Nova was about to argue when she remembered Brady and Felix. “Okay,” she agreed. “Then I’ll go find Brady and Felix. Who knows what trouble they’ve gotten into by now. Come find us if you have any luck—otherwise we’ll come and find you after we get them home.”
AJ vanished through the door.
“Good luck,” she called after him.
Chapter 30: Parallels
THE BLUE FLAME of the portal played across Brady’s and Felix’s faces as they waited desperately for Nova to come through after them. It was only after the door vanished that they realized she wasn’t coming.
“Where are we?” Felix asked, scratching his head and looking around uneasily.
They had expected to find themselves somewhere else, somewhere other than the place they had left behind. But they were here, in a forest that looked frighteningly familiar. Except that there were no Artifex, no golems, no portals—and best of all, thought Brady, no AJ. The woods were quiet and peaceful, nothing like the chaos they had left behind. It was as if Nova had flipped a switch and everything wrong had simply vanished.
A reset button.
“Brady?” Felix turned to look at his brother. He found him focused intently on the Willoughbys’ cottage.
“What are you looking at?” asked Felix.
“Do you notice anything different?” Brady said slowly.
Felix stared in wonder at the home. The bushes were trimmed back and a light glowed warmly from inside. A fresh coat of paint had been slathered on the window trim, and the house looked decidedly peppier than before.
“Yeah, a bunch of things,” Felix replied. “There’s a light on for starters. That’s weird.”
The boys made their way through the side yard toward the front of the cottage. When they rounded the corner, they noticed something that made them stop cold.
The old Wrangler was parked off to the side.
“Mr. Willoughby’s come home,” Brady said in hushed amazement.
“It can’t be. He’s been gone for years.” Felix sounded unsure of himself.
“Then who is that inside?”
They watched in shock as the silhouette of a long-haired man moved across the window before disappearing into another room.
Felix shook his head and rubbed his eyes. “That’s impossible. It must be another one of Nova’s illusions—like the barn.”
“Something’s not right, Felix. We shouldn’t be here.” Brady was beginning to lose whatever nerve he had left.
“For once I agree with you, Brady. Let’s get out of here.”
They backed away from the house and headed into the woods. It was evening now and there was only a little daylight remaining. With nowhere else to go, the brothers made their way home. After a long hike, they found themselves staring at their back yard from behind the forest’s edge.
The grass had been mowed recently and they saw lights on when they looked up at their house. They were so excited to be back that it took them a minute to notice that something was out of place.
The chain-link fence was missing.
“I’m not sure we actually went through a door, Brady. Maybe something else happened.”
They started toward the house, but stopped just before the edge of the forest when they saw two shadowy figures running through their back yard. The figures looked to be about the same age and height as themselves, and the smaller one was carrying something in his hand.
Then they heard something unreal: the sound of their own voices.
“That sounds like you, Felix!” Brady said.
“Really? I sound like that?” Felix frowned.
“No, seriously. I think that’s us over there.”
“It’s an illusion,” Felix said. “Come on. Let’s go check it out.” He tugged on his brother’s shirtsleeve.
“I’m not sure, Felix. This place… It doesn’t feel right.”
“There you go again,” his brother replied.
They heard another voice. This time it sounded like Brady. The voice was loud, concerned. It sounded like he was scolding his brother.
“Some things never change,” the real Felix muttered under his breath.
“Did you say something?” the real Brady asked.
“Nothing.”
The real Brady and Felix crept around the corner of their house and hid behind a large hemlock tree. There was a small tripod on the ground, and the other Felix was sliding a model rocket down the long guide wire. The other Brady, with one arm on his hip and the other swinging through the air, was telling him to aim it away from the house.
“Ouch. Am I really that awful?” Brady asked his brother as he stared out at his other self. It was the strangest feeling he had ever experienced; watching his alternate twin.
“Of course not. You’re worse!” Felix laughed.
Annoyed, Brady pushed his brother so hard he fell. Felix shrieked as he collapsed backward into the leaves.
The other brothers stopped suddenly.
“Did you hear something? It sounded like it came from the woods,” the other Brady asked.
The other Felix looked around, then went back to work on the rocket. “For once, stop worrying,” he said, backing away from the launch pad, the cord tugging at the launch controller box cradled in his hands.
“Five… four… three… two… one…”
A cloud of gray smoke swelled beneath the engine, and the rocket sped upward with a loud hiss. The real Felix and Brady watched it pass overhead and vanish into the sky.
When they looked back, the other Felix was fiddling with his phone.
“Check out the video stream from the rocket, Brady!”
The two brothers studied the screen together. After watching the successful launch, the other Brady slapped his brother a high five.
“That kid has some great ideas,” the real Felix said with a proud grin. Brady grimaced.
“It looks like we put too much angle on it,” the other Brady said from afar. “It’s headed somewhere over in the woods.”
“No problem. It has a GPS on it so we can find it. Just let me get a lock on it first.” The other brothers waited quietly for the phone to do its job.
“Got it—it’s somewhere back there,” the other Felix said, pointing toward a section of the woods not far from where the real brothers had been only minutes before.
“We need to find it before it gets too dark,” the other Brady suggested. “Come on.”
The other brothers headed into the woods and out of sight.
Felix was getting ready to say something to his brother when someone tapped him on his shoulder.
“Hey, guys. What in the world are you doing back here? How did the launch go, anyway?”
It was a voice Brady hadn’t heard for years. A voice he missed dearly and would have given anything to hear again.
The boys turned and looked up at their father.
Chapter 31: What If?
“DAD, IS THAT YOU?” Brady asked softly. Felix’s chin trembled as he stared up at the stranger who had left them when Felix was too young to remember. His father looked different than he did in the pictures. He was older; there was white in his beard, flecks of gray around his temples. The years had added lines to his face, but it was their father nevertheless.
“Is this me? What kind of question is that? Of course it’s me,” he answered. The unfamiliar creases in the corners of his eyes grew more pronounced and pulled tight as he smiled down at the boys. “You guys were supposed to be launching a rocket, right? Did it hit you in the head or something?”
Felix tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come. His eyes were beading up with tears. The wave of emotion hit him square in the gut.
Brady saw his brother struggling and jumped in. “The wing broke. I—I needed to glue it back on.”
Felix wiped his eyes with his sleeve and tried to pull himself together. It was useless. He ran up and hugged his father tight. Brady waited a second before joining in.
“Um�
��” his father said awkwardly. “Thanks—but are you sure everything’s okay?”
“It’s fine, Dad, we’re just happy to see you,” Felix said. At last they pulled away.
Confused, their father patted them on the backs. “Okay, well if you guys have some time, would you mind giving me a hand with something?”
“Sure,” Brady replied.
Felix nodded.
“Come on then—the engine’s in the garage.” He was heading around the side of the house when he stopped suddenly. “That’s weird,” he said. “Weren’t you all wearing different clothes just a few minutes ago?”
“We got dirty riding our bikes around so we decided to change,” Brady called back as they hurried to catch up with their father.
In the garage, they found a stripped-down boat attached to a pickup truck parked in the driveway.
“Since when did we get that?” Felix asked.
“What do you mean? Oliver Willoughby gave it to us.” Their father looked at Felix curiously. “You seem like you’re not yourself today.”
They walked into the open garage where the engine was sitting in pieces on the workbench.
“Do you mind staying here for a second?” their dad asked. “I need to go grab the rest of my tools.”
“No problem,” Felix responded.
Their father opened the door to the laundry room and walked inside. They could hear their mom’s voice coming from down the hall.
Brady pulled his brother outside the garage where they could talk. “This isn’t right,” he said quickly once he was sure his father wasn’t in earshot. “We’re not supposed to be here—this isn’t our world.”
“Who says? Why can’t we stay here?” Felix argued.
“I understand why you want to stay. Dad is still alive here. Believe me, I want to stay too. But we can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because our twins from this world are going to be back here soon, and then there’s going to be real trouble.”
“Why can’t we just send them back through and we stay here? We can trade places.”
“You know why. Because it wouldn’t be fair to them, to lose Dad so suddenly. We’ve had our whole lives to get used to it.”
“I get that Brady, it’s just that… I was a baby when Dad died. I never really got a chance to know him. You wouldn’t understand.”
Brady reached out and hugged his brother.
“It’s okay, Felix. I do understand. Doesn’t it make you feel better knowing that there’s a place where he still exists? A place where we grew up with a father?”
They were interrupted by a voice calling out from the garage. “Hey guys, I’ll be right out—can I grab you a snack or something?”
They looked back at the open laundry room door, where light spilled out onto the steps leading down into the garage. Their father was still somewhere inside, just beyond the door.
“Come on, Felix. We need to go back to our home—to our real mom.”
“Brady? Felix? You guys still there?” their father’s voice came again.
“Just a bit longer. Please,” Felix pleaded.
“We have to go now!” Brady insisted. He grabbed his brother by the arm and pulled him away. It was by far the hardest thing he had ever had to do.
Tears ran down Felix’s face as they left. Brady did his best to keep it together for his brother, but soon he was crying as well.
On their way around the corner of the house they heard the sound of their other selves coming from somewhere in the forest. Careful not to be seen, they waited for their twins to clear the woods before sneaking around the edge of the back yard. Then they crouched down under the cover of the trees and looked back toward the house. They could see the outline of their father standing by the side of the house, probably looking for them.
“Brady, Felix?” he called out.
“Yeah, Dad?” the other Felix responded.
“Okay, we’re safe now,” the real Brady said. “Give me your phone.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.” Felix unlocked his phone and passed it over to Brady. “What are you going to do with it?”
Brady zoomed in and took the shot.
“Got it. Now we’ll never forget…”
Felix looked down at his phone’s screen and smiled.
They heard something approaching behind them. When they turned, they saw familiar eyes glowing at them from the edge of the woods.
Achilles was waiting for them.
It was time to go.
10100110
Nova and Achilles had been waiting for them under the tall trees that looked down on the yard. The steel canine leapt at Felix and almost knocked him down in his excitement. Brady was happy to see his brother smile again. Together they made their way back to the portal Nova had opened for them earlier.
Brady eyed the Glia Box strapped to Achilles’ back. “What happened?” he asked.
“The Elder Minds…” She paused. “Everything we had there was destroyed. Our home is gone, and my father—he barely survived.”
Brady and Felix were alarmed and saddened at the same time. “Our mom?” Brady asked reluctantly, fearing the worst.
“I don’t think the golems went anywhere near your house. They were there for my father. She should be fine—except for worrying about you guys. Everything okay here?”
“Sure, everything’s okay,” Felix said, locking eyes with his brother.
“Okay then, the portal is right up ahead.”
To their surprise, they heard a boom and saw a different door open. A dash of white erupted from the flame and streaked across the forest.
AJ stopped abruptly in front of them.
“Something terrible has happened,” the bot said breathlessly.
“What, AJ?” Nova asked. “Did you find more Evercells?”
“I didn’t have a chance to look,” AJ explained. “When I went back, I found an army of golems preparing to pass through a different portal. So I followed them.”
“And…?” Felix prompted.
“They went back to your world,” the bot replied, looking at Brady. “They were marching toward a house farther down the mountainside. I left and came here as quickly as I could. We have to get back there!”
And with that, the bot turned and ran off.
“AJ! Wait!” Brady called, but the bot sped through the portal.
Suddenly it hit Brady like a ton of bricks. “Our house… Mom!”
Brady took off toward the door and didn’t stop even though he heard Felix and Nova calling his name. AJ’s portal glowed ominously in front of him, waiting.
He stepped through—and realized at once he had made a terrible mistake.
Chapter 32: AJ’s Bargain
IT WAS ALREADY THERE, waiting for him on the other side, as though it knew the boy was coming. Brady’s eyes went wide with fear; he tried desperately to reverse his forward momentum. As he slid to a stop on the slick surface, his heart pounding in his ears, he tried to turn around—but he never had a chance. A large arm grabbed him by the waist and pinned him against the wall with ease.
This wasn’t home.
The creature leaned in toward Brady, their faces only inches apart. Brady could see his own frightened face reflected back in the monster’s metallic skin, his image broken by the empty sockets and the mouth that hung open in a perpetual scream.
But the monster looked different now. The Elders, no longer forced to control the golems across the incalculable separation of quantum realities, could sculpt their puppets with ease. This golem’s body was well-defined; its exterior was rock solid and cold to the touch.
Brady turned his head sideways and looked back at the portal. It was within reach, he thought, if only he could free himself. But before he could even attempt to move, Achilles, Nova, and Felix bounded through the flame.
“Go back!” he screamed, but he knew it was already too late.
He saw the grim recognition spread quickly across
their faces; their curiosity was displaced by dread. They knew they had walked straight into a trap.
Achilles scrambled around, but the portal collapsed, locking them together in the nightmare.
With the arrival of the others, the golem released its grip on Brady, who slid down the wall and collapsed in a pile on the floor. Nova and Felix raced over and helped Brady to his feet.
Together, the three friends looked around the massive drum-shaped room. A brilliant ball of white light burned between two delicate needles. The first was attached to a massive drill that extended down from the ceiling. The other rose up from an opening in the floor, where bundles of wires and cables intertwined together like a pit of snakes.
Brady recalled the fusion reactor chamber Nova had spoken about when they were at the power station. Somehow he knew that’s where they were. Megawatts of energy must be flowing from the controlled explosion; the bright ball cast out branching arcs of light, which played across the walls and electrified the room.
A circle of golems had formed a ring around the fusion core. Tangles of lifeless tentacles scraped across the floor with a wretched sound as the Elder Golems hoisted Collector bodies up into the air and fastened them to large steel hooks that hung from the ceiling. They were hard at work, readying the room for the mind transfers. Two more golems stood guard by the room’s only exit.
The brightness of the fusion core made it difficult to see much of anything beyond it. It was like staring into the surface of the sun. Nevertheless, Brady saw motion on the other side of the room. More golems, he thought, an audience waiting for the main attraction to begin.
Slowly, his eyes adjusted to the light and he was able to make out more details. They weren’t people at all. Dozens of Artifex were lined up against the wall, still as statues. At first he didn’t understand why they weren’t moving, but then he realized: they must be trapped inside Time Huggers, just like Nova had been when they first rescued her.
Thick cables ran from the bots’ heads and attached to the Collectors that hung from the ceiling. AJ’s father was among them, frozen like the others. His expressionless face stared out at them behind green eyes that had been dulled by time suspension.
The Quantum Door Page 23
