A blinking dot pulsed over Tolusa. It wasn’t a passing signal.
“She’s here,” he said.
The words nestled into her mind with strange, quiet gravity. Her mother was close by, in Tolusa. Her city.
“For how long?” she asked.
“Long enough.”
Another notification slid across the screen. Emerson’s jaw hardened as he read it. “She’s not passing through,” he continued. “Her comm signature just stabilized. She’s positioning.”
In the corner of the tablet, the red countdown clock shone.
12:13:27.
Audrey zeroed in on it. “I’m going to need you to get specific about this plan of yours,” she said.
“We have intel that she’s meeting with a Silo Identification forger—and soon. He’s ensuring her escape after she carries out her plans for you.”
“What’s a Silo?”
“It’s how Citizens move from world to world,” he said. “Teleportation gates.”
She gave him another questioning look, imagining border crossings and passports, except these moved people between planets and moons.
“Silos don’t operate like your airports or borders,” he continued, intercepting her thoughts. “They’re access points tied to identity signatures.”
Audrey frowned. “Meaning?”
“If your identity isn’t recognized, the system doesn’t just deny you access,” he said. “It flags you. Tracks you. Locks onto you.”
“What about forged identities?”
“They work,” he said. “Until they don’t.”
“And my mother is about to use one of these Silos.”
“Yes.” He motioned to the countdown. “The next jump window is in less than twelve hours. After that, she’ll go into hiding again, and I’m not waiting another five years.”
“You’re telling me the only way to catch her is to force her to surface somewhere we control?”
“Yes.”
“And if she doesn’t show up at this forger’s location when we want?”
“She will. Because we’ll make it too enticing for her not to.”
Everything fit into place for Audrey. “You want to use me as bait.”
He nodded. “We force her movement to the forger at the time of our choosing by making it clear you’re there too.”
“If she thinks I’m trying to leave the planet, she’ll come as soon as possible.”
He didn’t reply, which told her she was right. The clock dropped lower.
12:10:04.
“You were going to use me without telling me,” Audrey whispered.
