He pulled up a chair, took the mouse, and in thirty seconds, engineered a geothermal cooling system that Leo didn’t even know was possible. Maya and Leo watched, mouths slightly open, as the grumpy librarian built a self-sustaining pixel-world: a volcano that powered a steam engine that watered the crops that fed the… well, there were no animals, but it felt alive.

Because sometimes, the best things aren’t the ones you sneak past the firewall. They’re the ones that turn the person guarding it into a co-conspirator.

Maya grinned. “Wait until you add ‘plant.’“

Then, Mr. Henderson reached over, clicked the “wind” tool, and gently nudged a cloud of steam toward the fire, putting it out. He looked at Leo, a tiny, almost imperceptible twitch at the corner of his mouth.