The End of Tomorrow by Tara Brown Page B

know things it was impossible to know.
    “Yeah, and what happens if we say she’s cool and then Boston disappears off the face of the earth?” Jack sighed and rubbed his eyes.
    Coop came in on the phone, just hanging up. He lifted his gaze to me, revealing a strange look. “My mom says hi.”
    “Oh.” I shrank back before I realized I had done it. “Tell her hi next time.”
    “I will.” He ignored my obvious discomfort and glanced at Jack. “What have you found?”
    “Nothing threatening.”
    Coop’s strange expression lifted and he looked vindicated. “I suspected. The Burrow can’t just expect us to abduct every scientist who might come across as a little too smart. This is ridiculous and technically no different than the Nazis.”
    Luce shook her head. “There might be things about her we can’t find online. Scientists are cagey people. They don't want other people to steal their work. She might do things by hand until she knows for sure she has something worthy of bringing out into the world.”
    “That is a fact.” Jack pointed. “It’s all about being the first to write about it. Once you’re published you’re golden, but until then, anyone could take your idea and make it theirs, if they can fudge or steal the experimentation or documentation. The scientific community has a research theft every couple of years.”
    Crickets might as well have started singing right after that as all three of us stared at him, not sure what to say.
    “It’s a very big deal.” He rolled his eyes.
    “Anyway, let’s keep looking into her.” Coop nodded and walked for the door.
    I jumped up and followed him out, grabbing his sleeve. “Wait, we should probably send at least one of us to check her out in the real world, not just on the Internet.”
    “Evie, I have this. I don't need you backseat driving.” He walked off, clearly still annoyed about the awkwardness of earlier.
    “Whatever.” I sighed and walked back into the room to start helping organize and analyze the information we had.
    After about an hour of it I noticed my phone ringing again. I lifted it to my face but didn't speak, in case it was another recording.
    There was no one on the other line. It was dead silence. I coughed and turned my head so the other two wouldn't see me holding the phone.
    “Evie?” Servario muttered into the line. “Are you safe?”
    “Yeah,” I whispered as I stood and left the room.
    “Why are you whispering?”
    “Because you aren’t supposed to be calling me.” I didn't know what to say. The last mission we had been on, he erased my memory and the one before that he had sold me down the river several times, and once for a phone I still didn't know the truth about.
    He sighed. “Are you going to the place I mentioned?”
    “No. Coop thinks it’s you setting us up or setting a trap.”
    “Are you kidding me right now?” He was no longer whispering. “Is he disobeying a direct order from the very people he works for?”
    “He’s being cautious. He wants to know everything before we go in and you never tell anyone anything. It’s always strip and pretend to be a hooker, and then as I’m running and shooting, you explain why we’re there.”
    “Let’s not discuss this again.” He chuckled. “I need you there—needed you there yesterday.”
    “He won’t.” I felt like a traitor even talking to Servario, especially after the text I had sent. “Call him if you want to talk to him about this. I am not in charge.”
    He sat silent, maybe thinking. I couldn't even guess what he did while on the other end. When we were together he would try to do sexual things while he was on the phone. I didn't want to know if he was doing that.
    “I am going to call upstairs in the bathroom, the one in your bedroom. Go there now and turn this phone off,” he demanded and hung up. I hurried up the stairs, slipping into the bedroom and closing the door just as something started to ring in my bathroom as