“We’ve been glued to our consoles since,” Diehl said, still in shock. “We helped defend Shanghai and Karachi—until the Disrupter activated and disabled everyone’s links. We would have been hosed if the EDA hadn’t taken that thing out.”
“The EDA’s Drone Operator Assignment System switched both of us to local defense once the enemy began to spread out and attack everywhere,” Cruz continued. “And since we’re two of the highest-ranking drone drivers in the greater Beaverton area, we got first dibs on local drone access! We used our ATHIDs to help defend Beaverton from the drones that landed here.”
“Yeah, did you see that Basilisk we took out?” Diehl asked. “It was right down the street from your house.”
“You two did that?”
They both nodded proudly.
“We couldn’t let that thing stomp your house!” Diehl said, slapping me on the back and then hooking his arm around my neck.
“Thanks, fellas,” I said. “I appreciate it.” I pointed back outside, at the ring of ATHIDs encircling his house. “How did you manage that?”
“Their operating system software has zero security installed,” Cruz said. “I guess the EDA decided not to bother—but that makes them incredibly easy to hack. People all over the world have been figuring all sorts of hacks to make them do stuff the EDA never intended, then they post “How To” videos on YouTube, showing everyone else how to do it, too.” He pointed outside. “That’s how I disabled the recall subroutine on those ATHIDs out there, so they didn’t leave for reassignment after the first wave.” He beamed proudly. “Now they’ll be here to protect my mom and little sisters when the second wave arrives.”
I nodded, impressed. I was about to ask if he’d tried making them line dance when Diehl shouted at me from the laptop screen.
“So spill it,” he said. “What happened to you after that shuttle picked you up at school this morning? Where the hell have you been all day?”
I considered how to answer.
“On the far side of the moon,” I replied. “With my dad.”
On the monitor, I saw Cruz’s jaw drop open.
To my left, Diehl leaned back a few inches too far in his chair and fell over again.
Once I caught my breath, I tried calling Lex to make sure she was okay. She didn’t answer, but a few seconds later she texted me: I’m OK. Will call U ASAP. <3
Then, as quickly as I could, I told the Mikes everything that had happened since we’d last seen each other. Eventually I worked my way up to telling them my father’s theory about the Europans’ true motives, and the observations he’d made that supported it. It took a while for me to get to our battle with the Disrupter, and to explain how its conclusion seemed to be proof of my father’s theory.
When I’d finally laid everything out, I asked the question I’d come here to ask.
“What do you guys think?”
They both stared at me in silence for a long time. Diehl was the first to speak.
“I think your dad is probably right,” he said. “Why would the Europans bother to send robots and spaceships to attack us?” He shoved a handful of corn chips into his mouth, then chewed it thoughtfully. “If their primary goal was to wipe out the human race, they could have just hurled an asteroid at Earth. Or fired a bunch of long-range nukes. Or poisoned our atmosphere, or—”
“Maybe they’re precursors!” Cruz shouted from Diehl’s computer monitor. “Maybe they seeded life on Earth millions of years ago, and now they’re here to punish us for turning out to be such a lame species and inventing reality TV and shit?”
“This conversation was an intelligent one, right up until you joined it,” Diehl said.
I didn’t chime in. I just let them debate the issue, as if we were all back in our high school’s cafeteria, arguing some trivial facet of pop culture over cardboard pizza. This was why I’d come here, I realized—to get the opinion of my two most trusted friends, gauge their reaction, and see if their conclusions mirrored my own. And in a way, they did. They seemed to be just as confounded by all of this as I felt, and yet were also just as intrigued by the mystery as my father.
I checked the time. It was still running out. And I realized that I’d already made my decision.
“I appreciate you talking through this with me, fellas,” I told them. “Now I’ve got a phone call to make.”
I raised my wrist and activated my QComm. Both of my friends’ eyes lit up.
“What the holy sweet hell is that?” Diehl asked. “A tricorder?”
Finn Arbogast answered after the third ring, and his smiling face appeared in high-definition video on my QComm’s display. Judging by the view behind him, he was sitting in some sort of command bunker, with giant display screens bolted to its thick concrete walls displaying an icon-littered map of various regions of the world.
“Zack!” he said. “I’m glad to see that you’re alive! You and your father were reported missing in action just after you took out that Disrupter. Congratulations, by the way. I watched the whole thing!”