“We have to tread carefully here, Alex,” his grandfather murmured. “Break it to him gently. Extreme delicacy required. There’s no telling what the shock might do. But first thing’s first, young man: am I correct in thinking you just sent a flier for me? That was you? Controlling that thing?”

“Yeah, but—”

“What on earth were you thinking? How stupid can you be? Do you know the risk . . . What happened after she took you?”

Alex told him as best he could. He could see his grandfather growing more worried by the word. And angrier.

“Agreeing to use the flier when she asked was bad enough,” the old man snapped. “But I can understand that: you had no option. But doing it again? Of your own free will? Do you have any idea what you might have opened yourself up to? How do you even know Zia couldn’t also connect to the machine, get to you through it? When I saw you, I thought maybe they had you under some control.”

Alex hung his head, stung by the scolding, partly because he agreed with most of it. Using the flier had been foolish. Yet he felt certain only he had access to this particular robot now. And, after all: it had worked.

“It’s only me who can use it,” he muttered. “She said so. She said it had been prepared—”

“She?” his grandfather exploded. “She said? After she grabbed you and threw you down a well? Zia? You believe a word that drops from her mouth? If she told me water was wet, I’d think twice. I can’t believe you could be so stupid.”

“Okay,” Alex snapped back. “I get it. I’m stupid. What was I supposed to do? I was lost, I needed to find you, and the flier was there, and I knew how to do it, and so I acted accordingly, like you keep saying.

“Oh, and talking of your advice,” Alex went on, yelling now, “what am I supposed to think, anyway? You’re all over the place. One minute you’re telling me all this stuff is dangerous and needs stopping, the next you’re getting me to magic Harry back up from the dead. I mean, make your mind up. Anyway, what’s so bad? It was easy to use the flier. I’m good at it. It’s really useful, we can use it.”

“Oh, easy, was it? Just you listen to— Wait a minute. What do you mean we can use it? You don’t still have it?”

“Yeah, I—”

“’Ere, ’ang on.”

Alex and his grandfather turned irritably as Harry stepped toward them.

“Just a minute, Harry,” the old man said. “Alex and I have some—”

“No, wait. What did the lad mean? Magic me up from the dead. What’s ’e on about?”

In the heavy silence that followed, Alex and his grandfather exchanged a look from the corner of their eyes.