“What?” Emmy asked.
“Sorry,” Sam said, “it just doesn’t sound right with an American accent.”
Emmy rolled her eyes. “Anyway, yeah, he’s rich, but he and Lola can’t stand each other. He’d do practically anything to get her expelled. We need to find proof that somebody went into the conference room, somebody who shouldn’t have been there.”
“What about the security footage?” Sam asked.
“Haverham said he looked at it,” Jack said.
“Maybe they missed something,” Emmy said.
“How can you miss something on a video?” Jack asked.
“Actually, it happens all the time,” Sam said. “That kind of footage is usually pretty grainy, so they might not be able to tell one kid in a uniform from another.”
“But we might be able to,” Emmy said. “I bet we can recognize each other better than the headmaster can.”
“So how do we get our hands on that footage?” Jack asked.
Sam cleared his throat. “Sounds like you need some help. From someone who has a certain, shall we say, technical know-how. And maybe even some experience with hacking.” He grinned.
Emmy looked at Jack. For the first time in a week, he had a glint of hope in his eyes.
“If you were to try to get that security footage,” Jack said slowly, “what would you do?”
“I couldn’t do it remotely because it would already have been archived,” Sam said. “I’d have to actually be in the security office and download it onto a drive. So, I’d need a plan to get me in there.”
Jack grinned. “Now that’s something we can help you with.”
Chapter 9
A False Sense of Security
Nobody said anything as Emmy, Sam, and Jack made their way down to the basement. They all knew what they were supposed to do. It was a relief for Emmy to not have to hide her nerves during one of their schemes. The more nervous she looked, the better her chances of convincing Ms. Blakely to leave her office. At least…that was the idea.
Emmy had only been down this corridor once before. That was when Jonas had caught them breaking into the school office in the middle of the night. The lights were on down here now, which made it a lot less intimidating. They stopped in front of the door that read “Security.”
“Ready?” Jack asked. Sam and Emmy both nodded, and Jack knocked on the door.
Emmy held her breath. Ms. Blakely might not even be in the office right now. The sound of movement inside settled her stomach a little. At least one part of the scheme was going according to plan.
The door opened. “Yes?” Ms. Blakely asked.
The three of them looked at each other nervously.
“Is something wrong?”
“We overheard something,” Jack said. He ducked his head and shifted his body like he was uncomfortable but ended up blocking Ms. Blakely’s view of the door. “A couple of people were talking about meeting at four thirty for a fight.”
Sam slowly reached behind Jack and stuffed a chewed-up piece of gum into the door catch.
“They seemed pretty serious,” Jack said. “They were really revved up.”
“Did they say where they were going to meet?”
Jack shook his head. “Most fights happen on the cliffs behind the football pitch. I’m sure that’s where they’d go.”
Ms. Blakely checked her watch. “It’ll take at least fifteen minutes to walk there. Let’s get a move on.” She pushed past them, and the door closed behind her.
Emmy heard the automatic lock try to engage, but it sounded like it stopped partway through. “I’m staying here,” she said over the sound of the lock. “I don’t want to see a fight.”
Ms. Blakely didn’t seem to care who went with her. She was already heading for the staircase with Jack trailing behind her. He didn’t look back. His part of the plan was mostly done.
Emmy and Sam waited until the footsteps on the stairs faded away, then pushed on the door. It opened. Sam raced into the room while Emmy fished the gum out of the door catch. She tried not to think about how slimy it was as she peeled it off her fingers and into a nearby garbage bin.
“Check for cameras,” Sam said. He was already sitting at a long, rounded desk covered with computer monitors.
Emmy looked in each corner of the room. “I don’t think there are any in here.”
Sam nodded and started tapping on the computer keyboard. “It’s asking me for a password.”
Emmy typed in the password that Lola had seen her mom use on other computers. Please let it still work. The nearest monitor flickered, and the security camera footage was replaced by a home screen.
“Yes!” Emmy whispered. “Now, how do we find the right footage?”
Sam scanned a list of programs and clicked on one called Blind Eye. The camera footage from the other monitors appeared on the screen, each in a different quadrant. Sam scanned through all the menus so fast Emmy couldn’t keep up.
“Have you used this program before?” Emmy asked.
“Nope.”
Emmy shook her head. Thank goodness they had Sam. It would have taken her all day to figure this out.
“There’s the archive,” he said after a few minutes, and a long list of dates appeared. He clicked on the date of the fund-raiser and scrolled until he found a file labeled OFFICE. He stuck a USB drive in the computer, transferred the file, and stuffed it back into his pocket.
“Let’s go.” Emmy raced toward the door.
“Hang on,” Sam said. He clicked on one of the quadrants and scrolled through different camera footage.
“What are you doing?” Emmy asked.
“Causing the camera in this hallway to malfunction,” he said. “It should look like a random failure, but then she won’t be able to see us going in and out of here.”
Emmy checked her watch. Jack and Ms. Blakely should have made it to the cliffs by now, where they wouldn’t find anybody fighting, which meant they were on their way back. They were almost out of time.
Sam was still furiously typing. Emmy kept checking the door. They had to get out.
“Sam, if they find us in here it won’t matter if that camera doesn’t—”
“Got it,” he said. One of the quadrants went black. He put the computer back in sleep mode and they both raced out the door and up the stairs. The upstairs corridors were crowded with people, most of whom had just left a society meeting or were on their way to dinner. Sam and Emmy wove through the crowd and hurried back to Audrey House in silence.