MAXIM: A New Type of Human (Oddily Series #2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

traveling on foot, he spotted the small metal protrusion.
    Maxim brushed his finger across the green sensor hidden within a metal design, and watched in fascination when an opening appeared. As he peered inside, lights began to flicker on exposing an immense cavern filled with expensive equipment—obviously Nero’s secret laboratory.
    Remaining cautious, Maxim entered, wondering what technology his father had kept from him and his sister. From the appearance of all the unusual futuristic equipment, he suspected there was a lot more to Nero than he had imagined.
    He walked over to one of the tables and stared at the simplistic keyboard. Unlike the maze of switches and flashing lights he was accustomed to, this streamlined technology fascinated him. In fact, the entire cavern reminded him of a wonderland full of mysterious gadgets waiting to be discovered.
    Maxim became distracted when a holographic screen appeared before him, most likely activated after his arm accidentally brushed against the table. He recognized his father’s work—a formula for traveling through wormholes. Maxim moved the screen with the stroke of his hand, and something else showed up. This time, a mathematical formula for…who knows what appeared.
    Maxim moved on. He began to roam through the cavern, taking mental pictures of everything until he spotted Willa, the android that housed the memories of Oddily’s mother. Her metal body had been carelessly tossed in a heap along with other robotic parts.
    “No!” Maxim rushed over to the remains and tried manually to eject the memory disk, but the chamber was empty. Did this mean that the memory data for Oddily’s mother had been destroyed?
    Maxim felt weak at the knees and sat down to clear his mind. Was this a blessing in disguise? Oddily had already come to terms with the loss of her mother, so what was there to be so sad about?
    Maxim’s attempts to cheer himself up failed as a sense of sadness seeped in; but the feeling became short lived when a dome materialized over the chair, trapping him inside. Maxim didn’t have time to react. The unusual sensation in his head was too overwhelming, as if he were being forced to travel beyond the perimeters of his ordinary everyday thinking. It felt uncomfortable, as though a dull fog was seeping in, threatening to take over his mind and destroy him. And just when he started to struggle in fear against it, he suddenly found himself inside the head of someone else, looking out through their eyes.
    He stared out of a car window at a bunch of screaming youngsters while uniformed men on motorcycles kept them at bay allowing the vehicle to slip behind a building.
    Maxim tried to read the minds of some of those screeching teenagers, and found that their enthusiasm was for the one whose body he invaded! They loved looking at him—his physique and the way he moved on stage. They also liked his face, especially his eyes, believing he could set a girl’s heart racing with one glance.
    The car arrived at the back of the building where kids exploded with raucous howls of Grayson, Grayson!
    At least now Maxim had a name for the body he invaded, and he could sense Grayson’s anxiety mounting as a pack of youngsters broke through the police lines and pressed their bodies against the car. Again and again, the kids fought to peer into the windows before they were swept back allowing Grayson to emerge. Through a crush of guards, Grayson ran into a heavily secured room while kids grabbed at his clothes and hair.
    After Grayson had entered a dressing room, Maxim eyed musicians warming up on their instruments. The guitar player flew through some fast scales while nearby, another loosened up his fingers on a headless bass. The drummer joined in soon after, banging away on his practice kit.
    As he listened to the excited crowd, waiting in another area of the building, Maxim realized that Grayson belonged to a musical group. He tried to take in as much as he could from his