Olena had known why Earth opened this portal before she ever stepped through it. Today she finally said it out loud.
Evening was coming on. She and Max stood apart from the others, on a quiet terrace above the city in the gold of late light. Below, the tribe's people came back from the fields and the water. None of them looked up. None of them knew that two strangers above their heads were talking about their fate.
The bracelets and lenses had stayed below. What Olena had to say was not for Oreon — even faint, even from here.
"You know who Mehta's orders came from," Olena said. Not a question.
"I can guess."
"Cornelius. Through Vance."
"The metal."
"The metal."
She looked at the distant vein of metal in the rock, glowing faintly in the dusk.
"I saw today what it does. Naira showed
