Spell Robbers Read Online Free PDF Page A

and bacon, and then sat down to eat. Ben drenched it all in maple syrup, the real kind he’d gotten used to eating back east. But it got everything sticky, and after they were done eating, he wiped up the table, scouring all the familiar nicks and scratches.
    Later that night, as he lay in bed, he thought back to the rain cloud he’d made. And he thought about Dr. Hughes’s warning about things getting away from him. A runaway train. He pictured himself back in the basement of the Castle, only this time, the cloud in front of him kept growing and growing, shooting off lightning bolts and booming with thunder. He tried to break it up, to smash the atoms apart with his thoughts. But he couldn’t stop its fury.
    It took a while to fall asleep after that.

TWO weeks went by. Two weeks of work in Dr. Hughes’s lab, where Ben was able to create rain clouds, ignite fires, and move heavy objects, like filing cabinets. Even though Peter didn’t make a big deal out of it, Ben knew his friend was secretly bugged that Ben could do stuff Peter couldn’t. But Dr. Hughes and the other students continued to be impressed by what Ben could actuate in the lab.
    Today, like all the other days, started with a brief lecture on quantum mechanics.
    “At the atomic level,” Dr. Hughes said, “reality is dependent on our observation of it. As the Nobel-winning physicist Eugene Wigner put it, reality is created when our consciousness ‘reaches out.’ When you actuate, you are reaching out to create a potential reality.”
    Ben shifted in his chair. Then let’s actuate something, already .
    “At the atomic level, the world is made of nothing more than possibilities and potentialities. As Actuators, your thoughts guide the world toward a possibility by tipping the scale of probability in one direction or another. So now, let’s begin.”
    Finally!
    They worked on ice that day. Snow. Forming it, shaping it, melting it. As he always did, Ben actuated the pants off everyone else, including Peter. And even though that made Dr. Hughes very happy with all the data she was collecting, it left Ben that much more frustrated that he couldn’t do something — anything — outside the lab.
    As they were wrapping up, and the others were sliding into their backpacks and heading out the door, Dr. Hughes called to Ben.
    “Would you mind staying for a moment?”
    Ben’s mom was studying late that evening, so she wouldn’t be expecting him. He looked at Peter, who wore a slight frown. But a moment later, his friend shrugged and left. Ben turned to Dr. Hughes. “Yes?”
    “I was wondering if you might assist me with something.”
    “Sure. What is it?”
    From a drawer in her desk, she produced what looked like some kind of gun. As she brought it closer to him, Ben saw that it was a gun. A modified laser-tag gun, with a bunch of wires and extra pieces attached to it, including a metal ring almost a foot across mounted at the end of the barrel.
    “What’s that?” Ben asked.
    “The goal of my technology has always been portability. That’s where the real excitement will be when I’m ready to share it with the world. This” — she held up the laser-tag gun — “will do the same thing that the augmenting devices have been doing here in the lab. But instead of being confined to a lab, you can take it anywhere. It works directionally. For lack of a better word, you aim your thoughts through here” — she pointed at the ring — “and the device will project that thought a certain range.”
    It wasn’t the same as being able to actuate without the technology, like Peter could do, but Ben was still thrilled with the idea of being mobile. “What is the range?”
    “Right now, I estimate no more than thirty feet. But it needs to be tested. Which is why you —”
    “I’ll do it.” Ben hadn’t meant to sound so eager.
    Dr. Hughes grinned. “I thought you might be willing. I’ve set up a range over here.” She led him to a long, narrow