Shireen was about to speak, then stopped. She looked down at the stone floor.
“You can't, can you?” said Diane. “You don't believe it either, do you? You're just like the rest of them. What have you told yourself? That it was all a childish fantasy? A game? A story?”
Shireen looked troubled at Diane's words. Finally, she spoke in a whisper. “No. It isn't that. It's just … I haven't talked about any of it for years. Not to anyone. To do so is madness, unthinkable. You've seen what it's like here. In the Directory, no one talks about outside because they know there isn't one.”
“But why?” asked Finn. “It makes no sense.”
Shireen sighed, trying to shape her thoughts into words. “Outside, in the rest of Engn I mean, everyone follows the orders we give them. That's the way it has always been
