- Darryl explains that he wants to study physics at the University of California at Berkeley, so he checked out the book for some research.
- Marcus decides they'll nuke the arphid instead of kill it. Time to head to the teacher's lounge microwave.
- Darryl groans. That's his tell that he's going to give in.
- Teacher lounge achieved, Marcus and Darryl nuke the book in a filthy microwave. The teachers aren't too clean, it seems.
- Set to head out, Darryl sees Charles Walker outside. He's a big bully who snitches on people.
- Vice Principal Benson loves Charles. Marcus loathes Charles.
- To distract Charles, Marcus implements a botnet attack he set up in advance, sending thousands of calls and texts to Charles's phone.
- This kind of botnet attack causes a cellphone to run out of memory. (Remember, it's 2008. Phones would run out of memory sometimes.)
- Ms. Galvez busts Charles for being in the hall and on his phone. Our heroes escape.
- Charles and Marcus meet Van (a.k.a. Vanessa Pak) at the cable cars. She's blending in with Korean tourists to avoid the "truancy moblog"—that's a mobile blog.
- (Remember, this book is pre-smartphones. It's 2008.)
- Jolu (a.k.a. Jose-Luis Torrez) is the fourth and last member to join the gang. He's skipped out of his strict Catholic school.
- The four head for their first clue in the Tenderloin. It's a set of GPS coordinates that lead to a specific WiFi access point, which they look for using wifinders in their phone.
- Jolu has a separate fob because he's too cool to have a big phone.
- Searching for a signal, Marcus steps on someone's foot. It's a girl with pink hair who threatens to upload the photo she just took of them to truant watch.
- Her friends are also dressed in bright colors. They're also playing Harajuku Fun Madness and it looks like things are going to turn into a fight between the two groups.
- "Then the world changed forever" (2.73).
- There's loud roaring sound that drives Marcus to his knees. This isn't an earthquake, but a huge black cloud rises from the northeast, the direction of the San Francisco Bay.
- Sirens start to go off.
- Everyone heads down to the BART station. It's underground, so that sounds like a good shelter, yeah? The speakers keep yelling "REPORT TO SHELTERS IMMEDIATELY."
- Marcus, Van, Darryl, and Jolu head downhill.