Nine frowns, then opens his Chest and digs around inside. I’m hoping he is going to pull out something that will help me decipher my visions, help me figure out what, if anything, I’m supposed to do with them. ‘I’d like to try to contact the others with the red stone, but I guess the government has it tapped somehow. Which is total bullshit.’ He sits back looking frustrated.

I walk across the empty car to where he’s sitting. He has a yellow cube in his hand that I’ve never seen before. ‘What do you think it means, if the government has your stone tapped? How do you think it happened? I mean, it must have been the Mogs, but how did they convince the government to work with them?’

Nine looks at me incredulously. ‘Are you serious? Who cares why they’re working together or what the Mogs had to say to get them on their side? The point is, they are working together. The U.S. government and the Mogadorians have teamed up! For them, it is official: we are the bad guys!’

‘But the Mogs will destroy Earth – or worse – once they get rid of us. Doesn’t the government know this? Isn’t it obvious that we’re the good guys?’

‘Apparently not. Who knows how it happened? Maybe they’re just using one another; both trying to double cross the other. Whatever it is, the government has to be underestimating the Mogs. If they weren’t, they’d be scared out of their freaking minds.’ Nine places the yellow cube in his mouth. A look of satisfaction appears on his face.

‘What is that?’ I ask.

‘Sustenance,’ he says, his voice garbled. ‘It’s a food substitute. You suck on it and it fills you up for a little bit. Take a look. You might have one too.’

I unlock my Chest and poke around for a yellow cube. My hands pass over the white tablet we found in Malcolm Goode’s hidden office in the well, and I take a second to press its buttons. Still dead. I push it aside. I don’t find a yellow cube, but there’s a blue one. I hold it out for him to see. ‘Do you think this does the same thing?’

He shrugs. ‘Dunno. Won’t know till you try. Go for it.’

I hesitate for a few seconds, then place it on my tongue, and my mouth is immediately flooded with ice-cold water. I am only able to drink a little before some goes down the wrong way, causing me to cough the stone onto the floor. Nine spits his yellow stone into his hand and offers it to me, but I pass.

‘You have to eat sometime,’ he says.

Bernie Kosar walks over to Nine and opens his mouth. ‘Sure, BK ,’ Nine says obligingly, placing the yellow cube on the dog’s tongue.