Zaharah leaned back in her seat and propped her bare feet under the wheel. She and Pharah sat in the car on the grounds of uncle Cam's manor after the long drive home. They'd stopped for daiquiris on the way back and stayed a while by the western bay, and Pharah had promised to give her more clarity on the situation with Devin.

As far as Zaharah knew, their mother was addicted to drugs or something. She couldn't quite remember what Pharah had told her on Chore Day.

Pharah sighed up at the roof of the car. "I found a bunch of letters tucked away at the bottom of his bag. Letters from our mom." She swirled the remnants of her Miami vice with her straw. "The Director had lied to us. Our mother wasn't a druggie. She was sick."

Zaharah took a sip of her own daiquiri, but stayed quiet. Part of her wondered why Pharah had waited until now to tell her this. Perhaps there were some things she needed to reconcile with before sharing it with the world. And Zaharah was still a stranger by definition; none of this was her business.

"Devin had been in contact with her for a few years. They were exchanging letters every month or so, but they stopped earlier this year. Around the same time Devin started bugging me about going to the mainland."

"I see..." Zaharah frowned. Had she jumped the gun and judged Devin too harshly? She'd taken him for an irritable druggie, but... God, why did life have to be so fucked.

"I don't understand? Why didn't he ever tell me?" To her credit, Pharah didn't sound angry, just confused and tired.

Zaharah gazed out the windshield at the grounds, washed in late afternoon light. "Did the Director know he was in contact with your mother? Because by the sounds of it, she wanted to sever that tie. Otherwise, why would she lie to you?"

"I think you're right." She shook her head. "Those drugs he was on... the kids from the east side trafficked them through the mail that came from here. It makes sense."

"If you want to, we can go look for her. After the storm and... Devin's funeral." She turned to face Pharah squarely. "Do you know her last address?"

"Yeah but... It's a hospice facility." And Pharah downed the rest of her daiquiri and gave a mirthless laugh. "I don't have anyone left, do I?"

"That's not true." Zaharah placed a tentative hand on Pharah's leg. "Look, I know we haven't known each other for that long, but we went through this shit together. You, me, Jade and Roddi. We're not gonna abandon you Pharah. We're not going anywhere."

She put her hand over Zaharah's a small smile on her lips. "Thank you. I'm such a mess and... you've been so strong considering."

Now it was Zaharah's turn to laugh. "I'm not strong. I'm just really good at disassociating. After the accident, I had to figure things out. Jade became my responsibility. I had to look out for her. I have to look out for her, secure our future. There wasn't much time to mourn."

"And who's going to look out for you?" Pharah met her eyes, eyebrows drawn tight. And Zaharah didn't have an answer for her. Even she didn't look out for herself, another thing Markus had berated her about. Perhaps she should make time for herself, do something nice. Relax for once.

The blare of a horn cut into the silence, and through the gates of the Manor came a lorry dragging a trailer behind it. I roared past them with Uncle Cam's Volkswagen trailing behind. Out jumped Jade and Roddi, followed by an android in a crisp blue suit.

"Elliot?" Zaharah watched him in the rearview mirror like he was a ghost. She thought the Director would've destroyed him after what he did. She jumped out of the car and grimaced up at the trailer. "What's all of this?"

"It's nice to see you too, Zaharah," Elliot said with a smile. "I'm glad you all made it here alright."

Zaharah shrugged and stuffed her hands in her pockets, rocking backing on her heels. "Couldn't have gotten here without your help. And Dwight and Dr Will and Cyan." He gaze fell to her shoes. "I left a lot of carnage in my wake didn't I?"

"Well I can't speak to what happened to your Doctors, but Dwight is fine. He's gonna be on Aleesha's shit list for a while but..." Elliot shrugged. "I'd say this turned out as well as it could, given the circumstances."

The car shut slammed shut and Pharah came to Zaharah's side a moment later. "What's this?"

"It's our stuff." Roddi said with a grin. "From Denden." He seemed to be in better spirits since leaving the house this morning. A glow had come over his skin and his smile was a little brighter. "And guess what else? Cam said he could get me visitation rights for my big bro. Gonna see him after the storm."

Zaharah arched a brow. Cam... so they were best friends now. "Glad to hear it, Roddi."

"How did things go with... y'know?"

Pharah opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

"It went fine," Zaharah said. "Only thing left to do is call the home and finalise the arrangements."

"Cool. Let me know if you guys need any help." Roddi disappeared around the back of the trailer, and Uncle Cam hopped out of the car a moment later.

"Zaharah, with me please." He nodded to the main house and led the way inside.

"Wait!" Pharah called from behind them. She cleared her throat, her eyes averted. "Thank you Mr Sanders."

Uncle Cam smiled. "Please, called me Cam or Cammi." And he continued into the house with Zaharah I tow.

They bypassed all the fancy Victorian furniture and went through a door at the back of the living room. The office beyond held yet another of her paintings, lording over the room. This one depicted a cat at a still pond, the water reflecting its form almost perfectly. She'd done that one in high school, and it was painfully obvious.

Uncle cam rounded the heavy wooden desk and picked up a stack of books before filing them away on the shelf dominating the western wall. Sunlight came in through the windows opposite, giving the room a warm, ambient feeling.

Zaharah groaned and dumped herself in a chair. "Why'd you have to put that one in here?"

"Because my favourite niece painted it of course." He sat behind his computer and tapped away at the console until the screen popped up. "What other reason do I need?"

"But it old and bad." Zaharah picked up the glass paperweight and passed it between her hands. "I'll paint you a new one. A better one."

He arched a brow at her. "And then when it's done, you'll say: no uncle, I don't feel comfortable with you putting it on display. It's not my best work."

"I..." She huffed out a sigh. "Whatever. Are we going to have our big talk now?"

"No. We'll save that for once you lot are settled in and back in the thick of life. For now." His screen turned from blue to orange. "There are a few other matters to attend to. Do you remember a Doctor Nisha Sky?"

Zaharah frowned. "Isn't she some kind of politician?"

"She is the Minister of Health and your new primary care physician. You have a video conference with her tomorrow, at 9 am. So please don't oversleep."

"No need to worry about that. Thanks to this micro metal I only ever need five hours a night."

Uncle Cam's lips dipped into a frown, but he didn't comment, and she took note not to mention the micro metal unless he asked. His reaction from yesterday was more than she'd anticipated. She could recall a time when he'd raised his voice so.

"And another thing." He pulled up a video on the screen from the 700 News website. He hit play, and the borderline robotic voice came through the speakers.

"In other news, a break in at the pocking pitch has prompted speculation. Some people call it a ghost, others are calling it the work of morbid hackers. Gail Smith has more."

Zaharah's heart sunk. "No..."

The scene cut from the studio to the taped off door of the locker room where a newscaster stood. "A daring daylight break-in at this pocking pitch has opened speculation surrounding a tragedy from two years ago. The deadly boating accident that took the lives of Zander Cyan and his family."

A girl came on the screen, around Zaharah's age, with a cherubic face framed by dreadlocks. "We were coming to get our cleats ahead of practice and we heard noises coming from the showers. There wasn't supposed to be anyone else here. And when we checked the terminal, it was Zaharah who'd opened the door."

Zaharah wanted to take her eyes off the screen and pretend this never happened.

"The police concluded that it was a group of hackers who got into the system. However nothing from the locker room was stolen. Gail Smith 700 News."

"Fucking hell." Zaharah rubbed her face and leaned back in the seat.

Uncle Cam clicked away. "There's more, actually." The next page he brought up was Instagram, a picture of her Pharah, Jade and Roddi at the park on the boardwalk. The caption read: Zaharah and Jade Cyan (?) And it had hundreds of thousands of likes and tens of thousands of comments.

She rubbed her face. "This is a fucking disaster."

"No." Uncle Cam leaned back in his seat, fingers steepled in front of his face. "This is perfect. This is just the kind of discord we need."

Zaharah looked at him through her fingers. "What are you talking about?"

"Once the competent authorities know that you all are still alive, they're going to do their best to sweep this under the rug." He leaned forward, crossing his arms atop the desk. "Aleesha wouldn't have been able to keep you in Denden and experiment on you without the consent of some higher power. And I want to know who that is."

"So what should we do?" Zaharah shrunk into her seat. She didn't like the look on uncle Cam's face, the look of someone ready to stir the pot and see was offended by the smell. After all they'd been through the previous day, she didn't want to invite more danger to their doorstep.

"The rumor mill is already turning. We just need to feed it. Once the public is informed, it will be impossible for them to hide you. Whoever was working with my sister already knows you all are staying with me. I expect to be contacted soon."

"Maybe I should rephrase my last question. What do you want me to do?" Zaharah ask putting a hand over her chest.

Uncle Cam shrugged. "Nothing. You focus on finishing school, getting your degree. I'll take care of the background noise."

"Alright, uncle. I trust you judgment. Is there anything else you need from me right now?"

"Nah. Go ahead and settle in. I'll see you all at dinner. I've ordered sushi."

Zaharah rolled her eyes. "Let me guess, Jade asked for it. Goddamn weeb."

He laughed. "You two haven't changed at all. It's good to have you back, niece."

"It's good to be back, uncle."