Chapter Two

Two

Renee stifled a yawn, her gaze drawn to the lit tree in the courtyard standing in stark contrast to the blacking sky beyond. She had the entire couch to herself as Jackson, Hancock, Will, August, and Noel continued their conversation at the twin couches and low table where Will held his language lessons. Neighbors were on one side, humans on the other. They'd been at it for hours, right through a communal but divided dinner, each eyeing the other's food in curiosity as they sought understanding.

She'd still be there, too, but when the Neighbors' supplies began popping in, she'd excused herself. As the team's toxicologist, she wanted to be the one to examine the food stocks. Vaughn, of all people, had asked to check in the equipment. One of Will's students talked them through everything, his words halting but proficient. It had all been pretty basic, the prepackaged meals being the same stuff August had been eating and the equipment mostly clothing. Vaughn had left when the resupply had trickled to a stop, and now, as the sky lost the last of the light, she wondered if anyone would notice if she fell asleep amid the bustling whistle and click of organization still going on on this side of the broken quarantine window.

Stretching, she watched the men and women in combat gear finish sweeping up the broken glass, all of them unable to take their eyes off the Neighbors on the other side of the low wall, staring at them in turn. A chuckle escaped her when a young woman made the inevitable peace sign and one of the new Neighbors made the symbol back, adding a few more that Renee knew to be a distant greeting.

"Knock it off, Turlow!" Hancock unexpectedly shouted to make everyone jump. "No one is beginning an interdimensional war here because they're trying to be cute!"

But they had been staring at each other for hours, and with that to break the ice, both sides of the diplomatic fence slowly came together, that three-foot wall between them as they tried, and succeeded, to communicate in the way that warriors do.

A thin smile curved Renee's lips up, her attention drawn to the faint ding of the door seal. It was Vaughn again, the man clearly unsure as he stepped over the short wall and angled toward her.

Renee slid down to make room, though, really, there was plenty. "Hi. I'm surprised you aren't in on that," she said, her attention going to the table.

"Tayler needed some help," he said, his brown eyes almost black in the dim light. "Talk about ruining your daily planner," he added as he sat on the edge of the couch, his gaze following hers to the far side of the room.

"This wasn't on my radar, either." Renee watched as one of Will's students emerged from the barracks, his aim shifting to join the informal get-together at the low wall. "Did you have any clue that they could do that? What did Jackson call it? Translocate?"

"No!" Vaughn exclaimed, his eyes widening.

"Hey, I'm not blaming you," she said, and immediately he slumped.

"Tayler is," he said, seemingly embarrassed.

Vaughn ran a hand across his chin, and Renee wondered where that beautiful leaf ring he always wore had gone. "How on earth could you be expected to know?" Renee said, and Vaughn shrugged. "If anyone is in trouble, it's me," Renee added sourly. "I'm the one working with them the closest, and I'm the one who lobbied for bringing them together." Sighing, she looked at the table. "I'm damned if they stay, and damned if they leave."

Vaughn chuckled. "Sorry?"

Renee scooted forward to put her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands. Translocation, first from the truck to quarantine, and then to an entirely different world. "So did Hancock fire her?"

"Tayler?" Vaughn's smile faded. "No. But her access to them has been suspended. She can't get within fifty yards of one of them unless accompanied by someone who speaks their language."

"Wrist slap," Renee said, thinking the woman should have been escorted off the installation, except that might lead to a premature disclosure of them. Hancock was walking a fine line.

"She's, ah, on her way here." Vaughn's expression crinkled in distaste. "To apologize to Noel."

"Seriously?" Renee glanced at the door, now flanked by two privates with unslung rifles instead of one with a holstered pistol. "Wow."

Vaughn's narrow shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. "I've been with her the last couple of hours to help her work through this. She says Monroe gave her the okay to experiment on them, that Hancock didn't know. Monroe is denying it, making her the sacrificial goat. Needless to say she's pissed."

"Hancock didn't know?" Renee felt better about the man. "That sucks, but she could have said no." But the reality was that Monroe would have just gotten someone else.

"She seems contrite now that she has seen their attention to each other." Vaughn dropped his head as he texted someone and closed his phone. "Or maybe she's just trying to save her ass. She's not hard to read, but she's angry and trying to find someone to blame."

Renee winced when she saw the distasteful woman coming down the long hall, escorted from behind as if a felon. "Crap on a cracker, there she is," she whispered, then stood, quickly followed by Vaughn. "I'm not sitting this one out. I have to hear this."

Vaughn grinned. "Me too. I don't think the woman has apologized in her entire life."

Pace fast, Renee made her way around the softly glowing labyrinth to the low table as Tayler was searched before being allowed admittance. The woman's sour complaint was obvious when her pen was confiscated, and August's wing knuckles rose high.

"Hey, are you guys still talking top secret, or can anyone join in?" Renee said when Tayler's presence was noticed and the slow conversation halted.

"Vaughn, Renee. Good." Jackson stood, gesturing for her to take his place. "Does everything check out as expected in the incoming resupply?"

"It does on my end," Renee said, and Vaughn nodded as well. "Food and clothes, and a few personal phones, er, holos that don't work with our system." She sat down in Jackson's offered space. Vaughn sat beside her, leaving Jackson to squish in beside Will on the long couch.

Renee smiled across the low table at August, thinking the dark red Neighbor looked fantastic in the new wound-ribbon garment that had shown up in the first shipment. Noel, too, looked elegant, the faint chiming of the rings piercing the hem of her wing giving her an ethereal feel. "Noel," Renee said, shifting her shoulders up in greeting since she didn't have wings, and the imposing Neighbor bared her teeth in a bad rendition of a smile.

August cringed, but Renee smiled back, honored that she'd tried. "Renee," August said as his furrowed brow smoothed. "Yes, please join us. You know different words than Will."

"Yes, please," Hancock said sarcastically, clearly fatigued at the slow progress. "Let's bring everyone in," he added, gesturing to where Tayler waited.

"God help us," Will whispered from the head of the table as Tayler came forward, sullen. A yellow tablet sat before the linguist, full of handwritten, short, broken comments. Translating on the fly? she wondered. "Jackson, is this the best time?" the man added. "Considering?"

"Madam Noel has been generous with her time," Jackson said, and Renee started when August broke into a soft whistling, clearly translating to the dignified jin. "But I'm sure she's anxious to return and talk with her people. Vaughn tells me Tayler's got a prepared statement. I want this done."

Will pushed away from the table, clearly not happy. Hancock, though, stood, clearly eager to get it over with. "Madam Noel," the colonel said formally, as August translated. "Our former lead scientist, Tayler, would like to apologize for the poor treatment of your people. But if you'd rather I ask her to leave, I will."

Noel had fixed her gaze on the woman, her eyes nictitating despite the low light as Tayler and her two guards halted before the table. Whistling and clicking, the jin talked to August as Will's pencil scratched in the background.

He really does understand their whistles and clicks, Renee thought in amazement. More than hello , thank you , and where's the bathroom .

"She may approach," August finally said, but Noel was gripping her wing hem with her feet. It was a show of confidence or aggression. Mistrust, perhaps. Well-earned mistrust.

Jackson, too, stood as Tayler came forward, her eyes squinting and her stance neutral. Renee leaned across the table to touch August's elbow for his attention. The motion was not missed by Noel, and Renee flashed her another smile as August turned to her.

"How's it going?" she whispered as Jackson went to stand with Tayler.

"I'm trying to make myself useful as a translator," he said, then whistled in distress. "Noel is insisting that I leave with her."

Renee stifled a moment of angst. If he left, whom would she work with? "I meant, with bringing our two cultures together?"

"Oh." August's wing knuckles rose. "Ask me soon."

Renee drew back. "You mean later?"

August blinked in thought. "Later," he agreed, his gaze settling on Tayler. She looked uncomfortable in her lab coat, a hint of makeup on her cheeks and lips, but Renee's expression hardened when she realized it was to hide the coming bruise on her chin and saw that her wrists were still red from being bound. There were enough chairs for her to sit, but she stood, unrepentant.

Hancock cleared his throat for her to get on with it, and Renee wondered if perhaps Tayler had delayed the Neighbors' reunion not because she was worried about the welfare of her charges, but because she might lose her job for having mistreated them. Especially now that it had come out. They had been starving themselves to death to escape her.

"Doctor?" Hancock encouraged. "The correct honorific is ‘Madam.'?"

Tayler's jaw clenched, then eased—but her eyes never changed, hard and unforgiving. "Madam Noel, I beg you to accept my apology for the condition of your people under my care," she began, and August lifted one wing knuckle over his head in question.

"Will? I don't know ‘beg,'?" he said softly, and Tayler flicked an evil glance at Renee.

Will hesitated. "It means to ask for something beyond one's ability to gain on their own, acknowledging that the giver is offering a gift. In this case, forgiveness."

August's eyes briefly nictitated in thought, then he whistled and clicked to Noel.

"Keep going, Tayler," Hancock grumbled. "Try to use words August has been exposed to. Big ones."

Tayler's lips twitched. "I was unaware of the existence of the second group for many weeks, making me oblivious that progress had been made in fulfilling their needs. If I had, I would have modified my behavior and their conditions."

Yeah, right. Renee pushed back from the table to show her disbelief as August relayed Tayler's words.

"I did not realize how social your culture was. I should have tried harder to communicate. This was an error, and I apologize for it."

Again, Tayler went silent as August whistled and clicked, but even the human guards at the outskirts could tell Noel wasn't buying it as she made a whistling comment to August and Will scribbled on his yellow tablet.

"I, ah, sincerely hope that they will make a full recovery," Tayler almost blurted. "And I would ask for Madam Noel to express my sorrow to those I have harmed."

August quickly translated, Tayler unmoving as Jackson frowned. Noel asked a single question, and Will scribbled frantically as August dropped into a long explanation. But it was too fast, and Will finally gave up and wrote a question mark on the paper under the phrase expect us to believe what they themselves would not . It was doubtful that Tayler had truly meant any of it, and Renee shrugged when August looked at her for guidance.

But when August made a final, whistling click, Noel responded, her eyes on Tayler.

It clearly wasn't for their ears, as Will chuckled, writing, It's a poor doctor who can't tell her patient is uncomfortable .

Wincing, Jackson took a step forward. "August, will you please tell Madam Noel that I, too, apologize for their mistreatment. I should've been more aggressive in verifying their condition when I learned of their existence," he said, hesitating before rolling his shoulder in a fairly good expression of Neighbor apology.

"I do not need you to apologize for me," Tayler muttered as August translated, and Noel gave Jackson a small nod.

Hancock exhaled, the sound going to the corners of the large room. "Thank you, Doctor. You are excused," he said, gesturing for the guards to escort her out.

Vaughn, too, slumped in relief, but Will smiled, the man somehow having already bound himself to the Neighbors' good graces no matter what happened.

Tayler's chin trembled, her jaw clenched as Jackson prodded her into making the correct farewell gesture, but the doctor stiffened when Noel whistled a question and August said, "Madam Noel would like to know where General Han, Raphael, and Mikail are."

Oh, God. The three missing Neighbors, Renee thought as Vaughn cringed and Jackson drew Tayler to a halt. Tension pricked through Renee as the older woman flushed. Defiance. Unrepentance.

"I will not—" Tayler started, her voice cutting off at Jackson's tight grip.

"You will answer the question," he demanded, and Vaughn hunched in his seat.

Hancock leaned forward over the table, his hands clasped. "General?" he asked with forced pleasantness. "One of the missing is a general?"

"Han and Mikail would have similar tasks as you," August said as Noel waited, the rings on her wing hem chiming faintly. "But Raphael was an…aide?" he added, glancing at Will as if he hadn't used the right word. "The jin was too young to have been included in the first snap if it hadn't caught us off guard. Mers Han and Mikail knew the danger, but Raphael was swayed by the, ah, adventure."

God help us, Renee thought. Two aggressive males and a young female. Please, may they not be dissected and in some drawer.

"Doctor?" Hancock prompted, and the woman lifted her chin.

"I never had more than twelve," she said evenly. "Perhaps they are still at large."

"This long?" Renee blurted. "With no sightings?"

Jackson's grip on Tayler's elbow tightened, and the woman jerked from him, giving the two guards behind her an ugly look when they inched closer.

"That will be all, Tayler," Hancock said as if weary, but the woman stiffened, ignoring the guards' gesture to leave.

"Vaughn?" Tayler said imperiously. "Come with me. I need your assistance."

Vaughn bolted upright, and Renee wondered if she was seeing guilt in how he avoided meeting anyone's eyes. Maybe he had known they could translocate.

"Excuse me," Vaughn said softly, and Jackson returned to his seat as they were escorted out, silent and oddly apart, though they walked side by side.

"She didn't want Vaughn to stay," Renee whispered.

"No, she did not," Jackson agreed, grim as he resettled himself beside her.

Hancock sat as well, a faintly worried smile on his face. "I don't know where they are," he said. "I will continue the search that we began when we realized they were missing."

August relayed his words, waiting as Noel asked a question. "Madam Noel would like to know if you require any help in searching," he said, and Hancock cleared his throat before Jackson could take a breath.

"I don't see how," the man grumbled. "We can't put their faces on TV, but we have other methods." He paused, running a hand over his bald head before adding, "August, will you tell Madam Noel that Tayler will be reprimanded, but that does not explain or make amends for their mistreatment. I did know of their existence, but I did not know of their deplorable conditions." He turned to Noel, adding, "You have firstly my apology. As a man responsible for maintaining a large circle of protection for many, most of whom I have never met, I have failed to protect your people in my care, and I apologize. You have second my promise that I will make all effort to find your missing kin."

August's and Noel's whistles twined together, Will valiantly trying to keep up until he sighed and set his pencil down, much to Hancock's annoyance. Finally August made a contented whistle, smiling as he turned to them. "Noel hears your apology, Hancock, and understands," he said, and Hancock exhaled in relief. "Jackson, too, she hears and understands," August added, inclining his head to the man. "She hears Tayler's words, but it's unknown if the wind will raise her in an updraft."

Time will tell, Renee thought, translating the Neighbor idiom into one of her own.

Hancock pulled himself upright, clearly pleased. "Good," he said firmly as he glanced at Will. "Good, yes?"

Will, too, seemed happy. "I think so. I wouldn't forgive Tayler, either," he said, even as August translated their words.

"Good. Good," Renee echoed Hancock, a trickle of excitement replacing her thread of worry. "So, have we officially broken quarantine?"

Jackson raised a hand before Hancock could say anything. "Biological quarantine, yes," he said, hand dropping. "But we're still waiting on how the White House wants to tell the general populace that beings resembling demons and angels appeared during the last solar eclipse and would like to trade some beads for Manhattan."

August clicked in confusion, his whispered "White house?" to Will, and Renee smiled.

"Hancock's elected boss lives there," Will said to make Hancock cringe, but Noel raised her wing knuckles in a show of understanding when August translated.

"Jackson," Renee protested. "We need to do something to prepare the general population, even if it's only getting the government to fund a bunch of movies where aliens save the planet."

"Hold your horses," Hancock said, causing another small discussion between August and Will. "I agree that chances are low that we will wipe each other out with our toxic breath and microbes, but there is no way in hell that the population is ready to hear about you. Even if some of you do look like angels."

"The horse says neigh," August whispered in confusion, and Renee smiled, thinking that alien-themed movies weren't a bad idea.

"I will, however," Hancock continued, "recommend easing the Neighbors' confinement."

"Yes!" Renee exclaimed, then slumped into her chair at Jackson's frown. Noel had jumped at her outburst, and August's explanation of humans riding large farm animals shifted back to Hancock's words.

"Relax, Dr. Caisson," Hancock muttered. "I'm only giving them a larger, to-be-determined area of the installation. Nothing more until we have a stronger assurance that Neighbors do not constitute a threat, either biologically or territorially."

"They aren't here to take us over," Renee grumbled, but inside, she was thrilled. August had been staring at that tree in the courtyard for months.

"But rather," Hancock continued blandly as if she hadn't interrupted, "that Neighbors represent an opportunity to expand trade of Earth products in return for their holo technology."

Renee's excitement shifted a hundred and eighty degrees, and, seeing it, Hancock lifted his eyebrows high. "We are a society that allows great risk when money is to be made, Renee. Show me that, and I can get what you want past Congress."

Her pulse quickened. "Okay." Blueberries. Potato chips. Chocolate. I have to get August to try chocolate.

Noel was asking August a question, and Jackson leaned to read what Will wrote, his head bobbing in agreement at August's words. Profit lifts the masses above fear. But Renee's faint amusement vanished as the elegant Neighbor dropped into a long, singsong speech, her gaze going first to Hancock, then to Jackson, and finally to Renee. Worry trickled through her when Noel ceased, folding her hands gracefully into her lap as August gripped his wing hem.

"Noel regrets that she can't speak on military matters," August said, and Hancock frowned. "The portal isn't a military endeavor. It's a politically assisted business venture. She says she will move forward at the pace you set providing we are allowed autonomy within the space given. She expresses a hope that it will be more than three rooms and a view of a tree."

Renee doubted that there would ever be irrefutable proof enough for everyone that the Neighbors were not after their planet, their souls, and their giblets, but Noel and August had fallen into a confusing, back-and-forth conversation, complete with hand gestures and wing lifts.

"Will? What is she saying?" Hancock grumbled, and the small man shrugged.

"I think Noel is confused at our reticence to tell the common man that they are here. August is trying to explain our paranoia. Apparently, the entirety of Nextdoor knows the portal is open to Earth, and they are excited. Everyone who snapped here during the eclipse was not expected to return. They're all heroes." Will glanced across the table, smiling. "Especially August. Noel is ordering him home to tell everyone about Earth."

August flushed at Will's words, even as his conversation with Noel never slowed.

"They know about us?" Jackson said, his disbelief obvious.

Hancock leaned away as August and Noel's conversation began to lull. "I imagine that the resources it took to make a portal functioning would need the backing of the entire population." His gaze became intent. "Which makes my suspicious, human nature wonder, Why are you so eager to make new connections to other worlds? August?"

August held up a hand, then turned to Noel, whistling and clicking. Renee caught the finger lift for a question at the end of it all, and Noel made one quick click of affirmation. The smaller female was beginning to look tired, but at least she wasn't taking sips from the air canister anymore. Fast. They adapted fast.

"Our history tells of many worlds connected by the portals," August said as Noel's eyes began to nictitate in fatigue. "But they were abandoned over time. That we are not alone is a great relief. Noel asks if we may be allowed to make a more permanent facility for our people, one that contains a portal that's more structurally sound and has the room to handle quarantine of goods and help…move quantities."

Hancock pushed his lips together in thought, and, seeing it, Noel began to whistle and gesture.

"Ah, the circular pattern of rooms around an open courtyard and tree is pleasing, but successful trade requires, er…sticky tape?" August hesitated.

"Red tape," Will offered, and Hancock's suspicion began to ease. He knew about bureaucracy and the rooms of paper that those who moved them would require.

"There's a better place for a portal than here." August hesitated. "Is there a, ah, map?"

"A map?" Hancock echoed suspiciously. "Of what? The installation?"

Will glanced at the stack of books that made up his schoolroom. "I think we have one in the almanac."

Jackson reached for his phone. "Relax, Hancock. They've seen maps of the world already," he said as he opened an app and pushed the phone across the table.

Noel stared at it in doubt, but at August's encouragement, she picked it up. August hunched closer, fingers reaching as he explained how it worked, and then she gave a familiar, no-need-to-translate click and whistle to get him to back off. Renee smiled as the smaller female quickly mastered the interactive screen, and, surprised, Hancock grunted.

But as Noel spun through the lower forty-eight and Will answered August's question as to where they had found them two months ago, Renee's smile slowly fell. Noel's fingers were longer than August's. His hands had shrunk. It wasn't her imagination.

Concerned, Renee looked up and away from the table to where a group of Neighbors sat and played Du-board while the humans watched. There was a clear difference between the hands of Will's ten students and the new Neighbors'. The eyes of his students seemed darker than the newcomers', and it wasn't because the newcomers were squinting, eyes nictitating in the dim light. Even the wing membranes of the new Neighbors were different, thicker, maybe, than those of their kin who had been here longer.

Not just their tongue, teeth, and voice box… she mused, startled when August slid the phone to the center of the table and tapped the screen.

"What is here?" August asked, and Jackson pulled the phone closer. "We would like to build a portal building here."

"Carbondale, Indiana?" Jackson questioned, and Hancock grunted in surprise.

"Not DC?" the larger man asked.

"Ah…" Jackson said, and both Renee and Hancock turned to him.

"Ah, what?" Renee asked, and Jackson opened a search engine, his fingers moving fast.

"They arrived during an eclipse that traveled across the US from northwest to southeast," he said, and Hancock shifted to see the map of the US better. "Well, there's going to be another one in a few years, running from the Southwest to the Northeast. Carbondale is where the two paths cross."

"Huh." Hancock studied the map showing the two eclipse paths. Sure enough, they crossed right in the middle of the Midwest. Carbondale, Indiana.

Noel began whistling, her wide eyes on the phone as Jackson handed it back.

Will smirked. "She's telling August she isn't surprised we have the technology to know this, seeing as that's the only way there would have been enough people gathered to see it, enabling the spontaneous portal."

August nodded. "Two eclipses crossing makes a weak point that will last for hundreds of years. Easier to cross. Like walking through a door."

"Well, I'll be damned," Hancock said, but Renee thought his surprise was more about him realizing they were truly here than the anomaly of eclipse crossings. They were here. Here as in setting up real estate here. Nothing says you've arrived like putting up a building. "Carbondale, eh?" Hancock added, and everyone jumped when the flat of his hand hit the table as if he was wrapping things up. "I'll look into it. Small cities are easier to isolate than big ones, though being smack-dab in the middle of the US is going to be hard to swallow." He laughed and pushed his chair back. "Aliens in Indiana cornfields."

Noel twittered a question, and August's wing hem curled in confusion. "Will," he finally asked, "what is funny about cornfields?"

Renee leaned across the table, smiling. "I'll tell you later."

"Okay." Jackson ran a tired hand over his stubbled chin. "While Hancock is checking on Carbondale, we can certainly get you access to a wider range of materials than children's books."

Hancock's lips pressed into a frown. "Belay that, August. Jackson spoke out of turn."

But it was too late, and Noel was already lifting her wings in eager agreement.

"Sir," Jackson said, the rims of his ears turning red as he protested in front of everyone. "They are here. We can't turn them away if they are asking for help, even if it is a sham and we wake up one morning surrounded by them. Has it escaped you that they are no longer trapped in little cubicles in Tayler's basement or even bound by the walls here? The labyrinth is a door to another world," he said, pointing to it. "And they can come and go as they please. The only way to regain control of a car skidding on ice is to aim in the direction of the skid."

"He's right," Renee muttered as Hancock's frown deepened. "Can you sell Washington on them being less a threat and more something to manage? August's people have done this before."

"That's exactly what concerns me, Caisson," the colonel muttered. At the far end of the table, Will and August tried to keep up, but the idiom of cars and ice had stopped the translation cold.

"Sir, we need to begin to share information," Jackson said, and Hancock shifted, clearly ready to go. "If we don't, they might risk pulling a Tayler and abduct a few homeless people."

"Which is what I want to prevent—Jackson," the colonel growled.

"You don't do that by not sharing." Jackson glanced at Will helping August understand the wealth of new words. "I suggest a cadaver exchange. Or at the very least, information on human anatomy."

Hancock's eyes narrowed. "All the better to find our weaknesses and exploit them, my dear," he said, and August perked up.

"Neighbors are not wolves dressed in grandmother's clothing," he said, and Hancock grunted in surprise.

Renee shrugged, smug. "Even fairy tales are useful."

"Sir," Jackson tried again. "We made a mistake by allowing them to be treated as animals. We have one chance to come out looking like more than shit scrapings. I implore you to start an information-sharing program beginning with a cadaver exchange. Sell it as a way to prevent accidentally killing each other. I can't think of any part of the Earth that they'd want to live on. It's too bright and dry for them."

Renee's gaze went to Will's students at the broken window as she wondered how long that would be true.

"It isn't bright or dry at night," Hancock said, and Jackson huffed in frustration.

"Ah, I know I'm just here to make sure we don't unintentionally wipe each other out with the common cold or poison each other with jelly," Renee said, flushing when Hancock stared at her for speaking up. "But it makes sense to me to assign them a place that is theirs. An embassy, maybe, so there's a framework of laws. I know you'd like to think you can keep them hidden forever, but their presence will come out, and it feels safer with a plan rather than on the internet. They're making efforts to acclimate their population to us. We should do the same. And if the door is permanent, then it can be controlled. What we have now isn't."

Hancock crossed his arms over his chest, his breath to protest slowly slipping away. "That," he said slowly, "I might be able to sell to the Hill."

Flustered, she glanced at Jackson before sitting straighter. "They haven't harmed anyone even though we have harmed them. Hancock, you say Congress isn't interested in truth unless it makes them look good and helps their constituents? Well, the Neighbors are desperate for resources, not to steal, but to buy with technology that might give us better energy sources, easier communication, a deeper understanding of where we sit in the universe. Who wouldn't want that in their state?"

Hancock seemed to relax. "I could sell that, too," he said. "Indiana, eh?" he added, bobbing his head at Noel. "Damn, I think we're going to do this."

Noel inclined her head, her teeth bared until August clicked, probably to tell her she wasn't doing it right.

"Okay." Hancock stood, startling everyone. "I need a few days. August, will that work in Madam Noel's framework?"

August whistled, and Noel nodded first to him, then Hancock. The gesture was the same in both cultures, but then again, they had been here before.

"I will see about the possibility of setting up a new installation in Carbondale," Hancock said, and Noel stared at him rubbing his hands together. "I'll have to sell it to the White House. It would help if I knew what your needs are as far as water, power, space. What you want in an embassy."

"Noel agrees to bring in the right people," August said as Noel rose, quickly followed by August and Jackson. "She would like to thank you, Jackson, Will, and Renee."

"Renee. Right," Hancock said, and Jackson hid a smile.

Renee slowly got to her feet, her brow furrowed as she saw August's slumped wings. "Ah, I'd like to secure August's help with continuing to screen possible food imports."

"Plenty of time for that now that the portal is open," Hancock said, clearly wanting to find a secure line to Washington, and Renee took a fast breath, her pulse hammering. If August left, he might never come back.

"Now that the portal is open, we have to move faster," she said. "Sure, the preliminary toxicology screenings are done, but I need his help to make sure we don't introduce something that messes up their ecology." Renee turned to Noel, the angelic Neighbor anything but. "I need August," she added, wincing when August remained silent, not translating her words. "He's agreed to spearhead the search for palatable food sources, heavy on fruit and grain. I need his help making sure we don't accidentally introduce something that harms your food plants. August, tell her what I said."

August's wing knuckles were so high in embarrassment, they almost touched. "She has already said the proposed products should go directly Nextdoor for testing," he said, words slow. "I will work on them there."

"On a different planet?" Renee looked between him and Noel. "I can't work like that, and there's no need to." Breath fast, she awkwardly made what she hoped was a pleading whistle. At least she got the hand gesture right. "Madam Noel, I need August. I need his language and science skills to screen what products won't damage your ecosystem." Breathless, she turned to August. "Tell her."

"She's already decided," August said, and Renee flushed.

"Tell her!" she demanded, and Jackson chuckled, whispering something to Hancock. Renee didn't care, and she stood there, flushing a bright red as August whistled and clicked, his wing knuckles low.

Noel listened until he was done, clearly fascinated by Renee's fed face. Again, there was a curious back-and-forth conversation to make the room sound like a forest in spring, and then August's wings nearly flew open, shocking them and making the group by the window dissolve into a wheezing laughter.

"Will, what is he saying?" Jackson asked.

"Too fast, sir," he answered, but his grin said different.

"Renee." August ran a hand over his head, nervous. "I can stay, but only because you made me do something I didn't want to do and she's never learned how."

Renee grinned, turning to Noel and making the "thank you" gesture three times in a row until Noel nodded. "Great," she said, somehow resisting the urge to take August's hands and dance him around. "Hancock, August needs free access around the installation immediately. My lab is big enough for six. We can't set up in here. August, at least, should be allowed out of the embassy at will. He needs a passport. Like yesterday."

"Caisson," Hancock growled.

"Just until they get their permanent embassy," she wheedled. "Give me that and you won't hear from me except for my weekly reports." She hesitated. "And they will be good reports."

Jackson chuckled as Hancock nodded, adding a dry "This will be hell to keep quiet."

"And the cultural exchange?" Jackson asked.

Hancock's smile vanished, but his expression eased when he looked across the room to where his own men were trying to learn the rules of Du-board. "Give them access to a TV and a remote. I want a report on what they watch, and how long."

Jackson nodded, waiting until August finished relaying that to Noel. "And the cadaver exchange?"

Hancock shook his head. Shoulders square, he turned to Noel and made a surprisingly graceful gesture of farewell, ending it with his fist raised in invitation for a wing-knuckle bump. "Ma'am. I am grateful for the time you gave us and the wisdom you showed."

Renee blinked, surprised that he was more than a gun and an obstacle to be overcome.

"Henoook," Noel managed, then tapped her wing knuckle to his fist.

August exhaled in relief as the man chuckled, bobbed his head, and strode off, bellowing for his aide to give him everything he could dig up on Carbondale, Indiana.

"Talk about a high five," Jackson whispered as Will gathered up his notes and dashed after Hancock. "You want to get some dinner?" the major added, and Renee took a quick breath. Quarantine was broken. She could eat in the cafeteria.

"Give me twenty minutes," she said. "I have to say goodbye."

"Gotcha. August, I'm glad you're staying." Jackson turned. "Madam Noel?" He, too, held his fist high, and Renee watched as the two Neighbors touched their wing knuckles to his fist in turn. "I could get used to this." Grin never fading, Jackson turned on his heel and strode away, cocky and sure of himself as he stepped over the wall remaining between quarantine and the observation lounge. And then he was gone.

"Reenay," Noel wheezed, and Renee turned, surprised to find her extending a wing knuckle.

"Madam Noel." She'd knuckle knocked hundreds of times before, but it felt different now, and she made a fist, quickly tapping the smaller Neighbor's offered knuckle.

Only now did the clearly tired female turn away, moving a short distance before stopping to wait for August.

August lingered, his wings drooping in relief. "I can stay," he said, and Renee took his hands and gave them a brief squeeze.

"She didn't let you stay because of the food testing, did she."

August's eyes nictitated in embarrassment as he glanced at the waiting jin. "I told her I'm beginning to see when you are lying. Not you, but you as a species. You smell different."

Renee's expression fell. "You're a spy?" she said, but August smiled, looking as if he finally understood the human gesture that was both threat and welcome.

"I don't know the word ‘spy,'?" he said as he glanced at Noel. "But if it means I can stay, then yes. I'm a spy."