Bill Nye and Gregory Mone along with a camera some electronic brains motors and batteries and miniature fans attached to four mechanical arms A pretty simple drone I guess until you figure that my twelve-year-old sister built him from scratch At our kitchen table From a collection of spare parts The name was Ava’s choice and although Matt guessed the initials stood for Flying Robotic Electronic Drone she swore she just liked the name Fred By that point she’d also built a dangerously fast motorized skateboard called Pedro and a talking toaster named Bob Pedro had sent me tumbling tumbling into a pile of overstuffed trash bags a few weeks earlier and poor Bob exploded after some sesame seeds caught fire That was a real shame I liked Bob He had a nice light touch with bagels As Fred flew higher my brother and sister huddled around the screen of her laptop but I crept out of the alley and watched the robot approach the strange building We live in Williamsburg Brooklyn across the East River from New York City and new apartments and offices are always popping up around us Most of them are pretty similar but then this one went up last year that was just plain weird Ten stories tall and skinny the outside a chessboard of 2
JACK and the GENIUSES reflective-glass windows the top floor covered with a ring of solar panels that resemble some kind of high-tech headband headband The structure has no front door Or back door Or side door No entrance or exit at all None of the windows ever open and because they reflect light like mirrors you cannot see inside A balcony was tucked into the north side of the building on the third floor but did we ever spot anyone up there An old lady in her flowery bathrobe drinking coffee A bald man in a ribbed tank top scratching his hairy arm pits as he stretched A kid braiding the fur of her pet llama Nope Not once So we’d started guessing what really went on inside Hypothesizing as Matt would say I was hoping the new tower was the headquarters of an evil billionaire plotting world domination Ava suggested it might be an internationally internationally renowned superspy’s secret office But Matt’s bet was typically logical He said some company probably kept its computers there After we’d been watching the building for months without without discovering a single clue I begged Ava to use Fred I bribed her I pleaded Once I even pretended to cry eventually eventually she agreed and now our mechanical spy was rising up toward that third-floor balcony I rushed back into the alley The screen of Ava’s laptop showed the view from the robot’s camera so we could watch the scene from Fred’s perspective 3
JACK and the GENIUSES Ava used her smartphone to steer him forward for a closer look at the balcony I held my breath And I sighed No spy telescope No jet-pack landing pad No laser gun mounted on a swiveling turret And certainly no llama Told you Matt said It’s a data center Ava leaned my way and started to explain That’s where companies house the servers they I know To be honest I didn’t know but it’s super annoying to have your genius brother and sister teaching you stuff all the time Something flashed across Ava’s screen Wait what was that she asked I ran back out onto the sidewalk and stared across the street Fred was gone A glass door to the balcony was open for the very first time but no one was in sight and I couldn’t see inside either Had Fred fallen There was no sign of him on the pavement below the building I held my breath and listened but I couldn’t hear the buzz of his fans Returning to the alley I peered over my sister’s shoulder just as the robot’s camera view went dark The signal on the laptop blinked out Fred Ava cried What just happened I asked I don’t know she said I think someone inside grabbed him 5
