The man grabbed his shoulder, gripping tightly. “Grow up smart, boy. Grow up smart, and one day you may work for me.” The man leaned in and whispered into Henry’s ear. “For Reginald Chu, the greatest mind in all the Realities.”
Henry squirmed out of the man’s clutches and ran. He ran and ran until he collapsed into his sick mother’s arms.
~
For an instant, Paul couldn’t make himself move. He stared down in horror at Tick, who was lying on the ground, the weird metal spider thing on top of him. Its eight segmented legs of steel pinned each of Tick’s limbs while a pair
of slicing blades popped out of its silver belly and headed for his friend’s head. Somehow, in the midst of all this, Paul noticed words printed on the back of the spider’s round body:
METASPIDE
Manufactured by Chu Industries
Just like the Gnat Rat.
He snapped himself out of his daze and grabbed the closest chair. Picking it up by the back, he swung it as hard as he could and smashed it into the creature, sending it flying off Tick and clanking along the paved stones of the pathway. Tick scrambled to his feet and joined Paul; Sofia and Sally were right next to them, staring at the thing Paul had just whacked.
The metaspide righted itself, turning to look at the group, though it had no eyes as far as Paul could tell. The thing’s buddies had dropped down to the same level of the indoor mall and joined their leader in a pack, as if readying for a charge. Most of the darkly dressed people had fled the scene, somehow finding the spirit to move quickly when vicious robot spiders came calling. A few stragglers pressed their backs against the walls of the buildings, looking on in terror. The place had become eerily silent.
“I just can’t buy that Master George is doing this,” Sofia said.
“You chirrun ain’t tellin’ me the whole truth!” Sally said.
Paul tried to calm his heavy breathing. He knew the only way to get out of this was to solve that stupid riddle. An anagram of “the words inside.” He quickly started visualizing options in his head, other words those letters could spell: sword . . . died . . . snow . . . wine . . . news . . . odd . . .
It was easy to come up with individual words, but using every last letter—and only those letters—was really hard without pen and paper.
“What are they waiting for?” Sofia said.
The metaspides stood in a line, at least a dozen of them, their bodies turning and nodding, clicking and clacking, buzzing endlessly. They seemed to be communicating, deciding what to do next. It didn’t make Paul feel very good thinking that those things were smart enough to call plays, like in football.
“I don’t know,” Tick said. “Sally, where can we go? Where do you live?”
Sally grunted. “Ain’t be leadin’ them buggers to my place, no how.”
“Is there a place to hide?” Sofia asked.
“Mayhaps if we go into one of dem there stores or such.” Sally pointed to nowhere in particular.
This triggered a thought in Paul’s head. Maybe they were supposed to figure out the name of a place, and go there. Maybe they’d be winked away if they made it.
“Look at all the signs,” he said. “I bet one of them is an anagram of ‘the words inside.’”
Tick’s eyes lit up in agreement. “You’re right! Every little place here has a sign out front. That has to be it!”
An abrupt whirring sound made them all return their attention to the metaspides. The creatures had started to move, slowly spreading out in an obvious attempt to surround Paul and his friends.
“We need to split up,” Paul said. “Run around, level to level, look at every sign. It’ll be easy to find the right one. Just keep saying ‘the words inside’ over and over in your head.”
“What do we do if we find it?” Tick asked.
“Scream like bloody murder. We’ll come to you.”
The metaspides had formed a semicircle, still moving slowly, closing their trap. Every few seconds, on each creature, a spinning saw would pop out, or twin blades would scissor shut with a snap. They were like gang members taunting their opponent.
“Are you in?” Paul asked Sally.
“Ain’t got much choice, I reckon. Fine friends you chirrun turned out to be.”
Sofia spoke, her voice steady. “We need to go. Now.”
Paul quickly pointed out directions of who should go where. “Okay . . . ready . . . Go!”
Paul shot down a pathway to the left, having to run in between two of the robots. They snapped at him, but he slipped through easily. Sprinting, he made it thirty or forty feet before something became very obvious. He turned, baffled.
None of the metaspides were behind him.
They’d all gone after Tick. Every single one of them.
Chapter
13
~
Flying Metal
Tick looked over his shoulder when he got to the end of the bridge, shocked to see all of the creatures following him. He caught a quick glance of Paul standing in the distance, staring.