The Drone Pursuit Read online

  The video was now at the part where the drone flew into the cafeteria. Mr. Jacobs shut the doors while the Collybird circled. The view shifted when our drone floated to the ground and the screen went blank.

  The audience applauded and Noah switched on the lights. “You’re lucky I wrote that soft-landing protocol into the drone for when someone releases the controls.”

  “Hey, what was I supposed to do?” I asked. “FBI agent, right in front of me.”

  “You didn’t even know he was an agent yet,” Noah said.

  “Exactly!” I shook my head. “I thought he was a bad guy.”

  Amy shushed us. “Guys. It’s Sam.”

  Sam stood on the stage next to Mr. Edge, the monthly host of the invention convention. There was a table with a black cloth hiding something underneath.

  Mr. Edge took the microphone from the stand. “Our final exhibition for this month comes from . . . Samantha Watson!”

  The audience clapped as she took the microphone.

  “Hello,” she said nervously. “This isn’t the most life-changing invention, but I think it can be pretty useful.” She bumped the microphone as she tried to remove the cloth from the table. “Sorry. I was up late building the prototype. I took apart my phone to do it, which my parents weren’t happy about. . . .”

  The audience laughed.

  Sam removed the cloth to reveal something very familiar. It was a mock-up of a key card reader attached to a small door.

  “Okay, here it goes.” She picked up a plain plastic card. “We’ve all seen these, right? A security key card. You hold it up to the reader and . . .”

  Sam held the card to the reader and the red light turned green. There was a loud click. She turned the handle on the small door and it opened.

  “. . . there you go.” She turned to Mr. Edge. “If I can have a volunteer from the audience.”

  Mr. Edge joined her onstage and she handed him the card.

  “If someone steals or ‘borrows’ your key card, they can get in too, right?” she asked.

  Amy made a little squeaking noise.

  Sam nodded at Mr. Edge, and the teacher pressed the card to the reader and the light turned green again. Sam opened the unlocked door. Then she picked up another card from the table. It was black and had a white circle on one end.

  “But this key card only works for me,” she explained. “It’s the same size and shape as a normal key card. That was the hard part. But it reads my thumbprint.”

  She held the key card against the reader and the light turned green. She opened the tiny door again.

  “It won’t work for anyone else.” She handed the black card to Mr. Edge.

  The teacher tried the card, holding it several different ways, and the light stayed red. He handed it back to Sam and she placed her thumb back in the circle. When she held the card against the reader, the light turned green again.

  “And that’s it,” she said.

  The students applauded as Mr. Edge took the microphone back.

  “Great job, Samantha,” he said. “And great job to all our inventors. See you next month!”

  We were still clapping when Sam joined us in the back. Noah even threw in a couple of whistles.

  “What did you think?” she asked. “It’s no big water project but . . .”

  “Are you kidding?” I asked. “That was great.”

  “Simple, elegant, the best,” Noah added.

  Amy grabbed her by both arms. “You are the best friend ever,” she said. “You redeemed me. You put my criminal rampage to good use.”

  “Yeah, I’m going to need one of those,” said a voice behind us. It was Mr. Jacobs.

  Amy cringed. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

  Mr. Jacobs laughed. “I already told you, Amy, don’t worry about it.” He handed out a couple of push brooms. “Besides, it got me help for a whole month. I might actually take a vacation for once.”

  We already knew the drill. Noah and I fold and roll away the tables while Sam and Amy sweep up the trash and bits of food. Then . . . everybody mops.

  “Man, since when did kids get so sloppy?” Noah asked as he rolled away a table.

  I shook my head. “Okay, are you going to ask that every day?”

  “Yeah, probably,” Noah replied.

  Sam glided by with her push broom. “I think I’m beginning to identify students by the crumbs they leave behind. Gross.”

  “Oh, I figured that out the second day,” Amy chimed in. She pushed her broom in the opposite direction and shook her head. “Photographic memory. A blessing and a curse.”

  The rest of us cracked up. Only twenty-seven more days of this to go. It was a lot of work, but as punishments go, it could’ve been worse.

  Keep reading for a preview of

  The Sonic Breach

  by

  Victor Appleton

  The Conjunction Malfunction

  “YOU’RE GOING DOWN, WATTS,” NOAH said to his opponent.

  “Bring it, Newton,” Jamal Watts replied.

  The two faced off inside a circle of other students. And no, this wasn’t some kind of after-school fight. It wasn’t even after school. This was during our robotics class, and the two combatants weren’t combatants at all. A large robot rested on the floor beside each of them.

  One of the cool things about attending the Swift Academy of Science and Technology is that you never knew what the day might have in store. Sure, most schools held field trips to local museums, but Swift Academy students might get to work on a project with NASA. Regular schools might have well-equipped science departments. But the academy students have access to a lot of the high-end equipment at the next-door Swift Enterprises—a major government contractor.

  Or, we could keep it simple like today and have a robot battle sparring session in part of the gym during robotics. All right, there were several cool things about our school.

  “Okay, teams,” Mrs. Scott said with a smirk as she strolled to the center of the circle. Her usual red bandanna held back her curly jet-black hair. Usually dressed in overalls, she always looked like someone who grew up in a mechanics shop. And judging by the wrench tattoo peeking out from her rolled-up shirtsleeve, she probably did. “Enough trash talk. Final checks.”

  This year, Mrs. Scott had us build robots for our very own robot battle—just like the ones you see on television. She had outlined the specifications for the robots, and we divided into teams to build one of our own. Luckily, I got to work with my friends Noah Newton and Samantha Watson.

  Noah worked the joysticks on his controller. Our robot’s body was half a meter square and fifteen centimeters tall. It looked like an oversize flat gift box painted battleship gray. The robot moved forward and backward as Noah controlled it. “Locomotion, check,” he said.

  Sam toggled the joysticks on her controller. She was in charge of the three axes protruding from the top of our robot—two in the front, one in the back. Okay, they weren’t real axes—more like ax-shaped hammers with blunt edges. But I designed the heads to be shaped in such a way that they created a ramp when the front two were in the down position; the same with the one on the back. That way, our robot could not only whack an opposing robot but also wedge itself underneath the opponent. Then the axes could raise and potentially flip over the enemy.

  “Axes are a go,” Sam reported as the ax heads raised and lowered. Even though we had only plastic heads installed for today’s practice match, a devious grin stretched across her face as she brought them down in a chopping motion.

  My job was a little different. I had a tablet connected to my controller for power distribution. Noah had coded a simplistic AI for our robot. It wasn’t a true artificial intelligence, but it stored several preset maneuvers. It also allowed power levels to be adjusted in real time. With a swipe on my tablet, I could give more power to the axes for attacks or flips. I could also assign all power to the drive motor for a quick escape.

  I checked the readings on t
he tablet. “AI and power levels are good,” I announced.

  Noah turned to me and grinned. “One final test,” he said, his dark eyes gleaming through his safety goggles. “Let’s hear it, Tom.”

  “Really?” I asked. “For a practice match?”

  “Come on,” Noah urged. “You know you want to.”

  Noah had pulled the team leader card and insisted on naming our robot. He called it the Choppa. That made sense and all; it did wield three ax-shaped hammers. But the real reason behind the name was a meme he had found on the Internet. It showed a picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger standing in a jungle, muscles rippling and covered in sweat and camouflage face paint. Under the image were the words GET TO THE CHOPPA! Noah liked the meme so much that he talked us into pasting the image on the top of our robot.

  “Come on! Do it!” Noah growled in his best Arnold impersonation. “Do it! I’m right here!”

  I shook my head and pressed a button on my controller.

  “Get to za choppa!” shouted Arnold’s voice from a hidden speaker on our robot. “Get to za choppa!”

  The surrounding students laughed. Nothing cracks up a bunch of twelve- and thirteen-year-olds like a good meme, even an oldie but a goody.

  Continue Reading…

  The Sonic Breach

  Victor Appleton

  About the Author

  VICTOR APPLETON is the author of the classic Tom Swift books.

  ALADDIN

  Simon & Schuster, New York

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  Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Victor-Appleton

  Read all the books in the

  TOM SWIFT INVENTORS’

  ACADEMY series!

  The Drone Pursuit

  The Sonic Breach

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ALADDIN

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  First Aladdin paperback edition July 2019

  Text copyright © 2019 by Victor Appleton

  Cover illustration copyright © 2019 by Kevin Keele

  TOM SWIFT and related marks are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Also available in an Aladdin hardcover edition.

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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  Cover designed by Heather Palisi-Reyes

  Interior designed by Mike Rosamilia

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

  Names: Appleton, Victor.

  Title: The drone pursuit / by Victor Appleton.

  Description: First Aladdin hardcover/paperback edition. | New York : Aladdin, 2019. | Series: Tom Swift inventors’ academy ; #1 | Summary: Tom Swift and his friends at the Swift Academy work together to retrieve a drone that was taken by the custodian, Mr. Conway, who they believe is a notorious hacker.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018031887 (print) | LCCN 2018037516 (eBook) | ISBN 9781534436329 (eBook) | ISBN 9781534436305 (pbk) | ISBN 9781534436312 (hc)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Inventors—Fiction. | Drone aircraft—Fiction. | Hackers—Fiction. | Schools—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. | Science fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.A652 (eBook) | LCC PZ7.A652 Dro 2019 (print) | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018031887