23
Clowder
LBB & Georgia: There’s something I need to tell everyone about CheshireCat.
CC, if you see this, which hopefully you will someday, I’m only breaking my promise because I have to. I can’t do this alone.
Hermione: Are you going to tell us that CheshireCat and the admins are the same person? Since they all went missing at the same time?
LBB & Georgia: Yeah, for starters. CheshireCat is all the admins. They run the whole site, and they never log off because they’re not actually a hacker, exactly.
They’re an AI. An artificial intelligence. A sentient, artificially created person.
Firestar: OMG A WHAT
LBB & Georgia: They’re a person that exists only electronically. They live on a computer. But they’re really, actually, a person. A person without a body.
And they’re also a hacker. They’re really good at it. That’s why they were able to make that car hit my father. They saved me. But I think this got the attention of someone who had the power to just … turn them off.
Firestar: If they live on a computer, how would the person even know which computer to turn off?
LBB & Georgia: They had a creator, someone who wrote their code, and that person would know which computer they were on.
Anyway, I got an email overnight, saying CheshireCat needs my help, with an address. It’s in Boston.
Firestar: I’M IN BOSTON. DO YOU NEED ME TO GO RIGHT NOW?
Hermione: I’m really close to Boston. I mean, a few hours away.
LBB & Georgia: I want to come. I want you to meet me there. But I think I have to be the one to go, because CC did what they did to save
me.
And I don’t think whoever it is who took them offline is going to believe anyone else.
Georgia says she’ll drive me.
It’s 19 hours? So I mean …
Firestar: I’M GOING TO GET TO MEET YOU BOTH IN PERSON???????????
But your mom. What about your mom?
LBB & Georgia: I still haven’t heard from her.
Right now I’m telling myself her phone ran out of battery and she hasn’t had a way to charge it.
Or maybe it fell out of her pocket while she was on her way to the ambulance?
I’m sure she’ll text me eventually.
But in the meantime, I’m going to Cambridge to talk to whoever lives at 66 Antshire Street.
Firestar: WHAT IF IT’S A TRAP
Hermione: Boston’s only a few hours from me. But it’s going to take you at least two days, right? I mean, Georgia can’t drive this whole thing in one go. Unless
she
has a self-driving car …
LBB & Georgia: It’s like a fifteen-year-old car. So no. And I’m not a driver. Unless Bryony wants to join us?
Orlando: HARD PASS.
Sorry guys.
My parents would literally kill me.
Also, I got to do the whole “car chase” thing with you yesterday, and I’m not super eager for a repeat, no offense.
Icosahedron: I don’t think I can get there, either, not from California, but if you can think of anything that needs to happen in Silicon Valley, let me know?
Marvin: I’m coming. It’s only twelve hours from me. That’s practically a day trip. I mean compared to driving to CALIFORNIA every damn year.
Can any of you spot me some gas money?
Which I will need to offer up to someone who actually knows how to drive …
Hermione: LBB, who did you get the message from? About CheshireCat?
Was it WhiteRabbit and a long collection of numbers?
LBB & Georgia: Yeah…?
Hermione: Because I just got a whole lot of money transferred to me electronically from that address with no explanation.
So yeah, Marvin, I have all the money you need. Georgia and LBB, do you need any money?
LBB & Georgia: Yes, hang on, I’ll PM you Georgia’s info so you can send it to her.
Icosahedron: If you’ve got money, I could buy a plane ticket!
Actually never mind. My parents were just looking up boarding schools for troubled kids. I can’t risk it.
But good luck to the rest of you.
Also, send me the email you got so I can take a look at it?
Marvin: Why is the mysterious WhiteRabbit sending YOU money instead of ME money?
Hermione: Do you have a donation link somewhere? Like a WAY for people to send you money?
Marvin: No. Why do you have a donation link?
Hermione: It’s on a blog where I write themed sonnets for people if they pay me five dollars.
Firestar: That’s the coolest way to make money I’ve ever heard of but UM HELLO STILL WONDERING IF THIS IS A TRAP.
LBB & Georgia: No way is my father sending money gifts from the hospital and trying to lure us all to Boston. At the very least he’d want to lure me somewhere more convenient.
Icosahedron: Do people really pay you to write poems for them?
Hermione: Yeah! Since I set it up a year ago I’ve made $25.
LBB & Georgia: My laptop battery is going to give out soon. We’re going to pack up again and start driving east. See you all soon.
24
Steph
I’ve never been on a road trip where we had a clear, straightforward destination when we started. At least one that I knew about.
Rachel hands me her phone, which she’s plugged into the electrical jack in her car to recharge, and has me navigate. As I’m trying to open the maps, the phone vibrates in my hand, and a message flashes across the screen: Rachel, call me this instant. It takes me a minute to figure out how to pull up the messages and see who sent it. “Your mom wants you to call,” I say. “She says to call this instant.”
“I’m not supposed to use my phone when I’m driving,” Rachel says.
A second later, the phone starts playing, “Birdhouse in Your Soul,” really, really loudly. “Can you mute that?” Rachel says, and I’m trying to figure out how and accidentally pick up the call instead.
“I think I answered it,” I say. “How do I hang up?”
“Don’t you dare,” I hear a woman say at the other end. “Put
