“It’s just my mom,” Eden said. “She’s out with friends. You?”

“Oh yeah. I knew that. Sorry. Mine both work weird hours and are always running my sister around, so I’m on my own a lot.”

Broadway was crowded, the streetlights mimicking day. A short line of people were waiting by a food cart shrouded in smoke that smelled like charred meat. People in the windows at Starbucks had glowing laptops and faces being strangled by white earbuds.

In front of her house, Eli unzipped the backpack and said, “I can tell you more about what I found out in the last twenty-four hours or so. Maybe it’ll help figure out the countdown?”

He took out the device and held it in his palm. Across the street a man was walking a dog, but the block was otherwise quiet. The dog lifted a leg to pee on a clear blue bag full of empty cans and bottles.

Eden’s phone buzzed. Her mom: Home in five.

“I need to go inside, like now.” She took the device. “So text me or just fill me in tomorrow?”

He nodded.

“But what if it actually is a bomb?” she said, halfway in the door. “Like what if we’re being played by some kind of crazy high-tech terrorist?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s not a bomb,” Eli said. “Weaponized AI, maybe, but not a bomb.”

“What does that even mean? Weaponized AI?”

“I don’t know yet, exactly. But like spying?”

The device pulsed red light, then words appeared: I am not a bomb.

A second later it said: Let’s review.

“Review what?” Eden said, but it didn’t answer.

“Maybe it wants us to review the rules?” Eli said, and he started counting them off on fingers. “Never leave it unattended. Don’t tell anybody about it. Don’t shake it. Don’t get it wet. Don’t leave it in a bag for more than an hour at a time. And the handoff every fourteen hours or less.”

“Is that it?” Eden asked, feeling like something was missing.

Those few minutes in the music room already felt like such a long time ago.

They were forgetting something.

From that first day, from first contact.

Then she remembered it, the moment she felt the first twinge of fear.

Nobody leaves.

They’d all left, of course. The fire alarm had gone off. The device had maybe made the fire alarm go off? So it had forced them to break that rule. Unless it didn’t actually mean nobody leaves the room but something more.

“I think I might know what it’s counting down to,” she said as she watched the numbers whirl away. “What it wants.”

Eli raised his eyebrows.

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