Sidekick goes boom

  Cole thought about what it would mean if the bomb failed. Roxie would tear apart Aero, and then what? How would they stop her? Would they just have to flee? Maybe.

  “Here I go,” Sidekick said. “Don’t ever say we bots never did anything for you!”

  “Duck and cover,” Hunter said.

  “Woo-hoo!” Sidekick cried as he fell.

  The glider climbed steeply, curving away from Sector 20.

  “Don’t look at the blast,” Googol suggested. “And cover your ears.”

  Cole kept his eyes heavenward. Just after he covered his ears, light filled the sky. The brilliance vanished in a flash but left him dazzled. A moment later the glider rose violently, as if clumsy, invisible hands had shoved it upward. The aircraft shook violently and twisted almost sideways. Cole flopped around in his harness. Even with his ears covered, the boom was deafening.

  Then the glider leveled out. Body sore, ears ringing, Cole looked down and back. Moonlight revealed the swirling column of debris and smoke that filled Sector 20.

  “We did it?” Cole asked tentatively.

  “Looks that way,” Hunter replied.

  Cole started to laugh.

  His brother joined him.

  The blast in Sector 20 had left much of Old Zeropolis unaffected, though the north side of the wall had exploded outward, and other portions had cracked and buckled. A dispersing mushroom cloud still hung over the blast site. Hunter had taken the glider up in the morning to confirm that most of Sector 20 was now a charred crater.

Chapters 38-39