“When I researched environmental causes of our evacuation, his paternal founder—Thomas Midgley, Jr.—kept coming up. He pretty much had the biggest singlehanded detrimental effect on the environmental destruction of Earth Before. Gasoline and fluorocarbons, among other things. We know Truman’s ancestry. The Elders involved all come from families with negative impact on our previous society—so they’re trying in some sick way to make it right.” Her cuff beeped and she looked down. “Gotta go, Kaia. I’ll come back soon.”
She hugged me and disappeared before a protest could slip past my lips, and the door to our room swung open a split second later. Sarah’s pale face caught me off guard, along with the tears streaming down her cheeks. Hurt and anger burned like wildfire in her icy eyes. She crossed the room in two steps, reeled back, and slapped me across the face.
My eyes watered, cheek blazing under my palm. “Are you off your nut? What the hell did I do?”
She shoved a crumpled blue card into my hand, went into her room, and slammed the door. Still trying to retrieve my senses from where they’d been smacked loose, I looked down at the paper, dazed. Oz’s name and bio information printed across the top, along with his birthday—today.
Underneath it, the name of his True Companion marched in black typeface against the light blue background, impossible to miss, even harder to believe:
Kaia Ruth Vespasian (August 16, 33 NE–)