Cragbridge Hall, Volume 2: The Avatar Battle (28 page)

“I can see his movement in the lab itself with this,” Derick said to himself. Because the labs had no windows, no one could watch the person inside. Derick couldn’t resist the chance to see the master at work.

The Bridge trembled again.

“Now.”

“Yeah, Derick,” Carol agreed. “The most important invention in history is starting to freak out a little. I think we should try to take care of it.” Derick didn’t respond. Dr. Mackleprank locked the door and then leaned against the side. And then he fell asleep.

What?

Derick changed the perspective to where the avatar was in the adjoining room, just as Abby pulled out the key. The image of time stopped and the Bridge calmed.

“Don’t ever do that again,” Abby said. “Grandpa trusts you.”

“Did you see that?” Derick asked, his eyes still wide.

“Yeah,” Carol said. “He’s a terrible teacher. He just went into the lab to sleep.”

“But the avatar moved.” Derick pointed where the image had been. “If Dr. Mackleprank was sleeping, who was controlling it?”

• • •

“I’m sorry, Abby,” Grandpa said. “I cannot meet right now. I am extremely busy.”

“Just a couple of quick questions, Grandpa,” Abby pleaded.

“Okay, but make them quick.”

Abby looked at her grandpa through her rings. “First, I found the answer to my question. Well, Derick actually finished it and Carol helped out.”

Grandpa gave a tired smile. “You are amazing young people.”

“Thanks,” Abby said. “We used the sphere to search the attacks.”

Grandpa’s face suddenly changed, then softened again. “I suppose if ever there was a time, it was this. I have also searched them.”

“We thought you might have, but I just had to look,” Abby admitted. “We only saw the first two attacks.”

Grandpa rubbed his chin. “The others are even more perplexing. No one approaches the door. With no lights and some sort of heat distractors messing up our night vision, we cannot make out a thing. And there’s a low hum that keeps us from hearing anything.”

“Are the Trinhouses and Mackleprank innocent?” Abby asked.

Grandpa nodded. “Yes, they are. At least there is no evidence against them.”

“But we stumbled onto something about Dr. Mackleprank,” Abby said. “When he went into a lab he didn’t hook up. He fell asleep and somehow the avatar still worked. Who was controlling it?”

Grandpa looked at her, his eyes unblinking. “Another great question, Abby.”

“And do I have to go through another series before finding out who it is?” Abby asked.

“No. Well, at least I won’t ask you to. If you want an answer to that question, you will need to ask Rafa.”

• • •

Abby, Carol, and Derick met up with Rafa in the avatar lab. The Brazilian looked up at his friends. “It’s good to see you, but we only have a few minutes before we have to get to our rooms.”

“Yeah,” Derick said. “And I think the two of us are rooming together now.” He scratched his neck. It wasn’t going to be easy to bring this up.

Carol looked at Rafa. “This might get really uncomfortable,” Carol said. “Well, I’ve heard I make people uncomfortable a lot, like I’m too expressive, too forward, and too hyper, but that’s not what I’m talking about. We’ve got to ask you a difficult question—like crazy mysterious difficult.”

Rafa looked at Derick. “I didn’t tell them anything,” Derick responded.

“Oh, you two have manly secrets,” Carol teased, eyeing Derick, then Rafa. “Well, Abby and I have a bunch of secrets too. Like—”

Abby interrupted. “Why does Dr. Mackleprank look like he’s sleeping when he’s controlling an avatar?”

Rafa’s mouth fell open.

Silence.

“How did you know that?” Rafa finally asked. “There’s no security camera in the booth he uses.”

“Why isn’t there?” Abby asked.

Rafa closed his eyes and then opened them. “I don’t know if I should tell you.”

“Our grandpa said we would have to ask you,” Abby said. “You are the only one who can tell us.”

Rafa moved back and forth. He ran his fingers through his hair several times. “I just—this—” Rafa breathed out and back in. He looked at each of the three students intensely. “Do you promise to tell no one?
No one? Ever?
”

They all agreed.

“I trust you, and I trust your grandfather, but I don’t know that I trust anyone else.” He paused. “And this means the world to me.”

No one said a thing.

Rafa spoke again. “Dr. Mackleprank is not who you think he is.”

“What do you mean?” Derick asked.

Rafa rubbed his eyebrows then looked up again. “Do you remember when I said that your grandfather once did a great kindness for me and my family?” He looked at Derick, then proceeded to tell the girls what he had told Derick earlier. “You see, my mother is the principal inventor of the avatars.”

“That explains why you’re so good at them,” Carol said.

Rafa nodded. “I’ve been able to experiment with them all of my life. Your grandfather came in at a certain time and really helped my mother with major breakthroughs in the process. Without him, you would not feel what the avatar felt, nor would they be as quick to react. In short, they would only be very lifelike robots.”

“And that is how Grandpa helped you?”

“That is only part of it. You see, there is a great potential in avatars. They could be used to learn, as they are here, or they could be used for very destructive purposes. They could be spies. You could substitute someone real for a simple avatar. The possibilities are endless.”

“Yes.”

“Well, even before the avatars were announced, some . . .
groups
found out about them. They wanted the avatars for their own purposes. At first, it was all friendly, but it soon became very dangerous.” Rafa exhaled and gripped his hands together. “And from there, your grandfather helped my mother go into hiding. She has been safe and sound ever since.”

Pride swelled within Derick. Grandpa had truly helped her greatly. But then he had a question. “I don’t get it. What does the story about your mother have to do with Dr. Mackleprank?”

Rafa just looked at them. “Think about it.”

“Okay? I’m not coming up with anything,” Abby said.

“Of all the places in the world,” Rafa stretched out his arms, “the one where my mother would like to be is here, with me.”

“But she can’t because she’s in hiding,” Derick added.

“Unless she happened to be a great inventor,” Rafa said. “Of avatars.”

“No!” Abby said in disbelief.

Derick gasped. “Dr. Mackleprank is an avatar! There are human avatars! And he’s really your mother?”

28

Waiting

No way no way no way,” Carol said, jumping up and down. “That is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard! Crazier than watching all of the
Little Elvis in Space
series all in one day, or crazier than giving up ice cream, and crazier than eating one of those, like, octopus appetizers. Oh, they are so slimy and gross. This is like 700,000 times crazier than that.”

“Wait,” Derick said. “So that is why Dr. Mackleprank looked like he was sleeping in the avatar room, because your mother had to leave him as an avatar and go into the other avatar.”

“And she controls all of them from somewhere in hiding,” Carol added. “Still so crazy.”

Rafa nodded. “Yes, avatar signals can go around the world.”

“But Dr. Mackleprank has been tranquilized twice. How do you tranquilize an avatar?” Abby asked.

“You can’t,” Derick answered.

“Obviously the dart wouldn’t make her pass out,” Rafa said. “My mother had to fake it. Once someone tranquilized her, she could hardly just keep moving like nothing had happened. Someone would find out her secret. Plus, both times she was attacked, she was out of the Mackleprank avatar at the time. The first time, she didn’t even realize she had been attacked until she reentered the avatar and felt a pain in her neck. The second time, she didn’t realize until she got the message from your grandpa,” Rafa pointed at the twins, “telling her to go to the basement. When she came back into Dr. Mackleprank, she felt the dart.”

“But wouldn’t whoever the bad guy was know something was up when Ms. Entrese was out for weeks and Mackleprank was up the next day?” Abby asked.

“That was your grandfather’s decision,” Rafa said. “He quickly analyzed the darts and based on how much of the tranquilizer each one held, it actually looked as though the dart that hit Mackleprank was only intended for the night. It was the first time my mom had done anything against Muns. It was probably a warning more than anything. And the second time was to keep her out of the way.”

“But wait,” Derick blurted out. “When you were in the gorilla in the basement, why were you in such a hurry when you heard that Mackleprank had been attacked? Your mom was fine, right?”

“Everything was happening very fast and I hadn’t heard from my mother yet. I went to make sure she was fine and that her secret was safe.” A corner of Rafa’s mouth curled up. “You can’t just leave one of the world’s most sophisticated robots lying around, pretending to be tranquilized. Your grandfather said everything was okay, but I didn’t want to take any chances. Plus, the person most likely to figure out her secret was whoever it was who shot her. It was time to be extra careful.”

“It explains why Dr. Mackleprank couldn’t sit in the Chair,” Abby added. “Because he’s not human. A robot can’t have its mind read.”

“
Exactamente
.”

“And that is why Dr. Mackleprank gave me his locket,” Derick said. “Because he couldn’t go into a simulator as a robot either.”

Rafa nodded.

“So, super crazy,” Carol said. “I really can’t even think of the right way to express this. Take the craziest thing you know of, dip it in crazy batter, fry it in crazy oil, dip it in crazy sauce, chew it all up, and that would not be as crazy as this.” She paused, tapping her finger on her chin. “No. That didn’t quite do it. But it did make me a little hungry. Doesn’t crazy batter and crazy sauce sound mouthwatering together?”

“Wait,” Derick said. “Why would your mother have a key in the first place?”

“I believe your grandfather hoped that one day she would live at Cragbridge Hall in person. But when Cragbridge received the avatars for educational purposes, it would be the first place anyone would check for my mom. So she hasn’t lived here yet, at least in person. My mother couldn’t have known she wouldn’t be able to finish the challenges as an avatar.”

“Wow,” Abby said. “It is going to take me a while to get used to this.”

• • •

“Holy cow!” Carol whispered to Abby in the bed across from her. “We have an armed guard outside our room. And one inside.” She gestured at the woman standing at attention, a gun drawn over her forearm, against the far wall.

There was also a guard at the door. Abby had seen him as she and Carol moved to an apartment in the teacher’s quarters. Grandpa had left their room empty and found this open space. It was unpredictable, and in this case, unpredictable was very good. Grandpa assured them that he had picked only the most trusted of those on the security staff. In a way, they were hiding—with guards. It made Abby feel safer, but not completely. She would rather have spent the night with her parents and Derick and Grandpa. She wanted them all as close as possible. But if they were all together, that might make it too easy for the attacker. He could get a bunch of keys in one stop.

“Maybe ‘holy cow’ wasn’t the right expression,” Carol whispered. “I don’t even know what it means. Is it like a cow with wings and a halo? So weird.”

“I have no idea,” Abby whispered back.

“Super toad!” Carol said.

“What?”

“I was trying out another expression. Instead of ‘holy cow,’ maybe you can just pick any adjective and any animal and it would work.”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Dancing piglet!” Carol whispered a little louder. “Oh, it totally works. Bloated antelope! Ugly barn owl! Hippie hedgehog! I’m going to have to write these down.”

“Shhhh,” Abby shushed, but she was secretly glad that Carol could lighten the mood.

Then the lights went out.

Abby heart leapt to her throat. Over the pounding in her ears she could hear the guard shuffle her feet. Was she pointing her gun at the enemy right now?

Something hit the door. It wasn’t a knock, and more of a thud than a scrape.

“Are you okay out there?” the security guard asked. A moment later, she repeated, “Are you okay?”

Abby quickly turned on her rings and messaged her parents and Grandpa:

Something’s happening. We may have just lost the guard outside our room.

Her fingers shook as she typed.

Then a hum began in the room. It was just like Grandpa had described. Grandpa sent a message back.

Someone is on the way.

“Something’s messing with my night vision,” the guard muttered. And then they heard her drop to the floor.

“It’s him,” Abby whispered. “He’s here.” A surge of terror coursed through her. She couldn’t be shot with a tranquilizer; she had to solve this. She had to finish out this semester.