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designed to manage the slow and inevitable destruction of the world. It was the goal of the Protocol to preserve a small number of the most essential citizens, so that human life could go on, no matter what. But Skinner had failed to reveal what happened to thosewho refused to adopt the Protocol.
    â€œWhat have you all gotten me into?” Betty sounded weak and defeated.
    â€œWe’re sorry,” Eleanor’s mom said. “Truly sorry.”
    â€œBut wouldn’t you rather know the truth?” Dr. Powers asked, sounding a bit brusque.
    â€œActually,” said Betty, “maybe not. Maybe I’d rather have just kept doing what I was doing. Blissfully unaware. Hoping a turn in the weather was just around the corner. What hope is there now?”
    But Eleanor believed there was hope. “We might be able stop it,” she said. “I shut down the Concentrator. If we can shut the others down—”
    â€œOthers?” Betty asked.
    â€œWe think there are several more Concentrators around the earth connected to the rogue planet. They’re likely along the . . . Do you know what ley lines are?”
    Betty nodded. “You’re telling me they’re real, too?”
    â€œYes,” Eleanor said. “The ley lines of telluric current, the earth’s energy, are where we’ll find the Concentrators. We have a map. Von Albrecht’s map.”
    â€œIf we shut them down,” Finn said, “we think that’ll stop the rogue planet. Without any energy to feed off, it’ll just . . . move on.”
    â€œHow do you know that?” Betty asked.
    â€œWe
hope
it,” Eleanor’s mom said. “Which is all we’ve got right now.”
    â€œOkay then,” Betty said. “But I have one more question, and I can already tell I’m not going to like the answer. Who, or what, put these Concentrators here?”
    The cabin fell silent. No one wanted to say what they were all thinking, but Eleanor knew there was only one possible answer.
    She wondered if Betty was believing any of it. She seemed to be. The actions of the G.E.T. agents might have been enough to convince her that some kind of cover-up was going on. Eleanor wasn’t sure they’d convinced her of the rest of it, though, something for which she couldn’t fault Betty. She was well aware of how absurd it all sounded, and there were the parts of Eleanor’s experience her own mother seemed not to have fully accepted. But Eleanor couldn’t blame her for that, either. She had no idea why her mind had joined with the Concentrator. Why it had chosen her, or what made her different. But it didn’t seem to be good news that she could connect with a piece of ancient alien technology.
    Except for the chance it offered them to stop it.
    â€œSo where is the closest Concentrator?” Betty asked.
    â€œBolivia,” Finn said. “Near the Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca.”
    â€œSo I suppose that’s where we should go,” Betty said. “Right?”
    They all looked at one another.
    â€œI suppose that’s right,” Dr. Powers said.
    â€œWe need to make a stop first,” Eleanor said.
    â€œWhere?” Finn asked.
    â€œPhoenix,” Eleanor said. “We have to pick up my uncle Jack.”
    â€œUh, don’t you think that’s exactly what they’d expect you to do?” Julian asked. “You might as well just turn yourself in.”
    Eleanor’s fear for Uncle Jack quickly turned to anger at Julian.
    â€œI’m afraid he’s right, sweetie,” Eleanor’s mom said.
    Eleanor whipped a furious, disbelieving gaze toward her. “What?”
    â€œIt’s too risky,” her mom said.
    Eleanor stammered, “I can’t—I can’t believe—Mom, it’s
Uncle Jack
! You can’t just abandon him—!”
    â€œI am not abandoning him,” her mom said, with a gentleness that seemed designed to