“Very good,” said Officer Salzburg. “That’s not an easy spot. No wonder Professor Gordon raves about you. Says you’re uncanny.”

My face flushed, but for once it wasn’t from embarrassment. Because I was the best student in Professor Gordon’s class, trumping even Elliot, which brought me huge amounts of satisfaction.

“I don’t know about uncanny,” I said, “but I do love the class.”

Salzburg sighed and smiled. “I remember that simulation like it was yesterday. Helped develop it myself after being part of the mission to fix Lincoln’s assassination. At one point there were ten different Butterflies in Ford’s Theatre that night. Ten! Half of them were trying to save Lincoln while the other half were trying to ensure that Booth didn’t break his leg when he jumped off the balcony onto the stage! Crazy.” He glanced at my mom and smiled. “You were there too, Commander, were you not?”

My mom nodded. “I was. One of the most complex missions to date.”

“There was even a Butterfly hiding under the stage,” Officer Salzburg said conspiratorially, leaning forward as though he was telling me a secret I didn’t already know. “Planning to capture Booth when he did his walk-through of all the hidden exits of the theater earlier that day. Tricky one, that; took us multiple jumps to figure out.” I nodded, doing my best to look appropriately impressed. Like all the officers at the Academy, Officer Salzburg had the Glitch gene and had gained a reputation for himself fixing and putting the future back together like it was Humpty Dumpty and he was all the king’s men. But like most of the officers and professors, he was no longer able to time travel.