Theo and Tess and their mother were talking, but Jaime barely heard what they said. His drawing burned in his pocket, the woman’s face burned in his mind. It was as if he’d conjured her, brought her to life himself from memories of his mother and every comic-book heroine he’d ever loved. Her existence was completely incredible, more incredible than all the incredible things that he had seen and done in the last month.

Or maybe Theo was right and he had seen the woman before. On TV or online and he’d forgotten.

He didn’t know what to think, what to believe, what to do. All he knew is that he wanted to see her again, talk to her. Had she been looking for him? Following him? Did she recognize him, too?

He pulled the now-lukewarm cloth from his forehead and sat up. The twins were still talking with their mother, but now they were the ones that looked pale and gray. Their mom hugged them both, said good-bye to Jaime and headed out the door.

“What now?” said Jaime.

Aunt Esther said, “The eagles have landed.”

“Okay,” Jaime said.

“Nothing you three were involved with, I take it?”

Tess shook her head so that her braid swung back and forth like a pendulum. “Nooo,” she said, drawing out the word. “No way.”

“Good!” Aunt Esther said. “I will retrieve the takeout menus from the kitchen; you can pick what you’d like for dinner. Perhaps I can persuade Lancelot to stop making cookies for the next few hours.” She swept out of the room.

Tess swore under her breath. Theo said, “Language!”

“Language, smanguage. If they got us on video again, we’re sunk.”

“Wait, what?” Jaime said. The twins explained what their mother had told them. Jaime put the cloth over his head. It didn’t help.

“Maybe they didn’t catch our faces in the video,” said Tess.

“Mom seemed pretty confident that the ‘workers’”—he put air quotes around the word—“could be identified. Even if our faces aren’t clear, it’s not like she won’t recognize my hair from a distance.”

“She was pretty confident about finding Nine, too, but she hasn’t,” Tess said, her tone sad rather than sharp.

Theo didn’t answer, but his expression spoke for him. He wasn’t feeling confident about anything. Losing Nine had definitely affected Tess—her knees were practically dancing her out of her chair—but working the clues had also affected Theo, made him less certain. Jaime wondered whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Here are the menus,” said Aunt Esther. “We have Chinese, Thai, Japanese, soul food, and Italian. Take your pick.”