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yeah?”
    “Our contact says he’s playing a concert tonight in a battle of the bands at the Spokie community center. Dark lights, loud music, big crowd. He can put up any fight he wants. No one will notice. He’ll be gone before the evening’s through.”
    “It’s hasty,” Blake said. “It’s desperate.”
    “We are desperate,” Jo said. “Hiding in bleachers, farming our spy games out to a middle schooler. Time’s up, Blake. We need to finish dusting this town and move on. Logan’s been a distraction for too long—”
    “For good reason—”
    “And we’ll return to him. He’s still Peck’s top priority. But this is more urgent. This kid Pledges next week. We take him out now or never.”
    “Fine,” Blake said. “Peck approves?”
    “He insists.”
    There was a sigh of assent.
    “Hey, boys!” Blake said. “We got a new game for you!”
    Erin heard shuffling as the two younger boys ran across the bleachers above her.
    Blake laughed. “And you’re gonna love this one.” He paused. “It’s called ‘Kidnap Dane Harold.’”
    5
    “That does it,” Logan said. “Enough’s enough.”
    Erin peered at him through the tablet connection. She’d only just begun explaining the most recent turn of events. “You’re walking. Why are you walking? I can tell that you’re walking.” Logan had been sitting on his bed when she called.
    “That’s right,” Logan said. And he went to his stairwell door. “With all due respect to my folks, they don’t know what they’re dealing with here. And you need my help.”
    “Logan, you’re grounded. Like, way grounded. If your parents find you gone, they’re gonna kill you.”
    “They won’t,” Logan said. “They’ll be angry. But they aren’t going to kill me.” Suddenly he looked grim over the connection. “Peck will.”
    Erin realized he was right, or close enough to it.
    “I need to get back in the game, Erin. Meet me at Center Square. You can explain the rest along the way.”
    And Logan slid out his stairwell door and off into the night.

    “Why Dane, do you think? There must be a pattern here.” Erin shook her head, frustrated. “But what? That’s what I still can’t figure out.”
    Logan thought about it. He had his arms around Erin’s waist now, and they sped through the Spokie streets on her rollerstick like it was nothing at all.
    “You said they mentioned ‘dusting the town.’ They’re clearly targeting Pledges. You think they’re trying to terrorize Spokie into going Markless?”
    “That’s impossible . . . ,” Erin said.
    “With DOME this worked up? I’m not so sure.”
    “It’s simpler than that. At least so far. They aren’t targeting all Pledges. They seem to have their hearts set on just a few.”
    “Lucky me,” Logan said.
    “So then what is it about you?” Erin asked. “What is it about Dane? What was it about Meg?”
    “I have no idea,” Logan said. “But I know it started after my sister Pledged. When she disappeared . . . that’s when it all began.”
    “I can’t understand it.”
    “Well, what about the assaults? Trenton and the agent, not to mention Jon.”
    “What about them?” Erin asked. “They had the Mark. It doesn’t fit.”
    “It has to. They were friends, weren’t they?”
    “Yeah. Ever since Peck went Markless, they were his support—food, clothes, information . . . shelter, sometimes . . .”
    “So he turns around to kill one and attack the other?”
    “According to the report.”
    “It doesn’t add up,” Logan said.
    “How are we going to warn Dane if we don’t even have our story straight?”
    “It’s not our story, Erin. It’s the truth .”
    They’d arrived at Old District. Erin slowed and Logan jumped off the stick.
    “I’d come with you—”
    “It’d only complicate things. He and I are friends . . . were friends, at least. Anyway, we’ve the best shot of him believing all this if it comes from me.”
    “He won’t like missing his concert.” Erin smiled.
    Logan shrugged. “Life’s not fair.”
    6
    Fifty feet away, behind a noise-cancelling wall and several dozen posters, Dane stood at a microphone, shaking his wailing mitts to loosen up and talking to his band. “That sucked,” he said. His drummer shrugged. His bassist plucked an idle note. “We have thirty minutes before we need to head out, and then we get one chance to win this thing. Now let’s take it from the top.” So the Boxing Gloves made their way through Dane’s newest