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“We think they may be planning to use him as a bargaining tool. Several days before Pathik came to you, Rachel, one of the Roberts was discovered near camp. He was injured—someone from his own camp had stabbed him, because he had decided to leave. They don’t let people leave.”
    â€œHad he seen my father? Can I talk to him?”
    â€œHe died shortly after we brought him here. But before he died, he told us that the Roberts had a stranger in a cage. He said they were going to trade him to the government. We’d planned a council meeting to put together a rescue attempt, but then Malgam worsened to the point where we thought he would die and we had to focus on that.” Indigo considered Rachel for a moment. “How much,” he asked, “do you know about your father, Rachel?”
    â€œI know he was a collaborator.”
    â€œA collaborator.” Indigo frowned. “He called it that too. That word sounds so . . . bad.”
    â€œMost people think they are bad.”
    â€œDaniel wasn’t . . . isn’t bad.” Indigo looked pained.
    Rachel shrugged. “I wouldn’t know,” she said.
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œI mean I wouldn’t know, ” said Rachel. “I wouldn’t know if he was good, or bad, or somewhere in between. I haven’t seen him since I was three years old. Even though he has apparently been alive and well just a few days’ travel away, this whole time.” Rachel flung her words at Indigo like stones.
    Malgam pushed his blankets back as though he might rise. “Do you think a parent would leave his child, ever? Ever, if he knew that child was alive and needing him? No good parent would.”
    Nandy silenced Malgam with a glare and stepped closer to Rachel. “Oh, Rachel.” She put a hand on Rachel’s shoulder and squeezed. “He thought you were dead. You and your mother—he thought they had killed you both.” Nandy’s eyes glittered. “It almost killed him .”
    â€œWhy would he think we were dead?” Rachel wasn’t moved. “Doesn’t sound like he bothered to check.”
    â€œHe did bother.” Malgam ignored Nandy’s renewed glare. “Unlike some.”
    â€œEnough.” Indigo shook his head at Malgam. He sat back down in his chair. “Daniel did try to find you, Rachel. He had a contact on the other side, and we were able to get word to him. But you and your mother were gone.” He looked at Rachel intently. “I know he would have found a way to get back to you if he had thought for one minute you were alive. He would have stopped at nothing. Just as we must stop at nothing now. If your father is being held by the Roberts, we have to get him out of there. They will kill him eventually, or worse.”
    â€œWe left . . . we left the city as soon as my mother knew he was dead. We ran. Mom found a job with Ms. Moore on The Property.” Rachel thought, a realization dawning. “Maybe whoever he checked with thought we really were dead.”
    Indigo cleared his throat. “How . . . how is Elizabeth?”
    Rachel noticed all the others in the room fell silent. Malgam had his eyes lowered, but Pathik and Nandy were both watching Indigo.
    â€œShe’s . . . fine.” Rachel thought about how Ms. Moore had waved, and kept waving, as Rachel got farther and farther away after she Crossed. How finally she couldn’t see Ms. Moore—or her mom—anymore.
    â€œGood.” Indigo nodded. “That’s good.” He seemed to realize he was still nodding, and stopped. “Well.”
    â€œShe wrote to you, to each of you.” Rachel brought out the letters she had tucked in her jacket. Gravely she handed each to its recipient; the envelopes were labeled in Ms. Moore’s neat hand.
    â€œThis is from Elizabeth?” Indigo ran a finger over his name on the envelope.
    â€œIf we’re going after Daniel, we