Page 122

Seven months earlier

UNMAPPED

March 11th, later

They want me to come with them. It’s not an arrest, as such, but it’s a strong request to take me in for questioning.

I go with them, because if I don’t, they’ll only keep searching. And then they might find you. You need time to disappear properly. This way, I’m protecting me and you, in a way I never did the first time around.

Detective Sergeant Manikham opens the back door of the police car and I climb in. Detective Inspector Braithwaite, in the driver’s seat, blasts up the air conditioning so high that I shiver as we drive away from the den. From the front passenger seat, as the car lurches away across the dirt, Detective Sergeant Manikham watches me in the rear-view mirror. When I try to look back at the den and across to the Separates, my head slams into the window. But just for a second, I see her: our fox. Still as stone in the sand and staring back at me, watching me leave.

I turn further in the seat, so I can watch her through the rear window as she turns and heads for the horizon. Like our fox, you will also damage what you come into contact with—non-native creature that you are—but I have released you. For better or for worse, I have released us all.