Upstairs in her room, she opened her backpack. Her water bottle had leaked and gotten the device wet—“Shoot”—so she took it out and dried it off with a hoodie.

The device blinked: Do not get the device wet.

She said, “Noted” aloud, and that felt weird.

She sat watching it for long enough that she felt foolish. Maybe that was literally it? The whole game or whatever? Just tricking someone into taking it home?

Eli would be disappointed.

She dug through her backpack again to see exactly how wet it had gotten in there. One of the colored dividers of her binder had bled blue onto some loose-leaf where she’d taken notes for her social studies essay, and this made her irrationally angry. She spread the papers out on her bed to dry, then woke up her laptop and started working on the essay, but who could concentrate, with that thing right there?

She checked her phone.

A fight up on Ditmars Boulevard; a purse snatching on Steinway Street.

She turned back to her laptop and opened the browser. She searched for “cube device” and “cube device with rules” but turned up nothing but the Amazon TV cube, and this wasn’t that.

She sat back in her chair. There were seams around some of the device’s edges but nothing that looked like an opening or a battery case.

She checked her phone.

Julian hadn’t posted anything since Starbucks.

She hearted that post, then sort of regretted it.

A text from Anjali asked what Mr. M’s message was about, and Eden wrote back, Don’t know. He never showed. Then fire alarm.

She wanted to say more; her fingers stayed poised there, but no, that wouldn’t be smart.

Do not tell anyone about the device.

Do not leave the device unattended.

Did that mean she had to take it into the bathroom with her?

She did, just to be safe. Her phone, too, so yes, she was sort of a hypocrite that way. She threw a towel over the device before unbuttoning her jeans. It was listening, so could it also be watching?

Eli texted, Everything okay?

She wrote back, So far, so good. It said not to get it wet. After I got it wet. But that’s it.

Okay keep me posted.

Back in her room she put the device on her desk and waited, phone in hand.