Someone yanks the back collar of my shirt and jacket, choking me. I’m swung around, and the surprise causes me to drop my phone. The file photos scatter across the floor. I expect to be staring into the face of a Mogadorian, or one of the agents.

But it’s worse.

It’s my father.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he bellows.

“Dad, I was—”

“Do you have any idea how much trouble you’d be in if someone else caught you in here? How much trouble I’d be in?”

“Dad, let me—”

“This is a matter of national security, Mark. I mean, Christ.”

He pushes me backwards with a strong shove. I stumble over my feet and hit the ground hard just as Dad’s picking up my phone. He taps on it, systematically deleting everything I’ve taken pictures of, cursing the entire time. It’s only then that I realize how weird it is that he’s here in full uniform so late. Whatever happened with the fire tonight, it must have been important enough to call him in.

When he’s done deleting things, he just stands there staring down at me for a minute.

“Go home, Mark,” he says, emphasizing every syllable he can. “And stay there.”

He starts to hand my phone to me when my text message sound goes off twice, so instead he turns the screen to see what’s on it.

That’s when his face goes white.

“What?” I ask.

He doesn’t respond, only reaches down and pulls me up to my feet, half dragging me out of the office.

“Todd!” he barks, and then Todd is standing by the front door. “Outside, now.”

“Dad, what’s going on?”

He’s still pulling me behind him. I could fight back, but I can tell he’s furious. Something’s wrong. Something bad has happened.

When we get to Todd’s police car, Dad pulls open the back driver’s-side door and shoves me inside. I manage to rip my phone out of his hands as I go in, and Dad slams the door before he realizes I’ve taken it. He yells at Todd.

“You take him straight back to my mother’s house. If he puts up any fight, arrest him.”

Todd looks at me, shaking his head as my dad runs to his patrol car, yelling something into his radio.

It’s only then that I look down at my phone. There are two texts from Sarah.

OMG John is here.

Don’t come but if something weird happens I’ll txt u.

Shit.

My mind starts to race as I figure out what to do next. I call Sarah immediately. When she doesn’t answer, I text:

DAD SAW THIS. HE’S COMING 4 JOHN. GET OUT.