There was a small spider in the sink, so he ran the water again to wash it down. It clung on to a hair by the drain, very much not wanting to die.

The door to the hall opened, and a kid Marwan didn’t know walked in. Marwan didn’t move fast enough.

“What’s that?” the kid said, eyeing the device.

Marwan froze. “Nothing.”

“Is that a bomb?” the guy said.

“What? No,” Marwan said.

“It looks like a bomb.”

As if on cue, the device started a countdown.

“Stop saying that,” Marwan said. “It’s not a bomb.”

His hands finally dry, Marwan went to put the device away.

“Let me see it, then,” the guy said.

“No,” Marwan said.

He was backing out of the room. “If that’s a bomb …”

“It’s not! Stop saying it.”

But it was too late. He was in the hall, shouting, “There’s a bomb!”

Screams and feet pounding.

“Why did you do that?” Marwan screamed at the device.

The countdown disappeared.

Don’t want to be here today.

“You could have just told me that.”

Well, now I officially suggest you leave.

Marwan took a few deep breaths, put the device in his bag, then opened the bathroom door and joined the frantic evacuation. He went down the stairs calmly—as people around him pushed and fell and screamed and texted—and then through the crowded lobby.

“If everyone will please calmly exit the building,” came over the PA.

He went out the doors and out onto the sidewalk and just kept walking …

Eden

EDEN

Anjali’s features had settled into an intensively focused look of defiance and doubt trained on Eden.

“Please just stop,” Eden said.

Anjali repositioned her glasses on her nose in a swift movement. “Well, is it a bomb?”

“Are you out of your mind?” Eden snapped.

They were with a bunch of other students across the street from school—everybody on their phones—and no one seemed sure what to do. Should they wait around? Go home? So far, no message had come on the school app.

“Then what is it?” Anjali asked.

“It’s not a bomb,” Eden said.

“Then what is it?” Anjali shouted.

Eden shouted back, “I don’t know! Okay?” Then more softly, “We don’t even really know.”

Was it the device that someone had mistaken for a bomb? What if it was a bomb, and they’d been tricked into giving it information and bringing it into school?

If you believed Eli, there really was such a thing as weaponized AI. What if this was it? Where was Marwan anyway? Eden hadn’t seen him come out yet.

She said, “I promise I’ll tell you what I know when it’s over.”