Hoping for a distraction, Casey opened the backpack that was sitting on her lap and began to rummage inside. A lot of the stuff in the bag seemed useless to Casey. Who would ever need a weird mirrored gizmo like this? she thought, holding up a small ball roughly the size of a pinball.
Apparently, Frank needed it, because when he noticed her holding it, he quickly snatched it out of her hand. “This,” he said, holding it up in front of her, “is a one-kiloton detonation. It is not a toy.” Warning her not to touch his stuff, Frank placed the pinball back into the bag and then put the bag between his feet.
Jeez, Casey thought. Way to be an even bigger buzzkill. And why is Frank walking around with a detonation device? Who is he planning to blow up?
Before she could even ask, Athena and Frank resumed their argument, talking heatedly over Casey’s head. For all the shouting, they were getting nowhere. Years of pent-up anger were causing Frank just to spew questions at Athena, wanting answers about why she had come back, why she had given Casey a pin.
Casey was beginning to wonder how badly she would be hurt if she threw herself over Frank and out the door of the moving truck, when Athena finally said something that stopped Frank’s rant.
“I’m sorry,” Athena said, sounding sincere. “But time was running out and you needed motivation.”
“Motivation to do what?” Frank asked, narrowing his eyes at her.
Athena’s next words were a punch in his gut. “We need to go back over, Frank,” she said.
We have to go back, huh? Frank thought as Athena pulled the truck into a parking lot behind a television station. Well, wasn’t that just ducky? He had finally gotten his life back on track—well, sort of on track; he was at least going out once a week—and now Athena was going to derail it…again.
“Frank, it’s not personal,” Athena said, as though reading his thoughts. “It’s just programming.”
IN THE parking lot behind a small television station in Albany, New York, Athena, Frank, and Casey stood looking at a large satellite dish. It was the middle of the day, so everyone was inside working on current stories or waiting for new ones to break. If they had had any idea of what was going on in their parking lot, they would have swarmed the trio in seconds.
Luckily, the group remained unnoticed, and Athena was able to outline the plan. As it turned out, getting back to Tomorrowland was not a one-step kind of process. First, Athena said, they had to get to the Spectacle.
“Spect-a-what?” Casey asked.
Frank waved her question off. “You’re insane,” he told Athena. “They’ll be waiting for—”
“Fine,” Athena said, cutting him off. “Just give me the Edison Tube and we’ll go without you.”
“I don’t have the Edison Tube,” Frank said unconvincingly.
“It’s in your bag,” Athena countered. “I have X-ray vision.”
Frank looked shocked. Clearly, he hadn’t known that little fact about his old friend.
“She’s full of surprises,” Casey pointed out.
Frank spun around and glared down at Casey. She had clearly touched a nerve. “I know all about her surprises, kid. Chief among them is this….” He turned and pointed at Athena. “She doesn’t care about you. The charm? It’s just software. Ones and zeros.”
Frank’s anger took Casey aback. “What happened to you two?” she asked softly.
“He thinks I hurt him,” Athena answered.
“No,” Frank snapped. “You hurt a dumb kid who was stupid enough to fall in”—he stopped himself, unwilling to give her the satisfaction—“who should have known better.” With that, he turned his back on Athena and stared down at the ground.
Behind him, Athena stood still. Watching her, Casey would have sworn that the last comment had actually stung. But she was a robot. That wasn’t possible, was it? Shaking her head, Athena tried to get them back to the point. “So how about you give us the Edison Tube thingy and—”
“You want in?” Frank asked. “Fine. I’ll bring you in. Why not? Better than waiting around here to get hunted down and killed.” He turned around and began heading toward the small shed right next to the satellite antennae.
Shrugging, Casey followed, and a moment later, so did Athena. Once they were inside, Frank made a beeline for a trapdoor in the floor at the back of the shed. Clearly, he’s been here before, Casey thought as she watched him open it and disappear into the darkness below. Athena followed right behind, and then Casey.
Casey climbed down the ladder inside the trapdoor, let go at the end of it, and fell for a surprisingly long while. She landed with a thump. Looking up at Frank, she was about to explain to him about warnings and how useful they were when he pulled on a string dangling from a lightbulb.
Instantly, the whole room was illuminated with a bright blue light. Casey’s eyes widened. Thick, translucent cables ran every which way: up the walls, along the floor, all connected to what looked like a large freezer in the center of the room. Frank walked over to a wall and flipped several switches, and the freezer-like thing began to hum.
“What kind of cable is this?” Casey asked, kneeling down to look more closely at one of the thicker wires.
“The kind that transmits people,” Frank said as though that were the most obvious thing in the world.
“I’m sorry, what?” Casey said.
Frank raised an eyebrow. “Do I have to explain everything? Can you just be amazed?” He walked toward a table in the corner of the room and began to fiddle with one of the smaller wires.
Watching him, Casey imagined how satisfying it would be to slap him upside the head. But then her mind began to whir as she started to put the pieces together. The wires. The television station. The antennae. They were all connected. “This is all wired to that dish up there,” she finally said. “Are you using a satellite?”
Frank stopped what he was doing and looked up at her, surprised that she had come to the right conclusion. Then he shrugged. She knew how things worked. Well, zippity-doo for her. They had more important things to focus on right then. He threw a roll of black duct tape toward her. “Wrap this over your eyes. Tight.”
Casey was not keen on the idea of intentionally making herself vulnerable, but she didn’t see any way around it. So with a sigh, she covered her eyes. That wasn’t so bad, she thought. But if this tape rips off my eyebrows…
“Open your mouth and put your head back,” Frank said from somewhere close by.
Doing what she was told, Casey tilted her head and opened her mouth. She almost gagged as he poured a foul-tasting powder right on her tongue. “Blegghh!” she cried after she finally managed to swallow. “What was that?”
“Powder,” Frank said unhelpfully. As Casey tried to figure out how to get the awful taste out of her mouth, Frank looked at Athena, who was monitoring a gauge on the side of the freezer. An arrow on the gauge was pointing at SEND. They were good to go. “Okay, set it for the tower.” He paused as a thought crossed his mind. “There is still a receiver there, right?”
“Last I checked,” Athena said.
Frank raised an eyebrow. “And when was that?”
“Twenty-five years ago,” she answered. “Roughly.”
Behind her tape, Casey wondered if Frank was as surprised as she was to find out that Athena had obviously been kicked out of Tomorrowland, just like him. If she could have seen his expression, she would have known immediately that the answer was yes.
Suddenly, Casey felt Frank’s hand on her arm, and then she was being moved. She felt a cool mist and then he unceremoniously picked her up and placed her so she was crouching inside what had to be the freezer thing. Finally, he put a pair of thick headphones on Casey’s head.
Before slipping them over her ears, he gave her a warning. “It’s going to be cold, bright, and real loud. You’ll lose ninety percent of your blood sugar in one–one hundredth of a second and wish you were dead. But then it will be over.”
As Casey contemplated Frank’s reassur
ing last words, he helped Athena into the freezer. He didn’t give her the warning. Instead, he paused and looked at Casey. Then he looked back at Athena. “Why now?” he asked softly. “Why her?”
“Because,” Athena said, her voice confident, “she hasn’t given up.”
Suddenly, there was a flash of understanding in Frank’s eyes. “You think she can fix it,” he said, a hint of hope in his voice. “Can she?”
“I have no idea,” Athena answered. Then she shrugged. “Let’s go find out.”
Frank nodded. The fate of the world lay in the answer. So with that, Frank pulled himself into the freezer, grabbed his own headphones, and pulled the lid closed over the three of them.
A moment later, the room filled with a burst of light, there was a loud boom, and then the freezer disappeared.
Frank hadn’t been lying. Casey did wish she were dead. As soon as the lid opened and Casey stumbled out, she was overcome with the greatest thirst she had ever felt in her whole life. Her mouth felt like it was full of sand and she would have sworn her veins had shrunk. She didn’t even pay attention to where they were until after Athena had given her a very old bottle of soda, which Casey chugged in less than thirty seconds. Letting out a happy sigh, Casey finally looked around.
The room they had arrived in was smaller than the last and aboveground. As her eyes adjusted, she could see light from a small window above the only door in the room. The door had a variety of locks in various shapes and sizes, all bolted on the inside. Casey shivered nervously, wondering who—or what—those locks were meant to keep out.
“Okay,” Frank said, his next words making Casey even more nervous. “We’ve got no idea how many of them are here, but you can be sure they know we’re coming. So move quick, follow me, and”—he looked right at Casey—“no questions.”
“Got it,” Casey said, letting out a loud soda burp.
Frank rolled his eyes but nodded. Then he turned and began to unlock the door, one weird lock at a time. Finally, he pushed it open. “Welcome to Paris.”
Paris? Casey repeated silently. How on Earth could they be in Paris when only like ten minutes earlier, they were in upstate New York? Maybe the freezer thing scrambled Frank’s mind, Casey mused. Or maybe I’m hearing things. Or maybe…
And then she saw the view on the other side of the door. There, spread out like a brilliant sparkling fairy tale, was the unmistakable city of Paris, France. Somehow, they had arrived on the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower.
Casey walked slowly out of the room and found herself circulating the deck among a crowd of tourists. It was late evening, and the view of the city was mesmerizing. Casey barely registered the people, though. She was too caught up in looking at the city below and trying to figure out how this had all happened.
Frank and Athena were less oblivious to the people around them. They, more than Casey, knew how easily any one person could actually be a robot on the lookout. So as they slowly made their way through the crowd, they kept their eyes peeled.
A few minutes later, in flowing French, a woman’s voice announced over the loudspeaker the official closing of the tower. Frank nodded. “Good,” he said after he translated for Casey. “If everyone clears out, maybe only we get killed.”
His step quickening, he led Athena and Casey around a corner and finally stopped in front of a door. A red velvet rope was strung across it, and a small plaque on the wall informed visitors that they were in front of the apartment of Gustave Eiffel, the engineer who had designed the tower. A tall, serious-looking guard kept watch nearby.
“We’ll be on their watch list,” Frank whispered, moving farther away from the apartment door. “But they might not have your facial recognition profile uploaded yet.”
“Might not?” Casey repeated. Might was not good. Definitely was good. Might was the same as saying she was as good as caught.
Ignoring her, Frank began to rummage around in his bag again. That time, he pulled out what looked like a tuning fork. “Walk over there,” Frank said, handing it to her. “Stick this in his chest. If he’s human, it’ll knock him out.”
“And if it’s a robot?” Casey asked.
Frank shrugged. “You’ll piss it off.”
“Fantastic,” Casey said sarcastically.
Taking a deep breath, she turned and walked to the guard. He eyed her suspiciously. Not waiting for him to make the first move, Casey reached out her arm and touched the guard with the fork. Instantly, he dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Casey smiled. That had been easier than she’d expected.
Frank and Athena didn’t waste any time. As Athena used the guard’s keys to open the door, Frank grabbed his feet and dragged him inside. Casey followed, taking in everything with childish excitement.
The apartment had been staged to look like it might have when Gustav Eiffel had made it his home. Four mannequins stood in various spots around the room. Each had a plaque at its feet, and as Casey went from one to another, she read the names under her breath. “‘Edison. Eiffel. Tesla. Verne.’”
“The French hated this thing when Eiffel unveiled it at the Paris world’s fair,” Frank explained as he watched Casey process everything. “Gustave didn’t care, though. The place wasn’t meant to be a monument. It was meant to find another world.”
“Tomorrowland?” Casey offered.
Frank nodded, pulling out the Edison Tube. “‘The First Four’ built the giant antenna we’re inside to—”
Casey stopped him. “Wait, what? The Eiffel Tower is an antenna?”
“Yes,” Frank said, a little frustrated. She was always asking for answers and here he was giving them to her and she had to interrupt? Sighing, he went on. “An antenna that observed every kind of frequency out there. And they found exactly what they were looking for.”
Pausing, he walked to an old phonograph and opened it. Casey waited, anxious to hear more.
Finally, Frank continued. “There were always rumors of a secret entrance—one the Four kept just for themselves—in case of emergency. The Spectacle.”
Frank slipped the Edison Tube into a slot on the phonograph. There was a click as it slid perfectly into place and then a loud whir. Instantly, the room began to change in front of their very eyes. Walls collapsed and extended. Paintings rotated and bookcases flipped around until, finally, the entire place was transformed into what looked like an old-fashioned version of mission control.
In the middle of the room was a large machine that, while simpler than modern-day computers, clearly had been built to do advanced mathematical equations and scientific research. It was one giant thinking machine that was far before its time. And at its base was a small power switch.
Despite his attempts to act like he wasn’t excited, Frank was obviously thrilled. Flipping the switch on the machine, he looked at Casey. “You ain’t seen nothing yet, kid,” he said.
And he was right. What happened next was unlike anything Casey had ever seen or imagined or read about or watched on television. Before her eyes, the room began to shudder and vibrate as a loud hum from somewhere below grew louder and louder. And then the room cracked in half, right down the middle.
The room wasn’t the only thing splitting apart. The tower itself had also begun to groan and vibrate as the low hum built into a louder hum. On the ground far below, tourists pointed and shouted as the Eiffel Tower began to separate into two equal parts.
Up in Eiffel’s apartment, or at least the half she was standing in, Casey looked down through the open floor at the ground. As she watched, a canyon seemed to open up between the two parts of the tower, and smoke and vapor began to rise out of it. All the while, the rumbling continued. And slowly, out of the hidden depths, a massive rocket booster emerged.
Casey’s eyes widened and goose bumps rose on her arms and legs as the rocket booster continued to rise out of the ground. As it passed by her, Casey saw that there was a spaceship strapped to the back of the booster. It had to be the single most amazing thing
Casey had ever seen. It looked nothing like the NASA-engineered spacecraft. This thing was bigger than anything NASA had created, with unique lines and odd portals at varying heights. It almost looked like a submarine from a Jules Verne novel, just flipped vertically. The name of the ship was etched on its side: SPECTACLE.
Finally, the rocket booster came to a stop. Level with what had once been Gustav’s apartment was a door on the side of the Spectacle. Not hesitating for a moment, Frank, Athena, and Casey clambered inside. Making their way forward, they found the cockpit. Four seats were positioned in a circle around the room. One large window in the front revealed the starry night sky.
Casey slid into one of the seats, and her hands shook as she tried to strap her harness in place. That was it. She was in a real spaceship! And the display flashing in front of her said they were going to take off in less than ten seconds.
“You okay?” Frank asked, looking at her.
“Fine,” Casey replied, trying to sound like this was something she did on a daily basis. “You?”
Frank nodded nonchalantly as he slipped into his seat. But he couldn’t hide the emotion that filled his face. He was finally going back to Tomorrowland. Beside him, Athena got into her seat, her face the calmest.
“T minus six…five…four…three…two…” Casey counted down. Then: “Blast off!”
There was a huge explosion of energy as the boosters blasted to life, and then the rocket began to rise off the ground. White-hot flames shot out of its engines, giving it another boost of power, and then the rocket blasted into the night sky.
“Yaaaaaaaaaa-hoooooooo!” Casey yelled as she was pushed back into her seat by the rocket’s momentum. Looking out the small portal window next to her, Casey saw Earth become smaller and smaller as they rose higher. Over the rumble and shaking of the rocket, she screamed to Frank: “It’s on another planet?”
“Not exactly!” Frank yelled back.
Before she could ask what he meant, the ship shuddered violently as the booster separated from the Spectacle. A moment later, the Spectacle’s nose began to tilt down, pointing back at Earth.
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