"We are sorry, Zoë," Hickory said. "We had orders from our government not to reveal information to your parents that they did not already know, until such time as it became absolutely necessary. That would have only been if the Conclave were to appear in your sky. Until then, we were required to exercise care. If we had spoken to you about it, you would have naturally informed your parents. And so we decided that we would not bring these things up with you, unless you asked us directly about them."

"And why would I do that?" I asked.

"Indeed," Hickory said. "We regret the necessity. But we saw no other alternative."

"Listen to me, both of you," I said, and then stopped. "You're recording this now, aren't you."

"Yes," Hickory said. "We always record, unless you tell us otherwise. Would you like us to stop recording?"

"No," I said. "I actually want all of you to hear this. First, I forbid you to harm my parents in any way. Ever."

"Major Perry has already informed us that he would surrender the colony rather than destroy it," Hickory said. "Since this is true there is no reason to harm either him or Lieutenant Sagan."

"It doesn't matter," I said. "Who knows if there's going to be another time you decide it's going to be necessary to try to get rid of John and Jane?"

"It seems unlikely," Hickory said.

"I don't care if it's more likely that I was going to sprout wings," I said. "I didn't think it was ever possible that you might think to kill my parents, Hickory. I was wrong about that. I'm not going to be wrong about it again. So swear it. Swear you will never harm my parents."

Hickory spoke briefly to Dickory in their own language. "We swear it," Hickory said.

"Swear it for all Obin," I said.

"We cannot," Hickory said. "That is not something we can promise. It is not within our power. But neither Dickory nor I will seek to harm your parents. And we will defend them against all those who would try to harm them. Even other Obin. This we swear to you, Zoë."

It was the last part of this that made me believe Hickory. I hadn't asked him to defend John and Jane, just not harm them. Hickory added it in. They both did.

"Thank you," I said. I felt as if I were suddenly coming unwound; until that second I didn't realize how worked up I was just sitting there, talking about this. "Thank you both. I really needed to hear that."

"You are welcome, Zoë," Hickory said. "Is there something else you want to ask us?"

"You have files on the Conclave," I said.

"Yes," Hickory said. "We have already given them to Lieutenant Sagan for analysis."

That made perfect sense; Jane had been an intelligence officer when she was in the Special Forces. "I want to see them, too," I said. "Everything you have."

"We will provide them to you," Hickory said. "But there is a lot of information, and not all of it is easy to understand. Lieutenant Sagan is far more qualified to work with this information."

"I'm not saying give it to me and not her," I said. "I just want to see it too."

"If you wish," Hickory said.

"And anything else that you might get from your government on the Conclave," I said. "And I mean all of it, Hickory. None of this 'you didn't ask directly' junk from now on. We're done with that. Do you understand me?"

"Yes," Hickory said. "You understand that the information we receive might in itself be incomplete. We are not told everything."

"I know," I said. "But you still seem to know more than we do. And I want to understand what we're up against. Or were, anyway."

"Why do you say 'were'?" Hickory asked.

"General Rybicki told the crowd today that the Conclave was about to be defeated," I said. "Why? Do you know any different?"

"We do not know any different," Hickory said. "But we do not think that just because General Rybicki says something in public to a large crowd, it means he is telling the truth. Nor does it mean that Roanoke itself is entirely out of danger."

"But that doesn't make any sense," I said. I held up my PDA to Hickory. "We were told we can use these again. That we can use all of our electronics again. We had stopped using them because they would give us away. If we're allowed to use them again, we don't have to worry about being given away."

"That is one interpretation of the data," Hickory said.

"There's another?" I asked.

"The general did not say that the Conclave had been defeated, but that he believed they would be defeated," Hickory said. "That is correct?"

"Yes," I said.

"Then it is possible that the general means for Roanoke to play a part in the defeat of the Conclave," Hickory said. "In which case, it is not that you are being allowed to use your electronics because it is safe. You are being allowed to use them because you are now bait."

"You think the Colonial Union is leading the Conclave here," I said, after a minute.

"We offer no opinion one way or another," Hickory said. "We note only that it is possible. And it fits what data we have."

"Have you told my dad about this?" I asked.

"We have not—" Hickory began, but I was already out the door.

"Close the door behind you," Dad said.

I did.

"Who have you talked to about this?" he asked.

"Hickory and Dickory, obviously," I said. "No one else."

"No one?" Dad asked. "Not even Gretchen?"

"No," I said. Gretchen had gone off to harass Magdy for sending her that video. I was beginning to wish I had gone with her instead of making Hickory and Dickory come to my room.

"Good," Dad said. "Then you need to keep quiet about it, Zoë. You and the alien twins."

"You don't think what Hickory is saying is going to happen, do you?" I asked.

Dad looked directly at me, and once again I was reminded how much older he was than he appeared. "It is going to happen," he said. "The Colonial Union has laid a trap for the Conclave. We disappeared a year ago. The Conclave has been looking for us all that time, and the CU has spent all that time preparing the trap. Now it's ready, so we're being dragged back into view. When General Rybicki's ship goes back, they're going to let it leak where we are. The news will get back to the Conclave. The Conclave will send its fleet here. And the Colonial Union will destroy it. That's the plan, anyway."

"Is it going to work?" I asked.

"I don't know," Dad said.

"What happens if it doesn't?" I asked.

Dad laughed a very small and bitter laugh. "If it doesn't, then I don't think the Conclave is going to be in any mood for negotiations," he said.

"Oh, God," I said. "We have to tell people, Dad."

"I know we do," he said. "I tried keeping things from the colonists before, and it didn't work very well." He was talking about the werewolves there, and I reminded myself that when all this was done I needed to come clean to him about my own adventures with them. "But I also don't need another panic on our hands. People have been whipsawed enough in the last couple of days. I need to figure out a way to tell people what the CU has planned without putting them in fear for their lives."

"Despite the fact they should be," I said.

"That is the catch," Dad said, and gave another bitter chuckle. Then he looked at me. "It's not right, Zoë. This whole colony is built on a lie. Roanoke was never intended to be a real colony, a viable colony. It exists because our government needed a way to thumb its nose at the Conclave, to defy its colonization ban, and to buy time to build a trap. Now that it's had that time, the only reason our colony exists is to be a goat at a stake. The Colonial Union doesn't care about us for who we are, Zoë. It only cares about us for what we are. What we represent to them. What they can use us for. Who we are doesn't actually enter into it."