Kenzie stood trying to speak, but didn’t seem to know how. Alex focused on him, helping him.

“Alex,” Kenzie said, dimly. “There’s something behind you.”

“I know. Stay here, Kenzie.”

Alex thought about the techniques he’d learned while using the flier, about moving his thoughts, about sectioning parts of his mind off from each other. With that, he put a wall around Kenzie, shielding him. Then he turned. The little cottage melted away, and he was back in the small gray room. The tall man stood before him, intently studying the toy robot. He noticed Alex with surprise.

“Get out,” Alex muttered, still weak. It felt as if his mind had been injected with something like the anesthetic the dentist used to numb his jaw. “Out of my head.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” The man held the robot aloft and smiled. “The name of God. It recognizes you. Which now means, of course, it recognizes me. And I know how to access it fully. Decades of deep learning, child, not your feeble fumbling at the edges. You could barely begin to understand a millionth of what might be done with this. I know all the words and what they mean. Shall we conduct a little test first, so you can see, before I lock you back in your box? I’ll set the rain on fire, make the forest burn, how about that?”

The tall man began whispering long and low. Satisfaction spread across his face, then disappeared, replaced by confusion, anger.

“Something’s wrong. Something . . . missing? What have you done to this, child?”

The man shook the toy, then closed his eyes as he devoted his full attention to the problem.

His full attention.

At once, the fug cleared from Alex’s mind. Thoughts, memories, and feelings came pouring through him, along with a sharper sense of the tablet than he had ever experienced before. He knew exactly what was wrong, the missing piece the tall man would never find.

“What’s that behind you?” the tall man asked suddenly. “What are you hiding back there?”

Alex took the wall away. Kenzie stepped out to stand by his side. From behind him, the raging light came pouring around them. Alex gestured toward the tall man. A door appeared behind him.

“This guy,” Alex said to Kenzie, “is a real idiot. I need your help. We just need to tell him to get out.”

“Right.” Kenzie nodded and shrugged. “Uh. Get out.”

“Don’t be rid—” the tall man stopped speaking as one foot stumbled back half a step. He paused in surprise, then gathered himself, stood straight, and began chanting quickly and quietly.

“Get out,” Kenzie repeated. This time, Alex threw his mind after Kenzie’s words, caught them, aimed them, and set them flying, dragging bolts of the light with them. Then he sent his own, weightier command racing brightly behind them.