What if Ava’s here too?

I flick my eyes to Kano and see several angry wounds from the barbs of a taser gun marking his neck and cheek.

My team didn’t go down easy.

Neither will I.

Twisting my neck to the right, I look past my Guard, through the other compartment’s doors. I can just make out Theo sitting alone in the back row. He’s staring straight at me, his eyes bulging and red like he’s been waiting unblinking for me to turn and stare back. I’m sorry, they say. I didn’t know.

I turn away.

Sorry for what? That your father had a backup plan to save his own family’s skin? Or did Alexander, the trickster, envision this all along? The prodigal son, the rightful heir, returned to his birthplace bearing a gift of absolution. The most damning half of the Traitorous Twins. The second child.

Alexander’s finishing what his firstborn started. Delivering what Halton could not. Me. I’m Alexander’s way back in. Governor Roth will welcome him with open arms.

Theo better not do anything stupid, like give himself away. In a last-ditch act of desperation, if he attempts to complete our mission, tries to flip the Guard, and tells a soldier his real identity, he will only end up like me. A Glut in handcuffs on our way to evanescence.

Four more minutes.

Slowly, I lift up my head and turn back to Theo. He’s gripping my knife. Does he think he can take down the soldier?

No, don’t! I almost yell. I yank uselessly against my restraints. Not now! But instead of lashing out on the Guard five rows away, he turns the blade on himself. On his inner right wrist.

With a clumsy swipe, he cuts his skin and digs out his counterfeit microchip. Pinching it between thumb and middle finger, he holds it up, glaring at the bloody metal capsule like a tumor just removed.

He didn’t know. He never knew he was microchipped.

Alexander marches into view down the aisle. Realizing what Theo’s holding, he contorts his face with horror. In one fell swoop he snatches the chip from Theo’s fingers and pockets it, the Guards none the wiser.

Through the glass door, I see Alexander tug down Theo’s right sleeve, covering the dangerous mark his son just gave himself. A mark that brands his son a rebel. Do the Guards smell the blood?

What did he just do?

Theo stands to his full height, level with his father’s. His curled fist shines with the steel rings of my knife’s handle.

Swinging back his arm, he punches Alexander in the stomach with a quick, brutal jab.

Alexander barely hits the floor before the oversized Guard is on Theo with his baton. The Guard from my car barrels through the doors, taser gun aimed and ready.

Theo doesn’t even cower. He just glowers down at his father, his eyes saying, You did this.

“Stand down!” Alexander wheezes at Theo’s feet, raising a commanding hand for the soldiers to stop.

Reluctantly, they listen.

Baton holstered, the stalwart Guard seizes Theo, locking his arms behind his back. The soldier exchanges a few heated words with Alexander—I try to read their lips, but I can’t keep up.

Shouting something I can’t hear, the second Guard points to Theo’s right wrist. She’s discovered the cut. She knows he’s a traitor. Drawing a zip-tie from her duty belt, she bonds Theo’s hands so tight he grimaces in agony.

Alexander attempts to maintain the stone-faced supremacy of an officer in front of his Guard, but I see the edges crack. I see him flinch.

This wasn’t part of his plan. He’s lost his son. He’s losing control.

Two minutes left.

Before the Guards can do any more damage, Alexander barks an order and grabs Theo roughly by the neck. He pushes his son through the compartment and into my car, throwing him four rows behind mine.

“Stop,” Alexander says to his son, leaning against a pole, still coughing and rasping from his gut punch. “Stop making things worse.”

Straightening his coat and hair, Alexander marches past me, not sparing a single glance in my direction. “We are pulling into downtown as I speak,” he says. “Everyone will know tonight.”

What does that mean? Everyone will know what?

The door slides shut, and the Guard takes up her post. I turn to Theo.

“You should not have done that,” I say.

“I’ve joined the Common,” Theo whispers earnestly. “I’m with you, whatever happens.”

“I’m with you too,” I admit to Theo and to myself.

I won’t let the Guard take him.

The rail slows to a gradual stop. Thirty seconds.

“Welcome to Guardian Station,” the soothing voice from the speakers announces.

In less than fifteen seconds, Roth could walk through the doors in front of me, nothing but a few feet of air dividing us. The old fear grips and wrings my heart, squeezing tears from my sleepy eyes.

No, I scold myself. You are not the same girl as when you were last here. He fears you now.

Show him why.

I let no tears fall.

But it’s not Governor Roth who strides through the rail doors.

“Who’s that?” Theo asks, not caring if anyone hears.

“General Pierce,” I respond, greeting the large, fleshy man who’s always reminded me of nothing more than a bulldozer. He’s lost more hair since I last saw him.

He halts at the entrance, looking me up and down appraisingly. “You came back in one piece, I see. You never should have run.”

I almost spit in his face, but I decide not to waste the saliva. “How could you let Roth kill my father, your supposed friend!”

Tearing his gaze off me, he searches the car for Alexander. He can’t look me in the eyes. “Your father took his own life, Mira. I know that’s difficult to accept.”

“You can’t reason with Commoners,” a woman says from the platform. She stomps past the general to get to me.

Short, but somehow all the more intimidating for it, she wears a crisp military uniform with several badges on her right breast. The center badge outshines the rest. It’s the same badge my father once wore.

She’s the new Director of the Texas Family Planning Division.

I recognize the woman but can’t recall her name. She used to be the Director in the powerful northern state of Montana.

With a forceful claw, the Director clutches my chin and lifts my face for a better viewing experience. “The infamous twin,” she says. “Very nice.”

I rip my chin away from her grasp, and she turns her attention to Theo. “And who is this?”

Don’t touch him.

“Nobody,” Alexander says as he enters the car, saving me from head-butting the woman. The general and Director stand at attention as he comes in. “He’s just more Common filth.”

“Where’s the governor?” Alexander asks, impatient. “Where’s my father?”

“Governor Roth sends his regrets for not being here to welcome you,” General Pierce responds. “There have been a few . . . incidents—”

Assassination attempts?

“—involving a small number of amateur criminals . . . The governor asked me to escort you safely to the Governor’s Mansion,” General Pierce finishes.

“That won’t be necessary, General,” Alexander answers in a haughty tone not to be questioned. “I have a gift for the city. The country’s top traitor, my son’s killer.” His mouth cuts open in a malevolent smile. “I have planned something much grander for my homecoming.” He cocks his head toward me. “For both our homecomings.”