“I’m following his associations with Magnus,” Daniel said. “That means whatever comes next might not be strictly in chronological order, but it’ll be close. This next bit is definitely in order. You can tell by how this scene hasn’t ended.”

It hadn’t. While Jody ran and the outside world blurred, Daniel, Julie, and I floated behind him like ghosts or realistic, human-shaped balloons.

Julie looked over to me, “How much of that was true? Do you know?”

“All of it,” I said, “from a certain point of view.”

She eyed me, “That’s one of those Star Wars references you and Marcus keep making and laughing at, right?”

Shaking her head, she said, “Never mind. How much do you think is true?”

“Well, the ancients coming to destroy everything is, but not for a really, really long time—maybe 1000 years? 10,000? Maybe never. Also, maybe tomorrow, but not likely. The problem is that grabbing the device and turning it on  makes it much more likely.”

She blinked, “What? The aliens he’s talking about are the Artificers, right? I knew they were after Lee and that he hid the device, but I don’t think anyone told me they were coming to destroy the world. That’s a big thing to skip.”

She looked from Daniel to me.

Daniel nodded, “I’m sorry. It was a need-to-know thing, but with the device becoming important, we had to tell everyone about it and Lee. I think we may have forgotten to tell everyone everything.”

“Right,” I said. “We found out after the Cabal, but before we started inviting you to movie nights.”

She’d been frowning, but then she said, “Oh. Back when we all didn’t know if we could trust each other. I know I’ve said it before, but I’m sorry I was a shit to you and Haley in high school. I should apologize to Rachel too, but with Travis dead, I’m not sure if this is the best time… Well, anyway, I get it.”

As we talked, the scene in Jody’s memory changed. We weren’t running anymore. We’d stopped in front of a multi-story building downtown. A rectangular block of brick with a smokestack, the bronze sign on the front proclaimed it Cityview Luxury Condominiums.

On top of the building stood another structure, this one of steel beams and tinted glass—the penthouse. From Jody’s mind, I knew that Sean’s mom lived in the penthouse and managed the building on behalf of herself and her business partner—the Hardwick family.

Jody felt a moment of irritation that the Hardwicks (or more accurately Russell Hardwick, Vaughn’s uncle) had gone into business with Sean’s family, but what had they done for him? Paid to have Dayton’s family take care of him.

He couldn’t complain, but Sean had grown up wealthy. Dayton’s family wasn’t poor, but they weren’t anything like Sean’s.

On the other hand, Sean’s dad had been a vice president and his grandfather had been one of Red Lightning’s lieutenants. Jody supposed he should be grateful Vaughn’s Uncle Russ gave any kind of damn for the grandchildren of a couple of thugs his father recruited into supervillainy. His father hadn’t even stuck around to be part of Russell Hardwick’s defense against the Cabal. He’d left after his father (Red Lightning’s thug) died, apparently seeing no reason to stay with Jody or his mother.

Standing in front of the building, Jody pulled out his phone and called the number Magnus had given him. Getting a message, he muttered, “What the hell, man?”

After the beep, he said, “You know what? I’m in. Let’s do this. Call me back. You’ve got my number.”

After that we watched him go up, meet Sean and Dayton and sign with Futuremen Capital. After that, they’d gone to the beach.  He’d had to intercept a call back from Magnus before the signing, but he’d managed to smooth it over without raising any suspicion.

Jody talked to Magnus from the apartment he’d rented with money from his Stapledon stipend. It wasn’t a palace and it wasn’t the penthouse on top of a refurbished factory. Though I couldn’t see it in detail in Jody’s memory, I knew it was one room with white walls, faded beige carpet, and used furniture he’d bought from Goodwill, The Salvation Army, and Ikea.

He lay in bed, phone in hand, the light illuminating his bedsheets. Jody knew he was a little drunk from hitting a bar with the guys after the beach.

That’s when Magnus called back. When Jody answered, Magnus said, “You signed. Good. That gives you money and with money comes freedom. You have many tasks ahead and it’s best to have the resources to do them.

“Now, I know you don’t have anything planned with Futuremen Capital tomorrow. Make excuses to your friends and we will meet in the morning. You’ll find that the exercises I have to teach you will enhance your powers as they did mine. There is one other thing. We need to be sure that if you’re discovered to be in our employ that you’ll be able to get away without revealing it.

“I’m aware of the telepathic block that the Stapledon program places in its students’ minds. This will be very much like that—nothing that will impair your freedom, merely a tool to keep you safe.”

Something about that bothered Jody, he didn’t have the words for why. He already couldn’t identify his Stapledon classmates. Doing the same for Magnus wasn’t a problem.

“Sure,” he muttered. “You bet.”

Magnus laughed. “We’ll send you the location tomorrow morning. Let’s hope your hangover won’t be too bad.”