JOLLYROGER182: i think it might help us find some new recruits. and the more people in on this the more chances I have of figuring out what happened to Sarah

GUARD: It’ll make us even bigger targets if the Mogs shut down the old TWAU.

JOLLYROGER182: but u r a computer whiz. untraceable addresses and IPs. im not worried.

GUARD: Let’s do it. I’m emailing you an encrypted file. Password is a sea monster’s planet.

I know exactly what he’s talking about—this morning before I left for school, we’d made fun of an old article I found in They Walk Among Us about how sea krakens come from the planet Schlongda. It was maybe the first time I’d ever got a hint that GUARD had a not-so-serious side. Now that Sarah’s gone, he’s kind of the only person I can talk to about everything that’s going on. I know I haven’t met him in person or even talked to him on the phone, but he seems like the smartest person I’ve ever met. The things he can do with a laptop and internet connection blow my mind.

And when I get home and open the file he’s sent me on my computer, I am nothing less than astonished.

I’m staring at a text file that lists a ton of information on Agent Purdy. Not things like his bio or what he’s working on, but numbers that hold a much different power. Telephone numbers. Bank accounts. Passwords.

I message GUARD.

JOLLYROGER182: how the hell did you get all this????!

GUARD: I’m an internet wizard.

GUARD: Oh, and I’d print that out and then delete that file. IT WAS NEVER HERE.

JOLLYROGER182: can you get into his email and stuff?

GUARD: I’m trying, but it’s all intranet stuff. Heavy, heavy firewall. Lots of stuff off-line too.

JOLLYROGER182: what if we had his work computer?

JOLLYROGER182: would 1 of these passwords open it?

GUARD: That’s a different story.

GUARD: Wait. Are you about to do something really stupid?

I’ve been dying for a way to take action. I guess I just found it.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

BEFORE I LEAVE NANA’S I PUT A FEW NOTES ON my desk. If I’m caught, there’s a chance I’ll be shoved into a black van and never see the light of day again. That’s how the FBI and Mogs work, right? If that’s the case, I don’t want my family thinking that I ran away because of them or something. I want them to know that I didn’t just abandon them for no reason.