The next day at school, Avery seeks out Jameson with a new theory: the numbers they have been treating as coded dates might not be dates at all. Jameson has reached the same conclusion, and he takes Avery to a whiteboard-covered learning pod in the STEM Center so they can work through the possibilities privately.

After embarrassing Eli into leaving them alone, Jameson writes the numbers without dashes, opening up new interpretations such as passcodes, PINs, addresses, combinations, or coordinates. Avery and Jameson settle on coordinates as a promising possibility, but Xander interrupts, tackles Jameson, and insists that the puzzle is his game and cannot be solved without him.

Xander complicates Avery and Jameson's first calculations by pointing out that coordinates can be written in multiple formats: degrees, minutes, seconds; degrees and decimal minutes; and decimal degrees. The three begin testing possibilities, with Jameson and Xander entering coordinate combinations into a map search while Avery records the resulting locations.

Most possible coordinate results fall in oceans, the Arctic, or Antarctica, but a few point to land. One location, Cartago, Costa Rica, stands out to Avery because she remembers seeing it in the binder of Tobias Hawthorne's properties. Avery confirms that Tobias owned a house there and that Cartago's latitude and longitude match the numbers, making it the strongest lead.

Xander immediately wants to go to Costa Rica, but Avery knows Oren and Alisa would never approve international travel under her current restrictions. Thea then arrives and tells Xander that Rebecca needs him because Rebecca has missed school and is not answering calls, likely because of her mother. Xander gives up the trip without argument, leaving Jameson as the likely traveler, and Jameson asks Avery to call Libby and Nash instead of asking her for another plane.