Chapter 1

FRANK EINSTEIN and the ANTIMATTER MOTOR

1 EXACTLY 48 HOURS/2 ROTATIONS OF THE EARTH EARLIER... Night. Darkness. Flash! A bright bolt of lightning splits the dark and flickers over the skylight. Frank Einstein looks up from his work. He

counts out loud, "One thousand one. One thousand two. One thousand three. One thousand four. One thousand five—" Craack boom! The sound-wave vibration of the thunder rattles the old iron-framed windows of Frank's workshop and science laboratory.

"Five seconds between light and sound for every mile... One mile away," Frank calculates, using the difference between the almost-instant speed of light and the much slower speed of sound. "Right on time." "Are you sure this will work?" asks Watson, pulling on long yellow rubber dishwashing gloves to protect himself. "Because, man, this seems pure crazy." "It's perfect," Frank answers. "Perfect my mom and dad are gone again on one of their travel-hot-spot trips. Perfect Grampa Al let me set up my lab in his garage and use all his great repair-shop junk. And perfect we can use this lightning to supercharge my SmartBot to life and win the Midville Science Prize." Lightning flashes. Thunder booms. "That hundred-thousand cash prize will pay off all Grampa Al's bills. And the SmartBot

will help us invent anything else we want." Frank secures the final copper wire in his SmartBot's brain. "What could go wrong?" "Well, remember that time we were making race cars—" Frank holds out his hand like a doctor in an operating room. "Vacuum switch!" "—and you bolted the jet engine onto the baby stroller—" "GPS unit!" "—and you decided it would be more 'fuel efficient' without the brakes?" "Skull piece!" "I can show you the scar." "Skull piece!" Watson looks around the workbench covered with the bits and parts of twenty years' worth of mechanical, electrical, and

plumbing repairs. He picks up a shiny metal piece with two slots. "You mean this toaster thing?" Flash! Frank looks up at the skylight and counts, "One thousand one. One thousand—" Boom!