18 HYPOTHETICAL SPACE SNAKES

18 HYPOTHETICAL SPACE SNAKES Lunar day 217 Midafternoon The problem was, I couldn't really explain my plan to everyone else. There was no way to do it. All I could say was, "Just give me a chance to talk to the Sjobergs." "And what if they tell Patton to hurt you again?" Chang asked. "Then you can break down the door and beat the crap out of all of them," I replied. "And you'll be able to tell NASA that you were doing it to protect me." Chang considered that, then nodded. "I can deal with that."

"Hold on," Mom said. "You're okay with the possibility that my son might get hurt?" "I'm not going to get hurt," I told her. "Right. Because I'll be there to protect him," Chang said. "No," I corrected, "because Patton's not going to hurt me. I promise. Not after last time." "What happened last time?" Mom asked. "Dash scared Patton bad," Kira said. "He actually peed himself." "How?" Dad asked. "Sometimes bullies crack when you stand up to them," I replied. Mom and Dad never came around to the plan, but there wasn't time to argue. Nina was still missing, and if the Sjobergs were connected to her disappearance, we had to find out. Finally, after Chang swore he would wait right outside the Sjobergs" door, ready to burst in at the slightest sign of trouble, my parents gave in. After all, there was still plenty of work to do in the search for Nina. They reluctantly returned to the control room to plot a new search grid with Daphne and Dr. Kim while Chang walked me to the Sjobergs" suite. He pounded his huge fist on the door and

demanded, "It's Chang. I need to talk to you." "Go away," Lars said through the door. "We have nothing to say to you." He spoke in his normal, disdainful voice, rather than the pleasant one he'd used for his TV interview. Chang's anger flared, but he did his best to keep it in check. "Lars, I'm not asking you to open this door. I'm ordering you to do it as the interim moon- base commander. If you don't open it, I have the right to kick it open. I've already done it once today, so I know it's not that hard. And then you'll have a busted door on your suite that you can't shut or lock until NASA can send up repairs for it, which might be another few months." There was an annoyed grunt on the other side of the door, followed by some whispered words in Swedish: the Sjobergs quietly discussing the situation with one another. Chang pounded on the door again. "I'm losing patience out here! You've got five seconds and then I knock this thing off its hinges." "All right," Lars grumbled. "Keep your pants on. I'm coming." A second later, he opened the door a crack and glared through it. "What is the meaning of this?"

Chang quickly shifted his weight into the door, knocking it open with such force that it clonked Lars in the forehead and sent him sailing backward into Sonja. I stepped into the room behind him. I'd never been in the guest suite before. In fact, I'd never even had a glimpse of it until seeing the video of the Sjobergs that afternoon. Although it had been billed to them as a "luxury suite," it looked as crummy as every other room at MBA. It was merely larger, which actually made it seem worse somehow. The Sjobergs didn't have any more furnishings than we had, just the same cheap InflatiCubes to sit on and a SlimScreen table. In the big room, these few items seemed even smaller. Our room felt relatively cozy. Theirs felt like an empty storage locker. The only thing that was nicer in their room was their wall-size SlimScreen. It was bigger than ours— as their wall was bigger—and was top-of-the-line. The resolution was amazing. They'd been watching a western on it, which was now paused. Three men were frozen in the midst of a gunfight. It felt as though we were right in the Wild West with them. Lars, Sonja, and Lily were all staring at us angrily. Lars now had a red welt swelling on his forehead where the door had hit him. "How dare you invade

our private space like this?" he spluttered. To their side, Patton had tensed up in fear upon seeing me. Even though it had been a few hours since Zan had scared him, he still appeared disheveled and on edge. Which was what I'd been hoping for. I turned to Chang. "I'll be okay." He glanced at me skeptically. "You sure?" "Yeah." "What is going on here?" Lars demanded, then jabbed a thick finger at me. "What's he doing here?" "Dash has to ask you guys a few questions," Chang told him. "Treat him well, okay? If you don't, I'll have to come back and teach you to play nice." With that, he slipped back out the door and closed it behind him. The angry look on Lars Sjoberg's face suddenly turned evil. Now that Chang had left me alone with him, he looked like a cat who'd been given a mouse to play with. "You little fool," he told me. "You have made a terrible mistake coming here." "You shouldn't threaten me," I told him, then turned to Patton. "Remember what happened when you threatened me today?" Patton quivered at the memory of the alien beast

he'd seen and gave a little whimper. "Well, I can make that thing come back," I said. "It's my friend...." "That's not true," Patton said weakly, like he was trying to convince himself. "Why do you think it showed up when it did?" I asked. "Why do you think it attacked you and not me? It protects me when I'm in danger. So if any of you cause any trouble for me now, all I have to do is call to it...." "No!" Patton screamed. He turned to his father, his eyes wide with fear. "Don't threaten him! Do whatever he says!" Lars shot an annoyed glance at his son. "Patton, there was no space snake! You imagined it!" "I didn't!" Patton screamed back. "I saw it! I swear! It was right in front of my face!" "Then where is the hole you said it came out of?" Lars demanded. "I didn't see one! This little jerk is toying with you!" Rather than deal with Lars anymore, I looked directly at Patton and asked, "Why are you all lying to the news about how much you like MBA?" Patton started to answer, but before he could, Sonja shouted something at him angrily in Swedish.