When Max and her team landed in Galway they were greeted at the airport by someone they hadn’t expected to bump into in Ireland.
Klaus, the blustery, sausage-loving, CMI robotics expert from Poland.
“Are you here to carry our bags?” asked Siobhan.
“Nope,” said Klaus, puffing up his chest. “Got a call from the benefactor. You know, the guy in charge of this whole CMI thing.”
“Ben called you?” said Max.
“Yeah. Said you guys might need my help. So I dropped everything and caught the first plane I could—and believe me, I was quite busy back home, building some amazing robots that do incredible things. I brought a few with me.”
He jabbed a pudgy thumb over his shoulder to indicate several large wooden crates.
“Gonna need some help transporting my gear, Charl. Maybe you and Isabl could organize a truck for us?”
Charl glared at Klaus. “Ben told you to fly here?”
“Of course he did,” said Klaus. “Why else do you think I’m here?”
Max was confused. Ben hadn’t mentioned summoning Klaus to Ireland during their dinner together back on Long Island. And why did Ben think they needed Klaus? Didn’t he trust Max, Siobhan, and Tisa? Did he think they needed a boy to get this job done? Max sure didn’t. She was tempted to give Ben a call. Right away. But she resisted the urge. She could take care of her own problems. She didn’t need Ben—the same way she didn’t need Klaus.
“I’ll check into this,” said Isabl, slipping away from the group, thumbing a speed dial number on her secure satellite phone.
“You should probably look into renting that truck,” Klaus said to Charl. “Chop, chop.”
Charl squinted at him. Hard. “Wait here, you guys. I’ll be right back.”
He headed off to the rental counters.
“So what’s the plan?” asked Klaus. “Are we putting up some more solar panels?”
“No,” said Max.
“We’re here to help Siobhan,” said Tisa.
“Oh, right,” said Klaus. “That thing with the thing. I got your text. Sorry I didn’t answer it. Like I said, been busy. Hey, Max—did you get that postcard I sent you in New York?”
“Yes.”
“The offer still stands. You want to take a break? Stand down from the pressure of being team leader? If so, I’m definitely ready to step up.”
“This isn’t an official CMI project,” Max explained. “Although Ben will be financing our efforts, we’re only here to help Siobhan figure out why so many of her friends, neighbors, and family are getting sick.”
Isabl rejoined the group. “Klaus’s story checks out. Ben wants him here. Thinks we might need some robotic assistance.”
“Hey,” said Siobhan, “me and my family will take all the assistance we can get. Human and not-so-human.”
“Are you talking about Klaus or his robots?” cracked Tisa.
“Cute, Tisa,” said Klaus. “Cute.”
Fifteen minutes later, the team was loading their suitcases and Klaus’s robot crates into the back of a rented Mercedes van with room for six passengers and cargo.
“My folks are in Terelicken,” said Siobhan, “just outside Ballymahon.”
“The GPS says it’s a little more than an hour away if we take the M6,” said Isabl, who, of course, was behind the wheel of the van.
“Can we stop for lunch along the way?” asked Klaus. “I’m starving. Can you hear my stomach gurgling? I can.”
“I know a good fish n’ chips shop on a road right outside Galway,” said Siobhan.
When they entered the roadside restaurant, Max learned something new: “chips” are what people in Ireland call French fries (while they call potato chips “crisps”). As they waited for their food, Klaus started suggesting all sorts of solutions to problems in Terelicken and Ballymahon.
“It’s a water problem, right? What if we worked out a deal with a bottled water distributor? If the benefactor is going to pay for everything, he could pay to have clean water delivered.”
“That’s not a sustainable solution,” said Tisa, splashing malted vinegar on her fried fish because that’s what Siobhan was doing with hers.
“Well,” said Klaus, “some eggheads down at Bristol University in the UK have invented something they call the row-bot. Put it in a river or lake and it can clean up pollution and generate electricity from it at the same time! The secret is a microbial fuel cell that digests the bacteria in the water and produces electrons that can be used to row its oars so it can paddle around looking for more food—also known as pollution—to gobble down. It doesn’t need any kind of external energy. It’s completely self-sufficient. Sort of like me.”
“We’re not dealing with a polluted river or lake,” said Siobhan.
“Okay. How about we build a robot to—”
“How about we assess the problem first?” suggested Tisa.
“I agree,” said Max.
“And so would Einstein!” exclaimed Siobhan. “Didn’t he say, ‘If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend fifty-five minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions’?”
“Well,” said Max. “There’s no evidence that Albert Einstein ever said that, although a lot of people attribute that quote to him online. But! I do think he’d agree with the sentiment.”
And, she thought, even Albert Einstein might need to spend even more time thinking about the problem if that problem’s name was Klaus.