Science Fair (18 page)

Now he turned his attention to his mission. The fastest way to get to school would be on his bike, but he figured a bike riding itself would raise some eyebrows. So he set off at a trot. From time to time, out of habit, he glanced at his watch, only to realize each time that he couldn’t see it. He didn’t pass many pedestrians, and he swerved wide around the few people he did encounter. One man heard Toby’s trotting footsteps and looked around curiously; Toby stopped and held his breath, and after a moment the man, frowning, moved on.

In less than a half hour Toby was within a block of his school. He didn’t know the time exactly, but he figured it was just about right. So far, so good. If Sternabite’s plan worked, he’d be…

“Hey!”

Toby froze. The voice came from a side street to his left.

Toby looked and saw a Gremlin parked at the curb, facing away from Toby. The Wookiee was leaning against the rear of the car.

He was wearing…sunglasses.

“Get over here, kid!” He pounded on the roof of the car.

Through the window Toby could see Vaderian’s head slumped to the side, apparently dozing.

“The kid’s here,” said the Wookiee, stil pounding. Vader’s head snapped up. He turned toward the Wookiee. Vaderian
wasn’t
wearing sunglasses.

Toby had a quick decision to make: if he ran, the Wookiee would chase him; he’d have to abandon his mission to get into the science fair, as Sternabite had asked. So he felt forced to talk to them.

But if Vaderian got out of the car and saw Toby—or, rather
didn’t
see him—he and the Wookiee would figure out that Toby had something even better than the Star Wars col ection.

They’d want the invisibility device. Toby couldn’t let them get it.

Vaderian had opened the car door and was climbing out. He looked pretty stupid in the cape. Toby felt for the iPhone and touched what he prayed was the lower right-hand part of the screen. Vaderian was now out of the car, looking Toby’s way.

“There you are,” he said.

Toby looked down and saw with relief that he was, indeed, there. He checked his watch: 4:25. The school doors would be locked for the night in five minutes. He had to get rid of these lunatics quickly.

“Hey,” he said.

“So, young Toby,” said Vaderian. He was about to say more, but then he remembered something. He reached into his pocket, pul ed out his voice-changer, and clapped it over his mouth.

“So, young Toby,” he said, his voice now distorted. “We meet again.”

Toby rol ed his eyes and looked at his watch: 4:26.

“I’m kind of in a hurry,” he said.

“Are you, now?” said Vaderian. He electronical y chuckled as though this was the single cleverest thing anybody had ever said. He chuckled so hard that it turned into a cough, which continued until the Wookiee pounded Vaderian on the back, which stopped the cough, but which also sent the voice-changer clattering onto the sidewalk, where it came apart, spil ing its batteries.

“Idiot!” Vaderian yel ed at the Wookiee. “Pick it up!”

The Wookiee scrambled to reassemble the voice-changer. Toby rol ed his eyes again, and for the hundredth time berated himself for getting involved with these morons. He looked at his watch: 4:27.

Final y Vaderian was ready to speak again. “You did wel , young Harbinger, giving me the Skywalker dol .”

“Like I had a choice,” said Toby.

“I’m glad you understand that you
don’t
have a choice,” said Vaderian. “Because I want the rest of the col ection.”

“What?”
said Toby. “You can’t…”

“Yes, I can,” said Vaderian. “And you’l help me, unless you want me to tel your parents what you’ve already stolen from them.” Toby was shaking his head. “I can’t.”

Vaderian lowered his electronic voice to what he apparently thought was a soothing tone. “It wil look like a burglary,” he said. “We’l do it when nobody’s home. Al you have to do is leave a door open for us and tel us where the col ection is.”

Toby was stil shaking his head.

“So you’d prefer that I cal ed your parents?” said Vaderian.

“No,” said Toby. “Please.”

“Then cooperate. The col ection is in the basement, isn’t it?”

Toby, feeling trapped, looked down and nodded once. He couldn’t believe that this was happening, that he was helping this lunatic. But he could see no way out of this. He just wanted it to be over.

“That’s better,” said Vaderian. “And wil it al fit into this car?”

Toby glanced at the car. He was surprised it even fit the two men. He shook his head.

“Excel ent!” said Vaderian. “We’l bring a truck. And when should we bring it?”

Toby thought about this for a few seconds, then said, “Tomorrow night. There’s an event at school. A science fair.” He was hoping, desperately, that by the next day he’d be reinstated at school.

“Good,” said Vaderian. “The sliding glass door at the back of your house. Leave it unlocked.”

“You’ve been to the back of my house?”

“Just leave it unlocked.”

“But my parents check the doors before we go out.”

“You’l think of something. You’re a smart boy.”

Toby looked at his watch and flinched at what he saw: 4:32.

“I gotta go,” he said, turning.

Vaderian grabbed his arm. “The door
will
be unlocked, right, Toby?”

“Okay. Okay,” Toby said. He shook off Vaderian’s grip and hurried away.

4:33.

He turned and ran. He rounded a corner and headed toward the school. As he neared it, he looked around. Seeing nobody, he touched the magic wand on the iPhone. Invisible now, he ran toward the school. He thought he saw a shape move across the glass of the front doors.

They were locking the doors.

He sprinted.

Up the sidewalk. Up the steps.

He grabbed the door handles.

Locked.

He sprinted around the side of the school to the gymnasium doors.

Locked.

Toby took a step back, then slumped down on the concrete walkway, trying to think of what to do next. Nothing came to mind. He’d failed in his mission to get into the school. He’d failed Sternabite and his friends. He’d been a traitor to his own parents. And he had no idea, none at al , how to make any of this right.

He leaned forward and put his invisible face into his invisible hands. He muffled a sob. A tear, then another, leaked through his hands. The tears became visible in midair, just before they splattered onto the hard concrete.

T
HE PHONE RANG
in the crowded room at the Shady Inn Motor Court. Vrsk stumbled toward it through a cloud of steam, banging into empty cardboard boxes.

The steam was coming from the two cappuccino machines that Vrsk and Drmtsi had purchased from the TV shopping show. The machines had arrived by express delivery an hour earlier; Vrsk had been trying to get them to work. He stil had no idea what cappuccino was, but he had produced a
lot
of steam. The cloud was so thick that Drmtsi had to sit right in front of the TV, his face only inches from the screen, so he could monitor the status of the item currently being sold—a set of eight deluxe tiki torches, propane-fueled, with electronic ignition.

The price was currently $89.95, but Drmtsi was sure he could get them for under $70.

The phone rang again just as Vrsk reached it.

“Hel o?” he said.

“It is Prmkt,” said Prmkt, speaking Krpsht.

Switching to Krpsht, Vrsk said to Drmtsi, “It is Prkmt.”

“Not now,” said Drmtsi, his eyes glued to the screen.

The price had just dropped to $75.99. Any minute now…“Drmtsi is very busy,” said Vrsk into the phone. Prmkt sighed. “Tel him I have arranged a meeting. You must go to Jungle Norman’s Pizza Party Place.”

“Where?”

Vrsk repeated the name slowly: “Jungle. Norman’s. Pizza. Party. Place. It is on Wackmore Avenue, seven blocks north of your motel. Meet me there in one hour.” “What about the men watching us?” said Vrsk, remembering Prmkt’s warning from the night before.

Prmkt hesitated, then said, “These men are gone.”

“Gone? But didn’t you say—?”

“Not to worry about them,” interrupted Prmkt. “Just meet me at Jungle Norman’s in one hour. When you arrive, you wil give the special signal, and I wil come to you.”

“Special signal?”

“Yes. You wil lift up the hat from the head of the goril a.”

“The
what
?”

“The goril a. You wil lift up its hat.”

“The goril a wears a
hat
?”

“It is not a
real
goril a,” said Prmkt impatiently. “It is a robot goril a that sings ‘Happy Birthday.’”

“I…see,” said Vrsk, although this was not entirely true. “When you lift up the hat, I wil come to you. One hour. You must be there on time. Do not fail. The mission depends on you.”

“We wil not fail,” said Vrsk, but Prmkt had already hung up. Vrsk turned and peered through the ever-denser fog of cappuccino-machine steam at Drmtsi, who suddenly leaped to his feet and shouted, “Sixty-nine ninety-five! I knew it!”

Vrsk pointed to the phone. “Prmkt says we must meet him in one hour.”

“Where?”

“Jungle Norman’s Pizza Party Place,” said Vrsk, speaking the name slowly.

“What is this place?” said Drmtsi.

“I do not know,” said Vrsk. “But it is seven blocks from here. We are to lift the hat of the goril a.”

“The goril a?” said Drmtsi.

“It is not a real goril a,” said Vrsk. “It is a robot goril a, for singing ‘Happy Birthday.’” Drmtsi and Vrsk eyed each other through the steam, both thinking the same thing: America was a mysterious place.

“Al right,” said Drmtsi. “We wil go to the meeting. But first”—he pointed at the screen, where two enthusiastic women were admiring the set of deluxe propane-fueled tiki torches with electronic ignition—“you must cal and order this item.”

Vrsk picked up the phone and dialed the number, which he now knew by heart. Drmtsi watched him, then looked back at the TV screen. Then he made a command decision. He was going out on a mission; there was no tel ing what might happen out there. He turned back to Vrsk.

“Order two of this item,” he said.

T
OBY CLIMBED QUIETLY
through the window and into his bedroom. His plan was to sneak down to the basement, where he was supposed to be watching TV. But as he crossed his room, he heard the beep of an instant-message box popping up on his computer. He glanced at the screen and stopped when he read the message.

SecretAgentMan: Hello, Toby. Enjoying your suspension?

Toby’s first thought was that it had to be Micah or Tamara messing with him. But neither of his friends bothered with the formalities of capitalization, punctuation, or spel ing when they IM’d. Besides, this was a new name on his Buddy List. How could someone have gotten onto his Buddy List without him putting them there? Toby frowned, then sat down at the computer and typed a response.

toby: who r u?

SecretAgentMan: I am the one person who can help you with your problems.

toby: wht do u mean?

SecretAgentMan: The plasma in your locker? The list you left on the principal’s desk? I think you know what I mean.

toby: but y? who *r* u?

SecretAgentMan: Go to Jungle Norman’s Pizza Party Place 30 minutes from now, at exactly 5:45. I will meet you there and give you proof of who is
behind this.

toby: y shud i trust u?

SecretAgentMan: That is for you to decide. Stay suspended if you want. But if you want to resolve this, be at Jungle Norman’s at 5:45. Stand next to
the gorilla. This is your only chance. I won’t make this offer again. Good-bye.

Before Toby could answer, SecretAgentMan signed off. Toby’s mind raced. SecretAgentMan could be the person behind the science-fair plot; he could be setting a trap. But he’d picked a very public place to make trouble. Besides, a trap could be laid both ways. Toby had just tried, and failed, to draw out whoever was behind al this; now maybe that very person was offering to meet him. And if SecretAgentMan had a trap planned, Toby figured he had a surprise or two of his own: the invisibility device and Sternabite.