“That’s bananas!” Neil declared.
“Indeed,” Lefty agreed. “It is bananas. But on a scientific level, I think these theories are fairly sound. If I get the opportunity to study the creature further - er, without getting stupefied, that is - perhaps I can gather some evidence to support my ideas!”
“This is all pretty incredible stuff, Uncle Lefty. But what do you think we should do now?” asked Jack.
Lefty reached into the sandy pockets of his lab coat in a brief, futile search. “It should come as no surprise that I lost my tablet in the wreck. Not that it would be in working condition, after being submerged in salt water. I would love to consult my data and make some amendments, but I’m afraid that won’t be possible, for the time being.”
“And I suppose your phone is gone, as well?” asked Jack.
“Yep, I’m afraid so.”
“Hmm…” Neil murmured, as he rubbed his chin and studied the distant shore of New Hampshire. “It would be an awfully long swim.”
“You best not attempt any such thing!” Lefty said. “A five mile swim would be most trying for anybody, and these currents are far too strong to contest, even with life jackets. What’s more, we can’t predict if Pan Gu will cause another weather phenomenon when you’re in the water. It would be disaster, certain disaster!”
Jack looked around their remote surroundings, including the smashed remains of the Quantum Conundrum. “Uh… so how are we going to get off of this island?”
“Not to worry - I’m way ahead of you. Noodles is more than capable of transmitting all kinds of signals and calls. We’ll simply have him contact the Coast Guard and request a rescue,” Lefty assured the boys.
“You don’t suppose the big guy was injured do you?” Neil asked, pointing down the shoreline to where the lanky robot lay prone, his feet facing the humans. “He’s still face down in the sand… he hasn’t gotten up yet. Can robots get knocked out?”
“It’s unlikely,” Lefty responded. “He’s constructed from the strongest of titanium alloys, so it would be highly improbable that squishy mammals like us could survive the crash, and he wouldn’t. Furthermore, the seals at his joints are completely waterproof, so the salt water shouldn’t have had any effect on him, even if he was completely submerged at some point.”
“So what’s he doing? Taking a nap?” asked Jack.
“Well…” Lefty craned his neck to look down toward Noodles. “It’s possible that he simply needs to engage in a system reboot, which shouldn’t be any trouble at all. I’ll just have to access his power panel and initiate the process. I’m sure he’ll be fine, in any event. Noodles was built to last, let me tell you!”
“That’s for sure,” Jack said, thinking of the time they had seen Noodles combat a giant, mechanized machine that was over three times his size at Cragglemeister Farm.
“Don’t worry, Lefty, we’ll go check on him,” Neil told Lefty.
“Thank you, boys, I very much appreciate that. I’m afraid it’s going to be quite challenging for me to get around for a while, thanks to this twisted knee. Please do check on him for me.”
Despite his conviction that Noodles would have been unharmed in the shipwreck, Neil and Jack could detect the concern in the scientist’s voice. In a way, Noodles was like the son of Lefty, and the two shared a strong emotional bond. Lefty’s creation of the gangly, good-natured robot had been a labor of love, and he had poured his heart and soul into the endeavor.
Furthermore, Noodles benefited from a revolutionary artificial intelligence that made him very much like a living, thinking, feeling being. It was very easy to become attached to him, thanks to his wonderful personality. Lefty was craning his neck to look down the beach to the place where Noodles lay, his face tense with worry.
Jack patted his uncle on the shoulder as he rose to his feet. “We’ll go check on him right now. Don’t worry, I’m sure he’s fine. It’s like you said - Noodles was built to last!”
But before the boys could begin their task, they were startled by a strange voice that called to them. It bellowed from the place where the dunes of the beach ended and the forest began, carrying across the distance with ease. It was a man’s voice, booming and gravelly, as if filled with the shells and stones of the Smuttynose shore.
“You, there! You trespass upon forbidden ground - and you do so at great and terrible peril!”
Everybody looked in the direction of the voice, stunned and taken aback by the presence of another person. They had all assumed that the island was uninhabited, but that clearly was not the case.
At the edge of the forest, they saw a figure of average height and build. He was dressed in a tattered, dark brown robe, cinched at the waist with a brined and barnacle-encrusted belt of rope. The hood of the robe was in place, concealing the man’s face. All that could be made out was the hint of shadowy features.
“Impossible…” Lefty whispered in awe. “Nobody has lived on this island for over one hundred and fifty years…”
Chapter Nine
Keeper of the Island
The Green Beans, Volume 4: Shipwrecked on Smuttynose Island Page 8
