Quake by Patrick Carman

stopped. He looked up at all the stunned-into-silence faces in the room as if the decision to continue was not his own.
    â€œAll present and accounted for,” Clooger replied with a distant kind of weariness in his voice. “Let it play.”
    â€œSorry. I was just making sure we’re good to go on this. Also double-checking I can stop it if I need to,” Hawk said. He glanced around awkwardly. “I can stop it.”
    Hawk half smiled and tapped the screen again. When he did so, Jade leaned in closer to listen, their knees touching.
    For the purposes of this transmission I will address everyone I named even if some of them are already dead.
    Carl, if you haven’t told them about the sleeper already, tell them now.
    This would be the part where Hawk hits pause.
    Hawk pointed to the screen and let Jade tap the pause button and the two of them leaned even closer to each other. Faith couldn’t help thinking how remarkable it was that love could blossom in the most difficult of times. It was, she thought then, the most powerful thing on earth.
    â€œWhat’s she talking about?” Clooger asked his brother. Clooger hated the idea of being on the outside of any information that involved the team.
    Carl had been standing, but now he sat on the stone edge of the fireplace. The fire had softened to embers, but there was still an orange glow around Carl’s enormous head and shoulders as he spoke.
    â€œYou remember Liz’s boyfriend, Noah?”
    Faith’s head shot up. “Of course I remember Noah. He’s all she talked about. What about him?”
    It was hard for Faith to think about anything having to do with Liz, her first and only best friend. Any mention of Liz led right to the hammer crashing into her head and the rage and sadness boiled over. Faith gripped Dylan’s hand tighter as she was reminded of what Clara Quinn had done.
    â€œThere’s more to Noah than you all knew,” Carl continued. “He’s on our side, always has been, but it started with his parents. Noah’s dad is deep Intel, as Meredith would say. He’s got no pulse, so he can’t protect himself. His only job is to be in there, digging up information and waiting in case one of us ends up inside the Western State. It’s something he’s good at. Think of him as an undercover information specialist. It’s not likely very many people know about Meredith’s death or would even know what her significance was if they did know. But Noah’s dad can find his way inside State-run information systems. He fed intel to Meredith all the time, whatever he could get to. Obviously she told him to send this message if he ever found out she was dead.”
    Carl did some counting in his head. “I guess it took Neal Gordon—that’s Noah’s dad’s name—twelve days, give or take, to find out what you already knew. Meredith didn’t live past the siege that let Hotspur Chance out of prison.”
    â€œHow do you know all this?” Clooger asked, genuinely crushed by the idea that Carl would know more than he did.
    â€œLike I said, Meredith spread things around, shared what she wanted with who she wanted. And she expected us to keep our secrets well. I’m sure you know plenty of stuff I don’t have a clue about. Balances out.”
    â€œWhat if she knew something we didn’t?” Jade asked.
    Dylan was reminded once more of his mother’s incredible capacity for secrecy. “Jade, I can promise you, Meredith knew a lot of things we don’t know. That’s the way she was, cagey. Even with us. Even with me, and I’m her son. Whatever message she’s got for us, it’s probably not information we already know, and it won’t be good news.”
    â€œNever is,” Faith agreed. “Maybe that’s why she chose not to tell us everything.”
    Faith could feel the weight in the room getting heavier, the energy