Their father beamed. “Is Jaime coming over? I’m going to make him some spiders.”

Tess ate her pancakes, which were blobby but tasty.

“Have you been thinking about it?” Theo said, voice lowered so their father couldn’t hear.

“About what?” said Tess.

“The clue,” Theo said, biting the head off a Roller. “We’ll have to try Ada, Lovelace, Babbage, Morningstarr, or all or any combination of those. It’s probably something more obscure. Maybe a word or phrase from the letter.”

“Hmmm,” said Tess.

“What?” said Theo. “You think we should try something else?”

“I don’t think anything. I’m still asleep.”

“Let me know when you’re awake, then.”

Tess took another pancake, soaked it in syrup, and tried to remember her good dream. Tess had been walking in a garden with an elaborate topiary, with hedges trimmed in the shapes of numbers. Cats darted in and out of the hedges. One of them was small and white, with one blue eye, one green. She led Tess to a table where a woman with a familiar face was drinking tea. The woman wanted to tell Tess . . . something about the clue. That they were looking in the wrong direction. That they had to back up a bit. She said she was the queen. No, that wasn’t it. She was a princess? No. Duchess? No.

Oh.

OH.

Of course.

Seems like Ada Lovelace had a bad sense of humor as well.

“Not more obscure,” Tess said.

“What?”

“The key word isn’t more obscure. It’s obvious.”

“How do you know that?”

“You know it.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know what the key word is.”

Theo paused, pancake dangling on the end of his fork. “I do?”

“It’s only thing it could be.”

“You know,” Theo said, scowling, “it’s at times like these that I remember that I never liked you.”

“You love your sister,” said their father.

“What does that have to do with liking her?”

The doorbell rang. Theo dropped his pancake and ran to get it, brought Jaime back into the kitchen.

“Jaime!” said Tess’s dad. “Have a seat. I’ve made you some spiders.”

“Thanks?” said Jaime, sitting at the table. “Oooh! Morningstarr Machines!”

Tess’s dad said, “I’m glad someone appreciates my work.”

“We appreciate you,” Tess said.

Her dad said, “You haven’t tried the Rollers yet. They’re blueberry.” He went back to the stove and poured more batter into a pan.

Theo wiped his mouth with a napkin and whispered, “Tess knows the key word.”

“It’s obvious,” Jaime said.

“It is?” said Theo.

“Yes,” Jaime and Tess said at exactly the same time.

Theo couldn’t help but shake his head. “It’s weird when you guys do that.”