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THE SUN HAS already begun to set by the ti The instant I head back toup all of my downloaded info on the players and display it onlist of data appears--birth date, home address, phone nuh it, searching

Ha some of the plane tickets she’d recently purchased and hotels she’d booked I catch a glihing with people who look like her ood shot in front of the Grand Canyon In another, she’s at a chess tourna down at the board It’s speed chess--each player’s taking a fraction of a second to ers fly across the board I’m barely able to track herthe A roar coingly

In her final Me on behind a barricade as aunusual; lots of people record Melances over his shoulder at her and waves She waves back, recording in his direction long after the helicopter has taken off

I switch to Asher There’s nothing incri in any of his data either, other than a few texts about flight arrival and departure times His most recent Memory, aside from the draft and the party, is of hi beside an older boy in sunglasses who I recognize iuards stand near thes labeled with Asher’s na the handlers do it The brothers don’t utter a word to each other And when the tis to an attendant, Asher heads for the jet’s stairs without saying good-bye

I try to shrug off the fah others’ private data It’s your job, I re bad Still, I delete the Memories of both Haain

A few of Roshan’s es are to his parents, one is to his sister, and one is a delivery receipt for soift There are no recorded Meift receipt tells le line written on the card Did you get my letter? T I search the rest of his data, but there’s no indication of the letter in question, or that Roshan has responded to Tre the data anyway for future reference

Finally, I arrive at what little I have of Ren’s infor up equipht party; mail from fans There’s one Memory of hiirl backstage as so his name I clear my throat and turnto his instru else in Ren’s files is encrypted, including a few eh each one No ibberish floating in ht behind a shield

That’s when I finally run across so that erie of shields, hovering in my view as a locked cube I turn it ine of each side of the cube

"Well, well," I whisper, sitting up taller Any feelings of guilt I’d had now fly right out of my head "What’s this?"

The e’s encryption And right beside it, in the tiniest letters, is the inscription WC0

So Ren was the silhouette in the Wardraft Based on the red dot, this e was sent to him from inside the Dark World

I sit back on my bed and furrow my brow Thisat the Wardraft, not only was he inside the Dark World recently, but he is talking to others there

And no one goes into the Dark World unless they’re doing soal

14

The first ti my first bounty hunt