Zora leashes Aero up to the computer, and Zora inserts the tiny tweak to his code. Once everyone has put their bakus through the process—and they all do—they turn and look at me expectantly. I shrug. “We’re still missing someone,” I say, biting down on my fingernails.

“No, look, he’s here,” says Zora with a small grin.

On cue, Jinx leaps down from a shelf in a dark corner of the locker, right into the middle of all of us. Ashley squeals with delight, dropping down to embrace him. Surprisingly, Jinx lets her, rubbing his spine up against her leg and sending soft vibrations her way.

Zora turns to me. “Jinx came to me after school—and instead of coding club, I worked on coding this secrecy program instead. I only just finished in time, or I would have told you.”

“Thank you,” I say to her with a grin.

“Jinx is safe!” says Tobias, his eyes shining. “I should get in touch with Mr. Baird. He’d want to know.”

Mr. Baird was our old companioneering teacher at Profectus—but it turned out he also worked for BRIGHTSPRK, Moncha’s biggest corporate rival. Jinx turns at Tobias and hisses furiously, his fur rising up into hackles. Tobias immediately throws his hands up in the air, backing down. “Okay, not Mr. Baird then?”

I shake my head. “No way! No one else can know he’s back. Eric Smith is still looking for Jinx and putting a lot of resources into it. His security team searched my apartment. Eric Smith wants Jinx destroyed.”

Zora pipes up. “The code you’ve just been given will prevent your bakus from transmitting any information about Jinx to the cloud, so you can’t inadvertently give away his position. It had nothing to do with us not trusting you. We just don’t trust the prying eyes of Eric Smith.”

“And now I can show you why I asked you here,” I say.

“It wasn’t just to show us Jinx is safe?” Tobias asks.

“I wish,” I mutter. “Jinx, go ahead.”

He steps into the center of the locker and projects the Team Happiness presentation so we all can view it. This is my third time watching it, but it still doesn’t creep me out any less.

There is silence in the locker as we cycle through the different parts.

When Jinx lowers the projection, Tobias stands up. “I’m not listening to this. I’m going.” He strides out of the locker.

“No, Tobias, wait!” I say.

He spins around. “My dad is not involved in that. That’s not what Team Happiness is about. You’re telling me there’s some kind of sick plot to control people? That they might implement some kind of mind control?”