Inheritance by Malinda Lo

even when she had never seen them before. Reese wondered what had happened to Agent Todd; he had vanished after the bunker at Area 51 exploded. The woman continued: “We’ll begin today with a press conference in front of the visitors’ center. Afterward, we’ll bring small groups of you to tour the spacecraft. Please follow me.”
    It was only a few minutes’ walk to the visitors’ center, where folding chairs were arranged in rows on the lawn across from a two-story white building that reminded Reese of a colonial home. The lawn extended down to the cove, which was empty except for the ferry. Up front, facing the folding chairs, a podium was flanked by a dozen more chairs where several individuals were already seated. As Reese drew closer, she realized they must be the other Imria, because Amber was among them.
    Disconcerted, Reese averted her eyes, and then felt self-conscious. She had known that Amber would be there; this wasn’t a surprise. Reese’s parents took seats in the last row, and she, David, and his parents filed in after them. Once she was seated, Reese deliberately looked at the Imria. The man and woman who had greeted them were speaking to someone else Reese recognized: Dr. Brand. Most of the Imria were dressedsimilarly, in gray or navy suits. Some of the women wore skirts; some did not. Amber was wearing a sleeveless charcoal-gray dress that made her look as if she was going to a business meeting. Her short blond hair was swept back, and she kept her eyes trained on her hands, folded in her lap. Reese found herself feeling slighted by the fact that Amber didn’t acknowledge her, and then she was irritated by the seesaw of her own emotions.
    She was relieved when a tall, dark-skinned man approached the podium, giving her something else to focus on. “Welcome,” the man said. He had short, straight black hair, and he moved with a fluid elegance that belonged on a stage, not on a windswept beach in the middle of San Francisco Bay. “I am Akiya Deyir, designated ambassador of the Imria, and I am very glad to convey my people’s greetings to you.” His accent was slight but noticeable, giving his formal language a foreign lilt. When he said the word
Imria
, it seemed to have more syllables than the letters called for.
    He continued: “We are grateful to the state of California for allowing our ship to land here on Angel Island, where we shall remain as talks continue with the leaders of your world. We regret that our presence above the city of San Francisco has led to congestion in the streets, though we are happy that you are interested in knowing more about us. We realize that you have many questions, and we will do our best to answer them as well as we can from now on. To begin, today we are pleased to announce that we will address the nations of your planet during the General Debate at the United Nations on September fifteenth, approximately one month from now in New York City.We look forward to the opportunity to open a truly universal dialogue about cooperation between our peoples.”
    As Akiya Deyir spoke, Reese began to notice the similarities between him and Dr. Brand and Amber. They all had an alertness to their features, a precision to the way they moved, that made humans seem a bit sluggish in comparison.
    “Twelve days ago,” Deyir said, “when our ship touched down in Nevada, our goal was simply to retrieve the members of our Earth-based team who had been mistakenly detained by the US government.”
    Reese was surprised by his explanation. The night before she and David had escaped from the underground bunker, Amber had told her that the US was going to execute her and the other Imria. Reese didn’t think there had been any mistake about it, and she wondered why Akiya Deyir was spinning the story to put the US in a positive light.
    “We’ve been working with the US government since 1947, when we first made contact with the Truman Administration and subsequently drafted the Plato