Cragbridge Hall, Book 1: The Inventor's Secret Hardcover by Chad Morris

Author:Chad Morris
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9781609073268
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Published: 2013-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

19

Risking It All

Derick leapt from one tree branch onto another. He tried to use his tail, but it still felt foreign. A monkey dangling from a branch several feet above him waved.

“Show off,” Derick mumbled. The other monkey was Rafa, the prodigy teacher’s assistant.

Derick’s monkey avatar leapt to the next branch and clung tight. He heard his teacher’s voice through his earpieces.

“Careful, Derick. You have shown enough promise that working with Rafael today can be a great help. But remember, though the avatar is dexterous and durable, it is also very expensive. Take it little by little. Don’t push yourself too far like last time.”

Derick took the advice and practiced clinging to the branch he was on, swinging beneath it and back up the other side. He repeated the drill over and over until it felt natural, but he was thinking about something else—a tower he needed to climb. He had tried to watch closely as Dr. Mackleprank opened the lab, but there was no way to see the code. Plus, it took a fingerprint read, and only the teacher and Rafa had clearance for that. No way could he possibly break in.

“Alright, let’s bring it in,” Dr. Mackleprank said.

Derick jumped to a lower branch, and then another. He had much more confidence than before. While most others in his class were trying to progress from walking to running, he was learning to scale trees.

Rafa’s monkey passed by, gliding downward a second or two slower than falling. He hopped from branch to branch with such agility that he seemed as at home in the tree as a human walking.

After joining Rafael’s avatar on the ground, Derick walked his monkey to the corner storage center. Then he pushed the button on the back of his neck to log off.

He felt dizzy and nauseated as he came back to reality in the lab room. Derick took a few moments to reorient himself before trying to take off the harness.

Then it came to him. He had an idea. He remembered Frederick Douglass, how waiting until the last minute had helped him. Sometimes that was when people paid the least attention. Derick would have to be as cool and calm as his namesake had been.

He walked down the hall toward the issue room, where they received their equipment and lab room assignment for the day, and where they returned their gear after labs. Derick planned quickly, pushing toward the front of the group. He wanted to be one of the first to turn in his sensors.

“Here you go,” Derick said, handing his gear to Rafa, who’d beat him to the issue room.

“You’re learning quickly, rapaz,” Rafael said. “Just don’t try to go too fast. If you keep practicing, you’ll join the real monkeys by the end of the semester.” Rafa didn’t seem as rigid and unfriendly as he had before. Perhaps he was warming up. Of course, that didn’t make Derick feel any better about what he was about to do. Rafa logged the gear back in and placed it on its rack.

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