Страница 25 из 38
“I’ve never been this close to a human,” the chimpanzee Flinch said. “She’s quite stinky.”
The orangutan stepped forward and eyed her closely. “The talking must be some trick she picked up. She’s mimicking us. The one at the zoo does tricks, too.”
The baboon Duncan fell from a tree and landed on his feet. “I don’t think it’s a trick. She appears to be intelligent.”
“You do realize I’m standing right here and can hear every word you say,” Matilda grumbled.
“I’d hardly call her intelligent,” a voice said from above, and then another creature landed at her feet. This one looked almost catlike, with a long striped tail. Matilda knew they were called lemurs—at least on her Earth. It peered into her face curiously.
“Not as smart as you, Mathlete, but still bright for her species,” the baboon said.
“Wait! You’re the Mathlete?” Matilda said to the lemur. “I mean, you’re this world’s Mathlete? I’m not from here.”
“Clearly,” the monkey Ruby said.
“But I’m one of you, I mean, I’m part of NERDS, but on my Earth. Wow, this is really hard to explain. My name is Matilda Choi. They call me Wheezer.”
“No way!” The razorback gorilla sneered and then circled her, eyeing her up and down. “There is no way I would be a cheerleader! Not on any planet.”
It was then that Matilda noticed the gorilla had a unibrow.
The lemur hopped up onto a branch. “We understand you are from somewhere else. Do you understand your visit here is destroying the multiverse?”
“You’re experiencing it here, too?”
“We’ve had some tearing in the fabric of reality. Things have been slipping into our world. If it hadn’t been for MISFIT, we would have no idea what was happening. I presume you are working with them?”
“MISFIT?”
“The Multiverse and Interdimensional Special Forces Intelligence Team,” the orangutan said. “They’re a version of NERDS from Earth 1. They fight crimes across the multiverse.”
Matilda was bewildered. “Well, we could use their help. We’re trying to stop this on our own. Did they tell you that the human version of Mathlete is responsible for all this chaos?”
“Harrumph,” the lemur said.
“Garrrrughhggaaa,” the chimpanzee Flinch said, overcome by the sugar in the bananas. He turned the knob on his harness. “What are you doing to stop her?”
“I have to find her first. We don’t know what she looks like,” Matilda said, then turned to the lemur. “Listen, I know this is a bit of a long shot, but if you can tell me anything about yourself that might help me identify my Gerdie, it could help. You are obviously very different, but I’m desperate!”
The lemur shook her head.
Suddenly, there was a loud hum. Matilda knew exactly what it was. The bridge device had activated.
“You need to get to the portal,” the orangutan said, echoing her thoughts.
“Fix this problem, human,” the lemur said. “Your world is not the only one at stake.”
Before Matilda left, she turned once more to her primate self. The gorilla eyed her right back. Then Matilda ran into the forest toward the device’s noise. She found the rest of the squad climbing down the stairs of what looked like an ancient Mayan pyramid. The five-story hand-crafted stone structure rose high above the jungle floor, and she spotted a small ceremonial room at its top. By the looks of the heavy sacks the girls were carrying down its steps, that’s where the treasure was stored.
“Glad to see the monkeys didn’t eat you,” Lilly said.
Matilda nodded. “Me, too.”
“You can forget about ru
“H82BU,”Mcke
Matilda pretended to be disappointed. In the last twenty-four hours she had nearly been killed by pirates, had nearly been eaten by a great white shark, and had come face-to-face with a gorilla version of herself. The crazy level had been turned up to ten! But all of these run-ins would be much preferable to what she had to do next. If she wanted to find Gerdie, she was going to have to do something drastic, and just the thought of it made her cringe.
Screwball’s feet were bound together and his arms were wrapped in a straitjacket. The heavy chain tied around his chest was equipped with fifteen industrial-strength padlocks that would require a blowtorch to cut. He had a mask over his face to prevent him from biting, and he was strapped to a wheelchair. The asylum staff had taken these precautions since he was being visited by someone whose name had appeared on a list he’d made entitled “10 People I Want to Watch Die.” The list read:
1. Duncan Dewey
2. Jackson Jones
3. Julio Escala
4. Rubu Peet
5. Agent Alexander Brand
6. The smug man on the Food Network who bakes extreme cakes
7. The dog whisperer
8. Santa Claus, for a lifetime of disappointments
9. Matidla Choi
10. To be decided but probably someone I really hate
With Matilda sitting directly across from him, he realized it had been a stupid list to make, especially with his new plan in full swing. Now he had to turn on the charm, which is not easy when you are tied up like a wild animal.
“Old friend! So nice of you to come visit me in the loony bin,” he said. His guard unfastened the padlocks chaining Screwball’s hands together and ran the chains down to the floor and through two steel pins mounted there. Then he snapped the locks shut. “I hope you’ll excuse my outfit. It appears the hospital staff thinks I’m dangerous.” He leaned forward as far as the chains would allow. “I know. Silly, huh?”
He laughed in hopes that she would join him, but she sat there stone-faced.
“I’m here because … I need your help,” Matilda said. She winced as she said the words.
Screwball couldn’t help himself. He let loose his all-new, all-sinister laugh. It started out slow but soon rose to a headache-inducing whine. He laughed so hard his stomach hurt. If he hadn’t been chained to the chair, he might have rolled up in a ball and guffawed all day. From the sour look on Matilda’s face and her clenched fists, he could see he had finally perfected it. So much for playing the nice guy.
Matilda cleared her throat. “We want to know everything you know about—”
“Gertrude Baker?” Screwball said.
Her face fell, and he broke into another round of wicked giggles. “Or, as we used to call her, Mathlete. Brilliant girl. Her skills with numbers were even superior to mine after she got her upgrades. Seems the nanobytes allowed her to process information much faster than a normal human brain—I was quite envious. She and I were new recruits together, you know, but she wasn’t around long. Her family moved to Ohio.”
“Then you know what she’s built?” Matilda asked.
Heathcliff chuckled. “I should. I helped her.”
He watched her face grow red with rage. “That machine is threatening the world!”
“Oh, is it becoming a nuisance?” Screwball said in a baby voice. “I’m soooo sowwy, but I’m afwaid it’s going to get much, much worse.”
“Play games with me and I will fly you up ten thousand feet and let go!”
Screwball winced. He wasn’t sure if it was a threat or a promise. Matilda had always been unpredictable. “There’s no need to resort to violence. Ask yourself, why would I help someone build a machine that allows you to visit the multiverse? Is it just to create problems? Cause a few power outages?”
“You’re rambling, Heathcliff. I’m powering up my inhalers right now!”
Without warning, he felt his blood boil. He lunged forward, chains rattling. “My name is not Heathcliff!”