Maxwell Huxley's Demon Read Free Page A

Trust.
    “Maxwell . . . you know this isn’t true. We’ve talked about this before. You’re g oing to work yourself up again. Remember what happens when you do this. I know you don’t want that.”
    Max si t s in silence.
    “I worry about you. ” Dr. Concilian sighs. “ Your scores are down. You wo n’t tell me what you are doing. I see you working yourself into a bad place again. ”
    “What happens to the ten -year-olds ? ” Max asks.
    Dr. Concilian doesn’t answer the question, but instead says, “Alright, Maxwell . . . come see me if you need anything , and I’ll talk to you again in about a week.
    “What happened to Connor and Ian —and Rachel —and Chris!?” Max asks .
    Silence.
    Max rises. Frustrated. “What about Keith, he’s about my age; will he ever get out of solitary ?”
    “Max.” Dr. Concilian rises and looks Max in the eyes . “There are time s when you are going to discover . . .” He walks to his bookshelf and turns his back on Max. “ . . . that things are not always what they seem. You can go back to class now.”
    Max leaves.
    Dr. Concilian sighs.
    ---
    Dr. Concilian moves to his desk and adjusts his cell phone, moving it a fraction to the right and smiling . He walks out the side door of his office directly into his private chambers, taking Max’s file with him, updating it and reminding himself how much he hates final exams. Before he closes the file he notes that Max’s real overall score s have climbed into the 99 .9 percentile, tied for top honours .
    ---
    Walking back to the classrooms, M ax’s thought s wander to the past, t o a time when he and Keith first started to bend the rules.
    They stole down this same corr idor in the middle of the night, p ausing in classroom doorways and poking their heads around each cor ner before moving on. They headed to the mechatronics lab. Keith stopped and held his hand up. Max stopped. They listened. All Max could hear was Keith giggling.
    “Goof, ” Max said .
    “ Goofier,” Keith replied and then began moving forward again. Reaching the lab, Keith started taking screws out of the high security lock. Max leaned against the wall and kept lookout. W hat would I do if someone came along? We’ve nowhere to hide and nowh ere to run. Keith pulled the cover off the lock and spliced wire i nto electronics inside the lock mechanism. After a minute or so , Max heard the lock click open. They both slipped inside the lab .
    “I can’t believe we’re doing this, ” Max said.
    “We need some of our own tools . . . Hey. E ver wanna se e what Hanson keeps in his desk? ” Keith moves behind a desk at the front of the lab.
    Max felt uncomfortable even seeing Keith behind the de sk. “Don’t. Coming in to get equipment we need is one thing. Snooping in Dr. Hanson’s desk is another. ”
    “Alright . . . wuss . Let’s get what we came for.” They both move d over to the supply cabinets. Keith picked the simple cabinet locks in seconds. “Two brick power supplies, solder, solderi ng iron, wire . . .” Keith handed t he supplies back to Max who put them in backpack s . In another minute , two backpacks were full , and they had what they need ed .
    The boys head ed to the door to leave the lab. Max pulled the door open and stared at the outline of a man, t oo dark to make out much detail. M ax cried out , dropped a backpack, fell backward, grabbed Keith and pulled him down with him.
    The light s ca me on. The boys saw Dr. Hanson looking down at them laughing. “ My, my, boy s . . . am I really that frightening?”
    Minutes later, Dr. Hanson sat at his desk. Keith and Max stood facing him . Both boys stared intently at their feet. “You boys, put all this back. ” Dr. Hanson gestures at the stolen supplies spilled over his desk. “ I want my lab back the way it was before you came in here.” Max and Keith hurr ied to put everything away.
    “ Two things boys . . . O ne, if you’d asked me , I would’ve signed out what you wanted and