24 - Nico
A FTER THE SEVENTH REPEAT OF the bee drone dance, Nico was starting to think his big idea was stupid. What were the chances Sam would see this? Would understand?
And Sam always noticed things that were off. A bee in the middle of February, just dancing over the shoulder of some reporter—doing the same pattern again and again?
Sam would see this.
He hit R EPEAT P ATTERN on the controller, but this time the bee flew east instead, directly across Broadway. Over the heads of all the people losing it. Toward him.
Nico was just out of the broadcast’s camera range, watching from the floor-to-ceiling window of a looted and abandoned flagship candy store.
Since people thought the world was ending, they probably figured they might as well go out on a sugar high.
Though that didn’t explain why all the expensive branded clothing had been taken too.
The bee drone queen came to hover on the opposite side of the window from Nico, like it was waiting for him. Like it saw him.
And Nico realized he wasn’t controlling it. Which meant it must be Byron. Which meant Sam had gotten the message!
Nico pushed out the door, sure anyone watching would think he was some unhinged Disney-obsessed teen who thought he was a prince whose best friend was a bee… But no one was paying attention to him—everyone was consumed with their own end-times fear.
He spoke directly to the bee, “Okay, Sam. Where are we meeting? Where’s this thirteenth floor?”
1103 Midtown ManhattanNY
Time toImpact: 56min24sec
Peter stood up on the pedals of Byron’s three-wheeled bicycle pedicab to get them around an abandoned rental truck. He was sticking to the streets because the sidewalks were even worse.
Behind him, Byron steered the queen bee drone from the passenger seat, making a trail Nico could follow.
“How much longer?” Sam asked in their earpieces.
“Six blocks to go.” Peter was out of breath, but he wasn’t going to complain. He was really helping. He was part of the team!
1108 Midtown Manhattan NY
Time toImpact: 51min13sec
Byron landed the queen bee drone on his palm, then placed her in the charging pack.
1109 Midtown Manhattan NY
Time toImpact: 50min57sec
Nico ran as fast as he could past abandoned vehicles. The bee drone had made a left here, but he couldn’t see it anymore. Up ahead in the middle of the block was one of those three-wheel bicycles with an upholstered passenger carriage. Its black canopy was up—maybe the bee was behind that?
He slowed to go around it—and there was Sam!
“Nico!” Sam said, but Nico was kissing him before he could say anything else.
Sam! Sam! Sam!
“You’re safe.” Nico broke away just long enough to say the words, and kissed Sam again. He didn’t want to let go.
Sam pulled back first. “Hey, you need this.” Sam held out a replacement earpiece he’d probably gotten from Ari.
Nico knew Ari and the others would hear him, but he had to explain. “I was worried they were tracking me by it, so I ditched it.”
Sam cocked his head, listening to a voice in his earpiece.
“Ari’s saying it wasn’t this,” Sam relayed. “They’re saying the audio signal is masked and encrypted.”
Nico wasn’t sure he believed Ari, or trusted them, but he could see Sam did.
“Here.” Sam took out his earpiece and gave it to Nico. He put the new one in his own ear.
Nico fitted Sam’s earpiece into his own ear. The plastic was warm.
“Everyone in position?” Ari asked.
Bec’s voice came through their earpieces. “The TV transmitters and all the electrical are between the forty-ninth and fiftieth floors.”
“We’re on fifty-one, the viewing platform,” Frida added. “Just a couple of tourists.”
“A couple?” Bec added.
“You like that?” Frida asked.
“Flirting!” Ari singsonged.
Sam laughed. “Ari, give them a break!”
“How long for the queen drone to recharge?” Nico asked Byron as he hoisted the drone bee hive backpack to his shoulder.
“Ten minutes, but she won’t have much power.”
“I just need her long enough for the swarm to sting two people.”
Peter got off the pedicab’s bicycle seat. “What are we waiting for?” he asked Nico and Sam.
Nico shook his head. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Aww, come on!” Peter protested.
Sam picked up Nico’s defensive vibe—Peter didn’t have anyone elseto look after him. “We need you to get Byron to One Times Square. Help Frida and Bec. The proof won’t mean anything if we can’t broadcast it.”
Peter rolled his eyes. “We just came from there!”
“It will really help us.” Nico tag-teamed the argument. “Way more than you going in here.”
“Fine.” Peter was disgruntled, but Nico was relieved. He caught eyes with Sam and tried to say thanks silently.
Byron came to Nico and flipped a hidden switch on the side of the hive backpack, making a line glow green up the side. “Don’t lose this one. It’ll boost the recording signal from the drones.”
“Hey.” Nico pulled the dart Noble One had shot at him out of his pocket. “Can you find out what’s in this, and let me know? Careful with it.”
“Sure.” Byron pulled open a small drawer on the pedicab and got out a pair of purple latex gloves. He snapped them on and gingerly took the dart and set it in another drawer.
Nico had the bee drones, but Sam looked like he felt naked. Nico realized they didn’t have any other weapons. But he did have another drone.
“You take the hummingbird.” Nico pulled the rainbow-feathered drone out of his jacket pocket and handed it to Sam. “Byron, do you have—”
Before Nico could finish the thought, Sam pulled a controller and six more drone bees out of his pockets. Nico whistled, impressed, and opened the drone bee hive to add the new ones. Twelve rows of twelve, with just two missing: 142 bees.
“Take this one instead,” Byron traded controllers with Sam. “I upgraded the programming with a few tricks. Hope it helps.”
“I’m sure it will,” Sam said, which was nice of him. Beyond hitting panic mode to distract Keahilani and Noble One, Nico had no idea how fancy drone programming could help.
Byron pulled Nico into a hug. “Take care of yourself,” he said into Nico’s ear. Nico felt the hug all the way to his core.
Then Byron tapped his shoulder twice and stepped into the bicycle carriage, busying himself with the contents of the dart. Peter stood on the pedals to get them going and U-turned to weave between the stuck cars and take them back to Times Square.
“Ari, any progress on the code?” Sam asked.
“I’m good, but this needs a math genius,” Ari said.
“Try Nico.” Sam raised a challenging eyebrow at him. “Math’s how his brain works.”
“It’s millions of lines of code for each of the millions of data sets from the James Webb Telescope,” Ari said. “They messed with it somehow to make a hole in space, but it’s not popping.”
Nico felt put on the spot. Maybe if he was staring at it he could see a pattern in the numbers, but he was no programmer. “I’ll let you know if I think of anything,” Nico said.
Sam hovered the hummingbird drone at eye level, looking at the sharp point of its beak. Fingers on the controller, Sam made the hummingbird drone lunge forward a few times. Satisfied, he had it land on his shoulder, Disney prince style.
The guy was a natural with gadgets.
“You got your bracelet?” Sam held up his own, shiny black surface gleaming and making sure they would be just a blur of color on any camera.
Nico flashed his bracelet, and shouldered the second strap of the hive backpack. “Ready?” he asked Sam.
“Yeah.” Sam kissed him quick on the lips and started across the street to the building entrance. Nico hustled to keep up as Sam said, “Let’s take the fight to the thirteenth floor.”
God, Nico loved this guy.