Page 60 of Shinji Takahashi: Into the Heart of the Storm

“Oliver, what—”

He put a finger to his lips, just as a beam of light cut through the darkness several yards away. A second later, a drone appeared, but this one did not fly. Instead, it moved across the ground on four jointed metal legs, looking like some kind of large, metallic bug. As it came to the wall of a building, it didn’t go around the barrier, but dug its legs into the brick and scuttled up the side like a real insect.

Everyone pressed back into the wall, holding their breath and staying as still as statues, until the drone had skittered up the building and moved on.

“Oh good,” Shinji whispered when it was safely gone. “Spider drones. That’s always fun.”

“Hence the other things I was talking about,” Lucy said. “Those are Hightower security drones. There’s probably a bunch of them that patrol the property, not just the outer fence like the fliers. And no, Tinker certainly can’t disable them. They’re way too high-tech.”

Roux peeked around the corner with Oliver. “So, we’re gonna have to sneak past them the hard way,” he mused. “Without being spotted.” Glancing over his shoulder, he shot a dubious look at the rest of them and grinned. “I’m pretty sure I’ve got this; I don’t know about the rest of you.”

Oliver snorted. “You’re not the only scoundrel in the party, kiddo. I’ve snuck into my fair share of shady docks and warehouses.Andout again. Granted, none of them were patrolled by spider drones, so we’re just going to have to be careful. And keep looking up.”

“Hang on,” Shinji said. “I think I have an idea. Lucy, Tinker can talk to us now, right? Canhetrack the drones and tell us when it’s safe to move?”

She blinked. “That’s actually a good idea,” she said, sounding amazed that he had come up with it. Shinji tried not to be offended. “Tinker, do you think you can do what Shinji suggested?”

Tinker twitched his ears, regarding them both with glowing eyes. After a moment, Shinji’s phone buzzed.

Tinker understands, the text read.Shinji does not have to ask Lucy. Tinker can hear you.

“So, is the rat really going to help us?” Roux wondered as Shinji stared at his phone. With a blip, another text came through.

Tinker will help, it said.Tinker will not even tell rude boy to go sit on an electric fence.

Lucy, also gazing at her phone, let out a cough that sounded like a stifled laugh. Holding up her hand, she let Tinker crawl onto it, then lowered him to the ground. The mechanical mouse sat on his haunches a moment, nose and ears scanning the sky. Then he darted off with a flash of copper and was gone.

“Follow Tinker,” Lucy said, returning her attention to her phone. “He’ll let us know when it’s safe to move. Right now, he says wait, a drone is on its way back.”

Oliver shook his head. “If anyone asked me what I’d be doing this week,” he muttered, “my answer would not have beenwaiting for a robot mouse to tell me when it’s safe to dodge Hightower security drones. But here we are.”

One of the drones walked by along a wall, its legs making faint clicking sounds on the bricks, its spotlight eye shining over the ground. Shinji clenched a fist at how spiderlike it really was.

Beside him, Phoebe let out a breath. “Hightower does have some interesting technology,” she mused.

“This is nothing,” Lucy replied. “You should’ve seen some of the projects they wanted me to work on. Tinker is the only artificial intelligence that successfully combined tech with real magic, but some of their other inventions got really close. Hopefully we won’t run into any of them here.”

“Why not?” Shinji wondered. “What kind of things were they working on?”

“One word,” Lucy told him. “Spiderguns.”

Everyone shuddered. “Oh great, that’s going to be in my head forever.” Oliver sighed. “An army of mechanical killer spiders crawling across the ceiling toward me, how fun. I can’t wait to see what other nightmare surprises they have waiting for us.”

Both Shinji’s and Lucy’s phones buzzed.Drones have passed, the text read.Safe to move in 2.7 seconds. Also, Tinker has found the structure SEA team is looking for. Sending coordinates now.

“Tinker’s found the warehouse,” Lucy said.

She started to say more, but suddenly the wind shifted. A warm blast of air hit Shinji’s face, smelling of rain and dust. Thunder rumbled in the distance, making his stomach clench.

“Okay.” Oliver nodded with a wary glance at the sky. “Storm’s coming, and we’re running out of time. Let’s get that idol and get the heck out of Dodge. Hopefully without running into a spider army.”

Following Tinker’s instructions, they dodged a pair of drones and finally reached the warehouse that had appeared in the Coatl’s vision. Shinji recognized it immediately: a squat, nondescript building with no windows and four large loading bays at the back. The metal doors were extremely thick, and tall enough for a T. rex to walk through without bumping its head.

“Hmm, no windows,” Roux muttered, gazing up at the front of the warehouse. “And we’ll probably need explosives to get through those doors. Anyone have any C-4 lying around?”

“Tinker is sensing lots of cameras and alarms around the area,” Lucy said, phone in hand as she stared at the screen.

“He can try to start disabling them, but it might take some time. And if the alarm senses him, it’ll be over.”

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