I climbed out of bed and sneaky quiet put on my sneakers (which I had never thought about until that very second, but maybe that was why they were called that).
I picked up the Baxter note.
I tiptoed past TJ’s room. I didn’t want to wake him until the last second because he is not exactly light on his feet. So I snuck past him on into the kitchen and laid the note on the counter. I opened the cupboard under the sink and slid out the first aid kit. Then I snuck over to TJ’s bed and clamped my hand down on his mouth.
TJ’s eyes flew open. I leaned in and whispered, “We have to leave now. Quiet.”
When he pulled off his blanket, I saw that his shoes were already on.
We ooched the front door open and then ooched it closed. Then we snuck down the porch stairs, into the dark.
TJ whispered, “Why are we—”
But I whispered back, “Shh!” and we didn’t talk until we were standing in Professor Reese’s kitchen, with Baxter sleepy happy to see us and doing his just-got-out-of-bed dog stretching.
TJ pointed to the first aid kit. “Why do you have that?”
“I realized that Professor Reese may be hurt.” I rummaged around the kitchen until I found a box of granola bars. I put two in my back pocket. Then I grabbed another water bottle. “I don’t think we should wait all the way until morning.”
TJ nodded. “OK.”
“Let’s check the map again.” And we hurried down to the lab.
We studied the row of yellow pins where the latitude line cut through. “If she went to the zoo, she might have landed in the woods,” TJ said. “So no one would see her.”
“Right. There’s a train station there, too, so she might have planned to get home that way.”
We studied the map some more. TJ said, “But she probably went to the university.”
“Yeah. ’Cause it was Thursday morning and she did have to go to work,” I said. “Maybe she aimed for a little group of trees on the edge of campus or something.”
I took a deep breath. “So you head to the university—the latitude line crosses at the corner of Sixth and Jackson. And hopefully, when you get there, the humming of the microchip will be loud enough for Baxter to hear—and he’ll know whether you should turn right or left,” I told TJ. “But if he can’t hear it yet, you’ll have to put your ear down by his shoulder blades and listen to help him.”
“OK,” TJ said. Then he scrunched up his face. “Wait a minute. What will you be doing?”
“Hopefully, I’ll be helping Professor Reese.”
“Oh. OK.” Then his eyes bugged out. “Wait! You’re not going to—”
“I have to, TJ!” I said. “We don’t even know for sure if you’ll be able to find her—and if we wait much longer, it might be too late!”
“Why don’t you just teleport the first aid kit to her?”
“I thought of that,” I said. “But what if it lands where she doesn’t see it? Or she can see it but can’t reach it? Because it’s been almost three days! Who knows what kind of shape she’s in?”
I knelt down in front of Baxter and pressed my forehead against his, breathing in his sleepy-dog smell. “I’ll find her, Baxter.” I gave him a quick kiss for good luck, right between his ears, which were starting to get better, and his kiss back landed on my cheek.
TJ shook his head. “I don’t think you should do this, Jordie.”
“I have to!” I marched over to the teleporter. “And I need you and Baxter to help.” I opened the lid and put the water bottle and first aid kit at one end. “Because once I’ve found Professor Reese, I’ll need you guys to help me get her home.”
I climbed up into the teleporter, and it was like our waffle iron—ridged and hard and metal. “When you get to the latitude, if you can’t find us, come home and tell Mom and Dad everything.”
“Wait! Jordie!” TJ said.
I looked at TJ and Baxter. Everything felt way too big, and I felt way too small. But I didn’t want my half of Baxter to worry about me for the next few hours—I needed all his whole self to get magical so he could find Professor Reese (and me too). “You help TJ, and I’ll see you soon,” I told him, as I lay down on the hard, metal rods. “You’re a good boy!” I nodded.
Then I said what maybe Professor Reese said when she set off on her own adventure. “Here I go!”
And Baxter was still nodding as I pulled the teleporter lid down over me and clicked it closed.
25A Hard Landing
As soon as the lid to the teleporter clicked shut, the space around me filled with a red light, and the whole teleporter began to buzz.
A warm beam started inching from the top of my head down my face. I shut my eyes and held as still as possible, because I knew that the teleporter was scanning my molecular pattern, and I didn’t want to be blurry when the instructions put me back together. It inched down my neck to my shoulders—
“Are you OK?” I heard TJ yell, over the buzzing.
But I held still as it inched across my stomach. I didn’t even breathe.
“Jordie?” he yelled again.
Down my legs, over my knees, down my shins—I held still. My left foot started to itch, but it hadn’t been scanned yet. I didn’t scratch.
“Jordie!” TJ yelled.
Baxter woofed.
Finally, the warm beam slid past the end of my feet. “I’m OK!” I yelled back. And then the whirring started as the teleporter sent the instructions to the auxiliary computer.
About this time, I knew that Baxter was going to hide under a desk.
The whirring got louder, and I knew the other auxiliary computer was commencing T-wave generation—right . . .
