Thalia’s gaze wandered between Will and the empty space beside her that she assumed was where Colt was sitting. They both seemed to be willing to tolerate each other, and she decided that that was enough for now. Taking a deep breath, she said, “Now that Will knows about you, Colt, I think we need to decide what we’re going to do about the Builders from here.”
“Nothing should change,” Colt said, his tone serious.
Will glared at him. “If you think I’m just going to ignore you and let you do whatever you want, you’re dead frigging wrong.”
“I’m talking about the Builders, boy. If you change your attitude, if you behave differently, and they learn about it, how long do you think it will take for them to figure out you’re not the one they’re looking for? I will not allow your dislike for me to place Thalia in harm’s way.”
He crossed his arms. “I’m not that petty, bastard.”
Thalia sighed. “They must have some strong evidence that Colt’s here or they’d have left long before now. I don’t know what it is, but if we could find out, we might be able to discredit it, or use it to send them somewhere else. But that would mean one of us had gotten closer to them than I think is really safe, so, for now at least, we need to concentrate on what we can do without giving anything away or put any of us in a danger.”
“I know you and Ruth have been making plans. Are there any we should put into immediate effect?” Colt asked.
“There are a few possibilities, but I’ll need to talk to Ruth first. And tell her that you, Will, know about Colt now. One thing I’ve been thinking about since you, Will, told me, is the bugs in your house. We can use those if we leave them. We’ll have to be careful, and be subtle, but we could feed the Builders enough misinformation, that they might realize that you’re not the one they’re looking for. If you’re alright with leaving the bugs in your house for a while.”
Will shook his head. “No. They know that I know about the bugs. They’ll assume anything they hear right now will be a lie. We get rid of them all.”
For a second, there was no sound except for the wind pushing at the plastic sheeting around them. Then Thalia nodded. “We get rid of all of them except one. We find whichever one is best hidden and leave it. Let them think we missed it, and use that to feed them what we want. They aren’t aware that all of us are working together, and I think, they’ll underestimate us because we’re teenagers. We should take advantage of it while we can.”
“You think that they’ll eventually learn their mistake,” Colt said, a statement rather than a question.
Thalia nodded. “If me and Ruth have to enact anything lower than Plan F, they’ll know that we’re not your usual bunch of teens. Anything lower than Plan K and they’ll know we’re a group. For now, I want them to have as little information on all of us as possible. And I want information on them as well. Anna’s been helping with that.”
“What kind of information have you got so far?” Will asked, frowning.
“Not as much as I’d like,” Thalia said, sighing again. “Anna’s pretty sure they have an encrypted database online. She’s found what she thinks are traces of it. And she made friends with a hacker off a forum, who’s giving her some lessons. Given that Anna’s a certified genius, I give her a few days before she’s near expert. We’ll wait to see if we can’t get any info in less obvious ways, but if she needs to, she’s prepared to break in and download everything they have. If that happens, we’re hoping there will be stuff on their leader, their information, and any plans they might have.”
“So you don’t actually know anything.”
She shook her head. “No, we don’t. Just they’re an old secret society obsessed with occult stuff. Which we already knew.”
“I could go in, try and get information by acting interested-”
Thalia jerked upright. “No! It’s too dangerous! One misstep and they’ll know that not only is Colt not hanging around you, but that you’ve come into contact with him. They’ll never leave if that happens. It’s better that you just keep going like you have.”
“I can go then,” Colt said.
The other two turned slowly to stare at him. “What?” Thalia said.
“I’ll follow one or more of the Builders and see if I can’t find out anything useful.”
“Huh. Maybe you will be useful,” Will remarked.
Colt snorted. “Unlike you, I’ve already proven my worth, both in battle and with regards to espionage. You’re the extra baggage, only useful as a false target.”
Will flushed and glared in Colt’s direction again. “I’ll show you who the extra baggage is.”
“Enough,” Thalia said, turning her steely gaze on both of them. “You promised to behave like adults. Colt, I appreciate the offer, but it’s too dangerous. We don’t know what kind of detectors or traps they’ll have around themselves and wherever they meet. They could even be planning on you coming in so they can trap you. And from what you’ve said, I know you can be trapped.”
“So what do we do now?” Will asked, after a moment of silence.
“We go to Ruth’s after school. All of us. We make proper plans there, with her and Anna. If all five us are working together, I’m sure we’ll come up with something really good. And even if we can’t, it’ll be good for everyone to reviews all he potential plans we’ve come up with. I get the feeling that we don’t have a lot of time before everything’s out of her hands.”