I laced my fingers through his. “No. It’s not. It’s a lot.” I chewed on my lip. It was silly, but I couldn’t get the image of that name and phone number out of my head. The loopy, girly handwriting. The red pen. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” North said.
“Who’s Kristyn?” I asked, keeping my voice light.
North looked at me blankly. “Kristyn who?”
“The name and phone number written in Paradise Lost. Kristyn with a y. Is she an old girlfriend?”
North stopped abruptly. “I’ve never dated anyone named Kristyn and there was definitely not a name written in the book when I gave it to you.”
“But there must have been,” I replied. “I certainly didn’t write it.”
“I’m telling you, Rory, that book was in near-pristine condition when I bought it. No markings, no tears. I’ve got a certificate to prove it. And it didn’t leave my apartment until I gave it to you.”
“Then where did the writing come from?”
“I have no idea,” North said. “You said it was a name and phone number. Do you happen to remember the number?”
I rattled off the digits, embarrassed that I’d memorized it.
North typed the number into his handheld. “I’ll see what I can figure out,” he said. We’d reached the campus gate. “Good luck with the dean.”
Turns out, I needed the luck, but not for the reason I thought.
“Every year about a dozen of our brightest students are contacted by a group of students claiming to belong to a secret society,” Dean Atwater said, his voice grave. I was seated across from him in his office, perched on the edge of an oversize leather chair. “This group is not an authorized student organization, and as such, is not permitted to hold meetings on campus.” He paused, as if waiting for me to jump in. I kept my expression neutral.
“A secret society?”
“You are one of our most promising students, Rory,” Dean Atwater went on. “Not only because of your natural aptitude, but also because of your academic performance. If you stay on track, you could graduate at the very top of your class.”
I felt sweat bead on my upper lip. “I plan to,” I said weakly.
“If, however, you involve yourself with this clandestine group, I will have no choice but to dismiss you from our program.” He smiled kindly. “But if you haven’t yet pledged your commitment to them, there’s time to set things right.”
“I don’t know anything about a secret society,” I said, hating the waver in my voice. “No one has contacted me about anything like that.”
“Now, I know there is a sense of prestige associated with this kind of thing. You feel like you’ve been chosen—sought out, even—to be part of an elite group, and I understand how tempting something like that would be.” His eyes were soft. Sympathetic. “But, Rory, you’ve got your future to think about. A very bright future that an association with this group would quickly snuff out.”
I hesitated, and for a moment contemplated telling him the truth. But the society was my closest link to my mom.
“I understand,” I told him. “If they contact me, I’ll be sure to let you know.”
“Excellent,” he replied, rising to his feet. “And I trust that you’ll keep this conversation between us. Discretion is crucial so that my inquiries don’t drive them further underground.” He pressed a button on his desk, and the door behind me opened.
I nodded. “Of course.”
I practically skipped back to North’s apartment.
“You’re smiling,” he said when he opened the door. “You didn’t get kicked out.”
“Nope,” I said happily. “He has no idea about last night.”
“So what’d he want?”
“He just had some questions about my extracurriculars,” I answered, avoiding North’s gaze. I hated lying to him, but I doubted there was a boyfriend exception to the society’s vows.
“That’s great,” North said. “I have some good news too. The phone number you gave me matches the name. It belongs to Kristyn Hildebrand, a clinical psychiatrist at Harvard. Same spelling of Kristyn.”
My forearms prickled with goose bumps. I knew that name. “She’s in my mom’s medical file! Dr. K. Hildebrand. Her signature is on every one of those fake psych entries.” I squeezed his forearms.
“So who wrote her name in my book?”
“I don’t know. The same person who put my mom’s transcript under my pillow, maybe. Whoever it was, we have to talk to this woman.” I pulled out my Gemini and started dialing the number.
North caught my hand. “Don’t tell her who you are,” he warned. “If she’s one of the people on your threat list, then you’re on hers, too. Lux will tell her not to meet with you.”
I put the phone down. “You’re right. It’s better if I do it in person. Catch her completely off guard. Can we go right now?”
“I know you’re eager to talk to this woman,” North said gently, “but don’t you think you should wait until Monday, when she’ll be at her office? If you show up at her house, her guard will immediately go up. Not to mention the fact that we don’t know where she lives.”
He was right, but Monday felt like an eternity away. “Okay.” I sighed. “I’ll wait.”
As I was putting my handheld away, it buzzed with an incoming message. Unknown sender. Greek letters that morphed into English:
You have passed our evaluation, Zeta. Well done. Be at the eastern gate of Garden Grove Cemetery at 10:25 p.m. Do not come early. Do not be late.
“More good news?” North asked. I was beaming at my screen.
“Uh, yeah,” I said, quickly putting my Gemini away. “School stuff.”
Hershey shot me a suspicious look. She didn’t buy it, but she didn’t call me out.
“Speaking of school stuff,” I said then, “I should probably go. I’ve got a mountain of homework to—”
“Hey, Griffin’s out of surgery,” Hershey said, pointing at the TV screen. The volume was down, but the banner at the bottom read, “Gnosis CEO Griffin Payne expected to recover after nine-hour brain surgery.” Relief washed over me.
“He’s going to be okay,” I said breathlessly. “Hey, what’d you find out about Beck?” I asked suddenly, turning back to North. In all the craziness of the morning, I’d forgotten what I’d come for. “Were you able to hack his profile?”
Hershey’s eyes darted to North. “Wait, you’re a hacker?”
I winced. Hershey saw it.
“What? I’m not going to tell anyone,” Hershey said.
“He’s not a hacker,” I said quickly. “I asked him to try to—”
“Rory, it’s okay,” North said. “I trust her. But, no, I couldn’t access Beck’s profile. Well, I could, but it was just a placeholder. The data had been migrated to a different server.”
“That’s weird, right?”
“Nah. My guess is Gnosis has built a new infrastructure for the Gold, and that Beck’s profile was moved over when he joined the beta test. I should be able to get into it, I just have to find it first.”
“Oooh, your boyfriend is so hot when he talks hacker,” Hershey said coyly. I rolled my eyes. “Oh, shut up, Rory Vaughn,” she said, thrusting a hand on her hip. “You know you’ve missed me.”
I couldn’t help but smile. She was right. I had.
At exactly 10:25 that night, I approached the cemetery gate. I was using Lux for the first time in weeks, not wanting to take any chances with my arrival time.
A robed figure stood at the gate like an eerie grim reaper. I shivered beneath my down coat. “Hey,” the figure said as I walked up, the familiar voice immediately putting me at ease. It was Liam. “Ready?”
“Yep,” I said, and lifted my tongue.