Tom Dolby - The Trust

“We’ve got to figure out a way to end this,” Nick said. “Let me think about it tonight, okay?”

Just as Nick was hanging up, another call came through from Phoebe, who said that Lauren had just been accused of theft at Giroux New York.

Nick shook his head. “I’m not surprised.” He told Phoebe about what had happened to Thad.

“We need to get together again with the others,” Phoebe said. “Let me figure out a good meeting place.”

Nick slowed down his walk as he hit Park Avenue. Traffic was light, and there weren’t many pedestrians. “I’m worried about you,” he said quietly. “Are you going to be okay? Staying at home, with, you know… I mean, what if something else happens?” Phoebe had mentioned that Daniel, Phoebe’s mother’s boyfriend, would be staying over that night.

“He’s not going to do anything. This is all coming from far higher up-I feel like it’s coming from the Council of Regents. Seriously, talking to Daniel, I think he believes the Society is this amazing organization that’s only out for the greater good. Besides, there’s no reason why my being close to Daniel is any more dangerous than you being around your parents.”

There was an awkward pause on the line as Nick let this sink in. “I guess you’re right,” he finally said.

He knew his dad had done all these terrible things, but he had mentally separated those actions from his father’s role as his parent.

Maybe it was time to accept that it was all coming from the same man. He didn’t want to, and it had been so difficult for him over the past several months to see his parents change from people he trusted and believed to people who trafficked in deception. Nick knew that his father wanted to draw him into his world, but he had resisted. On New Year’s Eve, before everyone left Isis Island to go back to the city, Nick’s father had confided in him, telling him a secret about Patch that was far too momentous for Nick to reveal. Nick hadn’t wanted to tell it to Patch a mere day after they had reconciled, and then as each day passed, it became more difficult to reveal what he had learned. Now that it had been more than a week, Nick had pushed the information to the far recesses of his mind.

Phoebe said she had to go, as Daniel and her mother were still downstairs.

As he walked up Park Avenue, Nick thought about what had happened to his three friends. The Society was punishing them for not attending the meeting on Monday night. Nick had always heard that meetings were serious and not to be missed; it was one of the Society’s rules. But all these horrible acts? It wasn’t right.

Alejandro’s and Jared’s lives had already been sacrificed. Should the five of them remain steadfast in not allowing the Society to control them? Should they skip more meetings?

Nick didn’t know the right answer.

Soon he arrived home at his family’s apartment building, across the street from the Metropolitan Museum. He considered stopping at Patch’s floor to talk it over with him and Genie, but he decided against it.

Nick’s fingers and toes felt frostbitten, so he took a long, hot shower, which eased the pain.

The soapy water swirled down the drain, and he gradually regained sensation in his extremities. He thought of the comforts that the Society provided for all of them. Like a long, hot shower on a chilly winter night, the Society wanted to placate them all into submission with perks and luxuries, to make life so comfortable that it would be easy to ignore the darker side of any situation.

Nick dressed carefully in jeans and a nice shirt. Running into his parents these days was an awkward affair, and he almost pretended that he didn’t know them, as if he were in a hotel and was passing another guest in the hallway.

But tonight he couldn’t avoid them. Not when his girlfriend had been sabotaged.

Downstairs he heard his father in the library. Nick walked in.

“Nick, it’s nice to see you,” his father said. “You look a bit flushed. Did you go running today?”

Nick tried to keep his bitterness in check. He sat down on one of the leather couches and took a deep breath before answering.

“No, I didn’t. I had to help Phoebe. Her art studio was filled with rats.”

His father raised an eyebrow. “Rats? How odd.” He took a sip of his scotch.

“Thad was suspended when a bottle of gin fell out of his locker, and Lauren was accused of theft. Dad, we know that the Society is responsible for all of this.”

His father looked at him. “Maybe you’ll think about these occurrences the next time that you decide to miss a Society meeting. After everything that happened in the fall, I’d think you would take your responsibilities more seriously.”

“Dad, what happened in the fall was that you killed two people. Maybe not you personally, but the Society. And as far as I’m concerned, and from what everyone has told me, you pretty much are the Society. Or at least you’re the only part of it that I have any access to.”

“Calm down, Nick. At this time, your family needs you. You haven’t even asked about how your grandfather is doing. What kind of a selfish person are you?”

Nick’s mother appeared at the entryway to the library. He glared at his father. “Oh, forgive me if I put self-preservation and caring for my friends above my grandfather. It’s not like he’s exactly helped with this situation.”

“Your grandfather has made more possible in your life for you and your friends than you will ever understand,” Parker said as he stood up and moved toward the door. “So I strongly suggest that you get yourself in line.”

On Thursday nights, Genie went out, a rare weekly event when she attended a ballroom dancing class and then went to a diner afterward for coffee and pie with her friends. Because of this, Patch decided to offer up their apartment for the emergency meeting. For a few hours, they would have the place to themselves. He had wanted to make it nice for everyone, and though there was no way it would ever compare to the opulence of Lauren’s apartment, he had straightened up the living room and even bought sodas and baked a roll of chocolate chip cookies.

Thad, Phoebe, and Lauren recounted all the sabotage that had happened in the last forty-eight hours. Thad was still lobbying his school’s administration to keep the incident with the gin bottle off his permanent record. Phoebe was recovering from the vermin infestation and would need a follow-up meeting with her doctor to make sure she hadn’t been infected by the bite. Lauren was waiting for the verdict from Sebastian Giroux about the jewelry found in her bag.

“There’s something else,” Lauren said. She pulled out her phone from her handbag and showed everyone a text message she had received that day.

It read:

AQ EKEPRLE FMPYD QZP OQL RMYD QPDRL?

“Looks like gibberish,” Phoebe said.

“It’s not gibberish,” Thad said. “It’s a cryptogram.”

“A crypto-what?” Nick asked.

“It’s a code where each letter stands for a different one. Lauren, give me your phone.”

She handed her phone to Thad, and he punched the series of letters into his own iPhone, copying over the cryptogram.

His face grew dark. “I think I know what it means. I used a cryptogram solver. It’s a little bit… well, it’s a little bit scary.”

“Come on, what is it?” Phoebe asked.

He looked at Lauren. “Go ahead,” she said.

“It reads-and I think this is correct: ‘Do sisters watch out for each other?’”

“That’s weird,” Phoebe said. “Does that make any sense to you?”

“It makes sense to me,” Lauren said.

“Why’s that?” Nick asked.

“The text wasn’t originally sent to me. It was sent to my little sister, Allison.”