CHAPTER ONE

Attack of the Tingles

At Fly on the Wall Inc., GEORGE the flybot landed on the cluttered desk of his boss, Darcy Luna.

GEORGE stretched and yawned. He needed to recharge. He scanned the desk to look for his battery port.

Oh, my. What a mess!

The number of candy wrappers and tools on Darcy’s desk had grown while he was away.

“What happened?” GEORGE whispered under his breath.

Darcy Luna appeared at the office door.

“Georgie!” she shouted. “You’re back from Mount Everest. Good, good. We’ve got mountains of work to do.”

She rubbed her eyes with her knuckles. A tousle of hair fell over her brow. She brushed it aside. “I was up all night working on the glitch in your programming. We’re perplexed about why your camera stopped working.”

It stopped working because I turned it off, GEORGE thought.

Less than an hour ago, GEORGE had made the decision to save an animal’s natural habitat for generations to come—instead of completing his mission to find a lost camera like Darcy had hoped. Now, it was hard to look at Darcy’s weary eyes.

Maybe I let my boss down, he thought with a flicker of sadness. But I did the right thing. I’m certain of that.

Darcy continued, “Now that you’re here, Georgie, I can check your hardware. But let’s get you charged up for your next mission.”

GEORGE stretched his shoulders. Next mission already?

Darcy lifted a stack of documents off her desk. “I had a feeling that battery port was hiding under here.” She dropped the stack of documents onto the pile of candy wrappers.

With the battery port cleared to dock, GEORGE flew inside the bay to recharge.

As a tingle of electrical current ran down GEORGE’s spine, Darcy explained, “Your next mission is a doozy. You’re flying to France to go on a treasure hunt!”

GEORGE focused his vision receptors and leaned forward. He had read somewhere that when a human leans forward it means they’re listening.

At least he was trying to listen.

Mount Everest must have taken a whole lot of battery life out of me, he thought. These battery tingles are extra tingly. GEORGE’s power actuators shook and shivered, and then began to thump like the drumbeat of a parade.

Darcy went on. “You’re going to love the French countryside, Georgie. More than thirty years ago, writer Max Valentin created a treasure hunt. His partner Michel Becker made a golden owl statue that’s worth a lot of money. Then he made a bronze copy of the statue for Max Valentin to bury. Whoever finds the copy will win the golden owl!”

GEORGE tried to concentrate.

Treasure hunt.

Max Valentin.

Michel Becker.

Okay, got it, GEORGE thought. He hoped that downloading data about his new mission might distract him from the thumps and tingles:

DESTINATION: France.

MISSION TARGET: Bronze owl statue sculpted by Michel Becker and hidden by Max Valentin in 1993. (Possible locations for the bronze owl are being sent via GPS.)

MISSION DETAILS: In the secrecy of night, Valentin buried a bronze owl statue somewhere in France. Then he published a book of clues leading to the bronze owl. Whoever deciphers the clues and finds the bronze owl can trade it in for a golden owl statue covered with diamonds.

Even though Becker sculpted both owls, only Valentin knew where the bronze owl was buried. Treasure hunters have been searching the French countryside ever since.

Buried treasure! GEORGE thought as the thumps and tingles grew even stronger.

From the messy pile on her desk, Darcy grabbed a shiny black box. “Okay, Georgie, let’s look for the source of that glitch.”

Darcy opened the box and took out a tiny metal instrument. Then she poked and prodded at GEORGE and mumbled under her breath, “Hmm, everything looks good. I don’t understand.”

She doesn’t understand because I never had a glitch, GEORGE thought. I was only being me, doing what I thought was right.

Suddenly, the tingles down his spine became itchy, scratchy, and burning. It was extremely unpleasant.

GEORGE gasped as he was ejected from the battery port. If he’d had lungs (which he didn’t), they would have breathed out a giant puff of air. WHEW! My battery nearly overcharged!

Darcy put her hand on her cheek. “Ay! I got distracted. Good thing we built an emergency off button, just in case something like this happens.”

GEORGE said softly, “I think I’m okay.” Still lightheaded and a bit warm, he added, “My feet are a bit tingly though.”

Thanks to his global translator, GEORGE could understand Darcy. But Darcy’s human ears weren’t able to pick up GEORGE’s digital voice. To her, his words sounded like a faint tinkling of chimes, or the light pit-a-pat of drizzling rain on a windowsill.

So GEORGE tried not to feel too hurt when Darcy gave a big sigh and said, “Good, good. You’re all right, Georgie.”