Bot Wars, Line Zero

by J. V. Kade

  “Oh. The Superh—”

  “Wait, don’t say it! I don’t know if this line is secure. Better safe than sorry. Just . . . do you remember what it was?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Can you meet me there?”

  Lox and I had this plan where we’d go to his aunt’s in Dallas, Texas, for a weekend and then go to the Superhero Museum in Edge Flats for a day.

  Since Dekker’s location is secret, I figure this is as close as I can bring Lox. Vee and I will meet him there and then we’ll drive to Dek’s.

  It was simple, except for the one little issue of Lox getting permission to take the auto-car all the way to Texas on such short notice.

  Lox leans back. “And why would we be going to That One Place at a time like this?”

  “That’s just the meeting spot. I’ll fill you in when you get there.”

  He shakes his head. “The things I do for you, bolt sniffer. I should be awarded a medal.”

  “I can award you one after this is over.”

  “So if I meet you at That One Place, where are we going after that?”

  “That’s a secret too.”

  “Will it be wrenched?”

  “Yeah.” I laugh. “Totally.”

  “Well, why didn’t you say so? I’m in!”

  “Okay. I’ll call you later about when to meet, but is it possible you could make it tonight?”

  “Yeah. I’ll just tell my mom and dad I’m visiting Aunt Mary. She’s been howling lately about how I never come down, so my mom will be happy I’m going.”

  “Thanks, Lox. I owe you big-time.”

  “I know. I know.” He stands up and unjacks the Link. “I’ll be awaiting your super-secret call.”

  “I’ll let you know as soon as I can.”

  We say good-bye and hang up.

  Now Vee has to work her magic and this level-ten secret mission will be on.

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  I SHOVEL DOWN MY dinner. I’m thinking about the plan more than eating. I have a way into the City Hall building. I have a way to get from Texas to Brack. Vee is working on a route out of Bot Territory. And we’ve already agreed to head straight to Dekker’s as soon as we’re in Texas so we can beg him for help in crossing the UD/Texas border. It might take some sweet talking on our part, but I’m sure he’ll cave.

  So there’s just one big problem I haven’t solved yet: How the chop am I gonna get out of the government building once I rescue Po?

  Like LT said, I’m not gonna waltz right out the front door with Po in tow. And despite all the action movies I’ve watched, I don’t think crawling out an air-conditioning vent is going to work either.

  “Trout? Earth to Trout?”

  I look up. Dad is trying to hand me a glass of ice water. “Oh, um, thanks,” I say, and take the drink.

  The big table in the Fort’s dining room is full of people. Some of them I recognize from the command room, others are new, but I’m pretty sure they’re all part of the Meta-Rise. Merril told me Dad extended an open invitation to all of his workers, and their families, to join in for meals at the Fort.

  Voices and laughter tangle together like fishing line. Three chairs down Vee smashes a baked potato with her fork, then douses it in butter. Her dad is at the other end of the table trying to show one of the littler kids how to program the salt and pepper shaker so you get the perfect amount of both.

  “How’s the food, y’all?” Merril asks, wiping his big boxy hands on a dishcloth. “Made everything special for y’all tonight.”

  I’ve realized every meal is special to Merril. I’m not complaining. “Potatoes are perfect,” I say.

  “Hey, kids!” Scissor bursts into the room. “Who’s in for the rail scavenger hunt after dinner? I’m supposed to get a head count and I forgot!”

  “Scissor!” Vee groans.

  A couple of the older kids raise their hands. The tall kid sitting next to me must think I’m clueless, because he leans over and says, “A rail race is a race through town on the hoversuits.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “Well, are you gonna enter?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe,” I lie. I have better things to do. Like plot a rescue mission.

  “Just make sure you put on the brakes this time, hey?” the kid says with a chuckle. “Wouldn’t want you flying into another tree.”

  “Ha. Ha. Ha.” I roll my eyes. But that’s when it hits me. And despite the fact that Giant McGiant Pants was making fun of me, I’m really glad he did.

  Wouldn’t want you flying into another tree. Flying. Hoversuits. They work on any of the hover rails, so they should work on the rails in Brack. If Vee and I strap the suits on, we could jump from City Hall and the rails would catch us.

  “You know what,” I say to Scissor, “I think I’ll sign up for the race.”

  Vee catches my eye down the length of the table. I jerk my head, trying to give her a hint as to what I’m thinking. She catches on real quick.

  “Make sure you bring a few extra hoversuits, Scissor,” she says. “I’ll ride with Trout to make sure he doesn’t lose it on the rails.”

  “That’s cheating!” McGiant Pants says. “You know the route!”

  “I won’t help him on the hunt, you nutter. Besides, do you really think that scrawny fish butt will win?”

  The other kids laugh. I just shake my head and grin big. Because Vee and I both know we won’t be around long enough to even start the scavenger hunt. Once we score a hoversuit, we’re gone.

  • • •

  “Hey, Trout,” Vee says after the dinner table is cleared. “Come help me with something real quick?”

  Dad slaps me on the back. “I’m headed back up to the command room. Have fun on the scavenger hunt.”

  “Thanks. How late do you think you’ll be?”

  Dad’s expression softens and he exhales real slow. “Probably a while. Don’t wait up, okay?”

  “Sure.” Since this is the last time I will see Dad before heading into the UD, I give him a big hug. He hesitates at first, and then leans over, wrapping me up tight with his real arm and his robot arm. “Love you, Dad.”

  He chuckles and the sound reverberates through the metal in his side. “Love you too.”

  I pull away before the stinging in my eyes turns into real tears. Vee leads me into the media room and up the rope bridges. We settle into a pair of the comfy chairs on the metal rafter. A lamp glows on the table between us.

  “So, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she says.

  Down below, a few of the kids are watching a movie on the giant vid panel. It’s a futuristic movie about deep space travel. The sound effects are so loud, there’s no way they can hear us.

  I raise my eyebrows. “Hoversuits?”

  “You got it.”

  “Now we have to deal with our dads. They’re going to know we’re gone.”

  There’s an explosion from the speakers down below. One of the kids cheers.

  “My dad always comes home late,” Vee says. “And I bet it’ll be even later tonight because of the thing with Po. So that will buy us a few hours. But I know my dad uses our apartment’s security system to check on me before he goes to bed. Your dad will probably do the same thing.”

  I huff in frustration. “Once they realize we’re gone, they’ll come after us. Or send someone to stop us.”

  “Unless we can trick them until morning. By then we’ll be in the UD.”

  I frown. “How are we going to do that?”

  Her smile widens. “Thankfully, I have experience with this kind of thing. You think I’ve never snuck out for the night?”

  “I don’t know? Maybe?”

  She cocks her head. “The answer is yes, FishKid.”

&
nbsp; “I wish everyone would stop calling me that.”

  “Yeah, and I wish I had ten million creds.” She starts for the rope bridge. “Call Lox and tell him we’re ready. Meet me in your room in twenty minutes.”

  TWENTY-NINE

  “HERE’S WHAT YOU need to know about the house’s security system.” Vee drops onto my bed and slides her backpack off her shoulder. “The system is the same as the one at our apartment. It uses thermal to scan every room, looking for a heat register where it should or shouldn’t be. Your dad probably has you programmed in for your room, so if you’re not there, it’ll send a ping back to him.”

  I sit on the bench, propping my elbows on my knees. “Okay. How are we going to beat that?”

  Vee digs in her bag and pulls out a long, thin wire with plastic discs every five inches or so. “This is an internal heating link. They’re used to line winter coats and snowpants in the north.”

  She climbs off my bed and pulls back my blanket. “I’m gonna need at least one more pillow.”

  I know exactly where to find one. Merril showed me the closet with extra sheets and blankets and stuff my first day here in case I ever needed something. It’s the fourth door on the left across from my room. I go there, grab a pillow and an extra blanket just in case, and jog back.

  “Here.” I hand everything to Vee.

  The heating link and its control pad is stretched out on my bed, from the head to the foot. Vee lines the pillows over the top of it and presses a finger to the control to turn it on. “Help me spread the blankets over the pillows.”

  We use my blanket, plus the extra I brought. “Can’t hurt,” Vee says with a shrug. “The more layers, the more heat that will be trapped inside.”

  When we’re finished, we stand back to assess our work. There’s a lumpy me-sized shape in the bed. Vee clicks off the light and in the dark, it looks even less like a mountain of pillows.

  “Wrenched,” I say.

  “The heating link will warm the pillows to a temp close to your body temp.”

  “You’re a genius, Vee.”

  We go quiet for a full minute, then I say, “Are we really doing this?”

  Vee meets my eyes. “I can’t lose my dad for good.”

  “I can’t either.”

  “And I’m tired of him thinking I’m too young to do anything important. I want to show him I can be part of the Meta-Rise.”

  I take in a deep breath. “Then I guess we’re doing this.”

  “I guess so.”

  • • •

  “Rules!” Scissor calls over the group of us waiting in the park. “Please listen to the rules!”

  Everyone quiets. The wind picks up. The branches of the willow tree behind Scissor sway back and forth like a pendulum.

  “As soon as you receive your list of items, the hunt begins. There’s to be no tampering with the pods. No fouls! No sabotaging whatsoever. Are we all in agreement?”

  Around us, everyone nods.

  “All right.” Scissor’s meta-pol arms grow by a foot and she claps her hands above her head. “Everyone is suited up?”

  More nods. I have all the straps on. Elbows. Knees. Foot plates.

  “Take your places!” Scissor says.

  Vee and I hurry to the street. The others line up next to us. Some of the bigger kids push the littler ones back like they already forgot about the rules.

  Links start beeping as they receive the list of clues Vee created. The bigger kids take off at a sprint. Everyone else follows. Since we’re supposed to be doing the scavenger hunt, Vee and I disappear in the same direction, but as soon as we’re out of sight, we dodge left, back toward the center of town, toward Scissor’s repair shop.

  We make it in record time, even though I had a near run-in with a street cleaner and fell on my face at the sharp curve on Emerald Street. Which made Vee laugh her fool head off, which lost us even more time.

  “Can we go now?” I say, fixing my shirt.

  Vee wipes the tears streaming down her face. “Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I’m ready.” But then she laughs all the way to Scissor’s.

  Once inside, we are all business. As we tiptoe to the back of the shop, my heart tha-dums in my ears. I’m so nervous, there’s sweat pooling beneath my nose. I show Vee the wall where LT and I came through a few days ago.

  She frowns. “It’s a blank wall.”

  “It’s a holo-barrier. LT pressed a button or something on the other side and the wall disappeared . . .”

  “You didn’t tell me there was a secret way to get in! This is something I could have worked on if I’d known about it.”

  “Sorry! I wasn’t exactly thinking about it. I was thinking more about my brother, ya know? And breaking into City Hall . . .”

  Vee runs her hand down the wall. “It feels solid. There must be a button on this side somewhere. Start looking—”

  She’s cut off by someone clearing their throat.

  We whirl around. Ratch stands in the doorway between the back room and the shop. His strip of eyes glows in the muted light. “Am I interrupting something?”

  I swallow loudly. “Umm . . .”

  Our rescue operation is over before it even began.

  “Just looking for an extra part,” Vee starts. “Something Scissor asked us to get.”

  Ratch comes closer. “I don’t think you’ll find what you’re looking for in a brick wall.” He takes another step and twists around. We take two steps back. “You aren’t trying to escape, are you?”

  “N-no,” I stutter.

  Vee shakes her head.

  “Because if you were . . .”

  “We’re not,” I say.

  Ratch reaches around us. Vee and I shrink away. He taps the shelf just above our heads.

  Something clicks. I hear that familiar vareeee-juuuu sound I heard the day LT led me into Scissor’s shop. The bricks flicker and disappear again, one by one. The tiny room on the other side comes into view.

  Vee and I stare at the exit. “That is split,” Vee whispers.

  “If you were looking for an escape,” Ratch says, “all you had to do was ask.”

  The shop goes super, mega silent. Vee and I jam into each other. Is he serious?

  “You’re not going to tell on us?” Vee finally asks.

  Ratch shakes his head once. “What you’re doing is admirable. If one of my own was in trouble, I would do whatever I needed to save him or her. I’ll cover for you as long as I can. I suspect LT will catch on relatively quickly, however. So you best hurry.”

  We look at each other, then back at Ratch. He’s always kinda geared me out, but in a good way. He’s like the popular kid at school who you want to hang out with, but you know you can’t because you’re not wrenched enough to breathe the same air as him.

  Right now I want to hug him. But I know that would be lame.

  “Thanks,” I say.

  “You’re welcome. Now go.” He shoos us on.

  We clamber through. Ratch salutes us and hits the button on his side. The bricks flicker on and Scissor’s shop disappears. We’re sealed inside.

  “That was jammed,” Vee says.

  “Yeah. I can’t believe he helped us.”

  “Me neither.”

  “You think he was telling the truth when he said he’d cover for us?”

  Vee shrugs. “I don’t know, but I’m not gonna stick around to find out.” She points at the hatch in the floor. “I take it we go down?”

  “Yup.” I turn the lever in the door and it pops open with a hiss. “Who goes first?”

  Vee shrugs. “I’ll go.”

  When she reaches the bottom, I go in, pulling the door closed, plunging us into the dark. I forgot how cave-like the tunnel felt. I only brought my bag with
Tellie’s Net-tag, some food, and a bottle of water. Fresh out of flashlights.

  Vee didn’t even bring a bag.

  “I can’t see a thing,” I complain.

  Vee pulls out her Link and activates it. The screen illuminates the tunnel. “This will have to do.”

  We take off the hoversuits and shove them in my bag. Vee pulls out a second suit that she stuffed inside her gray vest. “For Po,” she says.

  “Oh, I didn’t even think of that.”

  “I figured. That’s why you got me.” She taps in a few commands on her Link and shows me a blueprint of the maintenance lines. “We need to go south. It’ll take us to an old line that will connect back west to the line that’ll take us straight to Dekker’s.”

  “Why not take the same way me and LT did?”

  “’Cuz I’m sure the UD is watching those lines. Duh.”

  “Right.”

  “Anyway, this route will be faster. There’s just one minuscule little problem.”

  “What?”

  She raises her eyebrows. “Well, we might have to cross through an underground tunnel that might be a known secret route for a few uppity members of Congress to get from the UD to Texas without crossing the border out in the open. And the floor may or may not be riddled with tacky pods. So basically it might be hard to cross but not impossible.”

  I’m frowning so hard, I feel like my eyebrows are trying to swallow my eyes. “First of all, what are tacky pods? And second of all, are you kidding me?”

  “Tacky pods are like giant glue dots. And no, I’m not kidding you. Quit gearing out, FishKid. I have a plan.”

  “Isn’t there another way?”

  “Not one that’ll get us there tonight.”

  I sigh. “Fine. Lead the way.”

  THIRTY

  “STEP ON ONE of those,” Vee whispers as we stare at the floor glistening with tacky pods, “and you’re instantly glued in place until someone comes to fetch you.”

  “Great,” I mutter.

  There are tiny lights installed in the wall every four feet here, so I can see everything just fine. This tunnel is three times as big as the others and it’s extremely, extremely white. White floor. White painted brick. And it smells different. Like plastic. Like a beach ball fresh out of the package.