“Okay?” Carlton gave him a puzzled look, and John rolled his eyes.

“Wearing the earpieces included you in their conversation. It made you one of them, from their perspective.”

“Hate to break it to you, but the big ones already see us … at least I’m pretty sure they do. See this scar?”

“Will you shut up for a second?” John said. “I asked Charlie, and she said we might be able to reverse engineer it. We can switch the wires, and instead of the earpieces including us, it would deliberately exclude us.”

Carlton furrowed his brow.

“It could effectively make us invisible …” John prompted.

“Switch the wires,” Carlton repeated. “It would mask us, and make us not a part of the world they can perceive.”

“Right.” John nodded.

Carlton waited for John to go on, then added, “What do you want me to do?”

“Go to Jessica’s house. She’s got all of Charlie’s old stuff boxed up in a closet. If she’s not there, she leaves her spare key under the welcome mat.”

Carlton raised his eyebrows. “Under the welcome mat? That’s a horrible place to leave a key!”

“It’s a good neighborhood,” John said defensively.

Carlton raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, it’s a good neighborhood, John. Nothing bad ever happens here.” Carlton slapped John on the shoulder as he headed for his car. “I’m on it!” he called.

John let out a sigh, then went back inside. Marla was sitting on the couch, staring at the television, which was not turned on.

“How is she?” John asked, sitting down beside her, and she shrugged.

“Okay, considering the circumstances.” She turned away from the blank screen, looking distressed. “She was locked in a box! That’s insane, she was locked in a box! Who knows for how long—days, months? She must have been fed, given water, or she’d have starved, but she has no memory of it, she just remembers drifting in and out of sleep. She seems healthy. I don’t know what to say.”

Impulsively, John hugged her, and she sighed, hugging him back tightly. She released him abruptly, looking away as she brushed at her eyes. John pretended not to see.

“Can I go sit with her for a minute?” he said when she straightened. “I won’t bother her, I just want to sit with her and know she’s there.”

Marla nodded, her eyes brightening with tears again. “Don’t wake her up,” she admonished as he went to the door. He nodded, and slipped inside, closing the door behind him.

*  *  *

Carlton pulled into the lot outside Jessica’s apartment building, glancing around for her car. It didn’t seem to be there.