BRANCHING OUT Steel thought of it as a two-pronged mission. “So first we’ll get the camera back from the chapel,” he said. It was just past dinner, the forty minutes of downtime before study hall. He, Kaileigh, and Penny shared a concrete bench in the rarely occupied patio outside the school library. “If we don’t, I’m toast,” Penny said. He’d explained his situation about five times. Steel didn’t want to hear it again. Penny’s obsession with hacking the school’s computer system and constantly monitoring faculty and administration e-mails, student report cards, and departmental reports had led him to discover that maintenance planned to replace backup batteries in every security camera and smoke detector in the school. There was no question they would discover that one of the cameras was missing: the one that the three had moved into the chapel. Unless it was returned this very evening, an investigation would be launched, and just the thought of that terrified Penny.
