“Did he ever mention that he had a family? A wife? Two sons?”

Rebecca placed her hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. “No. He never said anything.”

“What did he tell you when he said goodbye?”

“He embraced each of us and then he stood in the doorway.” Martin’s voice was strained, filled with emotion. “He said that powerful men would try to make us frightened and filled with hate. They would try to control our lives and distract us…”

“… with glittering illusions,” Joan said.

“Yes. With glittering illusions. But we should never forget that the Light was in our hearts.”

The photograph-and Gabriel’s reaction to it-did solve one problem. Antonio no longer believed that he and Maya were Tabula spies. As they finished the wine, Antonio explained that the community was protecting a Pathfinder and this person lived in an isolated location about thirty miles north. If they still wanted to go, he would take them there tomorrow morning.

MAYA WAS SILENT walking back to the Blue House. When they reached the front door, she stepped in front of Michael and entered the house first. There was a feeling of aggressiveness about this act-as if each new location was a place where they might be attacked. The Harlequin didn’t switch on the lights. She seemed to have memorized the position of each piece of furniture. She quickly inspected the house and then they faced each other in the living room.

“It’s okay, Maya. We’re safe here.”

The Harlequin shook her head as if he had said something very foolish. Safety was a false word for her. Another illusion.

“I’ve never met your father and I don’t know where he is,” Maya said. “But I just wanted to say that-maybe he did this to protect you. Your house was destroyed. Your family went underground. According to our spy, the Tabula thought you were dead. You would have been safe if Michael hadn’t gone back on the Grid.”

“That might have been the reason. But I still…”

“You want to see him.”

Gabriel nodded.

“Maybe you’ll find him one day. If you have the power to become a Traveler, you might meet him in another realm.”

GABRIEL CLIMBED THE ladder to the loft bed. He tried to sleep, but it was impossible. As a cold wind came down the canyon and rattled the window frame, Gabriel sat on the bed and tried to become a Traveler. None of this was real. His body wasn’t real. And he could leave it. Just. Like. That.

For an hour or so, he argued with himself. Assuming that I have the power, then all I have to do is accept that fact. A plus B equals C. When logic didn’t work, he closed his eyes and was swept away by his own emotions. He could find his father and talk to him if he could break away from this cage of flesh. Within his mind, Gabriel tried to walk from darkness into light, but when he opened his eyes he was still sitting on the bed. Feeling angry and frustrated, he pounded his fist on the mattress.

Eventually, he fell asleep and woke up at dawn with the rough wool blanket wrapped around his body. When the shadows disappeared from the corners of the loft, Gabriel pulled on his clothes and climbed down the ladder. No one was in the bathroom and the bedroom was also empty. He went down the hallway to the kitchen and peered through a crack in the door. Maya sat with her sword case on her lap and her left hand flat on the table, staring at a patch of sunlight on the red tile floor. The sword and the intense expression on her face made him feel as if the Harlequin was cut off from any real human contact. He doubted if there could be a more solitary life: always hunted, always prepared to fight and die.

Maya turned slightly when Gabriel entered the kitchen. “Did they leave us anything for breakfast?” he asked.

“There’s tea and instant coffee in the cupboard. Milk, butter, and a loaf of bread in the refrigerator.”

“That’s enough for me.” Gabriel filled a kettle and placed it on a burner of the electric stove. “Why didn’t you make something?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Do you know anything about this Pathfinder?” Gabriel asked. “Is he young or old? What’s his nationality? They didn’t give us any information last night.”

“The Pathfinder is their secret. Hiding him is their act of resistance against the Vast Machine. Antonio was right about one thing: this community could get in a lot of trouble if the Tabula knew we were here.”

“And what happens when we meet the Pathfinder? Are you going to hang around and watch me fall on my face?”

“I’ve got other things to do. Don’t forget, the Tabula are continuing to look for you. I’ve got to make them believe that you’re somewhere else.”

“And how do you plan to do that?”

“You said your brother gave you money and a credit card when you were separated at the clothing factory.”

“Sometimes I use his card,” Gabriel said. “I don’t have any of my own.”

“Think I could borrow it?”

“What about the Tabula? Aren’t they going to trace the card number?”

“I’m expecting that,” Maya said. “I’ll use the card and your motorcycle.”

Gabriel didn’t want to lose the motorcycle, but he knew that Maya was right. The Tabula knew the bike’s license plate number and a dozen other ways to track him down. Everything from his old life had to be discarded.

“Okay.” He gave her Michael’s credit card and the motorcycle key. Maya looked as if she wanted to tell him something important, but she stood up without a word and walked to the doorway. “Eat your breakfast,” she said. “Antonio is going to be here in a few minutes.”

“This might be a waste of time. I might not be a Traveler.”

“I’ve accepted that possibility.”

“So don’t risk your life and do something crazy.”

Maya looked at him and smiled. Gabriel felt like they were connected to each other at that moment. Not friends, exactly, but soldiers in the same army. And then, for the first time in their relationship, he heard the Harlequin laugh.

“It’s all crazy, Gabriel. But you find your own sanity.”

ANTONIO CARDENAS SHOWED up ten minutes later and said he would drive them to where the Pathfinder was living. Gabriel took along the jade sword and the knapsack filled with his extra clothes. In the back of Antonio’s pickup truck were three canvas bags of canned food, bread, and fresh vegetables from the greenhouses.

“When the Pathfinder first arrived, I spent a month at the site setting up a windmill to power a water pump and electric lights,” Antonio said. “Now I just show up every two weeks with food supplies.”

“So what’s he like?” Gabriel asked. “You haven’t really told us.”

Antonio waved at some children as the truck moved slowly down the road. “The Pathfinder is a very strong person. Tell the truth and you’ll be all right.”

They reached the two-lane highway that led back to San Lucas, but turned off a few miles later onto an abandoned asphalt road that cut a straight line through the desert. NO TRESPASSING signs were everywhere, some hanging from steel posts, others left faceup on the cracked ground.

“This used to be a missile base,” Antonio explained. “It was active for about thirty years. Fenced off. Top secret. Then the Defense Department took out the missiles and sold the land to the county sanitation district. When the county didn’t want it anymore, our group bought all four hundred acres.”

“This looks like a wasteland,” Maya said.

“As you’ll see, it has certain advantages for the Pathfinder.”

Bear grass and cactus reached out and scratched the sides of the truck. The road was covered with sand for a hundred yards or so, then it reappeared. As the road slowly gained elevation they began passing piles of red rocks and groves of Joshua trees. Each stubby desert tree raised its spike-leafed branches upward like the arms of a prophet praying to heaven. It was very hot and the sun appeared to grow larger in the sky.