Storm (Swipe Series)

not sure. He gets a lot of stuff wrong. A lot of the details, you know?”
    “He made up a good bit of it,” Erin agreed.
    Peck nodded. “In my chapters too. And yet . . . the big stuff’s all there.”
    “He got your iguana right,” Logan said to Erin. “When you lost him in Spokie’s park that one time, with Hailey?”
    Erin nodded, looking a little creeped out.
    And Peck said, “Somehow he knew about Tyler’s card game too. King’s Punch-Out. Little stuff like that is spot-on, all throughout. How would a stranger know about any of that?”
    “Are we really this famous?” Logan asked. “That some guy was able to write a book about us in just these last few months? I mean, where’d he learn all this stuff? How’s he have any idea what kinds of things we were up to back in Spokie?”
    Peck shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said. “But he keeps a low profile and he calls himself an ‘Angler.’ By the sound of it, I’d guess he’s a fisherman along the Unmarked River. If so, he’d meet plenty of Markless passing through. Guess one day he just started piecing together the rumors he’d been hearing and—”
    “That’s a lot of rumors,” Logan said.
    Peck nodded. “His author’s bio says he lives in Beacon. So who knows . . . It’s possible he was there back with the Marklesshuddle under City Center, in the fission reactor, watching us, listening . . .”
    Logan shuddered. The thought of it, of being observed like that . . . it sent a chill down his spine. “I don’t want to be famous,” he said.
    Peck laughed. “Then you shouldn’t have done something so remarkable.”
    “I didn’t even know they still published paper books,” Erin said, as if that somehow made the artifact less real.
    “They don’t. I have no idea how this one was printed. Or where they found the equipment. Even the library downtown, lawless as it is, is mostly electronic. What you’re holding there is highly illegal. Someone risked quite a lot carrying that copy all the way out to Sierra.”
    “You think many people have read it?” Logan asked.
    But before anyone could hazard a guess, Arianna was bounding down the basement steps with a tablet in hand.
    “Erin,” she said. “Tablet call for you.”
    Erin sat up slightly in her bed. “Who . . . who is it?” she asked tentatively. Already, Logan, Peck, and Hailey were tense, ready to run or fight in case the doctor was handing them a trap.
    “Hey, relax,” Arianna said. “You think I wouldn’t vet these guys first?”
    “‘These guys?’” Peck asked.
    “Yeah! The whole group of ’em!” Arianna smiled. “Seems they call themselves ‘the Dust’?”

    The reunion among the friends was chaotic and warm.
    Immediately, Logan, Peck, and Hailey flew from their circle on the floor and into a small huddle around Arianna and her tablet.
    “Blake!”
    “Joanne!”
    “Peck!”
    “Hailey!”
    On both ends of the video connection, the Dust spoke too fast on top of one another for any of them to be heard.
    Arianna laughed at the warm welcome, watching it unfold.
    Of all of them, only Erin held back. “How’d they get through to us?” she asked suspiciously, still resting in her medical bed. “They didn’t know where we were headed, they couldn’t have guessed Arianna’s identity . . . they don’t even have a tablet that can make calls.”
    “I know!” Tyler yelled. “But listen—now that we’re all here, I have this brand-new game we can play—”
    “Now, wait a minute!” Erin said, raining on everyone’s parade. “I’m not saying one more word to these guys until we figure out how they found us. Something’s not right.” She leaned forward and stared into the video screen at the foot of her bed. “So what exactly is going on here?”
    There was a brief silence on the other end. Several of the Dust even slinked sheepishly outside the view of the screen.
    “I’m what’s going on here,” Mr. Arbitor said, entering the video feed. “Well—your mom and I, both.”
    Right away, Erin was dumbstruck. She held a hand to her mouth and teared up just a little, though no one else was quite sure whether it was over fear of being caught, or joy at being found.
    “We’re here to help,” Dr. Arbitor said, waving inside the tablet. “The Dust too.” And behind her, Tyler stuck a finger in his mouth and made a gagging motion.
    “Arianna,” Erin said. “You know my dad works for DOME, don’t you?”
    “Yeah,” Dr. Rhyne said.