“I apologize, Commander,” he said. “Did I speak too freely?” I flicked my eyes between my mom’s disapproving face and Salzburg’s, which was looking a lot paler than it had a moment ago.

“The Mayhem knows our location?” I said as the hairs along my neck stood up. “Is that why you’ve been so busy with security recently?”

“There’s nothing to worry about,” Mom said. “Isn’t that right, Officer Salzburg?”

“Quite right,” Salzburg said a little too quickly as he took the camera back out of my hand. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. I was twelve, not two. I decided to let this one slide, for now, and made a show of shrugging and digging back into my meal. If I really wanted to find some answers, I could always poke around in my mom’s office later, and besides, the last thing I really wanted to talk about after the mess with Elliot and the letter was Butterflies.

“Anyway, we will install the first batch in strategic locations on campus just to see how they do, and then, if all goes well, we can start using them in the field.”

“I can’t imagine carrying something like that on a Glitch,” I said, eyeing the camera. “It doesn’t exactly blend in.”

“But only imagine if we could use them with our Glitchers to detect a Butterfly,” Salzburg said. “The margin of error would almost disappear if we didn’t have to rely so much on a Glitcher’s intuition. Which I hear you have a particular knack for, Cadet Fitz.” Salzburg cheated his eyes over toward Mom, whose face remained as impassive as stone. If he thought he was going to worm his way back into her good graces by complimenting her kid, he had another think coming. My mom was very careful to keep her work life and her home life separate, and any officer who thought praising me was a good tactical move was off base. Salzburg got the picture and directed his eyes back to me.

“Did you have a simulation today?” he asked, his desperation to change the subject almost pathetic.

“I did have a sim today,” I said.

“Well,” he prompted, “how did it go?”

My mom flicked her eyes to me, and I saw the tiny hint of a warning there. She knew that I’d had to do a recap session, and she didn’t want me advertising my less than stellar track record in front of our guest. I felt my heart sink a little; the craziness of finding the Cocoon had kind of overshadowed the Lincoln assassination failure. Mom had helped me study for it for the entire week with her infamous flash cards, but none of that mattered.

“Great,” I lied. “The Butterfly had an ear piercing that wasn’t on era.”