I turn back to see Katie retrieving her cell phone from her backpack. Her thumb shakes as she types like she’s scheduling “find girl from Swarm” in her calendar. “I can do this.” Katie smiles nervously. Her silky dark hair drapes over both shoulders, making her look too innocent to hunt down Swarm members.

“No, I’ll think of something else—”

Katie cuts me off. “You’d do it for me. Besides, I owe you one.” Her eyes flicker down before settling on mine. She still feels guilty for thinking I was crazy when I told her not to go to the pier. Or maybe it’s because she had friends there—people she didn’t warn.

I try to convince myself I’m not endangering her life by allowing her to help. The truth is, I need her.

I give her a weak smile. “Don’t be . . .” I struggle with how to finish. “Obvious.”

“Covert. Got it.” Katie’s eyes sparkle for a moment. “I always wanted to be a spy.”

Katie is the last person I’d ever peg for espionage. Still, I feel a small sense of relief. I avoid eye contact with Adam and head toward the library, my game plan focalizing.

If the Swarm was hoping that video of my father’s murder would cripple me, they were wrong.

Adam starts after me. “Where are you going?”

My steps are awkward. “The library.”

“Then I’m coming too.”

“I’m fine. I’m just—”

Adam cuts me off. “I think you’re an idiot. You should flee the premises, but I’ll be damned if some girl wearing a nasty, second-hand-store army jacket is going to off my best friend today.”

I bite my lip, grateful for their comradery. Adam and Katie are the only two people in this entire school I’d want on my side. Katie in her thick headband and her ruffled skirt. And Adam in his tight black jeans, faded Black Sabbath shirt that’s ripped at the collar, and leather bands tied around his skinny wrists. As if deliberately contradicting his outfit, his black hair is sculpted into a side pompadour and he’s wearing thick-rimmed Tom Ford glasses. He picks up on what I’m thinking.

“I might not look like much of a threat, but my intellect is unmatchable.”

Adam walks beside me without asking why I’m going to the library or what I plan to do there, which is good. I wouldn’t have an answer for him if he did.

“I hope you know what you’re doing with Cullen Henking.”

“I don’t even know how we’re going to get into the library without a pass.”

“You have the greatest sob story of anyone at our school.”

He’s right. It’s about time I start using that to my advantage.

Adam references a picture of Jeremiah Dopney standing on the Skydeck’s Ledge. “He was in Chicago three years ago.”