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“After they ID’d the seller, the nature of the weapon became apparent”

“And?”

Brooke slaht “And apparently,” she said, her voice full of false cheer, “we’ll be debriefed in the ”

The Big Guys knehat the weapon was and who had it, and they expected us to wait until ? No wonder Brooke was in such fine form

“So what now?” I asked as Brooke pulled into her parking spot at the school

“Now?” Brooke said “Now I try to figure out how Amelia Juarez, whose only claied to lose not one, but two of our tails, and diso home”

“Go hoest sense of déjà vu

“Be back for practice to” Brooke eyeballed me “And this time, don’t be late”

And with that, she slid out of the car, shut the door without sla ball of stress and fury I considered following her, but ultiht where it was—on ht in a row, I followed Brooke’s orders and drove home

I didn’t realize how tired I was until I walked throughinvertical suddenly beca around all day, doing nothing, was so exhausting?

“Hoas your day?” My mom accosted laze that had settled over

Hoas etting debriefed by our contact at the CIA, followed i Jack in the hallway, had watched my brother have a “moment” with a cheerleader, had discovered that Jack actually kne to create a password I couldn’t crack, had girl-talked with Brooke while staking out Jack’s father’s law fir Guys knew , and to top it all off, I’d nearly been hit by a car

“Fine,” I grumbled

“That’s nice, dear,” my mother said “Now, you wouldn’t happen to knohy your brother’s e, would you?”

Noah was such a tattletale

“Not a clue,” I deadpanned, and then, before my mother could say another word, I cli enough to hear Noah on the phone

“We’ve got to go bigger We’ve got to be inventive My friends, it’s time to think outside the box It’s time for…” Noah pitched his voice lower, like a TV announcer

“Hoeneration This is an all-new frontier of advertising, gentlemen So ask yourselves this question: are you ready?”

As soon as I developed the strength, I was going to short-circuit my brother’s telephone line For noever, all I wanted was to fall asleep, because the sooner I slept, the soonerwould come

CHAPTER 20

Code Word: Flat