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evidence of why he felt so strongly about sending anyone back there.
    As hard as Clover had fought to return to the city with Bridget and Jude, six weeks in she was almost desperate with homesickness for her brother and the other Freaks. She couldn’t stop feeling like she wasn’t doing what she’d set out to do.
    She pulled a chair next to Jude’s and waited for West to reach out for her across the miles.

I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow.
    â€”WOODROW WILSON,
“REMARKS TO THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB,” MARCH 20, 1914
    We have room here.
    Jude looked at the words on the screen, and then at Clover. “That was easier than I expected.”
    Clover was clearly not as happy about that as he was.
We don’t know these kids
, she typed.
And we don’t have a way to get them out of the city.
    â€œI know Tim.” Jude tried to push down his guilt over not telling Clover sooner that he’d directed Tim to the Dinosaur. He’d come back to the city to help these kids. He couldn’t let himself feel sorry for doing it. “He can’t go back to Foster City. I wanted him to come with us when we left.”
    Clover looked at the door. No one had tried to open it. The three boys either were eating everything in their food closet or were very good at following directions. “Why didn’t he?”
    â€œHis sister couldn’t leave with him.”
    â€œI don’t see his sister here now,” she said.
    Jude waited for her to realize what that probably meant. He saw it on her face, her green eyes widened and her mouth opened in a silent O.
    Does Jude know them?
West wanted to know.
    He does
, she typed.
    We have room for three more.
    Jude leaned over her and typed,
it’s not just three
.
    â€œWhat are you talking about?” Clover asked at the same time that West typed,
how many then?
    She didn’t understand how important this was, because she’d never been in Foster City. She had West to take care of her when their father moved to the barracks. “Tim came and asked me about the Dinosaur. He knew about it before I told him. That means that other kids do, too. That means that we’re going to keep on finding kids here.”
    â€œThere have to be hundreds of kids in Foster City. There isn’t room for all of them at the ranch.”
    â€œA little more than three hundred,” Jude said. “But only a couple dozen in real danger.”
    Clover?
    Clover exhaled, her lips twisting to the side before she typed,
Leanne wants to talk to me and Jude, at our house. We’ll have to spend the night there. We’ll talk to you early in the morning. About eight?
    West didn’t answer right away, and Jude wondered whether he was talking to Christopher. If wishing made things happen, he and Clover would be at the ranch right now. They didn’t belong in the city anymore. That became more apparent by the day. Hell, by the minute.
    If he could just get the kids who had it the worst in Foster City out, he could take Clover and leave.
    Fine. Let me talk to Bridget for a minute.
    â€œWhat do we tell him?” Clover asked.
    This wasn’t the right moment to tell West that his girlfriend had gone all strange on them. Bridget was spending a lot of time with West’s best friend. Isaiah Finch had been assigned to guard her personally so that her father would feel confident that she was safe going back to school. Something else was happening there, Jude was sure of it. And it was going to come to a head sometime, Jude was sure of that, too. But not now. He moved the computer toward himself and typed,
She wasn’t feeling well
.
    Is she okay?
    She will be. How many more do you have room for there?
    Another long silence, and then:
Six, maybe. We have space for more, but if we don’t want to have to worry too much about food, six.
    They signed off with West a few minutes later. Jude was pretty sure that none of them