“That’s no pool,” Elliot said. I grabbed his hand, and together we activated our cuffs just as the plane dropped its rocket onto the thing that wasn’t a pool and everything went black.

I was pretty sure that we weren’t dead, that we’d activated our cuffs in the nick of time, but it was still a relief to open up my eyes in the mountain again.

“Where’s Salzburg?” Elliot asked.

“There,” I said as I spotted him on the Glitch platform directly across from us. Above his head, the Glitch timer was counting down quickly from ten. There was no way I was going to let that slimeball escape. I was mid-leap off the platform when I felt Elliot grab my arm and yank me backward.

“What are you doing?” I said, whirling to face him.

“We’ll never get him off that platform in time,” Elliot said. “Look.” I turned to see that there was less than five second left on Salzburg’s clock, and I knew Elliot was right. I felt white-hot anger bubble up inside me at the future version of myself who had let this happen. I’d somehow ensured that I’d beat the Lincoln simulation, but I’d failed to catch the guy responsible for all of this. Suddenly I remembered something. My Swiss cheese brain, the one I’d so often compared to a hole-filled colander, actually remembered something.

“Elliot,” I shrieked, “your pocket!” He stared at me for a half second in confusion, and then all blood drained from his face as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the very first bomb we’d found hidden in the fountain. I didn’t even stop to think; there wasn’t time for that. I snatched it from his hand and launched it.

“Salzburg!” I yelled. “Catch!”

Salzburg looked up in surprise as the bomb arced through the air and his hands reached up automatically to catch the object zooming at his head. He caught it a half second before his countdown clock hit zero, and he and the bomb disappeared.

“Don’t forget the one in his pocket,” Elliot said numbly as he sat down hard on the platform beside me. My own legs suddenly felt like wet noodles, and I sank down next to him. Together we stared in disbelief at the empty platform as our raspy breath reverberated around the empty room.

“I can’t believe we forgot about the one in your pocket,” I said, shaking my head.

“Almost forgot,” Elliot said.

“Where do you think Salzburg went?” I said.

“I have no idea, but since he’s holding a bomb that could explode any second, let’s hope it wasn’t the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We can probably pull up the Glitch history on that computer and figure it out. But I need a second for my heart to climb out of my throat.”