“That’s a nice way of saying it. What really happened was that I got in way over my head there. I had no idea what a big deal it was, how long it would take. I barely even got started before I had to come back here.”

“You incubated it last summer,” Solly repeated, raising his hands to make air quotes, and glancing again toward the dean’s office. “Building on the foundation of knowledge, and the code base, that you established during those months, you returned to Princeton in the fall with a clear understanding of how to move forward.” Again he looked at the screen. C-plus and Enoch were both poker-faced. No objections.

“Yes. Absolutely. Whatever.”

Solly nodded toward the pad of paper that was sitting on the table in front of Sophia and paused for a few moments while she jotted this down. He’d been speaking toward the screen, perhaps worried his voice wasn’t coming through, but now dropped into his usual relaxed tone. “I have looked through DB myself a few times, and I know it’s an Augean stables.”

“Aww, thank you, Solly!”

“Huh?” C-plus asked.

“We D’Aulaires’ fans have to stick together,” Solly explained, and winked at Sophia. For the two of them had long ago bonded over their shared love of those books. “Anyway. Dodge’s Brain. My god. All of those different data formats at war with each other. Each of them encoding someone’s pet theory as to how the brain works. It’s no surprise you spent the whole summer just getting oriented. The only thing that matters is that the Forthrast Family Foundation didn’t give you the sack. You came back. You were able to do some new things here, in this department. Now, tell me in your own words what you did, and we’ll bang it into a form that is acceptable as a senior thesis. Which”—and he checked his watch—“is due—”

“In a week. I know.” Sophia threw her head back in embarrassment. “I just don’t know where to begin.”

“‘Dear Mom,’” suggested Solly.

“Huh?”

“That’s how to begin.” Solly made a sort of exaggerated pointing gesture, apparently trying to draw her attention to the pad of paper. “‘Dear Mom.’ Write that down.”

She wrote it down.

“‘I’ve been working on digitally simulating my great-uncle’s brain,’” Solly continued.

“I’ve been working . . . ,” she muttered, writing as fast as she could. “. . . brain.” Then she looked up expectantly.

Solly shrugged. “I have no idea what to say next. You know your mother, and your project, better than I do.”

She wrote a sentence.

“Now we’re cooking,” C-plus said. “I like this plan. Read it back to us.”

“‘When I got back to Princeton in September, thanks to all the help from C-plus, I feel like I knew my way around DB pretty well,’” she read.

“Flattery will get you everywhere,” Corvallis said.