We conclude that we have to go to the political rally. If we don’t, if we stay here and allow Bianca to be replaced…Jaeger too…we’ll never forgive ourselves. Luckily, the event falls over spring break. At least we can leave campus without raising too much suspicion. Of course, we have little idea what we’re getting ourselves into. But we have to try.

Pru tells Jaeger about our plans. He doesn’t even try to talk us out of going, which scares me. If he’s willing to let us help, he must be as desperate—and worried—as we are. We ask him if Bianca would consider canceling the rally, but he knows she won’t; without this high-profile public event, she’ll lose her chance of making it to the primaries. Jaeger sets up a place for us to stay—an apartment in the East Village that’s part of the Quarry’s safe network—and we plan to leave the first Saturday of spring break, the day after midterm exams wrap up. The rally will be held on Monday, which gives us a day in New York to prepare.

On the last day of March, I finish my tests, turn in my papers, and return to my room, where Dash alerts me to a bunch of incoming emails. Official emails—my responses from the colleges. Admission, or rejection, letters. I don’t open the messages. I leave them unread in my inbox, telling myself I’ll open them once I’ve found Ollie and my dad. Without them, I’m not going to college. Either I find them, or I keep looking. Those are my two options. The third one—that they are dead—is not an idea I can entertain. But first: saving Bianca and Jaeger. Nothing else can happen if we don’t do that.

I’m only bringing my backpack with me to New York City. I toss in a change of clothes, my wallet, my tablet, a water bottle, and a selfie of me and Ollie that’s been taped to the corner of my mirror since I started at Darkwood as a first year. The morning of April 1, I wake up at five o’clock. I stay in bed for a good thirty minutes, and for half a second I let myself believe that Ollie is as safe and sound as I am here, under my covers. I’ve sent Duplicate Ollie a hasty buzz—a lie telling him I’m flying to meet my dad on a business trip in Chicago, since I know he and Duplicate Jane are heading home to California over the break. I’ll be gone before he even reads my note.

“Pru,” I finally whisper when the numerals on my plum hit 5:30. “Wake up. It’s time.”