Duncan did not know when he fell asleep, but he awoke to bright sunshine and someone screaming.
“Benjamin!” he cried as he leaped out of bed. It took him a moment before he realized he no longer had access to his supercomputer. He scowled and threw open his door. Lights were flickering on and off. The television in the living room was changing channels by itself. The vacuum cleaner zipped down the hallway on its own power.
Duncan found his family huddling beneath the kitchen table, under assault by appliances. The freezer door flew open, shooting out ice in all directions. The coffeemaker was spraying steaming hot brew around the room. And the toaster was firing blackened crusts like ninja stars.
“What is going on?” Aiah cried. “Your machines are attacking us!”
“I have no idea,” Duncan cried as he swiped the remote off the counter. Unfortunately, no matter how many buttons he pushed, the machines did not stop. “The system is not supposed to let this kind of thing happen. There are fail-safe programs.”
The blender fell over and the razor-sharp blades flew out, nearly slicing off Duncan’s face.
“We have to get you to safety,” Duncan cried, grabbing Tanisha by the hand and pulling her toward the front door. Aiah and Avery followed, dodging a DVD player that spit DVDs with deadly accuracy. The front door opened and shut like the jaws of a hungry tiger.
“What is going on, son?” Avery cried as the family managed to dodge the door and raced out onto the lawn.
Duncan looked up the street. Standing on the corner was Ms. Nesbitt. She had her son’s ray gun and was aiming it at their house. He started to march in her direction when the lawn sprinkler system went off and blasted him in the face. The stream was so forceful, he fell backward.
“Ms. Nesbitt, get inside. It’s dangerous out here,” Aiah shouted to her neighbor. She had no idea it was Ms. Nesbitt causing the chaos.
“If you want to get something done, you have to send a woman,” Mama cried. Her face looked wild and angry. “I told Simon you kids would survive.”
Just then, there was a loud siren and a booming voice: “Intruder! Intruder!” Then a panel slid away on the roof of their house and a rocket launcher was revealed.
“Where did that come from?” Avery cried.
“It was installed in the middle of the night last January,” Duncan explained. “There was some fear that if the truth was ever exposed about me, you would be in jeopardy. It was supposed to keep you safe from an attack. All the other kids have them.”
“Get down!” Avery shouted as a rocket roared toward them. The family hit the ground, narrowly missing being skewered by the rogue missile. It crashed into a parked car across the street. The explosion blasted the innocent vehicle into a million pieces and sent choking oily smoke into the winter sky.
“I feel so much safer,” the Creature cried.
“Ms. Nesbitt is doing this! We have to get away from her,” Duncan shouted.
“What does all of this have to do with our neighbor?” Avery asked.
“Her son is a very, very bad person who created a machine that affects computers,” Duncan tried to explain. “It infects them with a virus that makes them susceptible to his commands. Turns out, Ms. Nesbitt is a very, very bad person too.”
“Does it work on all machines?” Avery asked.
“No, just ones with processors in them,” Duncan answered. “Why?”
“Everyone get to the car,” Avery said. “There isn’t a silicone chip to be found in Ramona. I built her from the ground up. It’s all pistons and gas.”
Duncan was stunned. It was a brilliant idea.
The family raced to Avery’s Mustang and hopped inside. Avery turned over the engine and soon they were backing out of the driveway just as another missile launched from the roof. It narrowly missed them, allowing the family to tear off down the street.
Duncan spun around in his seat only to see that Mama was hopping into her own car.
“Don’t worry,” Avery said. “We’re safe. Ramona is one hundred percent computer free.”
“I’m not worried about our car, Avery. I’m worried about all the others,” Aiah cried as a brand new electric car rolled out of its driveway on a collision course with them. Avery swerved in the nick of time, but more cars under Ms. Nesbitt’s control rolled onto the road to give chase. Duncan’s father slammed his foot on the gas and Ramona took off with a jolt. He handled the car like a seasoned NASCAR driver, turning down alleys and racing past highway entrances and along the river—doing everything he could to keep the family safe.
“I can’t believe our neighbor is trying to kill us! Is this because we asked her to trim her hedges?” Avery cried.
“Can’t you use any of your goofy spy stuff to help?” the Creature cried.
Duncan shook his head. “Dad took me off the team,” he said. “I don’t have any of my old abilities.” He thought about what he would do with his nanobytes. He’d crawl out of the window, leap from car to car, and snatch the weapon out of that crazy woman’s hand. If only he had his nanobytes.
And then Jackson’s face flashed in his mind. “Man up, Duncan.”
He knew exactly what he had to do.
“Dad, try to hold the car steady,” Duncan said as he rolled down the back window.
“Why? What are you going to do?” Avery said.
“It just dawned on me, Dad. I may not fit in with this family, but I’m still a member, and no one messes with the Deweys!” Duncan replied, then squeezed out of the speeding car before his mother could grab his ankle and stop him. The wind was fierce, and even before he got to his feet, he felt as if he might fall. He knew what he was doing was not the action of a sane person, but what other choice did he have? The world was full of technology and Albert’s mother could control it until she killed them all. He was just hoping his hands and feet remembered how nimble they could be, sticky or not.
He stood swaying on the trunk of his dad’s car, then, taking a deep breath, he leaped onto the hood of the car right behind them. He scampered over the roof and onto the trunk before bracing himself and then taking another leap. On the next car he did the same, only this time his foot sank into the car’s soft top. It was a convertible! He pulled his foot free, then slid down onto the trunk, standing again to leap onto the hood of the truck right behind him. Duncan took a bad landing and could feel himself sliding off the front of the truck. He just managed to snatch the grill with his fingers. The metal dug into his skin, hurting more than anything he had ever imagined. What he wouldn’t have given for some sticky hands right then! With his feet skidding on the pavement under the truck, he managed to pull himself up and onto the hood again. He scrambled over the cab of the truck and then down into the bed. There he found several potted plants . . . and Ms. Nesbitt’s car directly behind him.
Through her windshield he could see her maniacal face. Even Simon didn’t have that kind of evil in his eyes. He hefted up a potted plant and tossed it at Ms. Nesbitt’s car. It crashed down hard on her hood and exploded with shards of ceramic and clods of soil. She swerved and nearly drove into a ditch before she righted the car. Soon, she returned to her fevered pursuit.
Duncan took another pot and tossed it. This one missed and smashed on the highway. He bent over for another, only to feel the truck screech to a halt. Duncan fell into the bed, slamming into the cab, then ricocheting out the back. He landed right on the hood of Ms. Nesbitt’s car.
The two locked eyes, and Ms. Nesbitt threw her car into reverse and gunned the engine. Tires squealed and burned while Duncan snatched the windshield wipers and held on for his life. Mama spun the car around and tore off down the road, accelerating to sixty miles an hour. She turned the wheel one way and then the other, trying to shake off her unwanted passenger.