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Cameron nodded. “Nine of out twenty thousand abductees remain missing, and have been for more than a month. Meyer — your husband, your father — is one of them. And my friends in Moab feel that those people still gone are somehow significant, not just oversights or loose ends. They
matter
, Piper. Trevor. And so in our circles, we call them simply ‘The Nine.’”

Again, Trevor looked at Piper before focusing on Cameron, who now had every nugget of the room’s attention. “What’s so ‘significant’ about these nine people?” he asked.

“That,” said Cameron, “is what we’re here to find out.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

“I don’t like it,” Raj said.
 

Lila was sitting at the kitchen table. It was a nice polished wood, surrounded by typical kitchen chairs. It seemed to have been modeled after the home they’d had a dozen years earlier, after her father had made his wealth but before he’d fully extricated himself from mediocrity. Just one more way her father had planned ahead to stave off the madness of confinement: a nice kitchen that was more familiar than luxurious. If Lila ignored the blood-stained floor and the complete lack of windows, she could almost imagine they were in that old house when they’d all been a family together.
 

She looked at Raj. He was eating toast. Among the supplies had been a freezer full of bread — which, it turned out, thawed and toasted just fine. “What don’t you like?”

“The way your mom and Piper have just accepted these people.”
 

Lila craned back in her chair and looked out into the living room. It wasn’t from the same house as the kitchen’s model, but it had become plenty familiar over her months spent living here. There were times she hated not being able to go outside, but she must have moved past anger and into acceptance, or however that stepwise grieving process was supposed to work. Life wasn’t all bad. Despite being pregnant, she was actively encouraged to lie in the tanning bed for a few minutes each day to make Vitamin D. What the hell; it was better than school.

Trevor was out there, clustered around a folding card table with their erstwhile home invaders. Vincent had rescued the table from some storage closet. The bunker had an endless supply of storage closets filled with twenty garage sales’ worth of miscellany. It wasn’t hoarding, exactly, but Lila supposed the only difference was that they kept finding uses for the hoard. She’d found Mad Libs in a box in one closet with no idea where it had come from, and the only person awake when she’d found it had been Christopher. They’d filled in the absurd (and often obscene) blanks for over an hour, playing with hands over mouths to dim the sound of their laughter.
 

“Oh, relax,” Lila said.
 

Raj shook his head. “These people drilled through the door. They poured gas into the generator exhaust and blew it up. Then they stormed in with guns and started shooting. Trevor got his nose broken. I nearly snapped my ankle.”
 

Lila rolled her eyes. They’d been through this, but Raj wouldn’t let it go. Trevor’s nose had been broken by Morgan — the man whom Christopher had handily removed from the picture and the corpse that Vincent and Dan had later dragged up the stairs, once the cameras showed a clear path, to bury in the woods. And Raj’s “nearly snapped ankle”? It had been a sprain at the most, and he’d done it to himself by tripping over that end table. Sometimes she wanted to offer to put a Big Bird Band-Aid on it and kiss the boo-boo to make it all better, which it clearly had been for days — though Raj was still affecting a limp, just to show them all how much he’d been wronged.
 

“What were they supposed to do? They needed to find out about Dad.”
 

“And this is how they did it.”
 

“If they hadn’t taken care of Morgan, we would have had to! Or maybe we wouldn’t have been able to. Maybe he’d have come in, killed us all, and that would have been the end of it.”
 

“He never would have made it inside without their help.” Raj set his toast down then walked quietly forward to peer into the living room, trying not to get caught. He lowered his voice to a whisper. “And Christopher? Who can just casually blow someone’s brains out like that? You were screaming your head off, totally covered in blood and — ”

“He did what he had to do!”
 

“But not by hitting him, right? He had to
shoot
him. In the head. Point blank.
With hollow point bullets,
Lila!”
 

Lila rolled her eyes again, making sure he saw her this time, then took her plate and set it in the sink. The bunker even had a dishwasher. Discharge from the toilets had to go somewhere, so why not put dishwasher water into the leach bed, too? They got their water from a spring and their heat from renewable electricity. There was no reason not to live like royalty.
Mole people
royalty anyway.
 

“Look,” Raj said, following her, “they’re here. Okay, whatever. And maybe they’re fine. But it’s been … what … a week since they barged in here? And already, look at your brother. Do you think we should get them all matching tattoos?”
 

At that exact moment, she heard a voice that sounded like Christopher’s, though she couldn’t hear what he’d said. Then Trevor laughed very loud. Her brother was a bit overenthusiastic and might want to dial it down, but Lila could hardly fault him. He was managing happiness while buried in the dirt. Good for him.
 

“It’s sending the wrong message,” Raj said. “They bust in here then say, ‘Oh, our bad! We’re actually awesome, and this was all a misunderstanding. Sorry about the fire, by the way. The fire
we
set, not Morgan. And yeah, that was our idea and not his, but we
had
to get in. Not that we looked for cameras or tried to talk to you first. We figured we’d shoot our way in, knowing you’d understand.’ And then we all slap our knees and go, ‘Ha ha! You’re right; that
was
hilarious. Remember when Christopher sprayed everyone with brains?
Classic
. Ah, memories.’”

“Raj … ”
 

“And what does Cameron spend his days doing? Piper’s just like, ‘Oh, sure, Cameron.
Definitely
go through all of Meyer’s computer records. Building permits? Stored blueprints? All good. What about defenses? Weaknesses? Say, how many big weapons are in that room of death, and do you mind if I browse through it? Cool. Thanks.’”
 

Lila spun. Her hands were wet, and Raj was closer than she’d realized. She left wet spatters on his shirt.
 

“That’s
enough!
”
 

Raj gave her a second then shrugged in a way that suggested surrender — it was her own stupid, bitchy, hormonal funeral. “Just seems like we’re too forgiving, too fast.”

“So we should hold a grudge. For no reason. With someone who
might
— and yes, I know I’m ‘dumb and naive’ to believe this; I got that — be able to help us find Dad? I don’t want to have to be the one to tell you, Raj, but there’s an apocalypse afoot. Things are different now. Maybe you’d better stop holding onto all those prejudices from your youth. You know — from, like, four months ago?”
 

“‘
Apocalypse,
’” he said, scoffing. “Everyone acts like cities are burning.”
 

“Mom said Vegas was burning.”
 

“Sure, Vegas. What do you expect from Vegas? But what did we see when the news was on? Just that one thing in Moscow.”
 

“Moscow? Oh. I guess you’re referring to that
insignificant little tiff
they had over there. You know, when the entire city was obliterated.”
 

“But where else has that happened? And besides, they fired first!”
 

“Then it’s all good. The aliens are our friends. That’s why they took twenty thousand people. That’s why they took my
dad
.”
 

“I’m not saying that’s not bad, but they did return
most
of those people.”
 

Lila turned and met Raj’s eyes for a disbelieving moment. She slowly shook her head, mouth unhinged. It was one thing for him to be a shit to the five new people in the bunker — people who had all behaved like perfect gentlemen, even deferring to their own supplies rather than eating bunker food. But this was just bitchy.
 

“You are
unbelievable
.” She turned away, headed for the living room.
 

“I’m just being prudent,” Raj said, still following her. Lila wanted to swat him away like a fly. “That’s your dad’s personal shit that Piper and Heather are letting Cameron paw through.”
 

Lila shook her head, not looking back or giving him the satisfaction of her response.
 

“Do you think, if he were here, he’d want them looking through all that stuff? You’re betraying him. All of you. He might as well be dead for all the — ”
 

Lila turned. Her tongue found the corner of her cheek and she felt her eyes harden. Raj clearly hadn’t expected another confrontation, but this time he’d gone too far.
 

“Why are you here, Raj?” A loaded question. Lila knew how she wanted him to answer, just so she could react in anger. She felt her heart rate increase, heavy in her chest.
 

She wanted to claw his face. How
dare
he talk about her father? If Dad were here, she’d have to spend most of her time keeping him from ripping Raj’s head from his shoulders. He’d left before discovering her little baby secret, but the boy who’d knocked up his baby girl wouldn’t have had such an easy life if he’d known.
 

Her mind drifted back to their cross-country escape. Meyer had tolerated Raj, but she’d always felt his grace would only last as long as Raj remained neutral. Dad was willing to let him ride along, but he’d have dropped him without remorse the second he’d become a liability — and never had that cold fact been clearer than the freeway exit outside of Chicago, when Raj had tried to play the racist card to take them where he thought they should go.
 

“I’m … ” But Raj seemed unsure of how to answer. The fire had left him the minute he’d been challenged. Just like a coward. Meyer Dempsey had been a
man
, and he’d raised his daughter to be … well, not a
man
, but a
woman
, and to respect those who possessed all those very male traits: decisiveness. Determination. Even arrogance and stubbornness, when he knew he was right. But Raj, unlike the new guys, could only whine and complain.

“It’s a real question, Raj,” Lila sniped, feeling as if her father’s spirit had occupied her bones. She could be like him. She was the daughter of an industry titan and a sarcastic bitch. “
Why are you here?
”
 

“What do you mean?”
 

“I don’t mean literally. We all know ‘you’re here’ because you hopped into the car with Piper and Trevor in Central Park. And we know that ‘you’re here’ beyond that because we didn’t have time to detour and drop you off. I suppose you could have stayed in Jersey, but we know ‘you’re here’ because my father — who, I’ll remind you, I know better than you do — apparently decided to extend his well-prepared mercy instead of forcing you to
try
and make it on your own.”
 

“Now hold on, Lila.”
 

“And really, that all boils down to the fact that ‘you’re here’ because I wanted you to be. But even that’s not what I’m talking about.”

 
Lila heard how she sounded but pushed on anyway. Like father, like daughter. She could run a boardroom with an iron fist, too, when the time came.
 

“The door’s open. Why don’t you ask Vincent or Terrence to unlock it for you then just get the fuck out if you have a problem with the way things are going down?”
 

Raj looked stunned. “I don’t … I mean … I’m just saying that they’re taking a lot of liberties with — ”

“With my father’s house? With the house and supplies that
he
decided to let
you
share?”
 

“Look, I didn’t want to fight about it or anything, I’m just saying that — ”

“You’re the only one, Raj. The
only one
who has any problem with what’s happening here. So either we’re all idiots and we need you to protect us, or
you
’
re
the asshole. And maybe we
are
idiots! But listen to me: For the fiftieth time,
we trust them.
We even
like them.
And one more? We think they’re an
asset
, that we’re actually
better off
with an engineer, a big, strong military man, two guys who are good with guns, and one guy who seems to know a whole hell of a lot more about what’s going on with the aliens than any of us do.”
 

She took a breath.
 

“Now, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe that’s stupid. It sure doesn’t
sound
wrong to me, but maybe you’re right, and it is somehow. But I’m tired of arguing. Do you hear me?
I
’
m tired of having this argument with you.
Your objections have been noted. But this is how it is — and honestly, it’s
none of your fucking business
. This isn’t your family, and this isn’t your house! So you can stay here with us, as our guest, or you can
leave!
”