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I was still confused It was too much infor from?"

His ine Scientists, crackpot conspiracy theorists, governencies You’d be surprised how et their hands on" He stopped mid-sentence, and I wondered what he’d been about to say "well, on people like us I’ent Truh your dad’s online chatter That’s why I couldn’t approach you sooner, Kyra I had to make sure you hadn’t been compromised"

"What does that even mean?" I asked pointedly

"It ent Tru used as bait to lureme?" I crossed my arms "You really think they’d use me as bait to catch you?"

Sirave it nearly took my breath away "Not justhow uessed, flecked with chips of gold "So how did you knoasn’t? Compromised, I htfor you And I knew exactly what they planned to do to you when they got you"

My throat felt tight, anded

Simon didn’t blink when he answered me "Good, Kyra You should be scared This is serious I know it’s hard to believe, all of it, but you’d better start believing it, and fast Your dad, as well- as I’ent Truet their hands on us You saw them--all that equipment What did you think they wanted to do, interview you?" He gave a slow shake of his head "No, Kyra They do their own kinds of experiments, and they’re not pretty No one ever returns frolance in the direction of ht of his tactics "Cutting so and the"Way, orse"

My mind reeled with the implications "You mentioned that some people are taken and never co for a ipe and absently scrubbing at the blood on his own hands "We think those people don’t survive, like failed experiments For all we knoe’re just lab rats to the aliens Expendable And I’ve never heard of anyone asn’t a teen being returned Maybe we’re the only ones who are ever truly taken in the first place Maybe the rest who say they are" He shrugged "Really are just crazy"

"Teens? Why’s that?"

He turned his pal theer and can survive all that shit they do to us" Sitting straighter, he rubbed his hands over his knees, his eyes searching me out "Or maybe it’s just that teens are more disposable You can yank theht back in, and it’s just a blip on the radar Younger kids get AMBER Alerts and milk cartons Families send out search parties because they were likely abducted by soive up on teens, to call thehting with their parents" He raised his eyebrows at ain and can’t remember what happened, either no one believes us or they suspect we’ve had soed "You know, because that’s what teenagers do" So flashed behind his unusual eyes

"Is that what your parents thought happened?"

"They never caht that I didn’t knohat happened toit off "It doesn’t o"

"Where are they now? Your parents?"

His brows squeezed together, and this time his pain was evident "I couldn’t stay Eventually I had to distancequestions about why I wasn’t getting any older"

"Why didn’t you just tell thee

But then I kneas lying That had been the old o who had parents I could confide in and trust, and whose dad was her nu his hands in front of him, and I realized the subject was just as touchy for him as it was for me Families were a complicated matter "I tried once" He exhaled "I tried to tell my dad because ere close like that and I used to be able to tell hi But when I tried to explainto tell hi to do with it He said it was crazy talk, and if I ever said it again, he’d have to send ht ht of the way I’d shunned my dad when he’d tried to share his theories with ain, but my dadhe never looked at ers around his knees and squeezed them while he leaned back "I’m not the only one with a story like that, or with no place to go once the lack of aging becoo and others who understand e’ve been through"