“Well, ain’t you a cruel one,” Tollaseat chided him from above. “What did that wee bugger ever do to you?”
Sato stood up, letting out a big sigh as he did so. “I was just putting him out of his misery. Pretty soon this whole place will be eaten up by . . . whatever that is out there.” He jabbed a thumb in the direction of the tornado, then gave one last glance to the blue anomaly. “It was just an experiment. I thought maybe something would happen. Look, I have no idea what to do here. We’ll just have to describe it to Master George and see what he thinks. Come on, let’s go.”
The two of them started up the pile of rocks they’d burrowed out of before. Sato was halfway to the top when he heard a horrible roar, like something half-mechanical and half-animal. It was followed by shouts from his soldiers.
His heart sank, and his first thought was, What now?
He picked up the pace and scrambled the rest of the way, almost falling twice as pieces of stone tore loose or broke off. When he reached the peak of the debris, he balanced himself and stood up, Tollaseat right beside him.
Something monstrous was crawling out of the churning mass of the Void’s huge tornado. It was big and long, with lightning arcing along its gray skin. With a terrifying dawn of awareness, Sato realized that the thing looked like . . .
It looked like a centipede.
Paul was just about to slip into the laboratory of the Realitant headquarters when Sofia spotted him from down the hallway. Great, he thought. He’d almost made it.
She ran up to him. “What in the world are you doing? I looked all over for you. Master George is not happy.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault those idiots can’t figure out what we’re supposed to do next.”
“Idiots?” she repeated. “Really? You’re calling them idiots?”
“Very funny. Look, I might not be the smartest tool in this workshop, but at least I don’t think it’s okay to sit around fiddling my thumbs. I think it’s high time you and I figured out something on our own.”
Sofia rolled her eyes, but he saw some compassion in there too. She was trying to keep everyone happy on both sides of the fence. “Paul, you know very well that not a single person here is fiddling their thumbs. The rest of them are analyzing data, talking to other Realitants, and researching. They’re trying to learn more about the Void and its energy so we can beat it. I was just coming to find you to help. We need every set of eyes.”
“I’ll tell you what the Void is,” Paul said. “It’s a big gray tornado that’s getting bigger the longer we stand around here. We need Tick to go in there and . . . do whatever it is he does. Our friend is obviously in trouble, and that should be our number-one priority. Getting him back.”
“And you really think Master George disagrees with that?” She folded her arms. “They can’t latch onto his nanolocator. Mothball went to Deer Park but saw no sign of him. His dad said he never showed up. We can’t go looking behind every rock and tree in the universe.”
“Oh . . . oh, man.” The news made Paul wilt inside. “There’s gotta be a way to find him.”
Sofia sighed. “Rutger will keep scanning for him, hope he pops back onto the radar.”
“Tick should be our—”
“—number-one priority. I know! Don’t you think I’m worried like crazy too? I just think we should all work together, not sneak around like this. What are you doing here anyway?”
Paul couldn’t keep a secret from her, not now. “I came for the box.”
“The box?”
“The box.”
Her mouth was slightly open, her expression saying that she had no doubt he’d gone nuts. “And why are you going for the box?”
“Because I’m going to push the green button.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am.”
“We don’t even know what it does yet!”
“George does, or else he wouldn’t have made us go get it.” Paul reached out and opened the lab door. He’d seen their leader put the box into a cabinet drawer, even though the old man had tried to keep it a secret. The drawer wasn’t a safe, though. It didn’t have a lock or anything. Maybe George thought if the box was hidden in a place people wouldn’t suspect, it might be safer.
“Paul, don’t.”
He ignored her and stepped into the room. When she didn’t reach out and yank him back by the collar, he knew he had her. Times had grown desperate, and it was time to do something desperate. Before either one of them could change their minds, he ran over to the cabinet. She followed right on his heels. Paul ripped open the drawer.
The drawer was empty.
“I thought you might come looking for this,” a voice said from behind them.
They spun around to see Master George at the lab door, bouncing the box with its little green button in his right hand. At first Paul thought that Sofia might’ve betrayed him, but one glance at her showed that she was just as surprised—and disappointed—at their leader’s arrival.