The Walls Have Eyes (24 page)

The man who was Chip gazed at him, and his whole soul was in his eyes. How could anyone not know what he was thinking?

“But then I worked on it some more,” Martin said. “And the more I thought about it, the more I knew. That plan's never gonna work. This place is too messed up. We can't go off together. Not now. And not later.” He paused. “Not . . . not ever.”

The light in Chip's eyes dimmed, and his shoulders slumped under the heavy black sport coat.

“See, you gotta think about Cassie,” Martin told him. “She's getting harder to save, you know? This last time, it was down to the wire. And then there's Mom and Dad, and William, and Theo, and Rudy. And what about Bug? I forgot to ask about him, but maybe he's still okay; because, you know, it's only been a few weeks. I mean, the group of people we care about keeps getting bigger and bigger, so the list of people to save gets longer and longer.”

The man nodded mournfully.
I know you're right
, his eyes
said, but they were miserable, and Martin felt horrible for him.

“Chip, you know you were . . .” He gulped, collected himself, and went on. “You know you'll always be my best friend. But is that fair, for me to get to have you all to myself? I mean, that's what the Secretary did, he kept the President as his own best friend, and look what a mess he got us into. And they've already started it with me.” He pointed at the ferret-faced man. “‘Order him around. Tell him what to wear.' They want another best friend for the President.”

Chip stared at him, dark eyes earnest. How could I not have noticed? Martin thought sadly. I saw that same look from my television every day. Martin was crying now, and the ferret-faced man was glowering at him like he was an idiot, but he didn't care.

“When I was a kid, I thought the President talked to me,” Martin said. “I thought he cared about
me
. Because that's the way it's supposed to be, you know? The President has to be there for everyone. Somebody in this stupid, messed-up place needs to care about us. Somebody's got to keep an eye on these clowns and make sure they do the right thing. I mean, everywhere you look, and I don't care which direction you go, there's somebody who needs a best friend.”

The President was frowning at his fingers. He looked sidelong at Martin and gave him a sad, sweet smile, and in that instant, he looked so like Chip that Martin felt his heart crack into pieces.

“So, you think I should do this,” the President said. And when Martin heard him speak, he knew that his dog was gone.

Be a great leader
, Martin wanted to tell him.
Do this thing right. If you're anywhere near as good a President as you were a dog, you're gonna be amazing.
But he was crying too hard. He couldn't say a word. All he could do was nod.

“Great, you can talk,” he heard the ferret-faced man say as he stumbled to the door. “It's six thirty-five now. We'll get you your speech and get to makeup; we've spent hours working on hairstyle ideas. You'll be talking today about recycling plastic bread ties. The people are going to support it.”

“First of all, you're fired,” the President said. “Ursula, get him out of here. And send for Rudy and the prototypes. We need to put together a plan.”

Martin stepped out into the hallway and realized that he was alone. He hadn't been alone in weeks, not since Chip had arrived on his birthday. But Chip wasn't there, and he was just a kid again. He didn't know where his parents were; he didn't know where his friends were. He had no idea what he was supposed to do. He was so tired that he could barely see, and wherever he looked, people were muttering behind their hands.

Martin didn't remember most of the rest of that morning, which he spent wandering the hallways of Central. Scenes from the wall murals floated before his bleary eyes like dreams, and then they became dreams. He was in the middle of a bitter argument with the marble Savior of Our Nation when he opened his eyes, and Theo was there instead.

“Hey,” he said. “I didn't know you were here.”

“Yep. I'm taking care of a friend of mine while his parents finish up something. He's been through a rough time lately.”

Martin discovered that he was in a bed with fresh, clean sheets and a quilted bedspread. The Savior of Our Nation turned out to be a big white pillow.

“You're going to stay right here for a while,” Theo told him. “The medical tests say you're at your limit. Any more stress or water deprivation or sunstroke or missed meals, and you're going to fall over onto your back and curl up like a bug.”

“What about Cassie? Is she okay?”

“She's fine. The President is having us move the school here so he can consult with the prototypes whenever he needs to.”

“Is everybody else okay?”

“As far as I know.”

“Well, wake me up if anything goes wrong,” Martin said, and he fell asleep again.

He spent the next couple of days in bed. He watched television and played game cartridges, but mostly, he just napped. Only part of it was because he was tired. Since Chip wasn't there when he woke up, waking up didn't seem to have much point. But things weren't all bad. Theo let him throw cheese puffs at the television when his skateball team missed goals and torment the custodial bot by eating Little Gems donuts and sprinkling powdered sugar on the bed.

Plans coalesced around him while he recovered. The prototypes decided to use Mom and Dad's game show to introduce television viewers to the outside world, and Mom and Dad agreed to stay on as actors. Two days after Cassie's rescue, Theo woke Martin up and turned on the television. Martin watched his parents break through the outer wall of the game show building and lead their little band out into the light. Hertz came striding forward to meet them and issued them tubes of sunscreen. Then he led them to a packet car. Its windows sparkled, and its sides were shiny red.

“Hertz is taking them to the abandoned town your parents liked so much,” Theo said. “Engineers and construction bots will meet them there to start the work of rebuilding. They're putting the whole process on television to show people how
an outside suburb gets restored. That was your mom's idea. She's determined to fix up the house you found.”

“We have our own skeleton,” Martin said proudly.

“You can join them when you're feeling better,” Theo said. “The President is sending a company of military bots out to protect them. Agents Zebulon and Abel have been instructed to travel out there to take charge of security. You can go with them.”

“I could be outside
and
on television,” Martin said, and for the first time since Chip left, he felt a spark of interest in the future.

Director Montgomery had sent Mom's glass bowl back to Martin and Sim's circuit board back to the prototypes. Theo told Martin that Sim's board was fine. The traps had used only his gel. After Mom and Dad's show, Theo left the room to see about fixing Sim.

A knock sounded soon after, and Cassie skipped in. She looked cute and happy and only a little skinnier than she used to be, and Martin blinked back tears when he saw her.

“I came to see if you're decent,” she said.

“Well, duh, I'm decent,” he scoffed. “I'm always decent.”

Cassie skipped back to the door. She was wearing the school uniform of blue T-shirt and jeans, but over the top, she had on a frilly pink sweater. It tied in a bow at the neck and had bunny designs around its sleeves.

“Hey!” Martin said. “Is that my blanket?”

Cassie twirled to show off the pink sweater and patted it affectionately. “Isn't it clever?” she said. “Everybody in my class wishes they had one just like it.”

She came back into the room with William—and a thing. William was pulling the thing along by a collar and leash, but it seemed to have other plans.

Martin glared at it. “What's that supposed to be?” he growled.

“I told you he'd act like this,” Cassie said to William.

“I grew up with one too,” William reminded her.

“I don't want another dog,” he said, and only the part of his brain that invariably turned to mush over William's beauty kept his tone of voice from being a shout. “And even if I did want another dog, I wouldn't want
that
. It's not even a dog!”

“You're right,” William said. “She's not a dog. She's a puppy. A ten-week-old baby German shepherd.”

“A baby?” Martin said, unsure of his ground. “The stork brings baby dogs?”

“Not generally,” William said, and her green eyes looked just enigmatic enough that he was positive she was laughing at him. “But we know a scientist who raises them as a hobby, and we got in touch with her to see if she had any pups.”

The puppy was a sloppy, absurd caricature of Chip. She was black-and-tan where he had been black-and-tan, but where he had been lean and taut, her soft little body resembled a hot dog bun. She had short, stubby legs that were as thick as young trees, and she blundered around on them with no grace whatsoever. Her tall ears were huge, and they couldn't fit properly on her narrow little head, so they leaned in toward each other and came to a point like a party hat.

“You mean to tell me that thing is supposed to be a German shepherd like Chip? That's idiotic! That's—Did it—did it just
pee
?”

The puppy stood splay-legged over a small yellow puddle
and yipped high-pitched barks at the custodial bot. Cassie whooped with laughter and had to sit down to catch her breath. It's good to see her laughing, Martin thought.

“Yes, she did,” William replied, dragging the puppy away from her puddle. “Baby dogs have to be taught where to go.”

“Well, she's a moron,” Martin said with feeling. “And thanks, but I don't want another dog.”

“How would you know?” William retorted. “You've never had a dog. You had a bot with special executive branch powers, and that's not at all like having a dog. This puppy has to eat right and sleep right and stay warm and go to the bathroom, and she doesn't have the first idea how to take care of herself. She'll stick her nose in scalding water if you let her, and eat poison or plastic toys or garbage. She doesn't know how to behave, either, and she won't learn unless you teach her. She'll be dead in a day without the right care.”

“So . . . she's like a human baby,” Martin said. “Like when we got Cassie.”

“Only she'll grow up quicker.”

The puppy bumbled around William's legs and got tangled up in her leash. When she couldn't move, she barked to get free. Martin slid off the bed and sorted her out, and she lurched up to him. He stroked her baby fuzz, and she wagged her entire back end.

You are a wonderful person
, her dark eyes told him.
You are my whole world
. Then she bit him on the arm.

Martin couldn't speak for a moment. He fended off the little baby teeth and blinked hard. “Well, she's still a moron,” he said gruffly.

The puppy went exploring in her circle of leash. She found one of his sneakers by the bed and pounced on it happily. By the time he could reel her in, she had it in her mouth and was chewing for all she was worth.

William burst out laughing. “She shares your taste in shoes!”

Martin glowered. But then he relented. He thought, it's good to see William laughing too.

“I've got the perfect name for her,” he said. “I'm gonna name her after you.”

William stopped laughing, and her brows gathered in an ominous line. “Why?”

“Just because,” Martin said. “I think William's a beautiful name. Come on, William, let's find you some shiny new sneakers, and you can chew on them all you want.” And he tugged on the leash and headed for the door.

Clare B. Dunkle earned a degree in library science from Indiana University and worked as a librarian for almost a decade before turning her attention to writing. She is the author of several acclaimed books for young adults, including the award-winning Hollow Kingdom trilogy and
The Sky Inside
, which was the first book featuring Martin and Chip. She lives with her family in San Antonio, Texas.