But did Anjali already know too much? She’d seen it, but Eden hadn’t technically told her about it. Sure, she’d told Mark, but the device had no way of knowing that. Svetlana was the only other person who’d laid eyes on the device, and now she was dead. Probably there would have been an announcement about that in school this morning if this hadn’t happened first. They’d have grief counselors on hand. Ilanka would probably be absent for a few days, grieving with her family. Eden and the others would not go to the funeral. Because it wouldn’t make sense for them to. They barely knew her.

Eden turned and looked squarely at her friend. “You need to go home and stay there until I tell you otherwise.”

“Eden, please just tell me what’s happening.”

Eden fought her annoyance. Hadn’t they just been through this? “Go home and wait to hear from me.”

Her phone buzzed: Marwan asking her and Eli to meet him at the restaurant.

“I’ve got to go,” Eden said.

“Where?” Anjali said.

An alert on the school app said that students who could safely and easily get home should go home, and that the others should convene at the movie theater around the corner where there would be police to help contact parents if necessary.

“Just please go home,” Eden said.

“Okay, okay,” Anjali said.

Eden pulled her into a hug and said, “It’s almost over,” then headed toward the restaurant.

She’d done it. She’d shoved the plan into Marwan’s hand and then, mere seconds later, into Eli’s. That was all that mattered.

Eli

ELI

The man with the binoculars was in the window Eli and the device had watched for hours yesterday. Eli pushed all the buzzers in the lobby. Someone let him in, and he climbed to the third floor and rang the bell of the apartment he figured was in the right spot.

“What were you looking at?” Eli asked when the door opened and it was the right guy.

“What’s it to you?”

“Did you call in a bomb scare? Is there a bomb?”

“What? No. I figured it was a fire drill.”

“No, bomb scare.”

“Wasn’t me.”

“Why are you always looking at the school with binoculars?”

“Always?” the guy said.

“I’ve seen you before,” Eli lied because he couldn’t explain the device’s video.

“Let’s just say I’m a recreational bird watcher,” the guy said, and the way he said “bird” had double meaning.

Eli pushed into the apartment and went to the window, where there was a clear view of several classrooms—one of which was the music room. “How often are you looking at birds in that room on the right on the fourth floor?”