You meet with Crystal, Anna and Mara

You meet the three girls at a dark coffee shop wondering if you've created a pattern for whoever might be snooping on you.

Once there, you pass out the burner phones you bought, insisting that the girls turn off their phones and remove the batteries. "Only use the old ones when you're at home and never to talk to anyone else in the group," you insist.

They grumble... your burner phones are not exactly state of the art and the girls are all used to spending every minute on their phones. But eventually they agree.

After you quickly relate your hit-and-run episode, you ask if any of them have had problems.

"Not sure it related," Anna says, "Mara and I lose assistantships."

You would have thought the ivory towers of Berkeley would have been immune to pressure. Apparently you would have thought wrong.

"We're broke," Mara adds.

"Oh, great," Crystal says. "We're all unemployed and broke. Sounds like we should just give this thing up, change our identities, and start over."

Anna and Mara both shake their heads. "I am physicist," Anna declares. Not some programmer can fake a vita and get job. Need credentials."

Mara nods. "Same. Except math, of course."

The last thing you want is for this group to break up.

"No offense, Crystal, but how are you going to change your identity. You're the programmer with the long blonde hair. Are you going to cut it off and dye what's left?"

"If I have to."

Still, she looks subdued.

"Well, let's try not to have to."

"Okay, boss," Anna says. "So, we stick together. What's the plan?"