And Zack doesn’t know exactly what he’s going to do, what his next move will be, when the code comes to him.

All of those thoughts are swirling in his head when the phone in Zack’s pocket buzzes with a text.

Unknown number. This must be it. The text from Karloff, who thinks he’s sending it to Joey.

The text contains just a six-digit number: 777548.

With the bland-seeming instructions:

Enter it and hit send.

75.

75.

Sitting at the defense table, Joey Richter gets a text.

He feels it buzz in his pocket. He’s afraid to even look at it.

But what choice does he have? He’s decided. He will do what he’s been told. What he’s agreed. He’s been a fuckup all his life. This is one thing he’s not going to fuck up. So against courtroom policy, he has turned on the phone in his pocket to await the text. The defense table blocks anyone from seeing his lap. His lawyer, Nat Becker, is busy taking notes.

Joey glances down at the screen nervously, focuses on the text.

666745. Enter it and hit send.

The civil case goes on around him. He’s barely even listening. He doesn’t care. It’s a fog of words, of motions, of countermotions. He glanced over just once at the victim’s family at the prosecution table when he sat down. Long enough to realize he has no idea which victim it is. Whose family are they? It only confuses and depresses him further.

He’s been confused all his life. It’s always been a fog around him. And this code, this phone, is no clearer.

Zack’s and Steve’s speculations on what this number is about. Where it’s detonating. If it’s detonating. Even that is still unclear too. Part of him still doesn’t understand, doesn’t believe, that Karloff would go through all this trouble. Would put it all on Joey. It makes no sense. Part of him thinks, is sure, this code isn’t really about an explosion at all. It’s just a test of loyalty. Or for something else entirely. The idea of a detonation? That just came from two imaginative slacker kids, after all, and from his own reading of Karloff. And he knows better than anyone that he almost always reads things wrong.

But regardless of all this, and in light of all this, he’s ready.

He thinks.

Can he do it? Can he finally prove himself to Karloff? Can he prove himself to his parents, who despise him?

Can he finally show a self that is truly selfless? Can he prove himself to himself?

He enters the number nervously.