“You forgot your pad and pencil?” Isaac asked. “Shame on you. Look, let’s just talk through it one time, see if we’re all on the same page. Pun not intended.”

“And we better hurry,” Trish added, still peeking like a spooked child from behind Sadina’s upper shoulder. “No telling when we’ll be yanked out to go somewhere else.”

Isaac took a big breath. “Okay. Kletter arrives on our island, convinces us she’s legit, that they need Sadina, maybe her mom, maybe some others of us, as many as they can get. She feeds us all that stuff about science and studies and still having a chance to eradicate the Flare forever.”

Sadina had been nodding the entire time he spoke. “Yeah, and maybe we were idiots to go, naive enough to think we’d come back to the island soon, whatever. But we went. That’s that.”

“Right. We get to the continent, safe and sound. Even Old Man Frypan has somehow not died and gone to join the Great Gladers in the sky. All is pretty well and we’ve seemed to gain a liking to Kletter. She tells us about the Villa, lots of scientists and doctors, interested in the bloodlines that descend from the original Gladers—especially Sadina through Sonya. Sound about right?”

Sadina nodded. Trish nodded.

“So I’ll go next,” Trish says. “We’re feeling good, heading toward the Villa that Kletter told us about. Then you two knuckleheads decide to go follow a creepy man into a damned haunted house just for kicks and giggles. And you meet Timon and Letti.”

Sadina picked up. “Letti kills Kletter, like there was nothing to it. Or like she’d planned to do it all along. Then they take Isaac and me away, mainly keeping us in line with threats. We left clues for you guys, and I’m pretty sure they knew we were doing that the whole time and didn’t do a single thing to stop us. That’s why all of you stayed right on our tail, always close.”

Isaac’s turn. “Which lines up with what Letti said before getting bashed in the head. Do we even know if she’s still alive? Anyway, she said this had always been the plan, to get everyone together in one spot—including, I assume, that Minho guy and Roxy. And then, I swear, Letti kept looking up at the sky, scanning it from horizon to horizon, searching for something without even trying to hide what she was doing. It was weird then, obvious now. She knew those Bergs were coming. No doubt. She’s in on it, and I have to guess that Timon the Gentle Giant is, too—although he seems a little more braun than brains if you know what I mean.”