by J. V. Kade
Vee crosses her arms. “Please don’t tell me this one has a soundtrack too.”
“Awwww,” Scissor’s audience says. Her LED panel has a teal blue zigzag pattern on it today. “I will pretend you didn’t say that. No, what I have here is something far better. Something magnificent!”
She whirls around to grab a little black box on the counter behind her and accidentally knocks over a pile of gears. The gears clink-clank to the floor. The high-pitched sound makes me wince.
“Sorry,” Scissor says. “Anyway.” She pops the black box into the robot, flicks on the operating system, and shuts the torso panel. The lights wink on. The eyes open and close. The fingers twitch. Vee and I share a look.
Why did Scissor get us out of bed in the middle of the night to show us a robot?
The bot sits up, looks around. The eyes blink again before resting on me. When the voice sounds through the voice box, I know instantly who it is.
“Trout. You are safe.”
A lump works its way up my throat. “LT?”
“In the flesh!” Scissor says. “Er . . . well . . . in the metal, as it were.”
LT slides off the table silent as a cat. Even though he’s a robot, and metal, and cold, I still hug him and he hugs me back, which shows that robots can feel something that’s more than just programming.
“How did you . . . I don’t understand . . .”
“It’s a backup emergency program,” Scissor says. “Something new I’ve been working on.”
“When I knew I would not make it out of the building,” LT explains, “I started downloading my system to a remote receiver.”
“The little black box,” Scissor says.
Vee’s eyes grow big. “That’s brilliant.”
LT nods. “I had never done it before, so I was not sure it would work. It takes quite a while to download a robot’s data, but I was able to hold off Sandra—”
“Beard,” I correct him.
“Beard for as long as I needed to finalize the transfer. By the time they gained access to Po’s cell, my shell was empty.”
“So, you’re back for good?” I ask.
LT nods and smiles a robot smile. “I am back for good.”
I whoop and maul Vee. Then maul Scissor, then leap at LT. I never thought I’d say this, but I think I have a robot for a best friend.
FORTY-ONE
I CALL TELLIE THE next day and she answers on the second ring. “Hello?” she says, and when she sees it’s me, she breathes out in one long rush. “Trout! Oh my God I’m so glad you’re okay. I was worried. I heard you broke into . . .” She stops talking instantly and fixes her hair. “Never mind. You’re okay.”
There are a kajillion things I want to say to her. Thank you. I think you’re pretty. I’m glad we’re friends. You saved my life. You helped bring my family together. Instead I say, “Yeah. I’m okay.”
She gets closer to the screen. “My dad told me you used my temp Net-tag to get into City Hall.”
My face burns with embarrassment. “Yeah . . . about that . . .”
She waves off the apology before I can get it out. “Don’t apologize. You were trying to save your brother. That’s all that matters.”
“Did you get in trouble?” I ask.
She shrugs. “I got my extended privileges taken away from my tag. And my vid account was suspended. But who cares. What was I using my vid account for anyway? Nothing worthwhile. Until I posted your vid, anyway. My dad said he admires your bravery, by the way.”
“That’s wrenched.”
I have to admit, I’m still unsure about Mr. Rix. I saw him hitting Po in the last phone call he made to me before I left the UD. But every time I overheard Mr. Rix talking about the attacks, he was against them.
And I have to remind myself that a lot of people in the UD think my dad is a bad person because he’s a bot supporter. Maybe Mr. Rix thought the same thing about Po.
“Has your dad said anything else? Does he still hate bots?”
“Of course he does. It’s hard to think of them as anything other than machines.” She frowns. “I know you like them, but just the other day, I overheard my dad talking about a group of bots on the East Coast claiming they were the ones responsible for that robot LT’s detonate program. They’re saying it won’t be their last attack.”
“There was no detonate program!”
“Who cares if there was or not? They’re threatening the UD. That’s what matters. Not all bots are good.”
I think of Ratch. She’s right about that. “Not all humans are good either,” I point out.
“I guess that’s true. I don’t know.” Tellie picks at the nail polish on her thumb. “Do you think you’ll ever come back home?”
I hear Po and Dad talking out in the kitchen. Vee pipes in with something. I like it here. A lot. “I think I am home, but that doesn’t mean I can’t sneak in for a day. We can get ice cream or something. On me.”
Tellie grins. “I’ll hold you to that.”
“Hey, Trout!” Vee calls.
“I gotta go,” I say. “Thanks, Tellie. That’s what I called for. To tell you thanks for everything you did. And that I’m really sorry you got into trouble because of me.”
“It was for a good cause. And look, you got your dad back. Which is what we set out to do. Mission accomplished.”
I laugh, because we set off a lot of other crazy stuff with that one vid. It seems like forever ago when I made it with Tellie at my side.
“Later,” I say, and wave at the camera.
“Bye, Goldfish.”
I flick off the Link and head down the hall. Dad and Po are at the table. Po is emptying out a bag of chips. Vee is pacing the room.
“What is it?” I ask.
“My cousin is supposed to be here any minute!” she shrieks. She clears her throat. “It’s just been a long time since I’ve seen her and she’s one of my favorite cousins. So I’m excited.”
Merril pulls a cake out of the oven. Instantly the room smells like vanilla. “Y’all, this is one special cake.”
LT pops open a can of frosting.
Vee’s Link buzzes in her hand. “She’s here!” She skips the elevator and takes the stairs instead.
I plop down next to Po. “How old is the cousin?”
“Don’t know.” Po shrugs and stuffs his face with a handful of chips. “I hope she’s cute.”
Dad shakes his head. “To be young again.”
A few minutes later, the elevator dings and the doors open. Po wipes the chip crumbs from the corner of his mouth.
“You missed one right there,” I say, even though I’m lying. He swipes at his mouth. “No, right there. You almost got it.”
“Shut up.” He punches me in the arm.
“Ahh, geez, clanker! That hurt.”
Vee appears around the corner and tugs her cousin into the room. “Everyone, I’d like you to meet—”
“Holy jet smoke,” I breathe.
Po swallows loudly. “Marsi?”
Marsi widens her eyes. “Po? I didn’t know you were here. I mean, I knew you were here, but not here here—”
“Oh, this is so wrenched,” I say.
“You guys know each other?” Dad asks.
“It’s Marsi Olsen!” I exclaim. “Po’s had the biggest—”
Po clamps a hand over my mouth and gives me a look. He’s totally gearing out. It’s like we’re back in the middle of Brack on our way to the Heart Office. Everything has changed, but nothing has changed.
You should kiss her, I say with my eyes.
No way! he says with a frown.
You’re a big clucking chicken, I reply.
He lets go of me and rises to his feet and walks over to Marsi. And the
n he stands there, looking at the ground. “Hey . . . I . . . um . . .”
Marsi giggles. “Po St. Kroix, how is it you can address an entire nation on the Net, but you can’t say more than two words to me?”
He looks up. “I don’t know.”
“Three words.” She smiles and dimples appear in each cheek. “We’re making progress.” And then she takes two quick steps, grabs Po’s face, and kisses him right on the lips.
Vee gasps. Dad looks stunned. But me? I cheer Po on. That’s what brothers are for.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First and foremost, always much love and thanks to my husband, JV, for being my cheerleader, my supporter, and Trout’s earliest fan.
To my agent, Joanna Volpe, who saw something in this story long before I did. Who continues to be the voice of reason in my frequent states of neurosis. She is the best agent anyone could ask for.
To my editor, Kate Harrison, for her wisdom, her insight, and her mega love for Trout! For giving him a home, and for helping me make the characters, and bot world, so much better. This book would not be where it is today if not for her.
To Deena Lipomi, for reading Trout in his earliest form, and for encouraging me to keep going.
To Patricia Riley and Danielle Ellison, thank you for keeping me sane through multiple deadlines. You always know how to make me laugh.
And lastly, to my friends and family, for their support. And most importantly, to the grandparents, for endless hours of babysitting. You guys are awesome.
