“Welcome Agent Brightwell,” Tom said.

Emily nodded to Tom. Tom nodded back.

"Thanks Gentry," Tom said. "You can leave us. Close the door."

Emily sat down at a chair across the desk from Tom. Gentry closed the door as he left. Just the two of them.

"I didn't expect the FBI to respond so quickly to my phone call," Tom said. “But I’m glad you are here Agent Brightwell.”

"Honestly, I have no idea why I'm here,” Emily said. “Last night I was in Charlotte, eating pizza and watching Netflix. This morning I'm in Avalon Springs talking to you. Special Agent in charge Morrison gave me a file, sent me down here."

“Are you here to investigate me?"

"No. I'm here to investigate an anomaly."

Emily pulled out an iPad from her backpack, showed Tom an image. The image was a map with millions of tiny dots on it. The map was of the entire planet. The dots were concentrated in various cities and clusters in China, Iraq, Japan, and other countries in the Middle East and Asia. Tom studied the image. He realized he had no idea what the image meant. But he also didn't want to look stupid in front of the FBI agent. He sat there, staring at the iPad, pretending to be deep in thought. Tom sat back in his chair, shook his head.

"I have no idea what I'm looking at," Tom said. Emily nodded.

"I don’t know what this means," Emily said. "But whatever it is, it scared the shit out of Special Agent Morrison. I'm one of the best in the world at what I do. And I was sent here to help you figure out what's going on."

“Why did the FBI only send you if, you know, this scared Special Agent Morrison?”

“A large FBI presence is something we want to avoid. For now.”

Tom wished he’d spoken to Kaya. She’d been so weird that morning. The night before. He’d hoped it was just teenage hormones. But Kaya had definitely been acting weird. Had she noticed something too?

"I don't understand," Tom said. "These are different countries. But I asked for help in Avalon Springs.”

“That's the thing," Emily said. "These other countries are experiencing a simultaneous computer glitch. It does not appear to be hacking. Or a virus. It's acting like a virus, but the techies at the FBI don't believe this is some type of cyberattack. Something else is going on. Hopefully just a computer code error."

“What's happening in those countries?"

"They are messing up the name of your town. We aren't sure why. We think something in your town changed. You called the FBI last night saying something was different, but you don't know what. That makes me think that something here has changed."

"What?"

"I don't know. Maybe something meaningless. Maybe something bad."

"Bad as in a computer virus?"

"Bad as in extinction level event."

Tom waited for the agent to smile. She didn’t. Emily wasn’t bluffing. The FBI didn’t think he was crazy. Unfortunately, that was not as comforting as he’d hoped.

Tom wondered what Kaya had noticed. Did she know something more? Or was it worse? Was his daughter somehow involved?

And then something else hit him.

Something was wrong in Avalon Springs.

Tom studied Emily Brightwell.

Something didn't feel right about her either.