“It doesn’t seem that weird to me,” Brielle said the next day at recess. “If I invented an app, I’d want to know where people are when they use it.”
“Some of the dots were moving,” Maya said eerily, as though she were telling a ghost story. “Like, these Van Ness Media people could just watch you walk along South Charles Street.”
Brielle shrugged and leaned against a tree. “So what? They watch me go into Midnight Cupcakes? It’s no different from, like, the traffic info on GPS.”
“But Van Ness Media doesn’t give people directions,” Ash pointed out.
Brielle shrugged again. “Maybe they’re making a new program. Van Ness Navigator.”
Ash hadn’t considered that. Perhaps it was top secret until it was finished. That could be why the people were hiding in that room, and why they wanted to turn off the computer when Ash and Maya walked in. “If they are,” she said, “it’d be a pretty big news story. And no one else knows about it.” Especially not Harry E. Levin, Ash added to herself. “The Underground News could break it!”
“Um,” said Brielle, “I think we need a little more information before we can report anything.”
“I don’t think it’s a new app,” Maya said quietly, sitting down on the grass. “I think they’re collecting information about us. Companies do that sort of thing. You should see the data my brother has about the visitors to his website.”
Maya’s brother, Dev, was a freshman in college and basically a genius. He made study guides for all different classes and sold them online.
“What kind of data?” Ash asked, sitting down next to her.
Maya picked three blades of grass and started braiding them together. “He keeps track of what people buy, obviously,” she replied. “But he has lots of other information too. He showed me once. He knows how many people visit each page, how they got there, what they click on. Stuff like that.”
“For real?” Ash asked. “And he looks at it?”
“He studies it,” Maya said. “He spends, like, hours looking at it.”
“Why?” Brielle asked.
“I don’t know,” Maya said.
“Maybe he’s making a Dev’s Guide to studying website data,” Ash said with a smile.
Maya giggled. “A Dev’s Guide to Dev’s Guides.”
“And then he’ll make a Dev’s Guide to Dev’s Guide to Dev’s Guides.”
“And a Dev’s Guide to Dev’s Guide—”
“Okay!” Brielle announced, raising her arms. “I have an idea.”
“Is it about Dev’s Guides?” Ash asked, grinning.
“It is, actually,” Brielle said. “We need to do more research before we report anything about Van Ness Media. But we need to record a new episode of The Underground News soon, or people will forget about us.”
“And it needs to be a good episode,” Ash added. “Even better than Lucy’s bike.”
“Right. So, I think we should do a story about Dev’s Guides. Do you think your brother would be up for it, Maya?”
“I can ask,” Maya said. “He’ll probably do it if we flatter him, like, say it’s because he’s such a good entrepreneur.”
“A good what?” Brielle asked.
“Entrepreneur,” Maya repeated with a sigh. “It means someone who started their own business.”
Ash knew Maya was proud of her brother, but she also knew that Maya’s family was especially proud of him, more than they were of Maya, which Ash found incredibly unfair.
“I’ve got it,” Ash said, coming up with a way to interview Dev without making him seem even more special. “We can do a whole series on Baltimore entrepreneurs. We can interview Dev, and some other business owners nearby. And then, once we have a few, we can use it as a way to interview Maria Van Ness and find out what they’re doing with that map.”
“Smart,” said Brielle. “I like it.”
“I wish there was a Dev’s Guide to finding out what’s happening at Van Ness Media,” Maya said, a smile playing at her lips.
Ash grinned. “Or a Dev’s Guide to Dev’s Guide to finding out—”
Brielle covered her ears. “I need a Dev’s Guide to dealing with people who won’t stop talking about Dev’s Guides.”
“Or a Dev’s Guide to Dev’s Guide to—”
Brielle just shook her head. “The things I put up with as a Renegade Reporter.”