Unravel by Imogen Howson

and numbers that Elissa recognized as having the pattern of a security code. “Do we have a match, eighteen-forty-twenty-two?”
    Miguel took a moment to answer, his gaze moving over the handheld. He raised his head. “All matched up.”
    â€œCadan David Greythorn, please take the handheld and step forward until you’re at least three feet clear of all other persons.”
    Cadan obeyed, head up so he could look straight across to where the figures stood by their craft.
    â€œPlease enter the first six digits of your ID number into the handheld.” A pause while Cadan did that, too. “The last six digits of your ID number will now appear briefly on the handheld. Please confirm if they’re correct.”
    â€œThey are correct.” A whine of sudden interference obscured his words, and a series of fuzzy lines chased one another across the screen.
    â€œWould you repeat that, please?”
    Cadan said the words again.
    â€œConfirmed. Please step back. Markus Baer, please take the handheld and step forward until you’re at least three feet clear of all other persons.”
    They went through the procedure five more times, for the crew members and for Elissa and Lin. Lin, of course, had no ID number, but instead they requested a thumbprint and that she read a short paragraph that appeared on the screen, and the combination of the two identifiers seemed satisfactory, because as soon as they’d confirmed her identity, the six of them were invited to step across to the flyer.
    Despite the two-way security checks—their ID details were no longer available to anyone but approved IPL officials, and as far as Elissa could remember, IPL security had never been hacked—tension climbed her spine to settle between her shoulder blades as they walked the short distance across the desert.
    She had to brush past a broken sheet of metal waitingfor more thorough cleanup tomorrow, and its jagged edge caught the hem of her pants leg, making her trip as the material first caught, then tore.
    Lin stopped, and Cadan put a hand out as she regained her balance. “You okay?”
    â€œYeah.” Her face heated in embarrassment at her clumsiness. She bent and tucked the trailing edge up inside the hem of the pants. When she stood, Cadan was waiting. His eyes crinkled infinitesimally in a tiny smile meant just for her before he turned to catch up with Ivan and Felicia, who were walking ahead.
    After a couple of seconds, Elissa realized something she hadn’t noticed before: She and Lin were walking in time, legs moving in the same synchronized stride. Well, it makes sense—our legs are exactly the same length, after all. But it didn’t feel as if that were all it was. It felt more as if Lin were connected to her by something invisible. As if, if she were to stumble again, Lin would stumble too.
    Felicia stepped sideways to skirt a patch of slickly shining fuel, and Lin had to slow down for a moment so as not to collide with her. The rhythm broke. They weren’t two weird halves of a single entity; they were just identical twin sisters with the same length legs and the same pelvic-bone shape and the same length stride.
    But all the same, when they came under the shadow of the Savior , and Elissa heard Lin’s breath catch in a little nervous sound, she automatically put out her hand and, without needing to look, took Lin’s.
    The three officials were waiting by the still-open door.
    Now that Elissa was near enough, she could see that the two who’d gotten out first were both men. The smallest figurewas a woman, a very slight woman, several years older than Elissa’s parents, with gray hair cropped so short it was nearly hidden by her helmet. When she spoke, Elissa recognized the voice that had come through the handheld—and realized with a slight shock that the command in it had taken all her attention, leaving her, until this moment, not even registering the