Elizabeth fell into step beside him when the group began moving toward the Academy's interior, and the quality of her movement had the purposeful directness of someone who had been thinking about what they wanted to say and was now saying it.
"Mind if I ask you something, Rex?" she asked.
"Sure." Rex nodded.
"So, about the contest yesterday..."
Rex stared at her.
"Last night, Lily told me a lot about it again, and I can tell that she probably admires you a lot," she said in the voice she used when she was trying to figure out what she had heard from one source and what she had heard from other sources. "Well, I can't blame her for admiring you when you're really that good."
"That's what Lily is," Rex said. "She's thorough."
"Yes, she is," Elizabeth said. "She talked about the counter to the dual-axis integration node in particular."
"I want you to know that what she talked about is not part of any current Academy curriculum."
Rex didn't say anything.
