I dried my hands and picked up the phone. It sprung to life.

And it wasn’t locked.

Before I knew it, I was reading the screen.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Re: Cloning Contest

T-

This mole sauce has a bunch of ingredients we don’t normally stock. Please triple check that they’re all there. List is copied below. If anything is missing and you-know-who blames me, I will personally carve CAN YOU CUT IT into your chest with a butter knife.

-R

Black Mole Sauce Ingredients:

onions

garlic

guajillo chiles

mulato chiles

pasilla negro chiles

cloves

canela (Mexican cinnamon)

anise

allspice

plantain

prunes

bittersweet chocolate

almonds

sesame seeds

raisins

yerba santa leaf

I put the phone against my chest and looked around.

Click it off. Just press the button.

I tipped the phone forward just enough to see the screen.

Everybody knew there was chocolate in mole sauce. But yerba santa leaf? And who can taste three different kinds of—

Laughter, loud, close, and coming closer.

I jumped, dropped the phone, ran into a stall, and waited.

When more than a minute had gone by and I was still alone, I came back out.

The phone sat screen down on the tile.

I held my breath, squatted, picked up the phone, and turned it over.

No cracks. Phew.

I set the phone back on the metal shelf above the sink and rushed back to the greenroom.

Chapter 19

Interview with Tris Levin, Age 12, Petersville, New York:

Oh, no, I do feel good about winning the challenge. I just think maybe I ate too much chili or something. Do you think maybe we can do this later?

I ripped off my microphone and sprinted out of the room and down the hall, my eyes on the checkered tiles flying by. I didn’t want to have to see anyone. At least Mom had texted that she and Dad would meet me back at the Petersmobile. I couldn’t have handled them congratulating me in the parents’ lounge in front of everyone.

My throat burned from the back of my mouth all the way down to my stomach.

What had I done?

I spun around the corner and smashed into someone.

“Hey!”

I forced myself to look up. It was Dieter, his glasses lopsided.

“Oh, sorry.”

“You are going to be killing someone this way. If you are going forward, you are looking forward, no?” He pulled the handkerchief from his blazer pocket and began wiping his glasses with it.

“I’m really sorry,” I said, already backing away.

“Oh, good job today!” he called, stoking the fire in my gut.

“Thanks,” I yelled over my shoulder.

I hadn’t planned on… I couldn’t even say the word for what I’d done in my own head, for what I was. If I tried hard enough I could almost convince myself I’d won fair and square.

And maybe I would have. There was no way of knowing now.