off. “There was nothing we could do to come out of this with victory laurels on our heads. I told you, the Satellites finding us, finding me, it was a fact from the moment I stepped on this country for the first time.”

“I was gonna ask you if you think these people are aware of the Binary project,” Uri said.

Malin raised her eyebrows.

“Oh! That I don’t know.”

“Shit!” Uri grunted. “So, what the hell was that to-know-what’s-in-his-genes all about? You were there, you heard that bull in a tox reciting nomenclatures and radiation levels. The son of a bitch is a living encyclopedia! He must know I have the mark of a scientific experiment burned on my ass like a cow.”

“Boy, the numbers he mentioned might have been the lottery results, and we’d never know. We’re not in a position to challenge him either, so… For the time being, I’ll keep my thoughts”

Uri snarled once again. His curiosity to know how well Hemdell knew about the Binary project only grew.

If the Satellites were aware of what happened in Liberty Park, perhaps they knew of the files Juzo had kept in his backpack that had been destroyed while escaping from Broga. Was it possible that any of those folders had been left intact and some agent had picked it up? It seemed unlikely, but how many things seemed unlikely and had ended up being true.

“The data about the Binary project were in the files Juzo had,” Malin said, exposing her thoughts aloud. “And the original files are in the hands of the Imperialists, who maintain contact with the Satellites.”

“Sure, but your friend—Rigel, was his name, right?” The name had popped into Uri’s mind as if Juzo had whispered it to him. “I know Rigel got rid of the pages that mentioned our names. No one should know that… Well, that my mother and Juzo’s was a test tube.”

Malin felt thorns on her head. She had never revealed to Uri what Juzo had told her; she had not even mentioned the word clone in front of him. Had Juzo done it? She doubted that it would have been the case. How much did Uri know about all this? If he knew he was a clone, did he know the identity of Broga?

“What’s wrong?” Uri was waiting for an answer.

Malin shook her head, and trying to hide her surprise at his comment, she picked up the topic.

“It’s true, Rigel kept your names out of it,” she said and cleared her throat. “But if one day you discover the blueprints to build an android that shoots white fire, and then you find an android that shoots white fire, you don’t have to be a mathematical genius to add one plus one.”

Uri nodded.

“It’s horrible to live in uncertainty.”

Malin let out a rueful chuckle. After the test tube comment, what she had just heard about uncertainty had a double meaning to her.

“Only when you have a few,” she said, almost speaking to herself. “Uncertainty is something that, if you have it in quantity, loses its power to keep you awake, y’know? It becomes a kind of pillow that you can mold according to your head. You think about it today, not tomorrow; maybe the day after tomorrow. The alternative is to fall into paranoia or madness.”

Uri smiled. “Soldier, detective, nurse, and now a philosopher.”

Malin smiled back. “See? Many facets.”

Uri gritted his teeth and tensed his hands on the wheel.

“What worries me is this issue with radiation.”

“If it makes you feel safer,” Malin said, “I haven’t heard of Lavra radiation poisoning.”

Uri looked at her suspiciously.

“Well,” he pointed out, “don’t take this the wrong way, but until today you thought Geysers were the only ones emitting that radiation,” he said. “Now you find out there’s a stone that does it too… Besides the fool talking to you.”

Malin apologizes for her ignorance with a shrug.

Uri began to shake his leg; another hot flash was about to hit, a panic attack from which he might not be able to escape. He needed to think of something else.

“The good thing is they won’t deport you, right?” he said. “Not for now. You happy?”

There was a pause.

“Yes,” Malin said.

“I expected a more euphoric response.”

“Yes!” she exclaimed with her fist raised in triumph, although with the same enthusiasm as before.

“Are you thinking about what they will do with me tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

“Same here,” he sighed. “They may be asking me how I got these powers.”

“I’d lie if I were you,” she said.

“That’s the plan. They could put me through a lie detector though.”

“Uri, don’t rack your brain thinking what will happen tomorrow. Haven’t you learned sometimes there’s no other thing to do but to wait?”

“Uh-huh. With all this, I’m learning it pretty fast.”

Malin leaned back in the seat.

“I’m intrigued by what they’ll do after analyzing that rock,” she said; her fingers playing with her hair. “I know that, as part of their weapons, the Satellite Agency has a neurotoxin that suppresses the serum the Grenadiers carry in our blood, preventing us from emitting any Powered Fluctuating Discharge; something similar to what the Imperialists use to de-Grenadierize a soldier. Perhaps the Satellites seek to study that rock to duplicate the suppressing effect that Lavra radiation has on any P.F.D. Can you imagine? That way, they wouldn’t need to insert a neurotoxin into anyone’s body or remove the implants, it would be enough to expose the person to a radiation emitter to take away their powers. You could incapacitate an entire Grenadier squad without lifting a finger.”

Uri looked at her. “Do you think Hemdell’s goal is to confront the Imperialists with those emitters? I mean, organize an invasion against your country or something like that.”

Malin cocked her head.

“I hadn’t thought of anything that extreme; rather, in something like offering the secrets of Lavra radiation to the Imperialists. Those bastards would sell their mothers for such a valuable piece of information. By putting transmitters in strategic locations, they would get rid of defectors who still keep their powers, like me, without the need to confront them.”

“Oh! Right. That makes more sense,” Uri agreed. “Hey, apparently, I’m a human antenna emitting Lavra radiation, maybe I can… I don’t know, somehow alter those fluctuating discharges of yours.”

Malin raised her eyebrows; she hadn’t considered it.

“It’s true. So far you haven’t been directly attacked with a Fotia,” she said. “I guess we could try. It’ll be fun to throw one at you and see what happens.”

“I don’t like the enthusiasm in your voice.”

Malin winked at him.

“Easy there. I promise to be more compassionate to you than Kitten was.”