Machine Man (serial)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Lola frowned at the bedroom door. She hadn’t figured it out yet: that Angelica was evicting us, via Better Future. I struggled to my feet. My poles, I mean. A standing position. I got upright. That’s what I’m saying. “Where does Angelica keep her car keys?”

“What?”

“Her car keys.” I managed a step, then another, and made it to the kitchen doorway. “In here?”

“Why do you want Angelica’s car keys?”

This was a difficult question to answer without elevating Lola’s heart rate. And elevating Lola’s heart rate would be bad. It would mean an electromagnetic pulse, a dead car, and no easy way out of here. What I had to do was execute the world’s calmest escape. “I just…” I spotted them on the counter, and scooped them up. “Never mind. Let’s go to the garage.”

“The garage? Why?”

“I guess I just… I feel like a drive. I’ve been shut in this house so long, wow, let’s just get some fresh air.”

Lola was staring at me. “You want the welder.”

“What? Oh! No. I don’t want the welder.”

“Angelica was right.” She squeezed closed her eyes. “I’m so stupid.”

“Lola!” I shouted. Her eyes popped open. “We’re going to walk past the welder and get in the car. Come see.”

“Then why—”

“Just come to the car,” I said. “Please. Now.”

129.