“Wow, that magnolia tree is beautiful,” Maggie said.

That was it. “Yeah,” I said. “But since when do magnolias bloom in the fall?”

“Astute observation, Mr. Conners,” she said with a nod. “Shall we?”

I was about to step out of the car and knock on Tico’s door, but I saw no signs of life there—no lights on, nothing. I turned back to her.

“First, let’s put this together some more,” I said. “You’re the A science student. What’s your best theory?”

“Okay, here goes,” she said. “Mount Hope is actually a giant science project for Ishango. She created those tiny mobile implants to insert themselves into hundreds of animals in this town. She arranged for the humans to be evacuated to the camps, and those of us at the healthy one got small implants in our arms. Are they tracking devices? Something more? Not sure. They’re not connected to our brains, as far as I know. You went to the sick camp and got the Steve Austin make-over. Your bones, your muscles—all received a full upgrade under the cover of your car-accident surgeries.”

“So Ishango arranged for my car accident?”

“Could be. Or the accident simply presented them with an opportunity.”

“And Ishango caused the evacuation? Triggered the explosion and radiation leak on purpose?”

“That’s assuming there was an explosion and radiation leak.”

I look a long look at my friend. Beneath that increasingly frizzy hair, those bright eyes, and those amazing-find thrift-shop T-shirts (“Space Food Sticks”? Really?) lurked some formidable brainpower.

“So back to the theory,” she said. “You got the mega implant, and all those doctors who operated on you are under Ishango’s control via implants as well.”

“Then why aren’t I being controlled by her? Something’s off with a lot of those army guys—and my dad. But I’m normal, which I realize is a relative thing.”

She shrugged. “Maybe you were under once, and something went wrong.”

“The concussion!” I said. “Alpha said the authority was compromised in me.”

“So until that hit on the football field, you were under Ishango’s control?”

“I didn’t feel like I was. But maybe everything was in place, and they just hadn’t flipped the switch yet.”

“They were waiting to activate you as a pod person.”

“Something like that.”

“And Ishango needs a controlled environment for her experiments. Hence the quarantine.”

The rap on my window jolted me to action, and I was about to kick open the car door when I saw Tico’s smiling face.

“Hey, you guys staking me out?” Tico asked as I opened the door gently.

“Kind of,” I said, and gave him a handshake/arm-around-the-back bro hug. “There’s crazy shit going on, and I need my teammate.”

“Well, hold on. I got another teammate inside.” As Maggie got out of the car to join us, Tico went in and came back with Suzanne. “We were doing homework.”

“You had homework alread—?” Ouch—Maggie’s ankle kick cut me off.

“Great to see you, Suzanne,” Maggie said.

“You too,” Suzanne replied with a sweet smile. “Are we gonna defeat those motherfuckers or what?”