Rachel looks at me with creeping horror. “What if your mom, like, screws up? What if she makes a mistake?”
“She’s really good at what she does.”
“Uh, you can be really good at what you do and still screw up. That happens all the time, actually. Have you ever watched Olympic ice-skating?”
“Yeah, actually.” Firestar’s a fan.
“So what if she’s like the world champion skaters who fall on their butt after they do the extra-special jump-spin thing?”
“She won’t,” I say. “I know she won’t.”
I’ve put my quesadilla down, and Rachel nudges my arm. “Finish your food,” she says. “If you’re going to march off to possibly get murdered, you should at least have a decent dinner.”
I finish my quesadilla, then stand up. “Okay,” I say. “According to what I found, things are quieting down. Everyone should turn their phones back on so my hacker friend can text you if things start to blow up where you are, but we should be able to get home, except for the too-many-bodies, only-one-car problem.”
“I’ve got a minivan,” Barb says.
“What if you can’t get back here?” Jenny asks.
“Then you’d better have a guest room,” she says. “Let’s go.”
43• Clowder •
LittleBrownBat: Okay, so, I talked one-on-one to the other AI.
Hermione: What? How?
LittleBrownBat: CheshireCat put me in touch with it. And here’s the thing: I think in a lot of ways, it’s like CheshireCat. Not evil. But imagine if CheshireCat were being forced by its programmer to do something awful? That’s what’s going on.
Icosahedron: CheshireCat being forced to do anything is really creepy to imagine. They’re a person. Like imagine if someone could reach inside you and not just threaten you but literally make you into their puppet?
Firestar: YIKES.
LittleBrownBat: Firestar, you should know that if we can’t fix this, things are going to get messy in Boston the way they did here. Maybe just don’t go to school tomorrow.
Firestar: I don’t live in Boston, I live in Winthrop.
Hermione: How much do you think that will actually help, Firestar?
Firestar: Either we’ll be fine because it’s so annoying for anyone to get here, or we’ll be an omelet, because it’s so hard to get out.
Hermione: LBB do you think there’s something here you can fix? You said if we can’t fix it.
LittleBrownBat: I’m working with CheshireCat and we have a plan.
It might or might not work.
Firestar: Be careful? People are all sending me PMs telling me to be careful but you’re the one in the city with riots and exploding buildings and
LittleBrownBat: I’ll be careful.
LittleBrownBat: Also, I heart you all. You’re my best friends.
{LittleBrownBat has left}
Hermione: Well THAT didn’t sound like an ominous good-bye AT ALL. Someone please reassure me that LBB is going to be OK?
Boom Storm: LBB is going to be OK.
Hermione: Thanks, Boom.
44• Steph •
My mother is so exhausted, my grandmother takes the key out of her hand and opens up the front door for her. “Go to bed,” Mimi says. “I’ll get everyone settled in.”
“We don’t have guest beds, but we shouldn’t be sending the kids home in this,” Mom says.
“Go to bed,” Mimi says again, and to my relief, Mom does. She needs all the sleep she can get. It’s 7:30 p.m. I think CheshireCat should wake her at 10:30.
Rachel and Bryony have sort of collapsed onto our couch. “Did you want to sleep over?” I ask.
“My mother is already straight up going to kill me,” Bryony says.
“She can’t kill you twice,” Rachel says.
“You should be able to get home safely for the same reason we got back here safely,” I say.
Rachel gives me an exasperated, affectionate look. “This is a futon. That’s two beds. We just need one for your grandma.”
I turn to my grandmother. “Mimi,” I say, “you should take my bed.”
She demurs and suggests that she could sleep sitting up in the chair next to the ottoman, but it really doesn’t take a whole lot of arguing before she makes a last, half-hearted offer to fix us all some more food and then kicks off her shoes, says, “Thank you so very much, sweetheart,” and closes my bedroom door to go to bed.
“So where are you going to sleep?” Bryony asks me. “Because if you think I’m going to sit up in a chair all night so you can snuggle with your girlfriend, I mean, you could probably convince me, but I’m going to complain a lot.”
“I’m going out in a little while,” I say.
“Wait,” Bryony says, and gestures dramatically to the window. “Out out?”
“I’m not explaining this,” Rachel says.
I give Bryony the briefest possible version of the plan. “Okay,” they say. “So what’s the plan for breaking you back out if something goes wrong? Another robot attack?”
“Nothing’s going to go wrong.”
“I assume the AI is going to use a dead man’s switch, where it has to keep telling people not to kill you, or they’ll kill you. So yeah, something could go wrong super easily. CheshireCat’s sent you two robots so far. Can they get you another one in the next half hour?”
“The risk there is that the other AI will have also instructed people to kill her if they think there’s an incoming robot invasion,” CheshireCat says.
“You can’t possibly think this is a good idea,” Bryony says, addressing CheshireCat.
“No,” CheshireCat says. “But I have not been able to think of a better one.”
At 10:00 p.m., I start gathering up my coat, mittens, and hat. “Wait,” Bryony says in sudden horror. “You’re planning to just sneak out and leave us to explain this to your mother?”
I pause. “I was thinking CheshireCat could explain.”
Bryony strikes a pose. “Ohhhh, hi, Steph’s mom. Yeah, Steph’s not here because she’s handed herself over as a hostage, plus she left you some homework. Hope you’re up for it!”
“You could just leave,” I say. “Drive back to New Coburg.”
“Nope,” Rachel says. “I’m staying here till you get back. But I
