Clearwater High under surveillance by Milling’s spies

Clearwater High under surveillance by Milling’s spies is a persistent security threat that makes Carag’s ordinary relationships and routines potential channels of information. The school’s secrecy is tested not by a single exposed watcher, but by a succession of clues: details Milling seems to know, small animals glimpsed near the school, and finally a Fly woodwalker caught in Carag’s infirmary room. Even after that agent is identified, the extent of the network remains unresolved.

Background and Vulnerability

Carag’s identity already depends on concealment. The public has dubbed him Mystery Boy and assumes that he emerged from the forest with amnesia, but he remembers his past; when he first approached the human world, he deliberately claimed not to know who he was or where he came from. At Clearwater High, the gap between what outsiders believe and what Carag knows makes discovery especially consequential. Surveillance threatens not only the school’s secrecy but also the personal information that could expose its students and their connections.

Carag begins to suspect that Milling has access to more than hearsay. After visiting the Ralston home, Milling appears to know that Marlon took Carag’s knife, while his knowledge also seems to extend to events at school. Carag scrutinizes Milling’s email for hints: one remark disparages friendship with small prey, which raises the possibility that Milling knows Carag cares about Holly. Another message, wishing him a good night’s sleep, acquires an unsettling significance because it followed Brandon’s first nocturnal transformation. Carag wonders whether Milling has spies everywhere. The suspicions are not yet proof, but they establish the central danger: private events may already be reaching an adversary.

Suspicions and False Leads

Carag initially suspects Brandon may be passing information to Milling, then rejects the idea. During Brandon’s first night of sleepwalking in animal form, Carag had seen a small shape slip away outside the window. He reasons that a small animal could have been spying, and briefly wonders whether Holly is responsible because she is small and agile. This suspicion turns an ordinary friendship into a source of doubt; however, it rests on possibility, not evidence, and the later discovery clears Brandon of being the informant.

Juanita also becomes a possible explanation. She is often overlooked in class, where she sits quietly in spider form, and Carag remembers seeing a spider on the ceiling when Milling visited the Ralston home. When Juanita approaches him in human form, he reads her fear and realizes he may have misjudged the significance of her presence. Yet the association with the spider at Milling’s visit remains a question in Carag’s mind, not a confirmed identification of the spy. These false leads show how surveillance distorts everyday perception: a glimpse, an unnoticed classmate, or a familiar animal can suddenly seem like evidence.

The threat is not confined to Milling. After an episode involving Jeffrey’s group, Carag and Holly connect a watcher to the time of a duel, while a later email from Milling praises Carag for an event the previous night and speaks of humans eventually being punished. The message confirms that Milling is receiving information and frames the spying within his hostility toward humans. It does not, by itself, establish who sent the report or whether every watcher belongs to the same operation.

The Fly Exposed

The decisive clue comes when Carag is recovering in the infirmary. After Bridger leaves him alone, Carag senses that a Woodwalker is still present, despite the room appearing empty. He considers whether the intruder could be Juanita or a second-year ant Woodwalker, then recognizes the fly buzzing around the lamp. He recalls that flies often circle Brandon’s head, as they do around ungulates, and realizes that one of Brandon’s persistent companions could have listened whenever the roommates were together. The proximity that made Brandon seem suspicious had instead given an unseen observer repeated access.

Carag calls for the door to be closed and identifies the fly as a possible spy. Bridger concentrates on it and confirms that it is a male Woodwalker who does not belong to Clearwater High. The fly tries to escape when the door opens, then hides behind the lamp; Lissa blocks its exit with a blanket and orders it to transform. This is the first firm identification of an outsider operating inside the school. It also sharpens the distinction between Carag’s earlier guesses and evidence that the staff can verify.

Capture and Unresolved Reach

The captured spy refuses to explain who sent him or why he is there. Bridger, Brighteye, and Lissa question him through the night, but obtain no confession. They photograph him and take his fingerprints before releasing him. Lissa’s concern that he could simply fly away if handed over to the police makes the limits of ordinary containment plain: the school can expose and document him, but cannot keep him indefinitely or rely on human authorities to secure a Woodwalker intruder.

The capture therefore ends one immediate incursion without settling the larger threat. Carag wonders whether the fly was Milling’s principal spy or only one among several. He also recalls the small shape outside the window on the night Brandon transformed and considers whether it might have been a courier carrying information between Milling’s spies. That explanation remains conjectural; the evidence confirms the outsider fly and Milling’s access to reports, not the full organization or its communications. The episode’s unresolved ending matters: revealing one agent does not restore privacy, because Carag and the school still cannot know how many observers remain.