And Dad? says a little voice in the back of my mind. I grit my teeth, trying to hold back my swirling emotions.

“No one is going to believe this,” says Kai. We haven’t dared to move beyond our viewpoint on the hill. There’s just too much to take in.

Past the tree line, there are facilities to test every type of baku. There’s a vast turf arena, ringed by a racetrack for testing the speed of the bigger bakus. There’s a section that’s completely covered in sand, with rolling dunes like in the Sahara. Even in the sky, there are suspended hoops—like an aerial assault course to test the bird bakus.

We’d need months to explore it all. But what we’re most interested in is at the far end of the lake, where we can see the roofs of little cabins, half-hidden by the trees, clustered together almost like a village. A wide street runs down the middle of them. “That must be where they’d keep Monica,” says Tobias. He reaches out and grabs my hand. My pulse starts to race, and I don’t know whether it’s from his touch or from the adrenaline of finally being in Lake Baku, the possibility of finding Monica.

Tobias’s eagle lands in front of us and spreads his wings out wide. He projects a 3-D topographical map of the area that he created by doing a brief fly around the dome. What a beautiful, useful baku he is. And he was probably tested right here.

That gives me pause too. As far as we can tell, there are no other bakus in the vicinity. If this were still being used for its primary purpose—as a test center—there would be hundreds of different baku variations here, running around under the fake sunshine. But it’s deserted.

So why is it still up and running? My suspicion grows, and I hope that means we’re on track to find Monica.

“We’re here,” Tobias points to a small rise at the edge of the dome. I dare to turn around. Behind us, through the open door, the ground is totally white with snow. Here, we’re standing on grass. I tilt my head up, but I can’t see evidence of the dome, even though I know it’s there.

“This is the biggest building.” He points to a house at the very far edge of the lake, a cabin made of long, dark logs, tipped in bright red at their edges. It could have been plucked from a catalog of picturesque country cottages. With a pinch of his fingers, Tobias zooms in. He’s every inch the leader in this situation, taking control of us just as he did in the baku battles. “That’s where I think Monica will be.”

>>I agree.

Jinx continues to use his speaker, so the whole group can hear.