With the Artifex going first, they rounded the corner of the house. Bits of blue light flickered through an old, sinewy rhododendron that curled around the edge of the stone.
“It’s right back…” began AJ, but then his voice trailed off. He backed up a few steps and held his hands out to try and stop Brady and Felix from coming any closer, but it was too late. They had already seen it.
“Oh, no…” Brady said as he gazed through the foliage.
A crowd of Artifex was gathered around the glowing portal.
“Wait, someone else is coming,” AJ said.
A white hand came through the portal, then the rest of the animatronic mannequin followed. Draped loosely around its body were the threadbare clothes that threatened to tear apart at any second. The creature’s dreadful carvings looked even worse in the pale light of day.
“Dad,” AJ whispered under his breath.
Chapter 24: The Nowhere Home
FOR THE FIRST time in his life, AJ was genuinely terrified. The sight of his father unsettled him so much that he began tugging desperately at Brady’s and Felix’s shirts, trying to pull them back from the corner of the Willoughbys’ old house.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” he begged.
Brady brushed his hand off and whispered down to the cowering child. “No offense, AJ, but I hoped I would never, ever see that face again.”
He looked back across the yard through the gnarly plant that gave them cover. AJ’s father, Sudo, and five other Artifex had spread out around the gateway and appeared to be inspecting it from different angles. The tops of their heads were alight in telepathic discussion.
“Four, five, six…” Brady counted. “At least he didn’t bring Batch and Redo along—he probably left them behind as punishment for letting us escape.”
One of the Artifex poked its arm back through the flame only to withdraw it a moment later. Bewildered, the bot turned his hand over several times and held it up to its face for closer examination, as if it was unsure whether it was still attached.
“You’ve been followed, AJ,” Felix calmly observed. “But how?”
AJ thought for a second. “You see the flashing lights on their heads? On my head?” he said.
“Hard to miss,” Felix replied.
“Every time the light flashes, a thought is being broadcast through the air. Each Artifex is configured with its own frequency. It’s how we can talk without—you know—actually speaking out loud.”
“A unique signature…” Felix added, his brow furrowed in thought. “They used your frequency to track you.”
“My signal would have been pretty weak back at the energy farm, but maybe it was still strong enough for them to detect it,” AJ said. “Especially if they were already out searching for me.”
“Why don’t you just go over there and tell them you’re here?” Brady suggested. “Maybe they’ll be so happy to see you that they’ll just take you with them and leave. Then you can close the portal from the other side. Poof! Problem solved.”
“Actually, AJ, that’s not a terrible idea,” Felix agreed.
“No way. I’m not going back with them!” AJ yelped. “Don’t you know how much trouble I’ll be in?”
“It won’t be that bad,” Brady joked. “You’ll just be locked up inside that crazy house for the next ten—” He stopped himself when he saw that AJ’s head was shaking back and forth so quickly it looked as if it might detach and launch into the air. The little bot’s body was trembling.
“Sorry, AJ,” Brady said softly. He felt terrible all of a sudden. “I’m just teasing. We’ll figure something out.”
“Look at that!” Felix said.
His arm raised, AJ’s father leveled a long finger off to the side of the portal. An Artifex broke from the pack and headed in the direction Sudo was pointing. Sudo then turned and motioned somewhere else, and a second Artifex left the ranks and disappeared into the trees. One by one, the bots left the group and headed in different directions, until only Sudo remained,
Suddenly, the robot’s head flashed with a new intensity. Sudo froze while he processed the information, his ragged clothes hanging loosely. Then, abruptly, the flashing stopped, and the strange robot turned slowly in their direction.
“Get down guys,” Felix said, urgently pulling his brother and AJ to the ground.
They quickly rolled into a hollow between the house and azalea bushes. Their three pairs of bulging eyes peered out from behind the shiny leaves. They could hear the sound of heavy footsteps making their way toward them.
He was coming.
“It’s the signal from your head, AJ!” Felix said. “Sudo knows you’re here. Can’t you turn it off?”
“I can try,” AJ said. The light on the child’s head dimmed like an extinguishing bulb.
The footsteps were close now, and a pair of large plastic legs came to rest directly in front of them. The shins were covered with deep, scar-like scratches, and the robot’s feet sank into the ground. The wait was unbearable. Brady expected Sudo’s hand to reach through the branches at any moment and rip him out of his hiding spot.
But then AJ’s father turned away and resumed his search.
The three of them waited behind the bushes for quite a while longer before mustering the courage to crawl away from the house. In the distance, the portal continued its ominous burn.
“Well, this is great! What are we going to do now?” asked Brady hysterically. His arms and knees were covered in mud from crawling on the ground. “We can’t just sit here while those crazy robots—sorry, AJ—wander around the woods. Eventually they’ll find their way into town. Or worse, they’ll make their way into someone’s home—like ours. What if they run into Mom? They’ll scare her to death!”
“Calm down,” Felix said. “Our best bet is to find Nova. Maybe she’ll know what to do.”
“I guess it’s worth a shot,” Brady reluctantly agreed. “But there’s just this one—huge—problem.”
“What’s that?” Felix asked.
“We have no idea where she is!” Brady said. “All this time we thought she lived in the Willoughbys’ house. We could wander around here for years and never find her.”
AJ’s eyes flickered with a renewed energy. “You’re really not that smart, are you, Brady? Even for a human.”
Brady rolled his eyes. “Smarter than you. What’s your point?”
“I know where she is,” he taunted.
“How?” Brady asked. “You’ve never been to her house—if she even has one.”
Felix’s index finger rocketed toward the sky. “Of course! The location database in her watch. It keeps track of all the places she’s been, which obviously includes her house.”
AJ bounced up and down. “See, Brady, your brother got all the smarts,” he teased.
Brady glowered back at him.
“Cut it out, guys,” Felix said. “We have bigger things to worry about right now.”
“You’re right,” said Brady, grabbing AJ by the arm. “As tempting as it is to leave you and your family here alone and just go home, I know better by now. Come on. Let’s go find Nova before something else happens.”
10101110
They left the Willoughbys’ house behind and followed AJ through the woods, careful to avoid any wandering Artifex. At one point, they thought they heard nearby footsteps, but it turned out to be a startled deer. Fortunately for them, the bots were nowhere to be seen, which Brady thought was both good, because they gave him the creeps, and bad, because he had no idea where they were. Just when he thought his legs were going to give out, they arrived at a large clearing in the trees near the side of the mountain.
“We’re here,” said AJ uncertainly. He turned back to face Brady and Felix, who teetered on the brink of exhaustion.
A broad expanse of land opened up behind the child. In the gap between the trees, they had an unobstructed view of the valley that stretched out beneath them. They could see the outline of the town far
off in the distance, the buildings no more than vague shapes dotting the colorless horizon.
But there wasn’t a house in sight.
“What do you mean ‘we’re here’?” Felix asked. “We’re standing in the middle of nowhere.”
The bot stomped his foot. “The data from the watch says this is it! It’s supposed to be right here!” His confused eyes searched around for something to prove him right.
Just then Felix noticed something crawling up AJ’s body. It was an insect with a dark golden body—a beetle with tiny silver legs. Then he saw another one climbing up the bot’s other leg. When he looked at the ground next to the child, he saw a stream of insects clambering out of a small hole in the ground.
“AJ! You’ve got something on you!” Felix called, taking a few steps backward to avoid the bugs.
By this time the Artifex’s legs were almost entirely covered by the strange robotic insects. The bot jumped high into the air with a yelp and began running toward the cliff as fast as he could. “What are these—”
Bam.
The bot fell backward to the ground, as if he had collided with something. Startled, he sat up. Out of nowhere, Nyx passed by overhead and the robotic bugs scuttled away.
“What the heck happened, AJ? Did you fry a circuit or something?” Felix laughed.
The bot was too busy looking puzzled to respond.
Brady raised his eyebrows. “I’ve seen this trick before,” he said confidently. “Watch this!”
He reached down, picked a crooked twig off the ground, and tossed it just past AJ. It came to a sudden stop in mid-air and fell into the soft grass beside the bot. The scenery behind AJ distorted into an array of bleeding colors before returning to normal.
Felix’s mouth hung slack.
“No way! Something’s actually there?”
“Yup. Pretty cool, huh?” Brady said.
Felix walked over to AJ and waved his arm around slowly in front of him, searching. His hand grazed something invisible.
“Pretty cool…” he said.
“If you think that’s awesome, you should see their barn,” Brady bragged.
“Barn?” Felix replied.
“Just the place where Nova keeps her quadcopter. At least, that’s where she used to keep it—until the Artifex caused it to crash.” Brady glared in AJ’s direction.
“Hey! Don’t blame me!” the bot replied defensively.
Felix ignored the bickering. “You’re sure this is where she lives, AJ?” His hands continued to feel around the invisible structure. The air rippled like water in the places he touched.
“Yes, this is it.” Nova walked out from the shadows of the trees and into the clearing. “I received a message from Nyx telling me you were on your way. At first I thought she must be mistaken. I wondered why on earth you would come back. So I went out looking for you, and—” Her eyes locked onto the child. “AJ?” she gasped.
“Hi, Nova,” AJ replied, embarrassed.
“Well, I guess I know why you’re here,” she sighed. “Brady, Felix—what happened?”
“We found him wandering around in the woods on our way home. We were as surprised as you. He says he used your watch to open a new portal,” Brady said.
AJ came to stand by Brady’s side. He was riddled with guilt. “You don’t need to speak for me, I’m right here,” he said.
A look of despair washed over Nova’s face.
“But wait, it’s worse than that,” Brady said.
“What do you mean, worse?”
“AJ’s father, Sudo, and some other Artifex,” Felix said. “They’ve come through the portal, too. They’re looking for AJ.”
“Sudo? I hoped never to see him again,” Nova said. “Sorry, AJ.”
Brady suppressed a laugh and looked over at AJ, who obviously didn’t find humor in the sentiment.
“We need to figure this out quickly,” Nova added. “Come on. Let’s get inside before we’re spotted by one of your friends.”
She walked toward the place where AJ had fallen, and for a second it appeared that she would continue walking straight off the cliff. But instead, the illusion of the clearing shimmered and then vanished like a magician lifting up the veil.
They were standing before a modest prairie-style house built on the edge of the mountain precipice. The modern structure was a collection of clean lines and simple shapes, built from wood, glass, and stone, with tall rectangular windows, a low roofline, and large eaves supported by thick, exposed timbers.
Nova led them up the stone steps and across the porch.
They were greeted by a slate-tiled foyer and an expanse of wood floors that covered the main level. Floor-to-ceiling windows in every room provided an unobstructed view of the outdoors. From the foyer, they could see straight through to the back of the house, where the overhang of the cliff was framed by even more windows.
Achilles was lying on his side in a corner of the entryway, his head and feet tucked comfortably into a ball.
“Hey, Achilles!” said Felix loudly. When he saw that his friend was sleeping, he lowered his voice to a whisper. “Oops. Sorry.”
“That’s okay,” Nova replied, leaning against the front door. “He can’t hear you right now anyway.”
“Why not?”
“He’s busy recharging. The run-in with the Collectors took about everything he had out of him—and then some. It’ll be at least a few hours before he’s back to full capacity.”
Felix squatted down and patted the canine on the head. “Good to see you again,” he whispered.
The dog’s eyes glowed faintly at the sound of his friend’s voice.
Nova turned her attention toward the child bot.
“Do you realize what you’ve done, AJ? You’ve put this entire world at risk!”
“Sorry, I—”
“And if you’re here, where is Alethea?” she continued.
The bot looked down and tapped his foot against the floor. “I guess I left her back at the Heap…”
“You what?” Nova’s voice rose. “Why, AJ?”
Brady and Felix exchanged surprised glances. Neither had seen her lose control like this.
“This is where I belong,” the child argued. “You are my people.”
Nova shook her head in disagreement. “No—this isn’t where you belong.” She turned to face the brothers. “Felix, you said there were more Artifex? How many?”
“Six,” Felix replied.
“I’m going to need some time to think,” Nova said, and she started down the hall toward the back of the house. She stopped at the large window overlooking the outdoors and called back, “Brady and Felix, can I talk to you alone for a second?”
“Sure,” they both said at the same time.
Brady made a face at Felix as they joined her at the window. It was still overcast outside, but the view from the window was breathtaking nevertheless. Gazing out across the trees, Brady could make out more of the details of the town.
“Nice view,” he said.
“Thanks,” Nova replied, but seemed unusually distant. “I should have seen this coming a mile away.”
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Brady said. “It’s like I told Felix—there’s something off with AJ.”
“Obviously,” she replied, chewing on her lip as if she was considering something. “We’ll need to let my father know as soon as possible. I guess it’s no use trying to keep it a secret anymore.”
There was a strange edge in her voice now.
“What secret? What are you talking about?” Brady asked. He was beginning to get a bad feeling about this. “Where is your dad, anyway?”
Nova paused. “He’s already here,” she replied enigmatically.
Brady and Felix’s eyes swung around the room, clearly wondering if she had lost her mind.
“He is?”
Nova turned and called back down the hallway. “AJ, I need you to do me a favor. Can you please stay here with Achilles? We’ll be back soon, I pro
mise.”
The child nodded, but muttered something under his breath. Brady thought he heard something about not being appreciated.
“Thank you, AJ. See you in a bit,” Nova said as she walked toward a stained wooden door near the end of the hall. She opened it and waved the boys forward.
“This way, please.”
They headed down a deep stairwell, and a different type of door waited for them at the bottom. It was constructed of steel and looked far more sturdy and secure than seemed necessary.
Nova held her hand up against the wall, and the door slid back, revealing a large workshop on the other side.
The lights brightened automatically as Nova stepped into the room. The basement’s footprint was considerably larger than that of the upstairs, and it had the charm and warmth of a hardened bunker—all reinforced concrete and steel walls. Crisscrossing the ceiling were metal tracks, from which robotic arms hung on chains. Several benches were covered with strange-looking equipment and tools.
Brady spotted the unfinished head of a bear lying on one of the tables. A bundle of tangled wires ran from its robotic neck and connected to an armless torso that lay by its side. One of its arms was suspended just above it.
The laboratory of a mad scientist, Brady thought, and for a second he considered turning around and heading back upstairs. He looked over at his brother, whose face was alive with wonder. Of course Felix would like this place.
Thorn was there, perched on a knotty branch of carved aluminum mounted to one of the walls. Her wings were folded against her sides and she rested peacefully. At the far end of the room were several piles of Evercells.
“Batteries,” Brady observed. “What are they for?”
They heard the familiar hiss of static, and the lights flickered.
“For me,” came a booming voice that swirled around them with the force and motion of a twister.
The boys recognized it at once. It was the same voice they had heard speaking inside Achilles’ mind back at the Heap.
His creator.
Brady traced a series of thick cables that ran from the Evercells to a box resting on a table near the back of the room. A circular light burned brightly in the center. It was the same type of container Alethea had been in.
The Quantum Door Page 19
