“What the what?” Megan says when I’m finished.
“I know! I mean… This is so… What’s happening?”
“Okay, so let’s think rationally here,” Megan says.
“Okay.”
“So Nora sees you, agents disguised as police try to deter her from telling anyone—”
“And maybe bug her house in the process?”
“Maybe,” Megan agrees. “Which is how they knew that it didn’t work.”
“And why they were still following her that night.”
“Conveniently.”
“Too conveniently,” I mutter.
“Then there’s a crash, either accidental or intentional,” Megan continues piecing it together. “If it was accidental, then the agents jumped on the chance; if it was intentional, then—”
“The program is jacked up.”
“Yes,” Megan says. “Okay, so either way, what, the agents go to Nora’s parents like they did with the bus kids and say that we’ll try to bring her back if you agree to a relo?”
“And they agree, but they decide to lie to Nora about why they’re really there?”
“But they didn’t make up that story on their own,” Megan says. “The agents had to have fed it to them.”
“Why not just tell them about the program, now that they’re in it?” I ask.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” Megan says. “Maybe they were still concerned that Nora would tell, so they didn’t fully pull back the curtain. Maybe they are keeping them in the dark, forcing them to lie to Nora so she’s really in the dark and can’t do more damage.”
Neither of us speaks for a few moments as we collect our thoughts.
“I guess it works,” I say. “I guess I understand why they’d want to keep Nora clueless. But I still feel sorry for her. Unlike us, she has no network.”
“Except you, her fellow wit-pro buddy.” Megan laughs.
“Funny,” I say without laughing.
“Stop obsessing,” Megan says.
“I’m not.”
“Yes, you are,” she says. “You want to know whether it was an accident or not.”
“Don’t you?”
“Honestly? Not really. I already think the program is a little dark side as it is; I don’t need to be spooked about killer agents.”
“Dark side?”
“Of course, Daisy,” Megan says. “You know it better than anyone.”
“I know,” I say. I guess I am obsessing.
“All I’m saying is that if you decide to go digging in the cemetery,” Megan says, “be careful.”