“It means strength and companionship,” I said. “It’s a bit of Aztec, a bit of my own design. I wanted a way to be with you no matter where you go. I was hoping you’d wear it and think of me, and, well…”
I reached over and picked up the pendant.
Pushing on a latch on the small pendant’s side unlocked the front. It was a case, and inside was a sesame-seed-sized radio frequency identification (RFID) blocker. “Tunde and I designed it. It detunes the RFID signals from any credit cards or ID cards you might have. So if anyone tries to scan you without your knowledge, this little thing will stop it. When you press here”—I pressed on the top of the pendant—“it turns it off or on. That way, you’re protected from spies.”
Cai looked down at the pendant, then leaned over, eyes closed, and kissed me.
“I love it,” she said.
“I wanted it to be functional.”
“It’s perfect.”
We sat on the roof, hand in hand, staring up at the spinning stars above us, for the next hour. Around nine, Cai said it was time she got going. She had to be at the airport a couple hours before her flight to Greece since she was packing so much tech for this next leg of her travels.
We climbed down from the roof and walked back toward my house.
There, Cai gathered up her helmet and gear; said good-bye to Mama and Papa, Tunde’s parents, Tunde, and Teo; and then walked outside with me to her scooter.
“Call me as soon as you get in,” I said.
“Of course,” Cai replied.
As she got onto her scooter and started the engine, I said, “I think we’ll have this whole compost thing figured out in the next week or so. Then there’s the ULTRA project in Belize. But after that, I think I’ll meet you somewhere virtually with the augmented reality setup. Where will you be at the end of the month where we have a cam?”
Cai flipped up the visor on her helmet.
“Iceland.”
“I love Iceland,” I said. “See you there.”
She blew me a kiss, waved to everyone standing in the windows watching us from the house, and then sped off.
As I watched her scooter vanish into the night, I couldn’t help but feel a wave of satisfaction wash over me. We’d done it. We’d accomplished our goals and changed our stars. Not only were we working hard and having fun making the world a better place, but we were doing it all together.
We are the LODGE, a team, a family.
And we’re creating our own future.
From: Rex_n_effex@lodge_revolution.com
Subject: Where are you?
Isaac Newton once said, “Genius is patience.”
He’s right, of course. The one thing that really separates prodigies from the rest of the world is time. Some of us, like myself and my LODGE companions Painted Wolf and Tunde Oni, start early. They label us geniuses because we can do impressive things at a young age, but that doesn’t mean you can’t as well.
It’s all relative (a time pun, sorry).
Like I said when this all started, they call us “special,” but we’re still like you. We go to the beach, we get in fights with our friends, we have long-distance romances, and we wish we could draw better. We also just happen to have brains that the white coats have dubbed “organic computers.” Wasn’t like we chose to be this way, though.
The world is a different place now than it was the first time I wrote you. No, the sky hasn’t turned pink and the moon isn’t made of plastic. Not that sort of different. What’s different is that there are so many opportunities now. When we began this adventure—it feels like the Game was forever ago!—we only had ourselves to rely on. Now we have you, and that makes all the difference. You are going to lead us toward something incredible.…
Like I said last time, the world our parents grew up in is history. All the old rules, we’ve thrown them out. We’re the ones making the future. We’re the founding fathers. Hand us universal Wi-Fi and soup dumplings, and we’ll fix the world.
So how do you fit in? What if you can’t code? What if you’ve never been able to build anything more than a birdhouse? It doesn’t matter. You’ve got skills that you probably dismiss as tricks. That dance you can do, that song you can sing, the painting hanging in your room, those are all skills we need.
See, there’s a reason my status online is: Recruiting for the future.
We broke some eggs and we baked a cake. It was delicious, really amazing cream cheese frosting. I saved you a piece, but I don’t want to give it to you. I want to teach you how to bake your own cake from scratch. Only, instead of flour and water and eggs, I want you to make something with oil paints, yarn, peptides, or computer parts.
The revolution is now. Welcome aboard. And, uh, get ready to create.…
See ya,
Rex Huerta
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I have a dream team and family with everyone at Feiwel and Friends: thank you. Holly West, you rock my world.
I’m also eternally grateful to Keith Thomas, my wonderful partner with whom I’m creating endless worlds and wild adventures.
Thank you to my family & friends—you know who you are.
To Brian David Johnson and everyone at Arizona State University Center for Science & the Imagination, where we will continue this adventure: http://csi.asu.edu/fellows-projects/genius/
I also thank all the writers, poets, rebels, scientists, artists, and mad human beings who have influenced me.
This series is for you, so let’s keep this going.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LEOPOLDO GOUT , author of Genius, is a writer, artist, and filmmaker who hails from Mexico. After studying in London Gout produced the Award-Winning film Days of Grace, which A. O. Scott of the New York Times called “potent and vigorous.” He is the Executive Producer of the number one new show of the summer, sci-fi drama "Zoo" on CBS; and is partnered with James Patterson Entertainment to produce "Maximum Ride". Leopoldo Gout resides in New York City with his wife and two children. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Ondscan
Part One: Time Lapse
1. Cai
2. Rex
3. Tunde
4. Cai
5. Rex
6. Tunde
7. Cai
8. Rex
9. Tunde
10. Cai
11. Rex
12. Tunde
13. Cai
Part Two: Into the Future
14. Rex
15. Tunde
16. Cai
17. Rex
18. Tunde
Part Three: Fall Like Rome
19. Cai
20. Rex
21. Tunde
22. Cai
23. Rex
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
A FEIWEL AND FRIENDS BOOK
An imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
GENIUS: THE REVOLUTION. Text copyright © 2018 by Leopoldo Gout. Illustrations copyright © 2018 by James Manning and Leopoldo Gout. All rights reserved.
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at [email protected]
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017956982
ISBN 978-1-250-04583-6 (hardcover) / ISBN 978-1-250-19470-1 (ebook)
Endpaper credits: Eye photo
graphs © JR-ART.net; illustrations © James Manning; brick wall © Shutterstock/Dan Kosmayer
Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto
First edition, 2018
fiercereads.com
eISBN: 9781250194701
Genius--The Revolution Page 20