Jack and the Geniuses: At the Bottom of the World

Jack and the Geniuses: At the Bottom of the World — page 5
Bill Nye and Gregory Mone along with a camera some electronic brains motors and batteries and miniature fans attached to four mechanical arms A pretty simple drone I guess until you figure that my twelve-year-old sister built him from scratch At our kitchen table From a collection of spare parts The name was Ava’s choice and although Matt guessed the initials stood for Flying Robotic Electronic Drone she swore she just liked the name Fred By that point she’d also built a dangerously fast motorized skateboard called Pedro and a talking toaster named Bob Pedro had sent me tumbling tumbling into a pile of overstuffed trash bags a few weeks earlier and poor Bob exploded after some sesame seeds caught fire That was a real shame I liked Bob He had a nice light touch with bagels As Fred flew higher my brother and sister huddled around the screen of her laptop but I crept out of the alley and watched the robot approach the strange building We live in Williamsburg Brooklyn across the East River from New York City and new apartments and offices are always popping up around us Most of them are pretty similar but then this one went up last year that was just plain weird Ten stories tall and skinny the outside a chessboard of 2