“What do you mean?” Caroline asked.
“Look,” Mattie whispered. The Spencers followed his gaze, shoulders tightening when they saw the bright windows.
A slow grin spread across Eliot’s face. “When do you want to go?”
Mattie glanced around. Half the school was running outside to see the yellow snow, and the rest were already here. The students were laughing and the scientists were muttering to each other and everyone was staring at the sky. No one was paying any attention to Mattie and the Spencers.
“C’mon!” Mattie said. For the briefest of moments, the Spencers were confused. Then they realized what he was doing.
“I like the way you think,” Eliot muttered, racing after his friend. While the students and professors ran back and forth, Mattie and the Spencers skirted the edge of Munchem’s walls. While Lem shouted about acid rain turning into yellow snow, they slipped up the steps. While everyone stared at the still-dim sky, the three friends used a back hallway to circle toward the sophomore foreign language classes.
But instead of turning left, they turned right, and there it was: a sole, shiny wooden door—a sole, shiny wooden door with pink light peeking around its edges. Outside, yellow snow came down harder.
Mattie’s mouth went dry. This is it, he thought, taking a step. This is—
The door wiggled as someone shook the handle and opened the lock.
“Get down!” Caroline whispered, grabbing Mattie and Eliot by the back of their sweaters and hauling them into the nearest open classroom. They crouched by a row of metal desks as the door opened and relocked. Mattie leaned forward, holding his breath. Footsteps grew closer and closer.
Professor Shelley hurried past.
She had an armful of papers and a troubled expression and didn’t notice Mattie at all. Which was an excellent thing since Mattie didn’t have an explanation for why he was hiding in a classroom, but he did have an explanation for why Professor Shelley was leaving the ballroom-turned-gym.
“I’m telling you,” Mattie whispered to the Spencers as the footsteps disappeared and they were alone again. “Shelley’s behind this.”
“But why?” Caroline crouched against a desk. “If she’s behind everything, why hasn’t she taken all the cameras down?”
Mattie thought about this. He shrugged. “Villains move in mysterious ways.”
“Maybe.” Caroline still didn’t look convinced. “I mean, if weird weather is the goal, she got it—yellow snow is weird—but I don’t think Professor Shelley looked happy. She seemed scared.”
IT WAS THE LONGEST—AND coldest—week of Mattie’s life, and when the yellow snow finally melted, Mattie packed as many superfood corndogs under his sweater as he could and headed for the cemetery with Caroline and Eliot right behind him.
“These things are gross,” Eliot complained as they trudged through the cemetery gate, boots crunching across half-frozen grass. “My stomach’s all greasy now. The clones better appreciate this.” He held up a foil-wrapped corndog and peered at it. “What makes this a superfood anyway?”
“I’m not sure I want to know,” Caroline said, pulling out her own corndogs and arranging them on the top of a headstone.
Mattie started to agree, and felt something tremble beneath his feet. He paused, and felt the tremble again. “What was that?”
Deep, deep, deep in the woods, something pink flashed. “Did you see that?” Mattie whispered.
“Oh, yeah,” Eliot said.
Caroline nodded. “What do you think it was?”
Mattie watched the shadows. The pink flashed again. The ground trembled again. “Something’s up. Something worse than before.”
“Do you think it’s the clones?” Caroline asked. “Could they be in trouble? Malfunctioning or something?”
Mattie’s stomach twisted hard. They could be. If rain made their eyes malfunction, what could the snow have done?
Another pop of pink lit up the branches. Mattie threw down his rake. “C’mon.”
Mattie waved the Spencers into the woods as he watched the cemetery and fields behind them. Munchem sat up on the hill, and as the afternoon sun slid behind it, the school looked bigger and darker than ever.
“Hurry up, Mattie!” Caroline said.
Mattie ducked after them. They pushed deeper into the woods. This far in, it smelled like wet earth and pine needles. The thick canopy of leaves blocked out most of the afternoon sunlight and Mattie concentrated on his feet so he didn’t trip.
“Hey.”
Mattie and Eliot turned around. Caroline had stopped walking. She stared up into the trees with both arms wrapped around Beezus.
“What is it?” Mattie asked.
“Did you notice how quiet it’s gotten?”
Mattie hadn’t, but now that Caroline mentioned it, the woods were quiet. There weren’t any birds calling or any squirrels chattering. Nothing rustled in the leaves and nothing flew past them. It felt almost as if the entire forest was holding its breath.
“Not just quiet,” Eliot said and swallowed. “Too quiet.”
Beezus squeaked as if he quite agreed, and that was when they heard the first explosion. It split a nearby tree, hurling it to the ground. Branches and twigs flew everywhere, and a particularly hard acorn thunked Mattie in the head.
He ducked. “Get down!”
The Spencers were already down. They pressed their faces into the piney forest floor and felt bits of tree fly past them. A minute passed…then another. The woods had gone quiet again.
Mattie peeked through his fingers. “It’s okay, I think.” He pushed to his knees and looked around. A cool breeze wound through his hair. Mattie shook himself and pine needles went everywhere. “What was that?”
Eliot helped his sister up. They were both trembling. “No idea,” Eliot said, picking leaves off his shirt. “It was like someone set off a bomb. The tree just exploded.”
“Trees don’t explode,” Caroline said as she tried to detach Beezus from her hair. The rat clutched her frizzy braid with two tiny paws. His whiskers twitched frantically. “Something happened.”
The breeze picked up, bringing a wave of pollen with it—and the sound of voices. Mattie tensed. “Do you hear that?” he whispered.
Caroline and Eliot nodded. “Do you think it’s the clones?” Caroline whispered.
Mattie shook his head. The voices were too deep and there were too many of them to be Doyle and Maxwell. “They sound like grown-ups,” he whispered. “Maybe teachers?”
“Why would the teachers be out here?”
Mattie stood. “Let’s find out.”
“Are you crazy?” the Spencers hissed.
Maybe a little bit at this point. For anyone keeping track, this is the second time this semester Mattie has hit his head—well, okay, technically, the acorn hit Mattie—but the point is, head injuries often make you think you have a good idea.
Even when you don’t.
Like right now for instance, when Mattie crawled to the top of a rise and peered down into the hollow below them. What he saw should have made him scramble back the way he’d come. It should have made his stomach go cold and slushy—actually, it still made his stomach go cold and slushy—but Mattie didn’t move, and whether that had to do with his head injuries or the fact that this was another step toward his future of thievery, we will never know. What we do know is Mattie saw Dr. Hoo in the forest clearing.
He was muttering to himself and standing next to a machine. What kind of a machine? Mattie couldn’t tell. It had a wide base that narrowed into a point like a triangle. A string of green lights ran down both sides. A wide keyboard covered the front. And as Mattie watched, the machine began to tremble and shake and then its fat belly slowly turned traffic-light red.
Mattie leaned forward. “What do you think it’s doing?”
Lightning shot from the top. It arced across the clearing.
Boom!
Another tree exploded. It crashed to the ground and someone scr
eamed. Mattie was pretty sure it was Eliot. Mattie covered his head with both arms as pine needles and twigs showered down.
“Another bull’s-eye!” Dr. Hoo cheered.
He’s talking to himself, Mattie realized. That can’t be good. Mattie lay with his cheek pressed against the ground and listened as Dr. Hoo went on and on about the importance of trajectories and never giving up on his dreams.
“What is he doing?” Caroline whispered furiously. Beezus was now clutching her throat, making her whisper especially wheezy.
“How am I supposed to know?” Mattie whispered back. “It’s not like I can ask him. We’re not supposed to be out here.”
“We need to leave!” Eliot lay behind Mattie. “Now!”
Mattie rolled over. He couldn’t stop himself. It was just that, out of the three of them, he would’ve expected Eliot to want to stay—and try to take the machine apart.
Eliot narrowed his eyes like he knew exactly what Mattie was thinking. “Excuse me if I don’t want to be crushed to death by trees!”
“Dr. Hoo,” a voice boomed. Dr. Hoo wasn’t alone! “If I wanted to hit trees, I’d talk to a lumberjack. Impress me. Show me how it’s going to take down a person.”
Mattie swallowed and felt his throat click. Take down a person? That sounded horrible and, as is often the case with horrible things, Mattie had to look. He had to see who had just said that. So, slowly, carefully, Mattie shifted back onto his stomach and wiggled through the dirt and pine needles so he could peek over the rise again.
Dr. Hoo was still standing by the lightning machine, but someone new had joined him. He was the tallest, broadest man Mattie had ever seen. His camouflage pants and shirt blended perfectly with the surrounding forest and his massive brown boots crushed everything they stomped on.
“Who’s that?” Eliot asked. It seems Mattie wasn’t the only person who couldn’t look away when something horrible was happening.
Mattie shook his head. “No idea.”
“He looks like he’s in the army or something,” Caroline added.
Mattie agreed. It wasn’t just the man’s uniform, there was something about the upright way he carried himself that made Mattie think he was in the military—and there was something about the way the man barked his orders that made Mattie think he wasn’t just military, he was an officer.
Dr. Hoo smoothed one hand over his springy brown hair. “General Mills, the Weather-matic 9000 isn’t just a weather machine. It’s a revolution.”
The general crossed his arms. “Go on.”
“Thanks to its advanced crystal core, you can make any day a good weather day. Would you like to work on your tan in Iceland? The Weather-matic has a setting for that.”
“I’m not interested in turning Iceland into Florida, Dr. Hoo. I’m interested in seeing that target taken out.” The man pointed to an odd straw man propped up at the edge of the woods.
“But isn’t it nice to have options?”
It was nice to have options. Mattie just wasn’t sure they needed this one.
“The point is,” Dr. Hoo continued, “you will finally control your day. No more rain—unless you want it. No more snow—unless you want it. No regular old clouds—unless you want it. Everything will be up to you—including colors and shapes!”
The yellow snow and the foot-shaped cloud…?
“Why would I want colored rain?” the general asked.
And why would you want yellow snow? Mattie thought.
“Why wouldn’t you?” Dr. Hoo beamed. “Again, my friend, it’s all about options. Think how patriotic you would look at your next event if it rained red, white, and blue.”
“It would still be rain.”
“Patriotic rain.”
The general frowned. He seemed to be considering it though. “How does it work anyway?”
Dr. Hoo’s face lit up. “The Weather-matic depends upon its one-of-a-kind crystal core. Thanks to my highly specialized and highly advanced innovations, the crystal’s powers have been harnessed to do our bidding.”
“‘To do our bidding’?” Eliot whispered. “Does this guy hear himself?”
Mattie thought about reminding Eliot of the time he had said the same thing and decided against it.
General Mills rocked back and forth on his feet. He didn’t seem impressed with Dr. Hoo, but he couldn’t take his eyes from the Weather-matic. “I thought your partner was supposed to join us,” he said at last.
Dr. Hoo’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t have a partner anymore. She didn’t keep her end of the bargain.”
Mattie shivered. Dr. Hoo looked downright scary. General Mills, however, looked unimpressed. “And your boss?” he asked.
Hoo shrugged. “Larimore was called away. Trust me, he doesn’t have a clue what’s going on. It’s the one thing my former partner did right.”
“Good,” General Mills said, resting both meaty hands on his belt. “Now show me the lightning bolt setting again.”
Dr. Hoo flashed a salute, and scurried to the machine’s side. He typed something on the keyboard. The Weather-matic 9000 began to shake. Its potbelly turned a pale pink and then red and then darker red and then…
Boom!
A LIGHTNING BOLT FLASHED FROM the Weather-matic’s top. It arced in a jagged pink line over the men’s heads and whoosh the straw man exploded. Bits of flaming pants fluttered to the ground and Dr. Hoo blasted them with a fire extinguisher.
“Amazing!” the general shouted.
Mattie agreed. There was nothing left of that straw man! Mattie’s stomach gave a sickening little lurch. There was nothing left of that straw man!
Dr. Hoo smiled. “As you can see, your target will look as if he or she was the victim of an unfortunate lightning strike. No one will ever know it was intentional.”
Now the general was smiling. He shook his fist. “Again!”
“Gladly.” Dr. Hoo typed out another sequence on the keyboard and the Weather-matic began to shake and shiver. Seconds later, pink lightning cut across the clearing and another straw man went up in flames. The general clapped his hands in delight.
“That is so cool,” Eliot whispered. Mattie agreed, but he also still felt a bit sick. The general had wanted to know how the machine would take down a person and now he knew. He wasn’t interested in sunny days or beach vacations. He wanted to use the Weather-matic as a weapon.
Mattie looked at Caroline. She was very pale and probably thinking the same thing Mattie was, because her eyes were very, very wide.
“Again! Again!” The general jumped up and down. His heavy boots thumped hard against the ground. “Do it again!”
Dr. Hoo began to type, but before he even finished the Weather-matic started to turn red again. “Uh-oh,” Dr. Hoo said, backing away.
Uh-oh? Mattie strained for a better look. Why is Dr. Hoo—
Pink lightning shot in all directions from the top of the Weather-matic. It hit the last straw man. It hit the underbrush. It hit the tree on Mattie’s right.
“Duck!” he hissed and all three of them curled into the dirt as pine needles and twigs and a bird’s nest littered the ground.
“Uh, we seem to have some technical difficulties,” Dr. Hoo continued and Mattie could hear something smacking the Weather-matic’s metal side as, presumably, Dr. Hoo whacked it.
Mattie squeaked opened his eyes and glanced around. Branches littered the forest floor. They were lucky nothing heavy had fallen on them!
“Whoops!” Dr. Hoo cried and more lightning lit up the clearing. Whack! Whack! Clang!
Dr. Hoo was hitting the Weather-matic. Branches were falling to the ground. And the general? Well, the general was grinning.
“I’ll take a hundred of them!” he shouted. “How soon can you have them ready?”
“Well,” Dr. Hoo began, “I’ll need to develop another crystal core first. The original took almost a month. It’s very complicated, you see, but if I use the current crystal as a jumping off point for more crystals, it shouldn’
t take as long, but I have to get it right or I could damage the Weather-matic and—look out!”
More lightning hit the treetops and Mattie scurried backward. “Go!”
All three of them wriggled away on their bellies. They scuttled past fallen trees and underbrush and a particularly dazed-looking squirrel. In fact, Mattie didn’t stop wriggling until he could see the mausoleum’s roof peeking through the tree line and he knew the Weather-matic and Dr. Hoo were far, far behind them.
“Hold on!” Mattie sat up and brushed dirt off his chest. “I have to catch my breath!”
Caroline and Eliot stopped and everyone looked at each other.
“Just when I think things can’t get any weirder at Munchem,” Caroline said, shaking her head.
“Weird?” Eliot’s mouth hung open. “We nearly died at the hands of a Larimore Corporation death ray!”
“It isn’t a death—” Actually, it would make a great death ray. Mattie’s eyes bugged. “Holy crap! It’s a death ray!”
Beezus squeaked, but if that was in agreement, Mattie couldn’t tell.
“And they swore Wrinkles Away was an accident,” Eliot added. “I bet it wasn’t. I bet it was an elaborate way to assassinate their enemies. That’s exactly what evil scientists do.” He paused. “I wonder if he’ll use the cream on his former partner. Would be a good way to get rid of something. Not as good as a death ray, of course, but—”
“Who do you think his partner is? Was?” Mattie asked.
Caroline shrugged. “Hoo said ‘she.’ Could be anyone.”
“Or it could be Professor Shelley,” Mattie said. “She’s behind Munchem security—or the lack of Munchem security.”
“Well,” Eliot said at last, rubbing a bit of dirt from his cheek. It was getting dark and Mattie couldn’t tell if Eliot had actually cleaned it off. “You were right about the weather, Mattie.”
“Yeah,” Caroline added. “They just weren’t using the cloning machine to do it.”
Mattie shrugged. Usually, being told you were right is a good moment, but right now it didn’t feel good at all because yes, Mattie was right about the weird weather, but there wasn’t any satisfaction to it because that weird weather was going to be used for blowing people up.
The Girl Who Knew Even More Page 12
