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
Bill Nye and Gregory Mone My heart started pounding Ava had spent months constructing constructing that robot She’d worked so hard and grown so frustrated that I’d actually caught her eyes tearing up once or twice And my sister never cried Still she’d stuck with it and once Fred flew she was as happy as I’d ever seen her Now the drone was gone and it was all my fault Ava slammed her laptop shut with unusual force shoved it into her shoulder bag and stomped out of the alley One side of her mouth peaked into an angry snarl Wait I said Where are you going To get Fred I followed her across the pothole-lined street What are you going to do 6 She locked her fingers and cracked her knuckles Shout yell make some noise until someone answers You’ll wake the whole neighborhood Too bad I’m getting Fred back As we squeezed between two parked cars with dented bumpers I stared up at the balcony Let me try something first It’s not like there’s a front door Matt called out from a few steps behind us You can’t just knock you know No but I could climb Most of my experience was with trees as I’d spent pretty much all of third and fourth grade hiding from my foster family in a backyard oak Normally
JACK and the GENIUSES I only scaled buildings when we locked ourselves out of our apartment but this was an exception I hurried ahead of Ava and inspected the building’s walls up close The edges of the square windows were deep enough to grip The building sloped in slightly as it rose so I wouldn’t be going straight up I was sure I could make it And if someone yelled at me I was just a kid trying to get his toy robot back Matt leaned back against the building clasped his hands and held them at his waist I tightened my shoelaces grabbed his shoulders planted my right foot in his hands and pushed myself up At fifteen my older brother was already taller than most adults so he was a good ladder and the climbing was easier than expected The window edges were a few inches deep The big problem was the windows themselves You couldn’t see through them from the outside but they were also strangely slippery as if they were coated with some kind of invisible grease What’s wrong Ava asked I told her Matt ran one finger across the glass then waved it below his nose and dabbed it against his tongue Interesting he said No smell Not much of a taste either He walked a few feet and swiped another pane All the windows seem to be coated with it I wonder why Ava said Maybe it’s to prevent people from climbing he said 7
