by Bobbie Peers
“I wonder when dinner is,” he mumbled.
“You ask too many questions,” the door replied dryly.
9
Gray moonlight beamed through the small window and into the dark room. Outside, the distant hum from guard bots was the only sound in the quiet night. William lay on his bed still wearing the clothes he’d arrived in. He had been lying like this for hours.
He had hoped Iscia would come back. He still had a lot of questions and no answers. He needed someone to talk to. But Iscia didn’t seem to know very much either. William shifted his position so he could look out the window. Surely his grandfather would have been able to help.
William really wanted to talk to Goffman, too, but the man’s behavior had been so strange. It was almost as if he was a different person—scrapping all the old robots, dispatching gossip bots to spy on people—and then there was the way he had transported them to the Institute with the drone. . . . It was all totally out of character. It was bizarre—scary even! And to top it all off, Benjamin had disappeared.
For a brief moment, William thought about finding his parents. He hadn’t seen them since they’d arrived at the Institute. They were probably having a good time down at the spa, but they would start worrying again. He decided to leave them alone until he had a better idea about what was happening at the Institute.
“There is someone at the door,” the door said flatly.
William sat up in bed. “Who?”
“I don’t know,” the door replied. “No one is allowed into or out of the rooms after eleven o’clock.”
William got up.
“I have to report this to Mr. Goffman,” the door added. “This is a security matter, and—” There was a zap from outside the door, and sparks shot out of the speaker. The lights in the room blinked a couple of times.
“Door?” William said, but there was no response. “Door? Are you there?”
William got up, his eyes fixed on the door.
With a click, it opened, and the silhouette of a figure came into view. It was a man.
William backed away.
“Quickly, we have to talk,” the man said. He closed the door behind him, came into the room, and stopped.
William bumped into the wall next to the bed. The man had blond hair and a round face. His pale skin was wrinkled and old. William was sure he’d never seen him before in his life. All the same . . . he thought there was something familiar about him. Something about the way he moved.
“We don’t have much time before they notice that the door is out of commission,” the old man said, scratching his chin nervously.
And suddenly William knew exactly who it was. But how could that be?
“Benjamin?” he whispered.
“Darn it!” the man said. He raised one hand and pushed something at the back of his skull. The whole head flashed a couple of times before it started to morph. The hair changed from pale blond to black, and the face became longer and younger.
A couple of seconds later, Benjamin stood before William. He was wearing some kind of metallic headband.
“Ugh, this hologram mask . . . it would be much better if it changed the whole body. If only I had time.”
“Iscia said you’d left the Institute.”
“In a way, I have,” Benjamin said, nodding.
“What do you mean?”
“I quit,” Benjamin said. “Or rather, Goffman fired me. But I didn’t leave. How could I, under these circumstances? I’m in hiding, and you can’t tell anyone you talked to me. Clear?”
William nodded. “My house was broken into,” he said. “The flash drive with my grandfather on it is gone.”
“You don’t need to worry about that,” Benjamin said. “I have a backup in my office. We’ll fix that later. We have much more important stuff to talk about. . . .” He paused, staring expectantly at William.
“Well, where is it?” Benjamin asked, looking around. “The package? I came here as soon as I heard about it.”
“The package?” William said.
“The pyramid . . . it’s about this big.” Benjamin demonstrated with his hands. “And covered with a strange symbols. Supposedly.”
“Goffman took it,” William said.
Benjamin just stood there. He looked disappointed. And angry. William realized that letting Goffman take the package had probably been a mistake.
“You gave it to him?” Benjamin clenched his fists.
“Yes,” William said. “Or rather, he took it from me.”
“Then you have to get it back.” Benjamin’s voice was insistent.
“What is that pyramid?” William asked. He needed answers.
“It’s a code.” Benjamin lowered his voice. “One of the most extraordinary and important codes in the world. It’s been hidden for eons. Guarded by the Orbulator Agent. But now the Orbulator Agent has surfaced and is among us. There could only be one reason for that.”
“What?” William asked.
“I expect that you’re the one he wants to give it to. Only, now Goffman has it.”
“Would you please explain, Benjamin.”
“I’ll tell you everything. But first: Who gave you the pyramid?”
“A mailman,” William replied.
“What did he look like? This mailman.” Benjamin’s whole face was alight with curiosity.
“He was a little taller than you. And thinner. He drove an old mail truck and was very pale. Almost completely white in the face.”
“That must have been him,” Benjamin said with an enthusiastic grin.
“Who?”
“The Orbulator Agent.” Benjamin lowered his voice even more now and glanced quickly around the room. “This is huge!”
“And who is the Orbulator Agent?” William asked impatiently.
Benjamin took a deep breath, then fixed his eyes on William again.
“Many years ago we discovered a peculiar parchment in the Depository for Impossible Archeology here at the Institute. It was hidden inside a very old Egyptian statue. We carbon-dated it to more than two thousand years old. The parchment described an android that called itself the Orbulator Agent.”
Benjamin paused and looked at William, as if he wanted to make sure he was really paying attention.
“The parchment said that this android guarded a code that would access an ancient weapon.” Benjamin glanced nervously at the door.
“What kind of weapon?” William asked, his heart pounding.
“The only weapon that could defeat luridium if it should ever return to earth.” Benjamin took another deep breath before hurrying on. “The old parchment described how the Orbulator Agent’s sole purpose was to guard this code, waiting for a person who can solve it and access the weapon.”
“And the pyramid?” William asked.
“I believe that the pyramid is the code,” Benjamin said.
William stood quietly, giving himself some time to digest this new information.
“The same pyramid that I had?”
“I think so!” Benjamin stopped and looked at the door as if he had heard something. “The package you received is the code. If you solve that, you’ll access the weapon. And thereby the only thing in the whole world that can stop Abraham Talley.”
“B-but why did I get it?” William stuttered. “Why now?”
“I can think of only one reason for the agent to have given the pyramid to you, William,” Benjamin said, and paused. “Mankind is in great jeopardy.”
Suddenly William understood what Benjamin was trying to tell him.
“You think that Abraham will return to earth!”
Benjamin nodded silently.
A shiver ran through William’s body. Just saying the name Abraham Talley gave him chills. Was there really something that could stop Abraham and the luridium? Did the Orbulator Agent want him to use this ancient weapon that Benjamin was talking about? Whatever it was?
Benjamin inhaled. “We have to get the pyramid back. There are
people out there who don’t want you to solve the code. . . .”
Benjamin was about to say something more, but a sudden noise made him turn back to the door. Now William could hear the sound of electric motors approaching. He knew right away what that meant: A bunch of guard bots was coming.
In one quick motion, Benjamin stuck his hand under his jacket and pulled out a metallic headband like the one he was wearing. He tossed it to William.
“Take this,” he said, backing toward the door. “You’re going to need it.”
Benjamin activated his own hologram mask, and once again his head transformed into an old man’s.
“You have to get that pyramid back. We’ll help you.”
“Who is we?” William asked.
But it was too late. Benjamin was gone.
10
There was a knock on the door. It was still out of commission, so William had to open it manually. A group of brand-new guard bots stood outside. They were armed with passivators. William shuddered at the sight of them. He had been paralyzed by those things before. He hated them.
“Step aside. We’re here to investigate a safety breach,” one of the guard bots said, and wheeled into the room so quickly that William had to jump out of the way.
In its hand, the guard bot held something that looked almost like a high-tech clothes iron, and now it raised the tool to scan the room.
William glanced over at the bed. The hologram mask Benjamin had left for him was sitting there. If the guard bot had time to scan the whole room, it would be found.
“Uh . . . everything’s fine here,” William said. “But I heard someone running down the hall.”
The guard bot turned to him.
“Someone was running?”
“Yes, it sounded as if they were running away. They were probably scared because they heard you coming.”
The guard bot looked satisfied and turned to the other bots waiting outside the small room.
“Come on—we have to find the intruder,” it said. The guard bot dashed off down the hallway.
• • •
William turned a corner and kept going down a long hall. Had Benjamin gone this way? If he was still here at the Institute, where was he hiding?
It was the middle of the night, but William still hadn’t slept. He’d just been thinking over everything Benjamin had said—and everything he hadn’t had a chance to say! William had to find him.
He turned left at the end of the hallway and suddenly found himself at the Crypto Portal display. A faint glow was coming from the glass display case, but the neon sign had been turned off. He still couldn’t understand why Goffman had created an exhibit about what had happened in the Himalayas. The only thing the Crypto Portal reminded William of was everything that had gone wrong, how Abraham Talley had traveled through the portal, and how Cornelia had killed his grandfather.
William felt sick when he thought about it. Luckily, Cornelia obliterated herself with her own hand, the very same hand that was now on display inside the glass case.
William walked closer.
He could see the old orb. And the picture of himself, just below the larger picture of Goffman.
But something was missing.
Cornelia’s mechanical hand was gone.
That couldn’t be possible. The atomic-bomb-proof glass display cabinet was perfectly intact. There was no sign of a break-in or vandalism. And yet the hand was gone.
William shuddered. This was what he’d been afraid of.
He knew that the hand could move about on its own. He had seen it himself, on the plane to the Himalayas. He checked the thick glass door again. It was locked. The hand would have needed a key to get out. No, someone had to have removed it, but who?
He had to find out, and the only way to do that would be to hide and hope that whoever had taken it would put it back in its place before morning.
He hurried over to a dark corner and stopped in front of a large statue of a woman with wings holding an orb in one hand. William squeezed in behind the statue and sat down. From there he had a direct view of the glass display case.
He’d have to continue his search for Benjamin tomorrow. Right now he needed to stay awake and see if someone brought the hand back.
• • •
William awoke with a start and sat up. Golden morning sunlight poured through the big window above him. He peeked out from behind the statue. The place was crawling with people and robots. Two girls stood by the display case, pointing at it and discussing something.
William stood up and jogged over to the case on stiff legs.
“You’re William Wenton,” one of the girls said.
William didn’t respond. He was staring at what was lying next to the old orb inside the case.
Cornelia Strangler’s mechanical hand was back.
11
In the enormous dining hall, server bots were wheeling between tables. Brand-new candidates sat in small groups eating fried eggs, sausages, toast, and pancakes. Everyone was talking and laughing, blissfully ignorant that Cornelia’s hand had disappeared and then turned up again overnight.
“William Wenton,” a voice said flatly.
A white server bot holding a tray of freshly baked rolls stopped beside him.
“Yes?” William replied.
“Come with me,” the robot said, and then continued rolling along. “You sit at table seven. They’re waiting for you.”
In well-practiced slalom-like motions, the server bot rolled between all the people hurrying back and forth to the buffet. It raised its tray high over its head and balanced it without a single roll tumbling off.
William followed it to table seven. There he saw Iscia and the other candidates he had met the day before. They were already halfway through their breakfast.
William sat at the table, and a plate of pancakes and jam was placed in front of him. Next to his plate there was a large glass of Mars juice.
“Is it true that you have attacks that let you solve impossible codes?” a blond girl asked as she took a bite out of a large bun so freshly baked it was still steaming. She made a face.
William nodded, his cheeks burning. All the candidates around the table stared at him with curiosity. He looked down at his plate and tried to concentrate on the pancakes.
“Well, they’re not really attacks then, are they?” one of the boys said. “I mean, if they help you crack codes, then they’re more like some kind of assistance?”
“In a way,” William said, and took a big bite of pancake. He spat it right back out again. It tasted like old cardboard.
“The food isn’t that good lately,” Iscia said, pushing her own plate away.
“What happened?” William had a disgusting taste in his mouth.
“New cook bots,” Iscia said. “They’re still in training.”
William wasn’t ready to give up on his pancakes yet. Maybe the second bite would taste better. He took a new bite, but only managed to chew it three times before he had to spit it back out. It tasted like a mixture of wet toilet paper and Play-Doh.
“Why do you think Abraham Talley was the one who found the luridium when they were digging those tunnels under London?” another girl said.
“I think it was a total accident,” Iscia responded quickly.
“Me too,” William said, glancing over at her.
“And then he went completely crazy and tried to kill you before he traveled to outer space through the Crypto Portal?” another boy said.
“Mm-hmm . . .” William pushed his plate away, admitting pancake defeat.
“Are you done with that?” a tidy bot asked, snatching the plate away before William had a chance to answer.
“Aren’t you afraid that the same thing will happen to you?” the girl with blond hair asked.
“That what will happen?” William said to her.
“That you’ll go crazy?” the girl said. “Or turn evil?”
William didn’t know what to say.
/> “William doesn’t have as much luridium in him as Abraham Talley,” Ischia said.
“We know that,” the girl said. “William’s only half-luridium.”
“But what do you think happened to Freddy?” a boy with really shiny braces said. “Why did he enter the Crypto Portal with Abraham?”
“I don’t know,” William said.
“That’s a big mystery,” Iscia continued.
“I’m totally convinced that Abraham Talley made it wherever he wanted to go,” a girl with short hair and glasses said. “And soon he’ll be on his way back here with the luridium to destroy us.”
Everyone stopped talking while two gossip bots rolled by.
“Enough about that.” Ischia looked around to see if anyone had noticed what they were talking about. “We shouldn’t talk about that. Not here.”
They sat in silence for a bit.
William looked at the others around the table. They were staring at him like he was some kind of hero. Something that William didn’t feel like at all, and he didn’t like being treated like a celebrity. It seemed like every one of the new candidates knew him. How could he sneak around at the Institute when he has a celebrity? He had to figure out a way.
He stole a glance at Iscia. He was eager for breakfast to end so that he could take her aside and tell her what he had discovered during the night. He also wanted to fill her in on what Benjamin had told him.
“William,” a voice said. William looked up and spotted Goffman. “Can I have a word with you?”
William stood.
“See you later,” Iscia said with a smile.
William nodded and followed Goffman into the hallway outside the dining hall.
“Where are we going?” William asked.
Goffman merely said, “Your parents are waiting outside,” and kept moving.
“Are they leaving?” William asked anxiously.
“Yes,” Goffman said without looking at him.
Goffman led the way through the main lobby, and William had a chance to study him from behind. Was he limping a little? It looked like it. And his hair definitely wasn’t as neat as it usually was. But, what with Benjamin gone, Goffman probably had extra work to do. That must be taking a toll on him. Now that he was alone with Goffman, William had gotten what he had wished for: a chance to find out how much Goffman knew about the stuff Benjamin had told him.