“What?!” she roared in disbelief “Kyler, are they selling these people into slavery?! Experimentation?! What are they doing with them?!”

“I only know so much, Minnie.” he said, trying to keep his voice from quivering with… regret.

Cassie tugged her bedsheets and bit the inside of her mouth until it bled. 

“How’s your mission going? Did you find the castaway?” he said, trying to change the conversation to a less infuriating theme.

“Well, yes and no...” she sighed, trying to not accidentally bite her tongue off “I know where the signal is coming from. I’m also certain that it’s a what and not a who. However, I still don’t know what this ‘what’ is, I just know it can fit in a school bag, because this kid named Adam, is carrying it around in his backpack... to school...” she said, slowly swinging her feet in the air “I’ve been trying to get close to him, you know, wait for an opportunity to peek into his bag and get whatever he’s hiding there... But he never lets go of it. Not even when we have class in the same room for two subsequent time blocks. He says it’s because ‘it’s easier to carry his art supplies to the courtyard that way’, but I bet it’s because he doesn’t want to risk anyone finding out what he has inside it.” she theorized.

“That doesn’t make sense, if he’s so worried about people finding what he has in his bag, then why doesn’t he leave it at home?” Derek asked, walking into the kitchen wearing an old t-shirt and shorts “Or is he one of those kids with crazy parents?” He grabbed a chair and sat in front of the computer, his hair dripping wet.

“Nah, he’s an orphan.” She clarified, “But he’s probably afraid of one of the employees finding it. I could always ask my employees to steal his bag in the middle of the night, but they need to sleep too, you know?”

“Employees?” Kyler asked, looking at her.

“Yeah, my sister can enhance animals and give them a near-human level of intelligence,” Derek explained proudly. 

“Oh yeah, I remember you mentioning something like that…” he mumbled, going back to monitoring the frying pan. 

“Yeah, I found this small colony of rats scavenging this restaurant’s trash can, when I was coming back from school. I hired them to monitor Adam when I’m not around, since I can’t really follow him into the orphanage and stuff… So far, the only thing they found was that he’s taking pills...” She said, looking frustrated.

“Pills? Is he sick?” Kyler asked, dumping a bunch of french fries into the pan.

“I don’t know, he looks fine to me… A little pale, but fine.”

“Hey, why don’t you just tell them to get the bag?” Kyler suggested. “They could sneak into the orphanage at night and get it while he’s asleep.”

“I tried it, but the door wouldn't open. He deadbolts it, and trying to open the damn thing would probably make enough noise to wake him and his roommate up for sure.” she sighed “And yes, I tried the window too. But they sleep with the blind closed.”

“Maybe you could scare him away from his bag? He does hang it on his chair when he’s in class, right? Tell your employees to invade the classroom in the middle of class, scare everyone away,” Derek suggested.

“Already thought about that, but Adam has an eye for detail, and so does his roommate... If I disappeared from their side while everyone was gathered outside, and whatever he’s hiding disappeared too, they would suspect me immediately.” And then Adam would obviously start asking questions, and Cassie would have to tell him that she only got close to him, because of whatever he was carrying around, which would leave him to trust issues. She didn’t want to hurt him like that.

“Why don’t you just tell your rats to steal it while you wait outside with the rest of the class?” Kyler asked.

“No! As I said, I don’t know what Adam is hiding. For all I know, it could be a weapon with a sensitive trigger or whatever. I can’t risk them getting hurt. Or accidentally destroying the school...” 

“Well, I’m out of ideas...” Derek signed, slouching in his chair.

“Me too,” Kyler said, grabbing a fork from the counter.

“Me three...” the girl confessed, her eyelids starting to feel heavy.

She heard her “father’s” steps right outside the front door.

“I have to go, bye~,” she said, ending the call before the two men could say their goodbyes.

She quickly put away the computer on top of her desk and turned off the lights before getting into bed, just in time to pretend to be asleep and trick the man that came to check on her.

She heard him scoff and close the door, leaving her alone in a room illuminated only by the soft light of an old TV, inside an open closet. 

The house became completely quiet half an hour later, and she quickly fell asleep after hearing the man closing the door of his bedroom.