“Skylar todl you to come here?" I asked dumbly."No," Bethany said. "Skylar told me not to come here. Same dif.”

“Darryl does talk," Skylar said. "If you listen. And FYI, I have a really strong feeling that he's going to be the next Bill Gates, so you might want to be a little nicer to him.""I have a really strong feeling," Bethany deadpanned, "that if you don't tell me what's on that USB drive, I will end you.”

“Little Sisters' Survival Guide, rule number thirty-seven," Skylar said. "Scream before they hit you.”

“Darryl likes codes," Skylar explained. "A few weeks ago, I asked him what someone might hypothetically need to break into a supercomputer. He hypothetically made me this.”

“Bethany blinked. "Did you just hit me?" she asked, disbelief coloring her every feature.Skylar raised both hands, palms outward. "I come in peace!""You do not come in peace. You hit me.""I hit in peace!”

“Well," a female voice said. "What have we here?""Here," Bethany said, responding to the woman's rhetorical question, "we have a teenager. And she's pissed.”

“Did you follow me here?" I asked.Lake shrugged. "The word follow seems to suggest you got here first.”