I try again. “Rarf, rarf, rarf.”

I have made a terrible mistake. Several of them. I have damaged my language functions during the brain transfer and can only say “Rarf.”

Or have I?

My brain now resides in Proto’s body. Everything I experience is through Proto’s sensory detectors. I see through his eyes. I smell with his nose. My brain thinks the same way it always has, but I can only speak through his simple voice box. And all his voice box is capable of doing is saying “Rarf.”

“Rarf,” I say.

ADA turns her head to stare at me. “Now that we’ve switched brains, Phase One of my plan is complete. We can move onto Phase Two.” She says this in Trashbot’s voice, because her brain is now inside him.

ADA’s body is busy munching a candy wrapper, because Trashbot’s brain is in her.

Car’s brain occupies my body, and I hear my own voice muttering, “I am not accepting liability for any of this.”

Meanwhile, Car’s horn honks and her engine revs. I think of all of us, Proto is enjoying the brain switch the most.

I take a moment to orient myself.

My brain is in Proto’s body.

ADA’s brain is in Trashbot’s.

Trashbot’s brain is in ADA’s body.

Proto’s brain is in Car’s body.

And Car’s brain is in mine.

The next part of the plan is much simpler than swapping brains. We need only stand in plain sight in the parking lot where a few dozen uniMIND employees wait for the ferry. They drink coffee and huddle under umbrellas.

The waves of Lake Erie slap the pylons lining the ferry landing. Wind blows hard enough to bend my tail antennae. I hear the rumble of the ferry and smell diesel fumes before I see the boat emerge from the gloom. The ferry is a small floating parking lot with room for a dozen cars and an enclosed section for the passengers. It sloshes up and bobs on the waves and bumps against the dock, and workers go about tying it down with thick, dripping ropes. They lower a ramp to let a handful of uniMIND vehicles drive off the ferry, onto land, and the gathered workers walk aboard.

We climb back into Car and join the short line of uniMIND vehicles waiting to drive up on the deck. A ferry worker aims some kind of handheld scanning device at the golf-cart-sized vehicle at the front of the line. My keen ears detect a beep, and the worker waves the cart forward. Next is a van. The worker scans it. Another beep, and the worker waves the van aboard.

It is our turn.