Denis' army had won too. That night Demosthenes came out with a new article about the hostility between Americans and Mexicans. She said it more eloquently than this but essentially the gist was that it was making their continent less strong and that their leaders needed to grow up and accept that they were essentially one country now. Spike, who knew everything was still not close to Jane, Peter or even Valentine.

"Dan" Denis appeared on the screen. Spike and I were in a class room that wasn't in use. Jane had been playing with the cameras so what the department saw was me going into my room with my desk and Spike going to the gym and running on a tred mill. Both were simple stories and no one needed to vouch for us if they were brought into question.

"What?" I asked

"I'm going to let Carl in on it." He said

"What? Why?" I demanded

"You let Spike in"

"Spike let Spike in" I corrected

"Well that's not my fault. Look I'm not asking, I'm telling. You can't stop me

I CAN

"But you won't" Denis said "Because you know it's only fair"

TRUE

"Wait, he's just going to tell someone for the hell of it?" Asked Spike

"No one wanted you here, not even Dan, but without Carl I wouldn't have managed to find out anything. He's a tech genius."

"We have Jane, it doesn't matter that he can play around and find where the cameras are located in one little battle school." I said angrily

"Look, I've already told you, this isn't a request." Denis stated "I'm bringing him into my room right now."

I knew better than to argue. His mind was made up. I was stubborn yes but I was also reasonable, I couldn't have stopped him.

Denis told Carl everything of Jane, and Demosthenes, and the Hegemon and the Formic Queen. Carl was taking it very well. Nodding silently. Then Denis fell silent.

"What is it?" Carl asked

"There's one more thing." Denis stated

"Yes?" He asked

"Before I show you, I want you to know that Jane wanted him. I didn't."

My face was on the hologram. "Hi"

Carl jumped back "HIM!" He was pissed "Why the hell would you let him in on this?"

"Nice to see you too" I said "Look, Jane wanted the two of us. I still don't really understand why but-" I stopped midsentence.

YOU ALL HAVE TO GO, THE BATTLE SCHOOL IS TRYING TO OVERRIDE ME AND VIEW YOUR VIDEO CHAT. IT'LL PROBABLY TAKE ME ABOUT THIRTY MINUTES TO FIND A WAY TO MAKE IT UNTRACEABLE.

The video turned off.

"Well that sucked." Spike said "And why does Jane want you two?"

"I honestly don't know." I said "But I trust her."

Spike seemed like he was going to protest but then he fell silent. He put a finger to his mouth to silence me. He pointed to the door and mouthed 'teacher'

"Dan!" It was Nikolai "I know you're in their!" He tried to open the door "I don't know how you managed to lock this door but I will open it!"

I silently thanked Jane for locking the door. Spike pointed down to the air tunnel below us.

"Jane?" I whispered

I AM HERE. THERE ARE THREE SCREWS RIGHT THERE, THERE AND THERE. ONCE YOU OPEN IT GO LEFT THE FIRST TIME YOU CAN. FROM THERE YOU'LL GET INTO ANOTHER CLASSROOM AND THEN YOU CAN BOTH LEAVE EASILY. DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE CAMERAS I'VE GOT IT COVERED.

We followed her instructions and were soon away. We ran all the way back to our barracks.

"How could he have known we were there?" I demanded

"Don't ask me." Spike answered, looking expectantly at his desk

I DON'T KNOW.

Jane always knew. Always, so the fact that she didn't greatly disturbed me.

When I got back to the barracks about half of the army was there. I had a couple of magnets which I often brought out to the Null-G. I knew that no matter how far I threw them they would eventually grip together but I would try to make them do so in a specific spot or time.

Eventually, it was time for dinner. Some of my army was already there. The score board was not very interesting. Exactly four had a 1-0 'undefeated' score with '100% winning average' and the other half had the opposite.

"Dan" It was Nikolai

"Yes?" I asked

"Come with me."

Uh oh. I thought. He hadn't grabbed Denis that I had noticed but he wasn't in the dining hall either. We walked into his office.

"There's no camera in here." I happened to know that was a lie.

"OK." I said "Why should that matter."

"Because you know I'm lying" He said "I've been tracking you're work on the ansible"

"What are you talking about?" I tried to play dumb

"Dan, cut the crap. You can't pass as stupid when you're a commander of 100 kids and won the game faster than any one of the other armies did."

"I did better than anyone else?" I asked, trying in earnest to make it seem like I legitimately cared and wasn't just trying to change the subject.

"I'm serious Dan, what's going on? You have been spending way more data than is possible given what it says you're doing. So either the ansible works perfectly in every single other way in the entire world or you are up to something."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I stated.

"Yes you do. And so will I soon enough." He said

"So then why do you need me?" I smiled

"Because Peter needs you." He said.

BACK OFF NIKOLAI it was a gutsy move but Jane had changed his monitor to her bold font

"How did you do that?" Asked Nikolai

"I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't do anything."

"As I'm sure you're aware this is under surveillance. I'm going to get a grant to figure out who's helping you and how you got in touch. Or, you could just tell me right now and everything will be just fine."

"No." I got up and began to leave.

"You're making a big mistake." He told me

"Oh really? Check your camera." On the hologram the picture was exactly as you'd expect it to be except that the hologram was off and I was not in the room. "I might watch that later tonight. It's kind of funny to see one sided conversations like that."

Nikolai just stood there. "I'm going to leave now." I told him

Sorry I didn't have this up sooner. I was really tired last night.