Adam’s eyes narrowed as he watched us. “What the fuck is happening here?” he said. “You guys know something, don’tyou?”
“It’s a long story,” Hunterreplied.
“Tell me,” Adam insisted. “What the hell does that first note mean? And why are you two suddenly friendsagain?”
Hunter and I exchanged glances, and he gave me a brief nod. “I think he deserves to know at this point,” hemurmured.
I quickly filled Adam in on our investigation into the Medusas and the Network. I didn’t tell him that his father was probably one of them, though. That seemed like too much for now. He’d already gone through enough today with the terror of the earlier sneakattack.
“Holy shit. Why didn’t you tell me about any of this sooner?” he asked when I was done, eyes wide. “Don’t you trustme?”
“It’s not that we don’t trust you,” I said, lifting my palms in a placating gesture. “We were keeping it to ourselves just in case, because the more people who know, the more chance there is of them gettinghurt.”
“But now they’ve hurt you anyway,” Hunter added, face softening as he looked at his younger brother. “To get atLaney.”
“No shit,” Adam muttered, shouldersdrooping.
“I’m really sorry,” I said, lowering my gaze to the floor as needles of guilt jabbed at myguts.
He let out a long sigh. “I guess it’s not your fault,” he said. “I practically made you join the Medusas, because I thought it was such a good idea. So if anything, it’smyfault all this shit hashappened.”
“No, you couldn’t have known, and it was my decision to join them in theend.”
Hunter’s eyes suddenly narrowed. “Wait a minute,” he said, head tipping slightly to the side. “None of this makes any sense. I mean, this whole sawing-through-the-floorboards thing took a lot of planning. So they must’ve known you guys were coming here today,right?”
I nodded. “Yes. And they had to know Trina wouldn’t show up, too. Otherwise she could’ve fallen through the hole instead ofme.”
Adam threw up his hands. “How is any of that possible?” he asked. “I mean, I guess they could’ve sneaked something into Trina’s lunch to make sure she got sick and didn’t come this afternoon. But how did they know about the whole thing in the firstplace?”
“I have no idea,” I replied. I’d been wondering the exact same thing since I got here. “I didn’t mention it to anyone except Hunter about twenty minutes ago. Apart from that it was just you, Trina, andme.”
Adam’s brows knitted. “I don’t think I told anyone either. I mean, it was just a dumb trip to the abandoned buildings after school. Didn’t exactly warrant a campus-wideannouncement.”
“Are you sure you didn’t mention it toanyone?”
“I might’ve said something to my lab partner in bio this morning, because we talk a lot,” he said. “But I don’t know. I honestly can’tremember.”
“Are any of the Medusa girls in your bio class?” Hunterasked.
Adam shrugged. “Maybe. I only pay attention to my lab partner and the teacher, though, so I can’t besure.”
“Well, they had to know about your plans somehow,” Huntersaid.
“Wait.” I lifted a palm. “I think I might know how they knew. When I told them I was going to join them last week, Kiri took my phone and did all that stuff to block you, Hunter. But she could’ve done something elsetoo.”
Adam’s brows rose. “She could’ve installed a keylogger. Or some sort of virus that let her have access to all the stuff on your phone via her ownphone.”
“Exactly. The society might’ve wanted to monitor my messages before I joined to make sure I wastrustworthy.”
“So they could’ve read your entire group chat and known all about this plan to explore the abandoned buildings,” Hunter added, eyesdarkening.
I pulled my phone out and gingerly held it out in front of me like it was a loaded gun. “What should I do withit?”
“You can’t use it anymore, just in case,” he said, taking it from me and slipping it in his pocket. “I’ll get you another one to use while we get this one checkedout.”
Adam let out a heavy sigh and sat down again, leaning against the paneled wall. “There’s something seriously wrong with those Medusa girls, if all this shit is true,” he said. “It sounds like they’re completely fucking brainwashed by these Networkguys.”
“Yeah, I think a lot of them are. Plus they also stand to lose a lot if I expose them,” Isaid.