Swipe

back of Logan’s head proved him wrong.
    Erin screamed, swinging around to see a short girl planted behind her with a rock in her hands. The girl’s eyes looked violent and unsympathetic under her thick set of bangs. Without hesitating, she hurled the rock at Erin, who barely deflected it off her arm. Immediately, Erin’s hand went numb, and her elbow swelled in a way that made it hard to bend. Logan shuffled on the ground, trying to regain a sense of his surroundings.
    Now three boys and a second girl encircled them in the clearing between rows of corn.
    “You got ’em, Meg!” one of the boys said, jumping up and down. “Two points! Two points!”
    “Shut up with the names!” the oldest boy whispered harshly.
    “Why does it matter? They’re not going anywhere.”
    “What do we do with them now?” another boy asked.
    They weren’t expecting retaliation. With her good arm, Erin flung a taser bean at the oldest boy’s face. It stuck to his forehead and glowed lightning blue as it crackled and hissed. He fell to the ground with a dull thud.
    “She killed Blake!” the smallest boy yelled, as if it was a game to him. “She killed Blake with her magic beans!”
    “Shut up with the names !” the older girl said, and she smacked the boy hard before kneeling down to tend to Blake, who had started convulsing. Both smaller boys jumped on Logan now, pinning him to the dirt. He flailed, looking for anything to grab, tugging at their clothes and raking his fingers through the dirt.
    Behind him, Logan heard another electric crackle as Erin flicked a second bean toward the girl named Meg. This one stuck to Meg’s hand and glowed blue, her arm in spasm while she looked on in horrified fascination.
    It was enough to get the two smaller boys’ attention. They lessened their weight on Logan, and this gave Erin the chance to shove them off balance and pull Logan to his feet.
    Together they sprinted into the shelter of the corn.
    8
    “They tricked us,” Erin breathed when they were safely hidden in a nearby patch of trees. “The little cheapskates tricked us!”
    “It’s not the first time,” Logan said, touching the back of his head gingerly.
    “Well, excuse me for not being a pro at this,” Erin said. “First week on the job, and all.”
    “But it wasn’t a failure,” Logan said. He winced at the sharp pain in his head.
    “In what way?” Erin asked. “We showed ourselves and got nothing for it. Now they’ll always be watching for us, and we don’t know where they’re going.”
    “Well, you’re half right.” Logan smiled. “They’ll be watching. And yet . . .”
    Erin laughed. “Oh, what, you have some magical clue as to where they’re headed? I got news for you, Logan—they could have left that field in a million different directions. At this rate, DOME will find them before we will.”
    Logan looked puzzled. “Would that be a bad thing? Isn’t your goal just to finish this case and go home?”
    Erin shrugged. She honestly didn’t know anymore.
    “Anyway,” Logan said, “I do happen to have a clue as to where they’re headed. But it isn’t any more magical than those taser beans.” He leaned over and pointed to Erin’s tablet. She pulled it out and he took it, calling up the map application. “Last night at the playground, you gave me a tracker—”
    “You didn’t . . . ,” Erin said, realizing.
    Logan nodded. “During the scuffle. I stuck it to the smallest boy’s jeans.”
    Erin saw the glowing dot moving across the map, and her face grew bright and happy. “Oh, Logan, you’re a genius!” she said, and she threw her arms around his neck in a big hug.
    Logan didn’t mind that the jolt sent his head injury into excruciating throbs. A hug from Erin was worth it.
    “Look,” Erin said after several minutes. “They stopped.”
    Logan studied the map. “The old stadium,” he said, almost admiringly. “Clever . . .”
    “What do you mean?” Erin whispered.
    “They went to the old baseball stadium. Spokie’s team moved to a new one a few years back, but the old structure’s still standing. No one uses it anymore.” Logan smiled. “Until now, that is.”
    “You think they’re gonna camp out in a baseball stadium?”
    “By the looks of it . . . yes.”
    “But that’s so exposed.”
    “Not if no one ever goes there. The place was gutted years ago. It’s not even a destination for sightseers.”
    Erin groaned as she thought it through. “And it’s impossible