Free Ambassador by William Alexander Page A

entirely gone. Its voice was cold, colder than Gabe had ever heard his mother’s voice before. “Someone just tried to kill you, Ambassador. Someone tried to assassinate you. And they knew enough about the entanglement process to sabotage it. Only one of your own colleagues could have done this. And they might already know that they have not succeeded. We need to get you away from this place.”
    Sirens wailed in the distance, growing louder.
    Gabe hoisted up the backpack and pets. He tucked the vajra hammer through a belt loop and the cane sword under one arm. Zora remained perched on his head.
    â€œFollow me,” he said, and set out for Frankie’s house.

10
    Gabe cut through alleyways and the rocket-scorched lawn of Frankie’s backyard. He found the spare key under the fake rock in the garden and let himself in through the kitchen door. The Envoy followed behind him.
    The kitchen looked shiny and new—or at least parts of it did, like the stainless steel fridge and the glass tiles on the wall behind the counter. It was much bigger than the one at Gabe’s place—the one that used to be at his place, when it still existed, which was just fifteen minutes ago. That kitchen must be even smaller now, compressed to a tiny point of condensed mass. Or else maybe it was bigger now, its molecules expelled from the collapse of the black hole and scattered to the winds, covering the whole city. Either way, it was gone.
    Gabe dropped his backpack, put the fox and the iguana on the floor, set the hammer and cane on thekitchen table beside a pile of textbooks, and then closed all the doors to keep the pets from escaping the kitchen. Zora made a flying circuit of the room and then perched back on the top of Gabe’s head. Fox and iguana claws made clackety clackety noises against the floor tiles while they explored.
    Gabe sat down on a kitchen chair, hard. He couldn’t think straight. His head was spinning, and the centrifugal force flung coherent thought out his ears.
    The Envoy tapped Gabe’s knee. “We should probably keep moving,” it said, gentle but insistent.
    â€œWhere?” asked Gabe. Emergency plans ended here. If home burns, grab your jump bag and get to Frankie’s house. Home had burned. The top half of it did, anyway. And now Gabe had made it to Frankie’s house.
    â€œI don’t know where,” said the Envoy. “But there’s a chance that our attackers can track the energy signature of your newly entangled particles and find us here.”
    â€œThat’s bad,” said Gabe.
    â€œYes,” the Envoy agreed.
    â€œSo what happens if they find us?” Gabe asked. “Can they send other small black holes after us?”
    â€œNo. Your entanglement is complete. But I don’t know what else they might do. And they must be nearby, closer even than the ships in the asteroid belt. We should bemoving. We should make it more difficult for them to find you.”
    Gabe didn’t move. He didn’t feel like he could. He needed to keep sitting down. He also needed a drink of water. The pets were heavy, and he’d run all the way there. He was supposed to stay there . The plans said so. Dad said so. Frankie’s mother had said so.
    â€œGive me a sec to think about this,” he said, or at least started to say.
    Foodsteps thudded against stairs. That must be Lupe, Gabe thought. Frankie’s mom doesn’t make any noise when she moves through the house. Frankie’s mom is more like a ninja than a pirate.
    He expected his sister to burst into the kitchen the way she usually burst into a room, but he didn’t expect her to do it through a secret door in the kitchen wall. One of the wooden panels swung open, and his sister thundered through.
    â€œMom?” she called. “I thought I heard Mom . . .”
    The Envoy scootched under the table and out of sight.
    â€œMom’s not here,” said Gabe.