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always been proud of him, now the feeling is doubled. I glance at him once again—he’s still sitting at his desk, staring at the wall—and try to catch his eye. But Dad doesn’t look happy, not one bit. His lips are drawn tight, so thin and pale they’re barely visible.
    â€œLet me propose something, Adam,” Colonel Peterson continues. “Would you be interested in visiting the Nanotechnology Institute? I think you’d find it very—”
    â€œEnough.” Dad’s voice is low but firm. “That’s enough for today.”
    Still smiling, Peterson pivots toward him. “Your son seems interested in the technology, Tom. Maybe he could—”
    â€œI said that’s enough.” Dad narrows his eyes. He rarely gets angry, but now he’s fuming, and I don’t know why. “We’ll continue this conversation at another time.”
    â€œAll right, all right. Whatever you say.” Peterson holds up his hands in surrender. “But you have to admit, you’re not being logical. This was your idea from the beginning. You’ve spent years working toward this goal, and Adam—”
    â€œ Enough ! ” Dad slams his palm on his desk and stands up. His outburst surprises me, but now I sense why he’s upset. He’s trying to protect me. He steps between my wheelchair and Peterson, looming over the colonel with his fists clenched. For a second I think he’s going to sock the guy in the nose. Peterson steps backward, frowning.
    There’s a long silence. As Dad and Colonel Peterson stare at each other, a slurry of dread settles in my stomach. I’m thinking of what the hacker told me while he posed as the virtual Brittany. He mentioned an experiment. I was chosen for an experiment.
    I look straight at the colonel. “Can I ask you a question now?” I point at him with my good hand. “What’s the Pioneer Project?”
    Peterson’s mouth opens. For a couple of seconds he gapes at me, his face reddening. Then he closes his mouth and glares at Dad. “You already told him?”
    â€œNo. I didn’t say a word.” Dad turns away from the colonel and approaches my wheelchair. His face is hard and serious. “Adam, where did you hear about this?”
    â€œIt was the hacker. The guy who took over my VR program.” The dread in my stomach gets heavier. “He said I was selected for the project. Because I’m dying. He knew about my dystrophy.”
    Dad says nothing. He bites his lower lip and stares at the rack of server computers against the wall. He’s thinking.
    Then someone knocks on the door to his office. Dad is so lost in thought he doesn’t react, but Colonel Peterson turns toward the door. “Come in!” he shouts.
    A fat man in a T-shirt steps into the office. I can tell right away he’s from Unicorp’s tech department because all the technicians at the company dress like slobs. He has a red-and-yellow Superman logo on his T-shirt, which hangs untucked over his paunch. But Dad always treats the tech guys with respect. They know all the ins and outs of the lab’s security system, which controls everything from the network firewalls to the automated locks on the office doors.
    â€œMr. Armstrong?” the guy says, closing the door behind him. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
    Dad snaps out of his trance. “What did you find, Steve? Anything in the network logs?”
    Steve the tech guy shakes his head. “I didn’t see any unusual communications between your computers and the Internet. Over the past twenty-four hours you’ve received thirty-two emails, but they all went through the gateway server and the firewalls. Everything looks clean.”
    â€œAre you sure?”
    â€œPositive. There’s no way a hacker could’ve attacked your systems. But I noticed something else.” Steve steps toward the rack of servers and points