“You were until you weren’t,” he said.
Her hold on the knife tightened. “When did that change?” she demanded. “When I got out?”
Emerson didn’t falter this time. “When Sophia deemed you important enough to come out of hiding.”
The room seemed to contract around Audrey as realization closed in on her. A prickle ran along her arms. “What does she want with me?”
“I don’t know. Your mother resurfaced recently. No one believed the lead, but when I saw you were being released, it was the only new variable.”
“Seems like a stretch.”
Emerson shrugged. “Most of my superiors think I’m crazy. But I know more about these fugitives than anyone.”
“Tell me about the Aggregate,” she said. “I saw that word all over your files.”
“If your lawyer boyfriend hasn’t told you the truth about all this, don’t trust him.”
Still gripping the knife, Audrey dragged him down. “He’s not my boyfriend…and Alex knows more than he’s said. Is he like them—a terrorist?”
“If he’s lied to you before, I’d assume he’s still doing it.” He watched the glowing countdown in the corner of the screen from his peripheral vision. “But we don’t have time for your emotional audit. Sophia is tapping into the unsanctioned Ezebethian network here on Earth.”
At that, she eased the pressure of the blade, though her stare was assessing and her arm taut. Warning bells went off in her head as she gauged Emerson’s response—not from concession, but in a bid to reassert control over the situation while she weighed her next move. She growled and pushed the knife back in. “Tell me what the Aggregate is first, then we’re going to talk about my mother.”
“It’s the galaxy’s governing body,” he said.
“What do these Separatists want exactly?”
“Citizenship.”
Audrey stared at him in disbelief. “Citizenship,” she repeated, as if testing the word for its true meaning.
“Equal movement rights,” Emerson said. “Across the Aggregate. Freedom to move through the galaxy whenever they please.”
Audrey’s brows drew together. “They just want to go wherever they want? Travel like anybody else?”
He nodded. “That’s part of it, but the fear is real. A few years ago, a Voírían child lost control in a Silo. Every electronic systemin the bay shorted out, and the other people barely made it out alive.”
She shifted, unsettled. “Accident, or intentional?”
“Accident. Those situations are rare, but their consequences are massive.” Emerson searched her face before adding, “We’re talking about people with powers we don’t fully understand. Some of them can’t control what they can do, and when they move through other societies, it doesn’t exactly scream safety.”
“So, your government said no.”
Emerson didn’t deny it. “The Aggregate confined the Voíríans to their moon, Nepra, a thousand years ago.”
“You put a species on a moon and called it containment? And they stayed?”
“Not quietly.”
“For people locked on a moon for a thousand years, wanting citizenship sounds reasonable.”
“Civilizations earn that privilege when they prove they can survive themselves,” Emerson said without emotion. “The Ezebethians did. They became one of the Aggregate’s ruling civilizations.”
“Is that where you’re from?”
“Yes. Earth is moving toward full citizenship. The Voíríans aren’t even close.”
A flash of anger crossed Audrey’s face. The Ezebethians—bullies, the galaxy’s most powerful society—finally made sense. Maybe the Voíríans were held back. Audrey glared at him, outraged. “You treat them as less than dirt and force them to live under a totalitarian system. Why?”
