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was more of an echo than her actual voice. You’ve done it, she corrected.
    “Now what?” Just then, a snowplow appeared out of the darkness. I tried to run from it, but it was surprisingly agile. Oddly, it didn’t dismember me as I’d expected it would when it literally plowed into me. I landed softly in the front shovel and was pushed back out onto the battlefield, just on the other side of the barbed wire.
    I opened my eyes to find her grinning at me. “Now we move on.”
    “Why did that snowplow work on me? I knew it wasn’t real.” I paused for a moment. “Actually, that isn’t true. It came at me so fast, and my immediate impression was that it was going to kill me. When it didn’t, I was so relieved that I let it carry me wherever.” I laughed at myself. “You have to teach me some of those added defenses. Apparently, the element of surprise is invaluable.”
    “Of course. We will start with that tomorrow. Those are things you can constantly change and evolve as you see fit. They’re not as important as making sure you keep your wall strong. But they help serve as distractions. Plus, you already know how to effectively push someone out, you know. You did it to me.”
    “That seems like a long time ago,” I said as I sank back into my chair.
    “Yes, well, tomorrow we will have some fun. Then the real work starts.”
    I hate it when she says that, I thought as I made my way to the door.
    That night, Owen grilled me on the day’s training while the three of us ate dinner. “How did it go?”
    I wasn’t sure how much detail to give them. Tracy had only requested I not say anything about her ; she hadn’t asked me to keep quiet about how far I’d progressed with my training. But how could I tell them I’d gotten all the way into her mind without divulging what I’d seen there?
    Taking a breath to try and calm my internal war, I tried to relax, not sure why I felt so unsettled about the hurdle I jumped. “It went really well.” I knew he wouldn’t leave it at that, but I hesitated anyway, still searching for the right words.
    “Great! And?”
    “And, I got all the way into Tracy’s mind.” I hadn’t exactly planned to tell him—at least not yet—but I’d never been too fond of lying.
    “You what ?” he shouted at me. I glanced around, smiling at the others at the table, trying to encourage them to go back to their own conversations. Mitchell smiled almost approvingly, but he refrained from commenting and shoveled another bite of his salad into his mouth.
    Owen leaned in closer and whispered, “You what?”
    “You heard me.” I stabbed at my noodles instead of making eye contact, suddenly feeling coy. Why should he be so surprised? Hadn’t I shown him I could accomplish anything I, well, put my mind to?
    “How?” he said, leaning in so close that I could feel his hot breath on my hand as I twirled my spaghetti around my fork.
    “That’s something even Tracy is struggling to understand. She wants to learn, though—probably so she can teach the rest of you to do it.”
    He sat back in his chair and nodded, his jealousy—or whatever that had been—passing just as quickly as it had flared up. A smile made itself at home on his face, making my heart leap. It felt good to have that sensation again. “My girl, the prodigy. The only one to hack into Tracy’s mind.” He nudged Mitchell with his elbow, and our friend nodded at me, raising his glass in a silent toast.
    The desire to beam at his compliment was outweighed by my desire to not get flayed by Tracy. “Pipe down, will you?” I snapped.
    Lucky for me, all the people around us were still absorbed in their own conversations.
    His smile didn’t break. “So, now what? Control?”
    “She pushed me out of her mind with a freaking snowplow, so I asked her to teach me how to build some extra defenses. I think I need one of those machines in my head.”
    Mitchell chuckled, and I went on. “Then she said after that, the ‘real