“Where are you going, all dressed up?” asked Kelvin’s sister, Anna.
“An appointment,” he said. After leaving Scott, Kelvin’s mind was swimming. Scott had a spell on him, and it was something that even he couldn’t get rid of. It was something given to him by the Technomancer that Mike warned them about. How could he get rid of the spell?
Kelvin made plans. He was going to go to Texitron Inc., get in to see the Technomancer, and get him to spill how to combat the spell. If he had to, he’d offer himself as payment.
Luckily, he talked to Casey.
“You must know people,” said Casey. “Engineers. Computer geeks. Technical nerds.”
Kelvin did, but it had been a couple of years since he contacted anyone. He had been so hell-bent on working on his suit that he let the friendships and acquaintances fall by the wayside. Kelvin felt weird for asking. “Start with one of your teachers, then,” Casey said. “Start with the premise that you’re having trouble with something in the suit and you need help.”
Kelvin spent most of the day before getting the nerve to call Dr. Wood at MIT, one of the few professors that he had shown his prototype suit to, who was also a friend of his father’s. When he called him, he got Professor Goldman. Professor Goldman remembered Kelvin immediately. Goldman had been a grad student the year before Kelvin started building the suit. Goldman specialized in robotics, and one of his papers had influenced Kelvin with the new suit and hydraulics. Would Kelvin like to bring the suit by? Oh, and by the way, could Goldman bring a few people to see the suit?
Sure, but there was one thing. And then he blurted it out: “I need to talk to someone that combines magic and technology.”
Goldman laughed. Kelvin’s ears were burning. “In this place,” said Goldman, “that shouldn’t be hard to find.”
~~~~~~~~
Kelvin was able to hitch a ride in an UNTIL plane heading to Boston. The torso of his suit was in his carry-on, taken apart and packed carefully. After getting dropped off from the plane, he took the bus to MIT. He had enough time to get himself a cup of coffee at the cafeteria.
Only the hardy students were in the cafe, laptops, computers and sprawling students. He somewhat missed it, going to school.
He saw one kid staring out the window. There was no computer next to him, no books. No other person near him. Kelvin walked toward him, trying to unobtrusively look at him. He was wearing headphones, and when Kelvin looked at his face, saw that he was wearing a monocle. He stopped, and the kid looked up at him.
There was a pause, and Kelvin looked away. “Sorry. I was staring,” he said.
“It’s okay,” said the kid. “Kelvin Davis, class of twenty-eleven?”
“Yes, how do you know?”
“Facial recognition to the school’s pictures,” he said.
“But I didn’t see you access anything.”
He smiled. “I know.”
Could it be? Kelvin hooked a chair and sat down. The kid looked at him, his eyebrow raised. “How did you do it? Magic?”
“No,” he said. He looked away, and Kelvin could see the monocle was tucked into the boy’s shirt, through the pocket. He also saw that the headphones wires ended under the kid’s hairline.
“I…look. If it is magic, I need your help.”
“It’s not magic, not really,” the kid shook his head. “Just some experimentation.”
Kelvin sat back. “I still might need your help, if you can control technology remotely.”
At that, he laughed.
Kelvin got up.
“I’m sorry,” said the kid, putting out a hand. “I’m Erik Lemnos, known as Vulcan. I might be able to help. One of my doctorates is in wireless technology.”
“One of?”
“I have four.”
Kelvin looked him up and down. “You’re as old as I am.”
“I got my engineering doctorate in twenty-eleven.” Kelvin almost could hear him say, While you were a mere babe in arms.
“Do you believe in magic?”
“I believe in science.”
Kelvin picked up his torso. “What’s that?”
“Oh,” said Kelvin, “nothing you’d be interested in.”
“Like what?”
“Power armor.”
His eyes brightened. “Power armor? Can I see?”
“I’m bringing it to Dr. Wood. I’m having a little trouble with something,” he lied. “My specialty was magnetic fields.”
“Can I come? I’ve never seen power armor.” He started to get up. His hand dropped to his side. Kelvin could see a tablet attached to his belt. “As long as you tell me how you do what you did.”
“I’ll tell you on the plane ride to where ever you’re going back to.”
“Deal.” They shook hands firmly.