A few miles away from the pub, Isabl screeched to a stop on the shoulder of the road, pulling in behind a parked tractor trailer.

“That’s our next ride,” said Charl.

“You can drive the big rig, Charl,” said Isabl. “I’ll stay here with the team.”

“Roger that. Let me go open the loading gate.”

He hurried out of the van and pressed a boxy button on the side of the truck. Its rear door rolled up while a ramp extended from a slot above the bumper.

“Seat belts buckled?” said Isabl when the nose of the ramp touched the roadway in front of her tires.

“Yes,” said Max. “Always.”

Especially with the way Isabl drove.

“Good,” said Isabl. She tapped the gas and the van scooted up the ramp and into the empty cargo bay of the truck. Max heard the rear door rumble shut behind them. Seconds later, her whole world lurched forward. The tractor trailer rig was rumbling up the highway with the van hidden inside.

“How’d you two know we’d need a getaway plan like this?” asked Siobhan.

“We didn’t know,” said Isabl. “But we do try to plan ahead for any contingency. All part of our standard security protocols.”

“Because you guys are geniuses, too!” said Max.

Isabl laughed. “We’re nowhere near as smart and clever as you kids. But at least Dr. Zimm and his cronies will be searching the roads for a rental van, not an eighteen-wheeler hauling frozen fish for Rockabill Seafood Limited.”

An hour or so later, the truck pulled to a stop.

“Where are we?” asked Klaus.

“Safe,” said Isabl.

“I meant, what’s our location?”

“That, my friend, is currently confidential.”

Max heard the cargo door roll up.

“Everybody out,” said Isabl. “This concludes the land portion of our travels for today.”

Max and the others marched down the ramp to discover that they were parked beside another remote airstrip. In a green field. Somewhere in Ireland. (Well, that’s what she assumed because she didn’t think the truck had pulled onto a ferry boat and sailed off the island.) Max didn’t have a clue as to where they were because, riding inside the cargo hold of a tractor trailer, she hadn’t seen any landmarks or road signs.

Ben’s private jet was parked on the tarmac of the secluded airport. A pilot and copilot team were standing by in the cockpit.

“Max?” said Charl. “You and Klaus will be flying on to the next, official CMI project.”

“We have a mission?” said Max, eagerly.

Charl nodded. “Ben approved the plan yesterday.”

“Siobhan and Tisa?” said Isabl. “We’d like you two to stay here and finish cleaning and repairing the wells.”

“With my robot?” said Klaus.

“Exactly,” said Isabl.

“But—”

“Thanks for making it so user friendly,” said Siobhan, clapping Klaus on the back. “I’ve watched you work it down the pipes for a week now. I’m ready to give it a whirl.”

“Mr. McGregor and the local police will be your security detail,” Charl said to Tisa and Siobhan. “Isabl and I will be flying on with Max and Klaus. When you complete the well project here, you’ll join the rest of the team at the new site.”

“Where are we going?” asked Max.

“That information is classified until we are airborne,” said Isabl.

“And everyone else will be there?”

Isabl nodded. “Yes. Annika, Keeto, Toma, Hana, and Vihaan have all made travel arrangements. In fact, most of them have already arrived. They’ll greet us when we land.”

Max felt a fresh rush of adrenaline to replace the one she’d felt back at the pub. This was exciting. She’d be with all her friends again, working on a major project, doing good in a remote corner of the globe—hopefully someplace where Dr. Zimm and his new robot couldn’t find them.

“Quick question,” said Tisa. “How did Dr. Zimm and the Corp know how to find us?”

“Ben has a theory about an information leak coming out of CMI,” said Charl. “Also, that robot, Lenard, is an excellent tracker.”

Lenard.

Max wondered if Dr. Zimm was the one who named the artificially intelligent humanoid as a way to goad her. The German experimental physicist Philipp Lenard was one of Albert Einstein’s fiercest rivals. As Adolf Hitler gained power before World War II, Lenard argued that Einstein’s theories were not “German” enough. Lenard became “Chief of Aryan Physics” under the Nazi regime while Einstein fled in exile to America.

“The Corp’s new robot,” Charl continued, “operates via artificial intelligence. It knows whatever the Corp has told it. Lenard can also access data from multiple external sources and then sift through it all at a lightning-fast speed.”

“So,” said Max, “it’ll probably only be a matter of time until it figures out where I’m going next.”

“Not if we plug the leak,” said Isabl. “Artificial intelligence is only as good as the information it is fed.”

“Um, exactly what leak are you talking about plugging?” asked Siobhan.

“Ben suspects that someone connected to CMI has been feeding the Corp sensitive information. The Corp, in turn, has been feeding it to Lenard.”

“There’s a spy?” said Max.

“Maybe,” said Charl. “Or it might just be what Vladimir Lenin, the head of Soviet Russia, called a ‘useful idiot.’ ”

“What’s that?”

“Someone who helps the enemy without actually knowing they’re doing it.”