The Camp Universe team sat side by side in the same office where Elena had been tested. Jim and Helene sat on the other side of the desk.

Jim folded his hands on his desk. "We'll cut to the chase."

"No." Helene narrowed her eyes at him. "We'll explain everything so they can understand."

Jim shifted, a slight scowl on his face.

Helene blinked a couple of times and turned to face Michelle. "It must be very confusing to you why we brought you here in the first place. Elena here made some intriguing observations. Certainly, you have seen some unusual things during these first couple of days of camp."

"I've never heard of anything like it," Michelle said.

Helene took a deep breath before speaking again. "Well, some of our theorists have toyed with the idea, but we've never heard of anything like this in real life. And that's exactly why we needed to make sure there wasn't anything to these claims."

Elena shifted her position in her chair. There was a certain flicker in Helene's eyes that told her without a shadow of a doubt—she was lying. Elena hadn't been so certain of anything in years.

Tech United had heard of anomalies like this before. And the more she thought about it, the more sense it made. If they hadn't, why would they have gone to the trouble of bringing them all down there, just because Jim had seen some demos go wrong?

Those tests in the box—most of them could have been compiled on an hour's notice. But that last one, the box with the wires and readouts—that was measuring something. She had never seen a meter like it in any of her classes or the labs where she had interned. Had they designed it specifically to detect anomalies? If so, how could they have just happened to have one lying around?

No. Tech United hadn't just toyed with the theory of anomalies. They'd seen this happen before. Not just that, but they were actively looking for them. And they believed there was something special about Sam. So why was Sam special? And why did Tech United want to study anomalies?

Maybe it was her own cynicism, but she couldn't bring herself to believe it was just curiosity.

Elena cleared her throat. "Did you figure out why the demos weren't working for Sam?"

She closed her eyes. "I'm afraid it really just was a coincidence. We all jumped at shadows here."

Another lie. Elena stared directly at Helene, desperately trying to read her.

Patrick let out a short laugh. "So that's it? We can go?"

Michelle winced. "Has any decision been reached with regards to the future of Camp Universe?"

"On the funding?"

"And logistics, yes. We had to send home this week's campers, and we have six more weeks of camp scheduled."

Helene nodded slowly, pressing her lips together. "Since no one is pressing charges against the camp, we can continue the funding. Of course, we cannot allow camp to continue as it has. Having ruled out the possibility of anomalies, we have to draw the only possible conclusion: your equipment is unstable, and we have concerns about the stability of its designer as well."

Michelle's breath caught in her throat. "I can personally vouch for—"

"It would be unwise to do so."

Michelle's jaw hung open for a moment, then she closed her mouth, though her jaw pulsed. Elena crossed her arms and looked down at her lap. Michelle couldn't vouch for her. And Elena couldn't ask her to, not anymore.

"Michelle and Patrick, you have the remainder of the week to return Elena to her home and make your way to the next camp. We will put out recruitment notices in the cities where you are headed so that you will have high school volunteer help for each of your remaining camps."

For a long time, Michelle just stared. Elena could almost imagine she could see the gears turning in her mind. "If our equipment is unstable," Michelle said finally, "we need a technician now more than ever."

Jim shook his head. "None of the other camps have a technician. They all use the standard Camp Universe demonstrations that your curriculum developers originally designed."

Elena knew the ones they were talking about. They were fine. They would teach a little bit about science, but they were unlikely to inspire a generation of future scientists and engineers. She bit the inside of her cheek. She couldn't say anything—they already believed she was unstable.

But no, they didn't. They would believe she was unstable if they really hadn't found any anomalies. Now, though, they were only claiming they hadn't found anything. The pit of her stomach churned. They weren't just lying to withhold information—their lies were making Elena look like an idiot, and a dangerous one at that.

Either way, there was nothing she could say to change anything.

"Look." Jim leaned forward in his chair. "Given the circumstances, this is the best outcome you could have hoped for."

Helene put a hand on his forearm. "What Jim means is that you'll keep your full funding. Camp Universe will continue, both for your team and for all of the other traveling motor homes."

"Who will take care of the animals," Michelle said through her teeth.

Her brow furrowed. "I believe yours is the only camper with animals. We'll send the animals to pet stores and shelters—with the exception of the dog, as she belongs to Elena, yes? But that's good for you, right? You'll have more space in the motor home without all those cages."

Elena felt herself start to breathe hard, and her eyes stung. The animals were friendly, and they'd probably find good homes, but she couldn't make sure of that. And either way, she'd never see any of them again.

Michelle put a hand on Elena's shoulder, and Elena swallowed back the tears. She couldn't do this, especially not in front of Michelle. Not when her own mistakes had set this whole thing on its course.

Sam blew a raspberry. "Wow, you guys are really mean."

Jim's mouth opened, then closed, then opened again.

Helene took a deep breath. "Planck, I don't think you understand what's going on here."

Sam flinched. "You're firing Miss Elena and selling her pets."

Elena cringed for all she was worth. "Sam, it's not—"

"I had foster parents once that bought me a bunny then sold it when I was bad. They were really mean." He stuck out his chin. "You guys are the meanest."

Helene sighed heavily. "No, Planck. We're protecting kids. Elena threw you to the ground. Didn't she scrape up your elbow?"

Sam fingered his elbow and pouted. Elena's stomach kept churning. They knew exactly why she had done it. If they wanted anomalies so bad, and they had seen Sam in danger, they would have done the exact same thing.

"We want you to be safe," Helene said. "Don't you want to be safe, Planck?"

He wrinkled his nose.

"We're going to take you to a nice home, okay?" She reached for Sam's hand, but he jerked it away. Her smile only faded a little. "Michelle and Patrick are going to keep doing Camp Universe, and you're going to get a new family. Doesn't that sound nice?"

"Can't I just go to camp?" he grumbled.

Patrick nudged his shoulder. "Hey, maybe you can ask your new family if you can go to camp."

Elena shot him a look over Sam's head. It wasn't fair to raise the kid's hopes, especially after the experiences he'd had with foster homes so far. She wasn't sure whether to call it fortunate or unfortunate that Sam didn't seem to be buying it anyway. He sank down in his chair until he was almost lying down.

A low buzzing sounded, and Helene took her phone out of her pocket. "Yes, this is Dr. Brooke . . . yes, right away." She set her phone down on the desk. "That was Officer Lee. They're ready to take Sam in."

Helene and Jim stood. "We'll be right back," Jim said.

As soon as they were gone, Sam sat straight up, and his lower lip began to tremble. "Miss Michelle, you're not going to let the police take me."

Michelle went over to kneel in front of Sam. "It's going to be okay, Sam. You'll be okay. But listen to me. Look at me, Sam."

He covered his face, but peeked out from between his fingers.

"If anyone hurts you, you have to tell your social workers, or your teacher at school, or some other grown up you trust. They'll get you away so you can be safe. You can't run away all by yourself again, okay?"

Patrick squeezed his shoulder, but Elena couldn't bring herself to comfort him—it felt too much like a lie. There was no way Jim had called the police. They'd have realized the same thing Elena had: Sam had been lost to the system. No one was looking for him, and no one would miss him.

"Hey Sam."

Sam sniffled. "Yeah?"

"Did your scientist give you a plastic box to hold at the end of your tests?"

"Yeah, the one with the little red numbers that went all funny when I touched it?"

"What do you mean, they went all funny?"

"I mean, it just had ones and a bunch of zeroes when it was sitting on the table, then I picked it up and the numbers went up and down and all over the place.

Elena felt her fingers go numb.

Sam was an anomaly. Somehow, science didn't work for him. So it was possible—the laws of science could be broken. If the rules of science she knew didn't work for Sam, what were the rules? The whole universe couldn't just bend into chaos around a single individual.

She could panic about the implications of breakable scientific laws later—and certainly, she would. More important questions pressed in on her now.

Why was Tech United investigating anomalies? And now that they had found one, what would they do with him?

More concerning: what would they do to him?

Elena gripped her armrests. Maybe, maybe someone really would come for them in a police uniform, but it would be nothing more than a costume.

The door to the office opened once again, and Jim stood beside a man in a police uniform. Sam jumped out of his seat and ran for the window, but the officer—no, the man in the police costume—was faster. He grabbed Sam by the forearm and wrenched him backwards. Sam screamed, but it sounded less like fear and more like pain to Elena.

"Thanks for taking care of this one," the officer said, pulling Sam's other hand behind his back while he sobbed. "You're free to go. We'll take it from here."

Michelle hid her distress behind a stoic expression, and Patrick never showed much of his annoyance or stress on his face, but it was all Elena could do to contain herself.

"Please be careful with him," Michelle said. "He's a good kid. He's got some burn marks from the folks at his last home, he's had a tough run."

"We'll make sure he gets to a good home."

Elena breathed in to speak, but Michelle stepped on her foot, hard. Elena bit her lip and looked over at Michelle, who was completely avoiding her gaze.

All at once, she felt like an idiot. Of course Michelle had picked up on what was really happening. Of course they were going to do something about it.

But they couldn't do it now. Maybe when they returned to the camper, they could call the real police, or get someone else to help them. But for now, they just had to watch as the man in the police costume dragged Sam away.