Chapter 11

Chapter 11 GIVE ME AN A! GIVE ME AN I! WHAT DOES IT SPELL? Jodi had a hard time keeping her theories to herself throughout the morning. She wanted her suspicions to be wrong. But how was she to know for sure? It was nearly lunchtime before she had a realization. It struck her like a bolt from the blue. Something Ms. Minerva had said suddenly echoed through her mind. Not the pep talk… The security cameras. The school had security cameras. She would be able to see for herself who had taken that sixth headset. And that person must be

the Evoker King. Jodi quivered with excitement. As soon as the bell rang for lunch, she jumped up from her desk. Morgan started to say, "I can't go to lun—" "Gottadosomestuffbye!" she shouted at Morgan on her way past him and out the door. She knew better than to run through the halls. Student hall monitors loved to exercise their meager authority by calling out runners. So she walked briskly until she'd made it to Doc's classroom. She caught the science teacher just as she was heading out for her lunch break. "Doc!" she cried. "I need to know more about the school's security cameras!" Doc chuckled. "Well, Madam Curie's well- balanced breakfast! I do love to see a student so eager to learn!" Jodi huffed, out of breath. Unable to find her voice, she gave Doc a thumbs-up. "As a matter of fact," Doc said, "I was just on my way to the security hub. I'm trying to fix an issue with the camera software. I'll give you a tour!"

Doc pointed out every camera they passed on the way to the hub. The cameras were spaced every few yards along the hallway, higher than even an adult could reach. "You must be able to see the whole school," Jodi said. "Just about," Doc said. "There are a few blind

spots here and there. Part of the gym, for instance. And of course, there aren't any cameras in the closets or bathrooms." The hub was a small room connected to the main office. Jodi marveled at the sight of an entire wall of television screens. They showed various locations throughout the school. "I made two mistakes that led to the school's technical problems," Doc said. She slid the metal casing off a computer and started poking around in the computer's guts. "The first mistake was networking all the technology. That's what allowed the glitch to spread and affect everything. The second mistake was using an old government AI program to run the cameras."

"AI?" Jodi said, her ears pricking up. "As in artificial intelligence? The cameras are alive?" Doc shook her head, chortling. "Oh, no. Not at all. It's a very limited AI. It can't think creatively. It can make some basic decisions, but mostly it's just meant to follow instructions." She pulled her hand from the computer to scratch her head. "Although some of those instructions have clearly gotten confused." Jodi remembered why she was there. She needed to see footage from the day that headset went missing. "Can I see footage from a particular day? It was a little more than a month ago." "I'm afraid we don't save the footage for that long," Doc said. "With all these cameras? That would be way too much data for these old machines." Jodi's heart sank. So much for that plan. And then she looked up at one of the screens. And her heart sank even further.

Morgan, Po, Ash, and Harper were there. Instead of eating lunch in the cafeteria, they were heading toward a supply closet. What in the world could they be up to? Maybe they were all the Evoker King! Was the headset in that closet? Jodi remembered what Doc had said about the closets. There was no way to see inside it. Not from here. "Doc, I have to go," Jodi said. "Thanks so much for the tour." "Any time," said Doc, and then she yelped as a circuit board sparked. "But yes, it's probably best if I focus right now." Jodi sped toward her friends. She could see the door to the supply closet was ajar. She could hear them whispering on the other side. She didn't want it to be true. But she had to know for sure.