Ono popped his tiny head out from Jaime’s pocket, took in the box of broken bugs. “Oh no,” he said.

Tess had to agree.

They searched Jaime’s apartment and found three more silverfish, one behind the television in the living room, one under the sink in the kitchen, one under Jaime’s bed. Jaime stomped on it as if it were poisonous. Which, in a way, it was.

But even though they’d found three more bugs, they couldn’t trust that they’d gotten them all. On a piece of paper, Jaime wrote, “We have to get out of here. Go somewhere where we can’t be overheard.”

Tess nodded. For the benefit of any spies listening in, she said loudly, “You guys want to go to up to Central Park? We could rent some exos. Then come back here and swim again.”

“Sounds good to me,” Jaime said.

They packed up and headed out. Tess tried to keep her gaze focused straight ahead, tried to seem natural, but her limbs felt stiff and her lungs, tight. She couldn’t guarantee that the bugs had been meant for them, but she had a feeling they had been and she couldn’t shake it. Someone knew what they were looking for, or at least knew they were looking for something. Where else had been bugged? Aunt Esther’s house? Grandpa Ben’s room at the memory-care facility?

Who would do this?

Slant?

Who else would it be? Who else wanted all the Morningstarr buildings? Who else was babbling about progress every single day?

Who else would be so nefarious?

But another thought nagged at her, ate at her. What if the bugs were Morningstarr Machines? What if these machines, like the others, had minds of their own? What if the Cipher itself was listening in?

Who were the Morningstarrs? What was all of this for?

In silence, Jaime led Tess and Theo onto the ferry that would take them across the Hudson. They found a place outside against the rail where it was coolest and where the water churning against the engines might drown out anything they said. Not that they said much. All of them seemed to be lost in their own private reveries, their own private rages, their own private anxieties. Jaime tapped his fingers, Theo tugged on his lip, Tess yanked her braid and crossed her arms and couldn’t get comfortable in her own body. She felt like a marionette with someone else pulling the strings. That blond woman. Slant. The Morningstarrs. And the Cipher itself.

She wished she knew what it wanted.

She wished she knew what she wanted.

She missed Grandma Annie. She missed Grandpa Ben. She missed Nine. She missed them all so hard she bit her tongue, and the tinny taste of blood flooded her mouth.