“It’s great that you were able to find mementos like that,” I said. I held up Optics to tilt the disc and let the light and shadow hit it in a way that made the lines clearer. “I wish I had more of these sorts of things.”

“They were good days?” Kenzie asked.

I nodded. “I have regrets about things I didn’t pay enough attention to, but they were good days.”

“I think it’s pretty important to hold onto the memories. Oh! That’s a great reason for me to show you this!”

And then she was off, through the door with only a half-second glance to check I was following. When I wasn’t fast enough behind her, she reappeared in the door, all excitement.

“Lead the way,” I said.

So far, not too bad. She was a kid.

I glanced back at the room, which didn’t match the rest of the house at all, and closed the door behind me before following.

Kenzie waited at a door that led from the front hall to the garage.

“My workshop,” she said. “Don’t trip on any wires or things could get messy. Too many things you could knock over if you were stumbling around in the dark.”

It was, as garages went, pretty standard. Concrete floor, wood, exposed wiring. Tinkertech was spaced out through the garage, with a table housing most of the completed works, another with tools and what looked like the project of the now, and two large cubes, one of which I recognized as the projector box.

“Teleportation project, discontinued,” she said. She had her phone out and in hand, screen illuminated, and waved it in the general direction of one box which looked like a cube shaped egg had cracked, revealing the internals, which featured a vague, foot-long approximation of a human skeleton in it, if the skeleton was made of metal boxes and electronics. “There’s the time camera, you know that one.”

“I do,” I said. I noted that it was open and in pieces. “You’re updating it?”

“Fixing. Maintaining. Stuff breaks down constantly so it takes more time.”

I had to ask. “You’re not working too hard?”

“Bed by eleven,” she said, confidently. “I don’t always sleep when I’m in bed, but I’m still in bed by eleven.”

“The sleeping is the important part,” I said.

“Catching the bad guys and kicking enough ass that we get famous and everyone loves us is important,” she said. “Nobody says, gee Kenzie, you went to bed so nicely two months ago. They say wow, you built a camera that can see someone’s innermost desires. How much do I have to pay you to keep mine quiet?”

There was a gleam of mischief in her eyes when I looked her way. She looked down, checking her phone.

“What’s your usual asking price for staying quiet?”