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“Like the Cheshire cat.” Nadia gives me an appraising look. “You would know, wouldn’t you? We found your old identity eventually, but it took some work.”

“I was only hiding from my family, back then.”

“Will you tell my parents I’m all right? I send them a message when I can.”

“Sure.” I hesitate. “Do they send news to you?”

“Sometimes. I try to keep an eye on them,” Nadia says.

“Your brother—”

“I know. Colin died. I know.” She turns away from me slightly, her face tight. “Isadora. Did she know me? Did she seem to be accessing my memories?”

“I don’t know. She never referred to you by name, but she must have known who you are.”

“Why do you say that?” Nadia asks.

“She said she had delivered ‘the message and the lady.’ She spoke as though she’d been tasked with bringing you here.”

Nadia folds her hands together, closes her eyes, frowns. I watch her face for hints; is this an Interstices thing? She opens her eyes and says, “I just ran diagnostics and didn’t find anything, but I wonder if Isadora is some sort of malware? Did Beck keep her offline?”

“I don’t know. She always used to. She was very protective of Isadora. To be honest, I don’t know much: Alba sometimes called Isadora ‘the family secret.’ None of them wanted to talk about her, at least not to me.” Something Nadia said earlier pops into my mind. “You said that at first the people at the Tulip Farm didn’t trust you. What changed?”

“I happened to be in the kitchen one afternoon by myself, making fire cider,” Nadia says. “It’s kind of a weird recipe, but my mom always swore by it for colds. I was grating fresh horseradish and Jasper stuck his head through the doorway to find out what the smell was. We got to talking and pretty soon I was giving him my whole spiel about turmeric, anti-inflammatories, all that. He was a vegetarian and kind of an exercise nut; we bonded over eating organic. And after that, all of a sudden Nick and I were in with the in-crowd. A few days later, we were given new passwords and access codes, and they explained what the Tulip Farm was really all about.”

“Which was, what?”

“They were inventing the Interstices.”

“Oh.” I laugh nervously. “You’re kidding me.”

Nadia looks irritated. “I’m not. And you are the first person I’ve told. Don’t look at me like that. It’s not chemical warfare or anything.”

“It might be worse?”

Now she’s pissed off. “Oh, god, you’re not one of those?”

“One of those what? Listen, Nadia, I’ve always been an enthusiastic tech user, but I’m not ready to get it implanted in my brain. Especially not after today. I mean, Isadora just hacked you. What’s the last thing you remember before you came to, here?”

“Going to sleep last night. Nick says he woke up this morning and I was gone.”

“That happens to me all the time, with Alba. Nick must have been frightened.”

“Yes. He sounded angry on the phone. Relieved.”

“Nadia,” I say softly, “how did it happen?”

She doesn’t answer, just gets up and starts pacing around the kitchen, then through the hall and back to the living room. I debate following her, but don’t. I stare out the window, thinking about the night I met Alba and her friends. Nothing has turned out the way I’d expected. I used to be fine with that.

Nadia returns to her seat across from me at the kitchen table. “I think I understand. I told you that the Museum of Lost Souls was Beck and Jasper’s last project together? And you know that Beck created Isadora as a curator for the Museum, after they split up?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. So, they each took the Museum, as it was on the day Beck left Detroit, and each of them made it their own. Jasper built the Interstices from it; Beck added endless galleries, rooms, passageways—and a curator to mind it all. Isadora must be compatible with the Interstices. But I think I’m the one who made the bridge between the two Museums.” Nadia pauses to see if I’m following.

“Intentionally?” I ask.

“No,” she replies. “It never occurred to me that there should or could be any such thing. When I was a kid, and Beck was teaching me to code, we used to do very basic animations. Do you remember how Isadora used to be a black cat?”