They pulled up the ladder and the dirigible began its slow rise up and up. Below them, the cemetery got smaller and smaller. Soon, the tiny red lights from the coming police cars lit up the darkness below, but the dirigible was already too high to be visible from the ground. They saw the glinting black water of the river and, if they leaned out of the cab just so, the stars overhead. Up here, between earth and sky, Jaime’s head gradually cleared. The confusion fell away and there was only the glinting river, the sparkling city, and the stars twinkling. He thought that God must be an artist—a star artist, a particle artist—to have made such a pretty sky, such interesting people. He wasn’t even worried about the Cipher. They would figure out the clue, they always did. And it would take as long as it took. And they would find Karl for Cricket; maybe Ava would help them. He remembered Theo talking about his grandfather, saying his grandfather believed that solving a puzzle was about the process rather than the result; and though Jaime liked results, he felt comfortable with what was in process right now. The Cipherists were doing what everyone seemed to do at the sight of such magnificent stars, they pointed out the various constellations to one another, even though they all seemed to know them: Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Hercules, Cassiopeia, Cygnus, Lyra, Lynx, Hydra, Gemini. Ava joined in with a story about the constellation Orion. Some said that Poseidon was Orion’s father, she told them, but that the great huntress Euryale of the Amazons was his mother. Orion inherited her talent and became the greatest hunter in the world. But if Orion had inherited his mother’s hunting skills, he had also inherited his father’s ego. He claimed he could kill the largest and most ferocious creatures on the earth, any creature he wanted. As punishment, Gaia, the earth, sent a single small scorpion to sting and kill him.

“That sounds like a story Grandpa Ben would tell,” said Tess. “Right, Theo? Theo!”

“Sure,” said Theo, clearly not listening. He sat alone on one side of the dirigible cab, alternately tugging on his lip and stuffing his hand in his bushy hair. Theo was quiet the whole ride back to the society, quiet through the landing of the dirigible, quiet through the tour of the Morningstarr Archive that Imogen gave Ava. And he was quiet when various Cipherists said good night and left for their own homes, quiet when Gino and Imogen puttered around the kitchen putting the last of the cookies away, quiet when Imogen showed them where they could catch a few hours of sleep before morning, and quiet when Imogen herself fell asleep, snoring softly in one of the leather chairs in the farthest corner of the great room.

It was not normal for Theo to be so quiet.