“The moment you said it, the name rang a bell. I’ve never actually been there, but I’ve seen it marked on this old, enormous map of the area on the wall of my dad’s office. I used to study it when I was younger. It’s in the Muskokas, near where we have our cottage. Aero, pull up a picture of my dad’s map.”

Aero spreads his wings out so wide they almost reach the edges of my locker. The others gather round his wingspan as a photograph of a map of the Muskoka region, north of Toronto, is prominently displayed. Tobias uses his fingers to zoom in. “Look, we have a cottage here, on a private lake.”

“Dude,” says Kai, impressed.

“Lake Washington,” reads out Ashley. “You’re so rich you have your own lake named after you!”

Tobias chews his lip for a second before speaking. “Yeah, but at what cost, right?” he mutters darkly. “Anyway, Lake Baku should be…” He moves the map with his fingers. “There.” He zooms in, where sure enough, there are the words LAKE BAKU in tiny print. “We can get there from my cottage.”

“Find her, Lacey,” says Paul. “Bring Monica home. That’s the only way you’ll be able to save Moncha Corp—maybe even the world—from Eric Smith’s update.”

18

“Can’t you come with us? We’re going to need help.”

“No. Eric can’t know I’m involved, or he’ll suspect your visit to Tobias’s cottage. But I can help in other ways. I know I have a copy somewhere of the agreement Monica had drawn up, about what to do if she wasn’t able to act as head of the company. I know that wouldn’t have included leaving all the decision-making to Eric Smith.” Paul leaves us then, shuffling back to the elevators to head up to his apartment. He looks tired, worn down.

It frightens me what the implications of that are. That we might need legal backup. It all seems way above my pay grade. And definitely above my school grade.

The atmosphere inside my locker is a state of shock. “Now that we know about Lake Baku, we have to check it out right away,” I say.

“It’s all private land up there,” says Tobias. “There’s a ton of security.”

My shoulders slump with disappointment.

“So what are we going to do?” asks River.

“That part’s easy,” says Tobias. We all turn to look at him expectantly. “Like I said, my cottage is on that private land. My parents always throw this massive pre-Christmas party, and I was going to invite the team anyway, so I’m sure I can convince them to invite you and Zora too,” continues Tobias, unaware of the thoughts running through my brain. “We leave on Friday, right after school.”