“Hey,” Rahim said. The word was out of his mouth before he realized what he was doing.

  The three bigger kids stopped bouncing the kid in the tie around like a soccer ball and turned to face him. The skinniest guy said, “Tyrone, check out this dude.”

  “Oh no,” Rahim whispered.

  “You say something, punk?” Tyrone asked as he and his two sidekicks turned to Rahim. Rahim took a step backward and readied himself to run.

  “Me? I didn’t say nothing. I just had something in my throat,” Rahim said. He took another step backward.

  “You about to have my fist in your face,” Tyrone said.

  A girl who looked a few years older than Rahim and the kid in the necktie appeared from around the corner. “Come on, y’all. Leave them alone, Ty.” She was about the same age as the bullies.

  “This ain’t none of your business, Tisha.”

  “Okay. I guess I’ll just go and page Shaka. See how he likes hearing about you picking on his little brother,” Tisha said. The three boys stepped away from the kid in the glasses and necktie.

  “Ain’t nobody scared of your boyfriend,” Tyrone said. Still, he and his buddies gave the kid in the glasses a final hard shove, knocking his books to the ground, and headed off.

  “What you looking at?” Tyrone said. He bumped his shoulder into Rahim as he walked past him. Rahim felt like someone had thrown a brick into his chest.

  Rahim didn’t recognize the girl. But he recognized the name Shaka. His uncle was named Shaka. And if Shaka was this kid’s brother, that meant he was—

  “Dad?” Rahim said with a gasp.

  “KASIA SIERRA!”

  Kasia knew her mom was serious when she used her first and middle names. She adjusted her glasses as she headed down the stairs.

  “Iago, go into stealth mode,” she said.

  When she reached the bottom of the staircase, her mom was standing there holding one of her clay sculptures. Kasia could never tell when her mom’s sculptures were actually done. She just waited until her mom put them on the mantel and asked Kasia and her dad what they thought. Her dad was wearing his favorite apron and holding a wooden spoon as he stood next to her mom. He gave Kasia a quizzical look, then turned his attention to the front door.

  The two men in the gray suits were standing just inside the doorway, no longer wearing their sunglasses. Both of them had their hands behind their backs and had similar features. Faces like a cinder block with a mouth drawn on it in a thin, flat line.

  “Kasia, these gentlemen said they need to speak with you about something to do with a satellite?” her mom said.

  “Uh-oh,” Kasia whispered.

  “Hold on now. What is this about a satellite?” her dad said. He pointed the spoon at the agents like it was a sword.

  “Your daughter is a very smart young lady,” one of the men said.

  “A little too smart,” the other man said.

  Her mom and dad looked at each other.

  “What agency did you say you were from again?” her mom asked.

  “You guys with the CIA? FBI? NSA?” her dad asked.

  “Yes,” they responded in unison.

  “I—I don’t think I’m going to let you talk to our daughter until we speak with our lawyer,” her dad said.

  One of the men reached inside his suit pocket.

  Kasia watched as her dad pulled her mom back and shook the wooden spoon at the two walking refrigerators. “Hey, let me see your hands!” he shouted, but then stopped, looked at the spoon, and lowered it sheepishly.

  “It’s not a gun, Dad. There’s no outline in his coat,” Kasia said. Everyone stared at her for a long time. She shrugged her shoulders and sat on the step.

  “Let me introduce myself. I am Agent Brown. My associate is Agent Green. This is a warrant for the seizure of all her computer equipment, signed by the US secretary of defense. We are here to execute the warrant.”

  “Now, just hold on one minute. What exactly are you accusing my little girl of?” her dad said. He was a slim man, but Kasia thought he looked like he had doubled in size. She could tell he was mad.

  “Your little girl hacked into three Level Omega satellites that are the property of NASA in conjunction with the United States military,” Agent Green said.

  “What?!” her mother exclaimed.

  “They were pretty easy to get into,” Kasia admitted.

  “Kasia, please,” her dad said.

  “Those satellites were designed by two Nobel Prize winners!” Agent Brown said.

  “I hope they didn’t get their prize in cybersecurity,” Kasia said.

  “Kasia, hush,” her dad said. He bit his bottom lip as he scanned the warrant. Finally, he raised his head and zeroed in on the agents. “You can execute your warrant, but we’re not saying another word without a lawyer.”

  The two agents looked at each other, then started up the stairs. Kasia didn’t move. Agent Green tried to step over her but couldn’t get his leg up high enough. He changed his mind and shimmied past her. His partner followed suit.

  “How’d they know where her computers were?” Mom asked.

  “They’re with the government. They probably know what toothpaste we like,” Dad said. He squatted in front of Kasia so they were eye to eye. “Just what were you getting into, Button?”

  Her dad had light brown eyes that seemed to sparkle when he laughed or when he was concerned. They were sparkling now as he gently stroked his goatee.

  Kasia bit her bottom lip just like her dad.

  “I was just trying to—” Kasia stopped herself. It suddenly dawned on her that if Rahim was stuck in 1997, he wouldn’t be home for dinner. If she told her parents the truth, they might not believe her, but they would believe she knew where Rahim had gone. She couldn’t get tied up in a neighborhood search. She had to figure out how to get him home. Getting stuck hanging up missing-person posters would just slow her down.

  “—do some research about the Philadelphia Experiment and thought those satellites might have something to do with it,” Kasia finished. Her dad cocked his head and looked at her.

  “Is that the truth, Button?” he asked.

  “I was just messing around online, looking into teleportation and stuff like that,” Kasia said. Technically, that wasn’t a lie. Well, not a big one.

  “Okay.” He stood.

  The agents came downstairs carrying her external hard drives, computer, and monitors.

  “Could you get the door for us, sir or madam?” Agent Green asked. Dad sucked at his teeth before opening the front door.

  “You’ll be hearing from our lawyer,” he said.

  The agents nodded as if they heard that a lot.

  As they walked past, Dad cleared his throat. “You guys think she found out about your Philadelphia Experiment?”

  “That experiment never happened,” Agent Brown said.

  Agent Green stopped in front of Kasia’s dad. “But if it did and we thought she had hacked into those files, we’d be offering her a job.” He nodded at Kasia, retrieved a card from his pocket, and handed it to her dad. Then he followed his partner out the door.

  “Well, that’s not how I pictured the evening ending,” Mom said.

  “I’m gonna call Dontae. See if he can make sense of this warrant,” Dad said. “If we get your stuff back, no more hacking satellites, young lady.”

  Kasia went back upstairs to her workspace-bedroom. She sat in her desk chair and touched the temple of her glasses.

  “Iago, come out of stealth mode.”

  Above her head a gentle whirring started. As the seconds passed, the soft white, feather-brushed surface of her ceiling began to shimmer like waves of heat coming off a hot stove. When the shimmering stopped, Iago detached from the ceiling and landed on her now-empty workspace. Her desk looked so strange without her equipment on it. They’d taken nearly all her stuff.

  Kasia sighed. She’d broken into the Philadelphia Experiment files last year. It had never occurred to her that the government might be continuing those experiments with satellites instead of high-intensity magnets. She supposed it made sense, though. Even though the original experiment in World War II had been a failure, the data they’d acquired was invaluable. Kasia had gotten interested in it after watching a documentary with her parents. According to the documentary, the Philadelphia Experiment was either a huge urban legend or the United States Navy’s attempt at trying to harness invisibility for their battleships. If the documentary was to believed, instead of invisibility, the scientists had stumbled upon teleportation and perhaps even time travel.

  Kasia sat in her chair and put her feet up on her desk. She’d read the top-secret files the government had kept about the experiment. She was pretty sure it wasn’t an urban legend. The scientists must have taken the information they had discovered that night in October and used it to create the satellites she’d had the bad luck to hack.

  “All right, Iago. Let’s get my stuff back. I can’t leave Rahim stuck in the past. Him just being there is probably already messing up the timeline.” Kasia leaned forward and put her thumb on the corner of her desk. An infrared scan read her thumbprint. A few seconds later, a hidden drawer in her desk opened silently. Kasia reached inside and pulled out the tablet that contained her notes on Iago. She had a feeling that one day Iago and his AI software were going to be important. She knew that hacking was risky, so she didn’t keep any of the drone’s information on her main computers or in the cloud, in case a day like today came to pass. If it wasn’t for Rahim, she’d let them keep her setup and would build a new one, but she didn’t have time for that. Rahim needed her help now, and those agents had the only tools that could bring him home.

  She got up, opened her window, and touched the temple of her glasses again. The right lens suddenly gave her Iago’s perspective of the room. With a tap on the tablet, a map of the city popped up. She touched it again and a red dot appeared on the map.

  Kasia had installed tracking software on all her computer equipment. Because even though they lived in a decent neighborhood, there wasn’t any sense in taking chances.

  “Iago. Go,” Kasia said.

  Iago flew out the window, banked hard to the left, and disappeared into the horizon. Kasia pulled on her jacket and slipped out of her room and down the stairs.

  “Mom, Dad, can I go to the library? I mean, since those guys took all my stuff,” Kasia asked. Her dad was still on the phone with her uncle Dontae. Her mom came into the living room.

  “I think that’s okay, honey. Be back before dark. And don’t worry. We are gonna get this sorted out, okay?” she said. Her mom kissed her on the forehead. Kasia returned the gesture.

  “Oh, I know we will,” Kasia said before heading out the door.

  “WHAT DID YOU SAY?” his dad asked.

  Well, the kid standing in front of him wasn’t really his dad. Not yet. Rahim shook his head. This was all getting so confusing.

  “Huh?” Rahim said.

  “I said, what did you say?” Omar asked. He readjusted his tie. Tisha started to pick up the books that lay scattered on the sidewalk.

  “Uh . . . I said dang.” Before Omar could respond, Rahim bent down and helped Tisha pick up the rest of the books. One of the books was called NEATE to the Rescue! Rahim handed it to Tisha, who put it on top of the pile and then handed the whole stack to Omar.

  “So, you don’t just read history books?” Rahim asked. Tisha and Omar stared at him.

  “How’d you know he reads history books? I ain’t never seen you before,” Tisha said.

  “Um . . . I . . . uh, was in the library, and I saw him in the history section.”

  “I didn’t see you in there,” Omar said.

  “I was hanging out in the back,” Rahim said.

  “The back?” Tisha asked.

  “Yeah, way, way back.”

  Tisha eyed him warily, then shrugged.

  “Anyway, Omar, your mom wants you to come home for dinner. She said if somebody didn’t come get you, you’d spend the night here.”

  “Where’s Shaka at?” Omar asked.

  “He’s helping your dad at the shop. They had an emergency call, so when they left, I decided to go home. The library’s on my way, so I told your mom I’d look for you,” Tisha said. “You better get going. It’ll be dark soon.”

  Rahim looked over the city’s skyline at the setting sun. She was right. He wondered if he could hide out in the library. He’d read a book once about some kids who lived in a museum for a while.

  “Okay, okay, I’m going. Thanks for coming to get me.”

  Omar held out his hand toward Rahim. “Thank you too.”

  Rahim shook his hand.

  “I didn’t do nothing but say hey.”

  “You didn’t pretend like nothing was happening. So, thanks.”

  “What’s your name, anyway?” Tisha asked.

  “Ronald.” Rahim remembered what Kasia said about timelines and changing history.

  “Well, Ronald, you better get home too,” Tisha said.

  Rahim looked down at his shoes. Suddenly he felt incredibly sad. He did want to go home. He missed his room. His mom. His sister. His dad—even though the kid standing in front of him was his dad, as crazy as that sounded.

  “You okay?” Tisha asked.

  “I can’t go home,” he said, and his voice began to crack. He didn’t want to cry again, but he felt like his tears had a mind of their own.

  “Hey, hey, what’s wrong? Why can’t you go home?” Tisha asked, her huge hoop earrings jingling as she cocked her head and stared at him.

  “I just can’t, okay.” Rahim’s face suddenly felt hot.

  “You know, maybe you could come to my house. My parents can help you figure out how to get home,” Omar said.

  “Omar, you don’t know this boy. You can’t just invite him to your house,” Tisha said. “No offense, Ronald.”

  “It’s okay. I’ll figure something out.” Rahim took a deep breath.

  “He tried to help me. I can try to help him. Like you said, it’s getting dark.”

  Tisha threw up her hands. “Your mama’s gonna flip her lid if you bring this boy home. But you gonna do it, ain’t ya? All right, well, I’m going home. I did my part. See ya later.” And with that, Tisha headed up the street.

  “Is she right? Are you going to get in trouble if I come to your house?” Rahim said.

  “Maybe, but my mom and pop always tell me to do what’s right even if it’s hard. Especially if it’s hard. Come on. Maybe they’ll let you stay for dinner. She’s making oxtails tonight.”

  “Thanks, Da—d-d-dang it,” Rahim said.

  “Here, you can take some of these books for me. I always end up getting more than I can carry.”

  Just like when we go to the bookstore, Rahim thought.

  “My house isn’t that far away.”

  “I really appreciate this, man.”

  “Don’t worry about it. My mom and pop will help you out. They always talking about how we gotta look out for each other. They let my cousin Ellis stay with us last summer when his parents broke up. I’m pretty sure they won’t mind. So, you just move to Philly? I don’t remember seeing you around.”

  Before Rahim was forced to come up with another lie, his phone began to ring.

  KASIA SQUINTED AS SHE peered through the right lens of her glasses. Iago was flying high above the city. He zipped over Independence Hall, banked hard to the right, then flew past the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Kasia checked her tablet. According to her map, the agents’ car had stopped at the corner of Ludlow and 30th Street next to a fancy coffee store that Kasia heard her parents talk about sometimes.

  As she made her way down the sidewalk, she alternated between studying the map and focusing on Iago’s bird’s-eye view of the city and the agents’ vehicle. Kasia sidestepped a woman pushing a double-decker baby carriage and touched the temple of her glasses. Iago’s camera increased its magnification. She could see that the agents had pulled over and stopped in front of a hot-dog stand.

  Kasia checked her map. She was less than two blocks from that hot-dog stand. She was 90 percent sure Iago could handle what she had planned, but she wanted to be as close as possible in case it was too much for her robotic best friend. Rahim was her human best friend.

  Really, he was her only human friend.

  Kasia hurried down the street and cut through an empty lot. She emerged near a bus shelter. She touched her glasses again and watched as the two agents got out the car and took their place behind two older ladies standing at the hot-dog cart. Kasia noticed they hadn’t locked the car.

  Kasia sat on the bench inside the shelter. She pulled her knees up to her chin and rested the tablet there as she pulled her coat tighter around her shoulders. She would never understand why some people said they loved the winter. Or the summer. She was a fan of spring and fall. Her mom told her that was a good way to look at the world.

  “It’s called moderation, Button,” her mom had said one day.

  “Iago, go into stealth and descend sixty feet,” Kasia said. The drone descended quickly before coming to a stop twenty feet above the vehicle.

  “Iago, go under the car and deactivate the battery,” Kasia said. Almost immediately she was given a whirling, spinning view of the street and the car as Iago flew under it and up into the engine.

  “Ain’t that that weird girl who works at the vegan store? Is she talking to herself?”

  Kasia looked up and saw six kids around her age standing near the bus shelter. Three girls and three boys. One of the girls had on a thick, puffy black Pittsburgh Penguins ski jacket, and her long, luxuriant hair was braided into thick locs. One of the boys was wearing a black wool coat and a winter cap with the words man man. Another girl had on a thick red flannel shirt with matching red earmuffs. The third girl was sporting a comfy-looking hoodie with a picture of the Little Mermaid emblazoned on the front. The two other boys had on nearly identical jackets and hats. She recognized most of them but couldn’t recall their names. She was fairly sure they came into her parents’ store with their parents from time to time. She’d heard Rahim talk about Man Man, but she’d never met him. Until now.