That night after dinner, while the Simon-Hockheimers were working on a five-hundred-piece puzzle (except for Beckett, who was in his jumper so he couldn’t eat the pieces), Ash got a text from Maya.
How long do you think it will take for Jacob Brown to start seeing targeted ads?
“Are you working on the teeth?” Dad asked.
“Huh?” said Ash.
“The shark teeth,” Dad repeated. “I have some pieces for you.”
“Oh,” Ash said. “Yeah. I’ll take them.” She took the pieces, but she couldn’t focus on fitting them into her part of the puzzle. She was thinking about Maya’s question. The grocery store had sent Brielle’s grandfather a yogurt coupon almost instantaneously, but Dev might wait a few weeks to email his customers about a new study guide. How quickly did Van Ness Media make profiles for their users, and how often did they share those profiles with data brokers or advertisers?
I don’t know, she typed back to Maya.
Sadie’s head popped up behind Ash’s. “What don’t you know?” she asked.
“Sadie!” Ash cried, putting her phone screen down on the table. “This is a private conversation.”
“Is it about The Underground News?” Sadie asked.
“None of your business.”
“It is if it’s about The Underground News. I’m your Story Scout.”
“It’s still none of your own business.”
“Is it about school?”
“Sadie,” said Abba in a warning voice. But he was paying more attention to the puzzle. “I finished one eye!” he announced, sliding a bunch of pieces into place.
“Nice,” said Dad, giving him a high five.
Maya texted again. And how will we know if there are ads anyway? Jacob Brown doesn’t have a phone.
“Who’s Jacob Brown?” Sadie asked.
“Dad!” Ash cried, covering the screen with her hand. “Sadie’s reading my private messages.”
“She’s sitting right next to me,” Sadie said.
“That doesn’t mean you have to look,” Ash said.
“I can’t do a puzzle with my eyes closed!” Sadie closed her eyes and tried to put puzzle pieces together, making a big show of how impossible it was.
Ash closed her own eyes in frustration. “I’m not talking about looking at the puzzle. I’m talking about looking at my phone.”
“Your phone is right by the puzzle.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to look at it!”
“Girls,” said Abba with a sigh. “Does either of you have any fin?”
“Fin!” shouted Beckett from his jumper.
Ash’s phone vibrated again. Sadie smiled expectantly. Ash glared at her. Without looking away, she slid her phone, screen down, along the table and pressed it against her leg. Then she got up and walked briskly down the length of their row house to the kitchen. Only once she was at the table with her back to the faraway living room did she turn her phone over to see Maya’s next message.
The ads usually come up in a Google search, but we can’t do any searches as Jacob Brown. We have to make sure advertisers ONLY know about him from what he puts in Van Ness Media.
Ash took a deep breath and considered this. Maya was right; it was important that Jacob Brown and his interests only appear in Van Ness Media. They’d been careful about this earlier, looking up their Saturn and pizza facts from Brielle’s phone instead of “Jacob’s” laptop. But Maya had a point now—she was clearly putting a lot of thought into this investigation. If they couldn’t search the internet or get phone notifications, how would they know if their test was working?
Sadie’s head popped up from around the refrigerator. “Is Jacob Brown your boyfriend?”
“Sadie!” Ash screeched. “Privacy!”
Sadie cracked up and ran back to the living room. But Ash wasn’t taking any chances. She took her phone, stomped up the stairs to her room, and closed the door. But it was no use. She was too worked up to concentrate on Maya’s questions now.
Bring the laptop tomorrow, she texted. We can brainstorm at my house after school.
The bedroom door opened, and Beckett toddled in in his footed fleece pj’s. “Jay Brow,” he said.
Ash could hear Sadie giggling in the hallway. It wasn’t enough for her sister to be annoying, she had to take their baby brother out of his jumper and bring him upstairs, just so he could be annoying too. Ash opened her mouth to scream for her dads, then stopped herself. She had a better idea. One that would test how quickly fake information could travel.
“Come here, Baby Beck,” Ash said, pulling him onto the bed and into a snuggle. He still smelled soapy fresh from his bath. “Sadie’s in love with a boy named Jacob Brown,” Ash whispered in his ear.
“Jay Brow,” Beckett said.
“Yes,” Ash said. “Sadie loves him. She wants to kiss him!”
“Kiss Jay Brow,” Beckett said.
“Right,” Ash said. But how reliable was a messenger who couldn’t yet speak in full sentences? “Hang on.” She sat Beckett on the floor and got a notebook and pen from her backpack. Dear Sadie, she wrote. Thanks for your note. I love you too! Meet me by the big slide at recess tomorrow. Love, your boyfriend, Jacob Brown.
Just to drive the point home, she wrote SSH + JB FOREVER inside a big heart. She folded the paper and scribbled TOP SECRET, FOR SADIE’S EYES ONLY!! on the front. Then she handed it to Beckett and whispered, “For Sadie.”
Beckett took off down the hall, and Ash went calmly back downstairs to work on the puzzle while she waited.
She didn’t have to wait long.
“Ashley!” Sadie screamed from the top of the steps. “Jacob Brown is not my boyfriend!”
Their dads looked up from the shark puzzle with raised eyebrows. Ash just smiled and fit together two more pointy teeth. If Van Ness Media was anything like her siblings, they wouldn’t be able to keep personal information private for long.