There were stray cats out in the yard, wailing because they were in heat. They sounded like crying babies if you allowed your mind to think it, and it felt like crying could be contagious—even if it was only cats—except that Eden had a plan now, so she clung to that and closed her eyes and did not cry at all.

Force_quit

Force_quit

Marwan

MARWAN

He waited outside school for Eli so he could take the device, keeping an eye out for Christos. Not that he had any clue what he would do if he saw him but thought maybe he’d be able to read it in Christos’s eyes if he’d thrown the brick or even been in the car. He hadn’t given the plate to the cops in the end on the off chance it had been someone else.

Eden was suddenly there, and she shoved a tightly folded-up piece of paper into his hand. “Look at this later. Do not let the device see it.”

She seemed frantic—eyes darting around and looking anywhere but right at him; he didn’t understand what was happening.

“Put it away now!” she said in a sort of shouted whisper.

He shoved the paper into his pocket.

Oh. She’d gone analog and come up with a plan?

“Hey,” Eli said, appearing from out of a crowd of students heading for the door.

“Hey,” Marwan said. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah.”

“What was at that address? Did you find the guy?”

“No one was home. We waited a long time. It says it wants to try again later.”

“Like I’m supposed to take it there again?”

Eli shrugged. “It just said to hand off to you.” He unzipped his backpack, took the device out, and held it out to Marwan.

Eden’s friend was suddenly there—her hair up in pigtail-type buns.

“Gotcha!” she shouted.

They all passed panicked looks around at each other for a second.

“So enough with the secrecy,” she said. “What is it?”

“I’ll deal with this,” Eden said. “Just go.”

Marwan let the device drop into his bag, then headed into the building. It felt strange to be in school at all. Friday felt like another lifetime. He headed for the bathroom to regroup before homeroom. Once there, he threw some water on his face to wake himself up—he’d barely gotten any sleep at all, thinking about the brick and Eden and Svetlana and ways to ditch the device (no good ones!)—then grabbed a paper towel to pat it dry; only there were none left. He used his shirt instead.

“Take me out,” the device said in a female voice.

So he did.

In the mirror, he looked crazed. Would something bad happen to Eden’s friend now, too?