Brian had imagined that disarming warheads would be exciting, edge of his seat stuff. Instead, he was stuck in front of a monitor, trying to make sense of lines of code, some of them green, some of them white.

Off to his right, Tori said, “Lu, these results look great; you’re definitely in charge of yours. Now just make sure it’s shifted to the C track, so we’re sure it won’t run into any of the others—or us.

“How can she tell?” Brian buttered.

Mr. Yi leaned over from the chair on his left and pointed at the green code. “This is what’s coming back from your missile. You can tell Tori’s navigation has taken over because you can see these TJs in the labels.

“I did it?”

“You did it. Now follow the i...

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