“Which is exactly why we can’t risk it,” said another professor in the back. “We only have a handful of people left who can Glitch, and six of them are students! We saw the disaster that was today. Elliot and Regan didn’t even manage to stay together in their Glitch, and Corban and Blake were almost killed. If we are about to be under attack, we can’t risk sending any of our people back.” I shrank down a little at the mention of our poorly executed mission that morning.

“I agree,” Salzburg said. “The past is to be left untampered with. What we need to worry about now is the future.”

“You’re the security expert,” said another professor. “Do you know what happened at the Academy?”

Salzburg lifted his hands in a gesture of helplessness. “I am at a loss.”

“So he stinks at his job,” Elliot murmured in my ear. I nodded, remembering how he’d practically trembled in my mom’s presence as he showed off his new Butterfly detector.

“The Academy exploded at around one in the morning,” said one of the techs. “That’s all we need to know to get boots on the ground and stop it from happening.”

Callaway held up his hands and the crowd quieted. “We can’t send the last functioning Glitchers our nation has back to the past to hunt for explosives,” he said. “Even if we did know the nature or the location of the attack, it’s too risky.”

“But it needs to be changed!” said someone, and everyone started talking at once again.

It took Callaway longer to quiet the room this time, and I fidgeted nervously.

“The future may judge us harshly for this decision,” Callaway said, “but what you are suggesting is the very thing we have been trained to prevent. Even if we disregarded that, we can’t send any of our remaining Glitchers on what would certainly be a suicide mission.”

This elicited a flurry of protests, and Callaway again began the arduous task of quieting everyone down.

“I have the jump programmed and ready to go,” said Professor McMillan, his eyes flashing defiantly. “It may be a suicide mission, but it may also be one that saves the lives of our friends and colleagues. Don’t you think we owe it to them to at least try?!”

“This isn’t like a normal jump,” Callaway said. “Have you even considered—” but his words were cut off by the blare of an alarm. Everyone jumped and turned to look at the flashing red light on the wall. It was as though someone had pressed the pause button in the room and frozen everyone where they stood. Blood rushed in my ears as I processed what that alarm could possibly mean.

“We’ve been breached,” Callaway yelled over the alarm.