Free Novel Read

Secret of the Forbidden City Page 14


  “As the single-largest contributor to the College of Engineering,” Mr. Riley continues, “let me just say that this is a great day for Notre Dame! And, if I may quote legendary author Kurt Vonnegut, ‘Science is magic that works.’

  “So three cheers for Professor Elizabeth Hayes and her magical robotic creation, E, the substitute student!”

  As a dozen people start singing the “cheer, cheer” part of the Notre Dame fight song, E and I climb aboard our bikes.

  We pedal away, stirring up a wake of swirling autumn leaves, and E can’t resist showing off all sorts of bike stunts he learned when Mom slipped a BMX-treme DVD into his internal disk drive.

  CONTENTS

  COVER

  TITLE PAGE

  WELCOME

  QUICK NOTE FROM BICKFORD KIDD

  PART 1: YEAR OF THE BIRD CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  CHAPTER 46

  PART 2: THE QUEST FOR THE BIRD’S NEST CHAPTER 47

  CHAPTER 48

  CHAPTER 49

  CHAPTER 50

  CHAPTER 51

  CHAPTER 52

  CHAPTER 53

  CHAPTER 54

  CHAPTER 55

  CHAPTER 56

  CHAPTER 57

  CHAPTER 58

  CHAPTER 59

  CHAPTER 60

  CHAPTER 61

  CHAPTER 62

  CHAPTER 63

  CHAPTER 64

  CHAPTER 65

  CHAPTER 66

  CHAPTER 67

  CHAPTER 68

  CHAPTER 69

  CHAPTER 70

  CHAPTER 71

  CHAPTER 72

  CHAPTER 73

  CHAPTER 74

  CHAPTER 75

  CHAPTER 76

  CHAPTER 77

  CHAPTER 78

  CHAPTER 79

  CHAPTER 80

  CHAPTER 81

  CHAPTER 82

  CHAPTER 83

  CHAPTER 84

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  BOOKS BY JAMES PATTERSON FOR YOUNG READERS

  JIMMY PATTERSON MISSION STATEMENT

  A PREVIEW OF HOUSE OF ROBOTS: ROBOTS GO WILD!

  COPYRIGHT

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015 by James Patterson

  Illustrations by Juliana Neufeld

  Excerpt from House of Robots: Robots Go Wild! copyright © 2015 by James Patterson

  Illustrations in excerpt by Juliana Neufeld

  The JIMMY PATTERSON name and logo are trademarks of JBP Business LLC.

  JimmyPatterson.org

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Little, Brown and Company

  Hachette Book Group

  1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104

  littlebrown.com

  twitter.com/littlebrown

  facebook.com/littlebrownandcompany

  First ebook edition: September 2015

  Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  ISBN 978-0-316-29986-2

  E3