Fionn just sighed and ducked under the rope. Jake had been torturing him since third grade. Throwing the notebook into the diorama was pretty minor stuff in comparison to other things Jake had done.

“Hey, see if you can find anything interesting to write about while you’re in there,” said Susan. Fionn was about to say something back to her, but suddenly he was staring at the prairie dog instead.

“What?” asked Ann Marie.

Fionn pointed to the prairie dog. “Hey, I think there’s a robotic thing going on here. Maybe it is interactive.”

The others looked over, and sure enough, the prairie dog’s nose seemed to be twitching.

“Cool,” said Jake and popped under the rope.

“You’re not supposed to go in there,” said Susan.

“Oh, c’mon, for the sake of research,” said Ann Marie as she went in under the rope.

Susan waited for a moment and then looked around. She didn’t see any guards coming. With a certain amount of queasiness that always hit her when she broke a rule, she ducked under the rope.

Then, there they were, inside the diorama. But it didn’t feel quite right.