Free 0062120085. (C) by Chris Rylander Page B

her way.”
    “How would I explain Betsy to her?” I asked.
    “You mean Isis?” Dillon said.
    “Good point,” Danielle said, ignoring her brother’s remark. “Okay, see you tomorrow at lunch then. Let’s get out of here, this area gives me the creeps for some reason.”
    “Yeah, sounds good,” I said. We headed our separate ways.

CHAPTER 16
    T HE CREEPY DARK SEDAN WITH NO HEADLIGHTS DROVE DOWN my street again that night. I didn’t see how they could know that I had the package, but at the same time I didn’t know if I could afford to assume that they were just driving up and down random streets in town. Either way, it was still terrifying to see them creeping past my house.
    Not that it really mattered anymore. As Betsy had warned me after dinner, I only had twenty-three hours until she self-destructed. And I still had no idea who the package needed to be delivered to. There was no way Iwas just going to leave it somewhere random either. If it really did contain information that the country depended on, I couldn’t have it on my conscience to just let it self-destruct.
    I spent most of that night lying in bed replaying my conversations with the two Jensens over and over again. Trying to see if there was some look or signal that I’d missed. Something that would give me some hope that one of them was the intended recipient of the package.
    But it was sort of hard because I’d gotten a lot of weird looks from both of them. From their perspectives I must have sounded crazy. Maybe I was crazy? Maybe this thing was still a hoax after all? Some hugely elaborate prank orchestrated by Dillon and Danielle?
    It was this surprisingly disappointing idea that finally put me to sleep. I mean, if that was actually the truth, then it should have made me happy because then the pressure of having the fate of the country in my hands would be off my shoulders. But it also would mean that things would go back to normal.
    But it didn’t matter. Reality woke me the next morning in the form of Betsy’s voice.
    “You now have twelve hours and forty-five minutes to initiate fail-safe measures before self-destruction.”
    As I was brushing my teeth that morning, I decided I just needed to take action. I simply couldn’t be in possession of Betsy when her countdown hit zero. I couldn’t be responsible for failing to carry out one little task and bringing doom to the whole country. I would have to just pick the most likely Jensen and give Betsy to him. That would be that. And even if that meant I’d have to go back to days so predictable that I could almost write them out every morning before they even happened, well, then so be it.
    I synched my watch to the timer like the day before, put Betsy in my bag like the day before, and then got on the bus to go to school like the day before. The difference was this time I would not be coming home with the device still in my bag.
    Olek sat next to me on the bus again. I didn’t even consider stopping him. I kind of liked him, despite the fact that he always smelled like dry milk and cardboard. He made me laugh, and a good laugh here or there is just what a guy needs sometimes.
    “Ah, hello, you again,” he said, sitting down.
    “Hey, Olek,” I said.
    “Ah!” he yelled. “You say my name right!”
    I smiled and nodded. There weren’t exactly a lot offoreign people in North Dakota, and so the few who did live here had their names mispronounced constantly. I had a teacher once who kept calling Jesus (pronounced Hey-Seuss ) Jeez-us all year long even though he corrected her every time she said it wrong during that first month. Eventually, he just gave up. But that’s North Dakota for you. I mean, Jesus isn’t even a hard name to say.
    I peeked at my watch. Seven minutes until the next warning.
    “You sing song again?” Olek asked.
    “Actually, yes.”
    “Good, I help you,” he said. “Only, I sing song from my country.”
    “A Jimmy Buffett song?”
    “Yes, of course! You