Malik blew the duck call one more time and stopped when he heard a tap on the door.
“Wha—” Magaly started to say.
“Shhh,” he said, holding his finger to his lips.
There was a tap on the door a second time. Malik tapped back, and then he heard the deadbolt turn.
“Malik! Come in, come in,” Aunt Lily said. “What are you doing out there? And why didn’t you text me? Nia has been worried sick about you. You’re not answering your phone.”
Malik pulled his phone out of his pocket. There were eighty-seven missed calls from Mom. “I forgot that I put my phone on silent. I didn’t want to—” Malik started to explain as he walked into the house.
“Oh, you are lovely. I love those curls,” Lily said to Magaly as she unconsciously touched the back of her own hair. “You must be Magaly, Malik’s date.”
“Hi, thank you, nice to meet you,” Magaly said.
“Can you tell my mom that I’m fine?” Malik asked, squeezing Aunt Lily’s arm.
“You better call her yourself. Biotech tracers are looking for you.”
“We know,” he replied. “They tried to grab me while we were out. I think I know what they want. I just need a little time.”
Aunt Lily locked the door behind them. “What is going on?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but I think it has something to do with my grandma,” Malik said. “Some Confidence Biotech guys tried to buy grandma’s lucky pen, and I said no.”
“Then the Biotech tracers tried to take it from him tonight,” Magaly chimed in.
“I need to use Callie’s computer to see what’s on it.”
Aunt Lily looked at her phone, “Nia’s calling me again. I’ll talk to your mom. Several of Callie’s dad’s guys are sick, so he is pulling a late shift tonight to cover. Her mom is pretty tired and won’t hear much, so you should be good for a while. Do you guys need anything?”
“I need to use the bathroom, and water would be great,” Magaly said.
“Of course,” Aunt Lily said. “There’s a bathroom down the hall on your right. And we keep packs of water down here, so feel free to grab as many as you’d like.”
Magaly nodded and walked toward the bathroom.
“Caaaalllliiiiiieee,” Malik heard a weary voice moan as he and Lily walked up the first flight of stairs.
“How’s she doing?” Malik asked while looking at Aunt Lily.
Lily sighed and shrugged. “It’s been rough. Negotiating the mounting medical bills is just,” Lily rubbed her temples with her fingers, “painful, and it’s forcing her to relive things that she’d rather not. It’s taking its toll, but we’ll get her through.”
Malik walked toward the living room, and Aunt Lily stopped him. “She wouldn’t want you to see her like this.”
Malik nodded. He understood.
“Why don’t you go ahead to Callie’s room?” Aunt Lily said.
Malik tiptoed through the dark house and up the stairs to Callie’s room. It had been a while since he was last there, but it looked the same. Malik took a minute to look at the collage of photos on her bulletin board. Malik’s favorite picture was of him and Callie when they were maybe four or five years old. It was Halloween. Malik was dressed as a koala bear, and Callie was dressed as a bumblebee.
“Dude.” Callie’s voice made Malik jump.
“Where have you been?” Malik said.
“I can’t believe you are hanging out with Magaaaaly.” Malik could just see Callie’s smile in the dark room as she mocked him.
“So what?” Malik tried his hardest to pretend it wasn’t that big of a deal.
“Oh, BS,” Callie said. “Don’t try to pretend like you haven’t had a crush on her for forever.”
“Now’s not the time, okay,” Malik said. “Something serious is happening.”
“Well, then now is a perfect time. There’s all this danger and tension.” Callie hugged herself and laughed. “Yaaaay!”
“Shhh…” Malik said, trying not to laugh, and checking behind him. “Be quiet. You don’t want to wake your mom.”
“She’s out for the count,” Callie said. “I know what you’re looking for. It’s in the drawer.”
Malik walked to the desk next to Callie’s bed and sat in the chair. He opened Callie’s computer while he searched the desk drawer. There was the old notebook with a green spine. “I’m going to need it for a while.”
“I’m not going to need it,” Callie said. “It’s all yours now.”
Malik pressed the power button, but the computer didn’t come on. He decluttered the top of the desk to find the laptop’s power source and plugged it in. Once it booted up, he inserted the USB drive but was disappointed to find it was empty. Deflated, he sat back in the chair, not sure what to do next.
“Malik,” Callie said more softly, “there was more you were looking for, wasn’t there?” She nodded her head toward a flip notepad next to the laptop. He opened it to find all her notes on the abandoned car in the Mason Mill park area. He flipped through it.
“I told you I had discovered something big,” she continued. “I think that car was wrecked there for a reason—to be found by us.”
“Why?” Malik asked.
“ZC,” she said. “Zach Carver. His initials appear throughout your grandma’s notebook. He also happened to live in the area where that car wrecked. I found his old address and walked from the house to the wreckage site. That small compact car was the perfect size to navigate that narrow trail. I spent hours looking around that wreckage site. I felt like an archaeologist. And believe it or not, I happened to find some proof.” Callie nodded her head back toward the desk drawer.
Malik looked inside. “What? It’s empty.”
“Look harder,” she said.
Malik pulled out the entire drawer, and a pen, much like his grandma’s lucky pen, fell to the floor. This pen had similar grooves but was entirely off-white.
“I almost missed it,” Callie said. “It blended into the ground like it was just an overgrown mushroom. If I didn’t know what your grandma’s pen looked like, I never would’ve found it. I get it now.”
“Get what?”
“I get it. I understand my role now, and it’s okay.”
“But—” Malik started to say, but Callie cut him off.
“Shhh—” she said urgently. “Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Malik said.
“I think someone just pulled into the driveway.” Callie rushed to the bedroom window. “Someone is walking up the driveway. You guys have got to go. Grab the laptop.”
Malik did as instructed and started toward the door. He paused, turned back, and Callie was gone. He grabbed the laptop’s charger, some headphones, and a long speaker. Malik placed them in the bag strapped around his chest and quickly walked down the steps. He found Aunt Lily back down in the basement just as he heard the doorbell ring.
“Who else would be coming here at this time of night?” Aunt Lily said.
Ding dong. They heard the doorbell again.
Magaly peeked into the hallway, looking to see what they would do.
“Caaalliiie.” The three heard Callie’s mom again. Poor woman.
“You’ve got to get up there,” Malik told Lily. “It might be Biotech tracers.”
“How would they know to come here?” Aunt Lily asked.
“Maybe your call with my mom?”
Lily winced.
“It’s okay, we’ve just got to get out of here. I’m sorry that we came here and got you involved.”
“Hey, Malik,” Aunt Lily touched his shoulder, “it’s okay. Callie loved you like a brother, and I love you like a nephew. Take this,” Aunt Lily gave Malik her phone. “I’ll go distract them. You guys wait here and stay quiet.”
Malik and Magaly were quietly waiting in the dark. Malik attempted to monitor his breathing but found it hard to stay calm.
“I’m sorry to have gotten you involved,” Malik whispered to Magaly. “You’re going to be okay, I promise.”
Magaly nodded and gave an understanding smile.
Malik and Magaly looked toward the door when they heard Aunt Lily shout, “Okay, let me just get my phone. I’ll text him. He always answers.”
Aunt Lily came back. “I need my phone back, and you guys have got to go. Two guys, dressed in suits, are outside the door, and they are looking for you.”
Malik handed the phone to Lily, and she quickly returned upstairs. Malik and Magaly escaped out the same basement door they had entered and ran down the street to Dr. Patel’s car.
They jumped in the car, and Malik pressed the button to start the engine. Then, suddenly, the block seemed to light up. SUVs were not only out in front of Callie’s house, with their headlights on bright, but more were showing up at each corner.
“They’re blocking all the streets,” Malik said as he looked back and forth between the rearview mirror and the windshield.
“What are we going to do?” Magaly asked.
“I have an idea.” Malik kept their lights off and turned into the woods.
“What are you doing?”
“There’s an access road down here for people who maintain the nature preserve. It goes all the way through and comes out near Highway 78,” Malik tried to say as he and Magaly bounced around in their seats. Dr. Patel will be so mad.
“Look,” Magaly said, pointing to distant people walking with flashlights in the nature preserve.
“That’s okay,” Malik said and kept driving. “See,” he said as they got on the access road, “they won’t be able to see past the bamboo growth. Plus, if they are on foot, it should take them some time to catch up.”
They drove for several minutes before Malik turned on the headlights. “They shouldn’t be able to see us here. We are almost to the highway. There.” He pointed to a steep hill up ahead.
“I don’t know if this car can make it,” she said.
“It has to,” Malik replied as he stepped on the gas pedal as hard as he could. We’re going to make it, he thought as they lurched up the hill. Suddenly, Malik heard metal scraping metal. That’s not good. They jerked forward, and the airbags deployed, protecting them from cracking their heads against the dashboard. Once they had settled from the impact, Malik tried the gas pedal again, but they weren’t going anywhere. The cab of the car had filled with smoke.
They stepped out of the car, and Malik saw that the tires were caught on a wire fence. “Hmm, I never noticed that fence there before.”
“Well, you’ve never had to drive up this hill before,” Magaly said.
“Yeah, maybe.”
“Do you think anyone heard that?”
“I’m not sure.” I hope not.
“Now what are we going to do?”
“We’re close to a major road. Maybe we could get someone to call a tow truck or something,” Malik said.