“If so,” I continue, “I support your choice. You can take your share from the Nautilus’s treasury and go your own way, no hard feelings.”

Halimah leans forward. “Or?”

Except for Mary Berry waxing poetic about oven temperatures in the background, the room is completely silent.

“Or we keep working together,” I say. “I love this team. I also know that Land Institute isn’t done. They’ll keep researching. They’ll build a new sub. They’ll keep coming for the Nautilus. They’ll be more determined than ever, especially if they think they’ve destroyed the only other school that stood in their way.”

My classmates murmur. Their expressions have turned grim. That tends to happen when anyone mentions Land Institute.

“So Ester and I have been talking,” I say. “We considered starting something completely new—a clean slate. We all know that Harding-Pencroft wasn’t perfect. Too many secrets. Too little trust in the students.”

Luca coughs. “This is awkward.”

“She’s right, though,” Ophelia adds.

“But,” I say, “Harding-Pencroft did a lot of things right. Nemo chose them to carry on his legacy. I don’t want to throw out a hundred and fifty years of tradition. Besides, we’re going to need new generations of students to help keep LI at bay. And those students will need training. Also, since the Aronnax—since Dev sent HP a warning before the attack, it’s possible some of our classmates and teachers got out alive. If so, they might be in hiding, afraid for their lives. We need to find them and help them. And we have, well, almost unlimited funds. Because of all that…Ester?”

Ester stands. She’s gone almost red as the pomodoro sauce. “I want to rebuild Harding-Pencroft.”

“Volume, babe,” Nelinha says.

“Sorry.”

“No.” Nelinha grins. “I mean say it LOUDER!”

Ester frowns in consternation, then screams at the top of her lungs, “I WANT TO REBUILD HARDING-PENCROFT!”

The crew cheers. Several Sharks pound their fists on the table, much to the annoyance of Jupiter, who is trying to serve the tiramisu.

“IT WON’T BE EXACTLY THE SAME,” Ester continues.

“Now you can bring down the volume,” Nelinha advises.

“We’ll have better defenses,” Ester says. “Maybe we won’t build quite so close to the cliffs.”

Lots of nodding.

“We’ll honor my ancestor’s wishes,” Ester says. “And Ana’s ancestor’s, obviously. Our tech has to stay out of the hands of governments and corporations. It definitely has to stay out of Land Institute’s possession. But from now on, we’ll use the Nautilus to train. We’ll use Lincoln Base, too. We can go back and forth from California easily now.”

Tia whistles appreciatively. “Sophomore year is starting to sound interesting.”