Back in the living room, Mom K. sat on the couch and flipped open her gunmetal gray ZIA laptop.
She opened the fake hairtodaystyles.com website.
She selected her secret key settings:
Stylist: Chrissy
What do you need: Styling
Date: 1/23
Time: 4:56
Mom K. clicked on the top of the spray can nozzle.
The Hair Today website slid up and revealed the secret ZIA website behind it.
Dad K. sat in his leather chair on the other side of the living room.
On his fake-brick-covered Ad Factory iPad he scrolled through his DarkWave X files.
This was big.
This was huge.
This could happen any minute now.
Dad K. reread his last e-mail from the DarkWave X team.
To: Top Eyes Only
From: DWX
IWANT Pulsar nearly fully powered.
Stand by for test firing notice.
Baby K. sat in the middle of the couch, surrounded by her stuffed teddy bears, her plush ponies, and her famous-scientist action figures.
Baby K. put Nikola Tesla on the back of the pink Dream Wind pony and galloped them over the plaid pillow mountains. Tesla stopped Dream Wind to talk to Marie Curie, riding Fuzzy Panda.
“Goo gah goo,” said Albert Einstein.
“Gah gah goo gar,” answered Marie Curie.
On the big-screen TV, one of the giant figures in a green-and-white outfit and matching helmet threw a funny-shaped ball up in the air. The ball flew down the length of the white-striped rectangle of grass. One of the other green-and-white helmeted figures jumped up and caught the ball.
Eighty thousand people sitting in rows around the rectangle of space, most of them also wearing the same green-and-white numbered shirts as the action figures, jumped up screaming and clapping and cheering.
“Yeah!” said Dad K.
Mom K. opened her ZIA Top Level Alerts.
Bad news.
1. Due to possible bad reactions, there will be no more chocolate peanut butter cups at lunch.
2. The secret DarkWave X project we have been tracking is going to be tested soon. We don’t know when or where.
Ping.
Dad K. read his incoming e-mail.
IWANT Pulsar test firing 1500. Location 42/08. Top level.
Ping.
Mom K. read her incoming e-mail.
Test tomorrow at 3 p.m. We still don’t know where. We don’t know what. We do know it is brain control. And it is big.
Michael K. slammed the front door shut behind him. He dropped his skateboard in the front hall. He dropped his backpack on the living-room floor.
“Hey. What’s up?”
Mom K. and Dad K. both jumped in surprise.
“Nothing!” said both Mom K. and Dad K. at exactly the same time.
“Goo gah gah gah, go gooo goo goo,” explained Baby K.
Eighty thousand people surrounding a green rectangle of white-striped grass groaned.