37

To the Rescue

Max and Min sat silently in the bleachers while the winning team was awarded first place and an invitation to the state championships.

Max’s phone buzzed. He ignored it.

It buzzed again.

He looked at his phone. “Um, this is weird.”

Javi, holding the cats in his lap, looked up. “What’s that, little man?”

“I just got a text from Joan Drone.”

Min looked up. “What?”

“It says, ‘Alert, Feline Beast OB Status Critical. Immediate Repair Necessary. Please Acknowledge. Joan Out.’” Max showed the message to Min. “I have no idea what this means. Min, have you ever got a text from Joan?”

Min, relieved to be distracted for a moment from her humiliating defeat, thought about it. “Well, I know she has a cellular modem installed so she can communicate when she flies beyond our Wi-Fi range, so I guess it’s possible. Mom and Dad could have programmed some mobile alert system, if Joan was lost or stolen?”

“You think?” Max looked doubtful.

Min looked at the text, chewing his lip. “But I never got a text before. And this is a weird one. Could it be Mom and Dad playing a prank?”

Javi handed the cats to Max. “Let me take a look at that. Feline Beast OB. Could that mean Obi? Isn’t that what you call the neighbor cat?”

Max scratched Scout. “OB. Obi? Is someone telling us Obi needs help?”

“Sure seems like it,” Javi puzzled.

Max looked at the message again. “I have a bad feeling about this. I think we should go home and check on Obi.”

Min sighed. “I have nothing left for me here.”

“Okay, let’s bolt. But I think we should take a cab back,” Javi said to Max. “Otherwise who knows how long it will take for CAR to get us home? I’ll tell CAR to find its way back.”

Max walked with the squirming kittens to the exit, getting strange looks along the way. People whispered and pointed at the cats that had ruined the finals. He kept his head down, glad to be leaving.

For Min, the drive home felt like an eternity.

She was still mad at Max, but seeing his leg bouncing nervously the entire ride home, staring at the message on his phone, she couldn’t help but feel a little bad for him. The kittens were pretty wobbly from their adventure too. They were stumbling around exploring the backseat, scrabbling for balance. It was a tight squeeze in the cab, and halfway home the kittens ended up on Min’s lap.

She was already sniffling and not in the mood, but before she could toss them over to Max, they curled up in a tight, two-kitten ball and fell instantly asleep. Min stared down at them. She felt their warmth, the buzz of their purr, and watched their little bodies rise and fall as they slept. She sighed, and the tiny crack in her anti-cat armor grew wider. “Whatever,” she muttered, and scratched the calico behind the ears. “Don’t get used to this, you guys are so outta here when we get back,” she said softly.

The taxi pulled up to the house and Max jumped out. Min sat for a moment, a little nervous. She sighed, then scooped up the kittens and handed them to Javi. Carrying Elmer in his case, she stopped to check on Max and Obi. She saw Max talking to the neighbor, Mrs. Reynolds. She heard Mrs. Reynolds say cancer and knew it was bad.

Javi set the kittens into the basket with Obi and gave Max a hug. The kittens crept up to Obi, sniffed, and gave him a hug too. Min walked to the door, took a look back, and carried Elmer inside to the lab and unpacked. She barely noticed the smell as she set Elmer down and looked at him. “You were the champion, Elmer, no matter what happened.” Min sat down, and finally everything from the past few days caught up with her.

Min never cried unless she was in pain, like really injured. She was kind of proud of how tough she was, in fact.

So why was she crying now?

Joan and the Protos, secure in their charging stations, silently watched as Min entered the lab. They were glowing with a sense of accomplishment. They had saved the Upgrade. They imagined the endless power supply House had promised the Upgrade would bring. Today was a good day.

Joan was certainly proud of her team. They had performed well, she thought. She sensed the Upgrade, wedged securely in her frame. She saw that Min had returned, so Max must have received her message.

Joan observed Min placing Elmer into his charger and then slumping down in her chair. Joan compared Min’s current posture with her database and correctly deduced that Min was in a negative mode. Joan didn’t like that.

On top of that, something about the Upgrade made Joan feel—wrong. Unbalanced. She ran diagnostics. Hardware checked out. Her programs were working properly. She was fully updated.

Maybe the problem was external? Outside her system?

Joan considered Min’s status. Negative. She focused her sensors at the scene outside the house. Max and Javi were in view, and their postures matched Min’s. Status negative. Something was wrong.

She noticed the moisture leaking from their eyes.

Joan had sent the message, and they’d come back to help OB, but nobody was doing anything. They just stood around and watched. Maybe they were too late? Maybe OB’s batteries were beyond repair. Joan imagined a future of looking outside without seeing OB.

She thought again about the Upgrade she was carrying.

House had said the Robots needed it, and someone was coming to recover it.

House said to stay out of the way and keep the Upgrade hidden and safe.

House said it was for the good of the Robots.

House said.

Joan looked outside again, replaying the conversation with the voice from OB’s device. Beeps didn’t seem evil. She knew four-leggers were a threat, but what she observed with her sensors contradicted what her programming said.

Joan’s processor heated up as her thoughts spun around and around in circles. She thought about OB, the Upgrade, and her family, and made a decision.