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Marina thinks about what I’ve said, gazing at the holographic macrocosm of Earth we’ve left open just in case Five should open his or her Chest This is probably what she was expecting to hear froently asked if I had a plan for us I didn’t then--and I don’t exactly now--but the first step definitely has to be figuring out e have to ith, and Ella is key to that
"I’ll talk to Ella," she says "But I won’t force her to do anything"
I hold up uys are close Maybe you could nudge her along?"
"I’ll try," she says, at last
Eight appears in the doorway of the workshop, holding two cups of tea Marina’s face lights up when she sees hi really interested in theup her cheeks
"Hey," Eight says, setting down the tea "Sorry I, uh, onlya ht that suddenly "
I stand up and Eight takes my seat in front of the ht whispers so I’ve been so focused on Sarah and ht into how ether That’s good All of us deserve a little happiness, considering e’re facing
It’s al athered in the workshop Six sits in front of the computers, Marina next to her
"Another brain-dead reeting He’s standing on the wall using his antigravity legacy Ella is sitting Indian style on his back, wrapped up in a blanket I arch an eyebrow at her
"Did you sleep at all?"
"Don’t want to," Ella says
"She’s been helping ," announces Nine He hunches his shoulders, jostling Ella She als on She slaps his back in annoyance "Didn’t even feel that"
Ignoring the others, Six turns to ain"
I glance at the tablet’s screen Five’s beacon has cruised along west since the last time I looked in It now hovers around the eastern border of Arkansas
"The genius stopped just long enough to send us another rouses Nine
Marina narrows her eyes at Nine "Do we really need to be critiquing what Five does? He or she is probably alone and scared"
"Honey, I spent adorian jail cell for ht to color coain and he shuts up I stay focused on Six and the computer screen
"Just tell o, this was posted in the co," says Six, thankfully keeping it s it over to where we can all see it on the big screen
Anony 5 Are you out there? Need to meet Will be with the monsters in Arkansas Find me
"What does it mean?" asks Sarah "It’s like a riddle"
Six clicks open a web browser, bringing up the cheesy-looking website of sole It’s a dumb little tourist attraction in Arkansas called the Monster Mart"
"You think Five is headed there?"
"We won’t know for sure until he stopsat the blue dot on the tablet "But I’d bet yes"
"Does he think the Mogadorians don’t have Google?" Nine spits
"Speaking froadoriansthis, then you can bet they’ve seen it too and are trying to figure it out They’ll likely trace his IP address first and waste soood because we can tell froe Even so, they’ll figure it out eventually"
"Then we betterdown fro Ella as she tumbles after him He sets her down and cracks his knuckles "Finally, so inour position, a plan just coe here is that we know Five’s exact location Hopefully, that gives us a head start on the Mogs We need to be fast and we need to be sneaky Six and I will go to Arkansas With her invisibility, we should be able to sneak Five out without tipping off the Mogadorians We’ll bring Bernie Kosar, too"
"Oh, the dog gets to go?" Nine says flatly
"His shape shifting will make it easy for us to scout ahead," I counter "And he canIf we’re captured, Eight, I expect to see you teleporting our violent friend Nine here into my cell within twenty-four hours And, if the unthinkable happens--"
"It won’t," Six interrupts "We’ve got this"