And they were supposed to talk about how to extricate him from this mess while playing Critterscape, in the early morning when no one was going to be around.

But you told me, Julia thinks, and now you’re my responsibility. She couldn’t let Ned twist in the wind this way. How did you shut down a drug ring without involving the police?

There had to be a way.

Do you think what I was doing had anything to do with…?

What if Danielle had found out? And confronted this Marland guy? And then…?

The strength goes out of her legs; Julia feels dizzy. No. That wasn’t the reason. It couldn’t be. And if it was, then Ned was in terrible danger.

But he had said nothing to the police. Nothing. He had a way out of this mess; his father would just take him away, to the safety of London or Ghana. Safety in distance. If she went to the police, she risked implicating Ned in a crime that would ruin his future, and maybe hers, and she had no proof of anything else. She could put her own family in danger. Marland didn’t know her, except that she was Ned’s friend.

But how had he known that?

She hasn’t reported him to the police. She knows about this and she is silent. She could be named an accessory. She had gone on the internet. Keeping her mouth shut was called aiding and abetting, a misdemeanor, and if you were convicted of it you couldn’t get federal financial aid for college. Assuming a college didn’t immediately rescind your admittance. She was waiting to hear from Rice, Vanderbilt, Cornell, and Brown. She couldn’t risk not getting in. She couldn’t risk going to the police; it could ruin both their futures. No college. No career. Everything she’d done to prepare to apply for top schools wasted because of one mistake a friend made and because she decided to help him.

She has to somehow stop this. Extricate Ned, send him on his way overseas with his father, and forget this ever happened.

She acts before she loses her courage. She sends out a message under Ned’s account: due to unexpected tragedy I am unable to continue play or trading. Thank you all. Good luck in the Critterscape. This is my final communication. She sends the message and then logs out.

Done. There. How hard was that? Her friend saved. Now she just has to wait. This Marland guy will step into the breach, if he was some kind of dealer trading in prescriptions, and find some other kid, and he was welcome to it.