Max Einstein Saves the Future Read online

  “Okay. I’m closing my eyes. I’m seeing the bouncing ball of light. It’s hitting the mirrors…”

  “Great. There’s a regular beat to the bounce…”

  “Definitely. You could dance to it.” Siobhan started tapping her foot to the imaginary beat.

  “Okay. Now let’s put our light clock on this train with us. It’s just ticking away, right?”

  “Right. I’m watching the ball bounce up and down, up and down…”

  “Now I’m holding the light clock up to the window.”

  Siobhan gave Max a strange look. “Why?”

  “So people outside can see it,” Max explained.

  “Very considerate.”

  “Keep your eyes shut.”

  Siobhan obeyed. “I am.”

  “And let’s say the train accelerates to half the speed of light.”

  “Crikey. It better not. I might toss my cookies…”

  Max said patiently, “Use your imagination.”

  “Okay. We’re really whizzing along now.”

  “This is an express train, so it’ll skip the next station. But there’s a guy standing on the platform.”

  “What’s his name?”

  Max rolled her eyes. “Doesn’t matter.”

  Siobhan grinned. “Maybe not to you, Max, but it would to him.”

  She took a deep breath. “Fine. Let’s call him Bob. Bob is standing on the platform as we fly by and he sees my clock in the window. But he doesn’t see it the way we do. Instead of a ball of light bouncing up and down in a straight line, Bob would see the light mapping out a series of triangles.”

  “Does Bob know trigonometry?” asked Siobhan. “The study of triangles?”

  “Indeed he does. Very bright guy, our friend Bob.”

  “So,” said Siobhan, who was as much of a math whiz as Max, “he does a mess of Pythagorean theorem calculations on those right triangles streaking past him and figures out the length of their diagonal hypotenuses and, uh-oh, he’s measuring time differently than you and me on the fast-flying train. Time is moving slower to him.”

  “Exactly. For us, time is passing normally. For him, it’s slowed down. So, that’s the paradox. Time flows at different rates relative to movement: a moving light clock will always look like it’s running slow to someone in a stationary position. That’s why we need to factor in Einstein’s theory of relativity and time dilation to make the whole GPS system work. All that hands-free navigation depends on very accurate clocks zooming around the globe in fast-moving satellites. Nobody would be able to find what they’re looking for on their map apps if we ignored what Einstein taught us about a moving clock slowing.”

  “So if we stay on this imaginary, half-the-speed-of-light bullet train for a long enough time, with our clock slowing down in Bob’s world, we could end up in Bob’s future, right?”

  “Correct.”

  “One last question.”

  “Go on?”

  “Will Bob have a better haircut in the future because, honestly, from what I saw in my imagination, I think his mum just plops a bowl on top of his head and cuts around the rim…”

  The two friends were laughing so hard, they nearly forgot to get off the train at Oxford Station.

  But then someone started banging a fist against their window.

  12

  “Where’s Leo?” came the muffled cry of a very agitated Klaus from the other side of the glass. “Why isn’t he riding with you guys?”

  Her heart thumping wildly from the sudden noise, Max gestured to the overhead luggage rack.

  “You made him ride all the way from London in his box?” Klaus sounded horrified. “Monsters!”

  The blustery Klaus—who, at one point, wanted to take over Max’s role as CMI team leader—had mellowed ever since they’d taken the robot Lenard from the Corp. His entire focus had shifted to making technological magic with his amazing new electronic toy that he renamed Leo.

  Max and Siobhan quickly pulled down the boy-bot’s rolling travel box, grabbed their things, and hurried off the train. Klaus immediately opened Leo’s box to make sure he “hadn’t suffocated” on the ride, even though robots don’t breathe.

  Charl and Isabl, the security team charged with protecting the CMI field team, were on the platform, too. Neither Charl nor Isabl had a last name that they cared to share with anyone, but they were both very skilled in the martial arts and the use of tactical weapons. They were like a two-person commando unit.

  “I trust your journey was unremarkable?” said Charl with his hard-to-place, somewhere-in-Eastern-Europe accent.

  Max nodded. “Once we got on the train.”

  “Max’s cover was blown in London,” said Siobhan.

  “We know,” said Isabl. Her accent was slightly more exotic than Charl’s.

  “The Corp might be under the impression I’m on my way to Rome,” said Max with a smirk.

  Charl nodded. “They sent a two-member strike team to Heathrow. Caused a bit of a row. They also alerted their assets in Italy.”

  “Good,” said Siobhan. “Just so long as they don’t know we’re here.”

  “They don’t,” said Isabl. “You two can peel those stickers off your faces now.”

  “Oh, right,” said Siobhan. “Duh.”

  “All threats within the confines of the United Kingdom have been neutralized,” said Leo. Klaus had hauled him out of his box and powered him up.

  “Let’s go,” said Charl. “We have an electric-powered SUV.”

  “And Leo is not being stowed in the rear cargo area,” said Klaus. He gave Max and Siobhan a squinty eyed look of disgust. “Animals.”

  The city of Oxford, fifty-one miles outside of London, was home to what was probably the most famous university in the whole world. Its first colleges opened more than eight hundred years ago inside medieval buildings that looked like castles and cathedrals, causing one poet to call Oxford the “City of Dreaming Spires.”

  Isabl was behind the wheel of the SUV. She was a very skilled driver. In fact, she was so good, she could’ve been a stunt driver in the Fast and Furious movies.

  As they drove through the awe-inspiring city, goose bumps sprung up on Max’s arms. Not because of all the incredible architecture but because she realized she was in another space where Albert Einstein had visited at a different time. He gave a series of lectures at the renowned university in the early 1930s. The deans and dons of the college were so impressed that they kept the blackboard he used during his lectures, along with all his chalk notes. It was now on display at the university’s Museum of the History of Science. Max hoped there’d be time in her schedule to go see it.

  The SUV pulled up in front of a building that looked more like a medieval monastery than a dormitory.

  “This is home for a few days,” said Charl. “Everybody out.”

  Klaus tapped Max on the shoulder before she could climb out. “You should take better care of Leo,” he whispered when the others were out on the sidewalk. “He knows things.”

  Max arched a curious eyebrow.

  “After we freed Lenard from the Corp,” Klaus whispered, “I didn’t completely scrub his artificial intelligence. I left in the stuff Dr. Zimm taught him about you.”

  13

  Charl and Isabl stayed outside with Leo and Klaus as Max and Siobhan made their way into the dorm lobby.

  Max wished Leo was with her. She wanted to immediately download whatever facts about her childhood Klaus had discovered and left stored inside the robot’s memory. Now she was worried that Klaus would claim Leo as his roommate.

  “Hey, Max! What’s up, Siobhan?”

  Keeto, a brilliant young computer scientist from Oakland, California was the first Change Maker to greet them in the fusty lobby of the dormitory. Keeto had grown up on the other side of the Bay Bridge from Silicon Valley. That was like living in New Jersey and staring at the skyscrapers of New York. It just made you feel like you had something to prove. Keeto had a computer-sized chi
p on his shoulder and told everybody who would listen that he was destined to become “the next Steve Jobs.”

  “Hey, Keeto,” said Max. “Great to see you.”

  “Yeah,” said the cocky Keeto. “I get that a lot.”

  “Where’s everybody else?” asked Siobhan.

  “In the study room I’ve organized,” replied the stern voice of a middle-aged woman who’d just stepped into the lobby. It was Ms. Tari Kaplan, the no-nonsense “house mother” from the first Change Maker gathering in Jerusalem.

  “What are they doing in a bloomin’ study room?” asked Siobhan.

  “Studying,” replied Ms. Kaplan, drily.

  “For what?” asked Max. “Did Ben tell them our next assignment?”

  “No,” said Ms. Kaplan. “They are simply using their time wisely.”

  “Well, let’s go say hello,” said Max. “I can’t wait to lead everybody on our next assignment.”

  “Too right,” said Siobhan. “We’re gonna save the world… again!”

  “Boo-yah!” shouted Keeto.

  Ms. Kaplan shook her head. “Your youthful idealism is, I suppose, commendable. However, it is not enough. Idealism soon withers in the harsh light of experience. It is inevitably crushed by time and reality. You will see.”

  “Whoa,” said Keeto. “Anybody ever tell you you’re a real downer, Ms. K?”

  “No. They tell me I’m a realist. Because that’s what I am. Come along, you three. The others are already ahead of you.”

  “Ahead of us?” said Siobhan.

  “Yes. They have a head start on their test prep.”

  “Test?” said Max, who, much like her idol, Albert Einstein, hated tests. Einstein wasn’t big on cramming facts into his brain, figuring he could always look those up in a book. No, he thought education should be about training the mind to think. Max totally agreed.

  “Come along, Maxine,” said Ms. Kaplan. “I won’t have you slowing us down. Again.”

  Again? thought Max. When had she ever slowed down the CMI team?

  Maybe the first time they all took tests. She even walked out on one exam.

  “Ms. Kaplan,” said Siobhan. “Max is our leader. The chosen one. Because Ben chose her. Remember?”

  “For the first two assignments,” said Ms. Kaplan, still moving swiftly down the musty corridor. “However, she may not have what it takes to lead us into the future.”

  “Oh, snap,” said Keeto. “That was so shady, I just got chilly.”

  Finally, Ms. Kaplan stopped in her tracks and turned around.

  “No, Keeto, that is not ‘shady.’ It is simply a realistic assessment of our situation. And, as I said, I am a realist. You three would be wise to become the same!”

  14

  Max really didn’t care about being “the chosen one” or the big cheese in charge.

  She just wanted to do good in the world.

  So did all the other members of the team, except maybe Ms. Kaplan. She seemed to be hung up on titles and power trips.

  Stay away from negative people, Max, urged the gentle Einstein inside her head. Remember—they always have a problem for every solution. Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions.

  Sometimes I can’t, she silently told her inner Einstein. Sometimes they’re the ones in charge!

  Ms. Kaplan led the way into a room with a high vaulted ceiling. The walls were paneled in dark wood. Some of the windows featured stately stained glass. Dusty oil portraits of great minds and honored professors, all in gilt-edge frames, were everywhere. For an instant, Max thought she had been transported to Hogwarts.

  The other members of Max’s Change Makers team were seated at long library tables, poring over stacks of books.

  Max smiled as she glanced around the stuffy room. Her teammates were all brilliant. This was like a reunion of the Genius Avengers.

  Her friend from Ireland, Siobhan, was an expert in geoscience. That meant she knew the earth and its secrets. Siobhan’s goal? To help save lives by one day being able to accurately predict catastrophic events such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods.

  Keeto was a computer science geek (his term). There was no code he couldn’t crunch or crack.

  Toma, from China, was a budding astrophysicist who shared Max’s fascination with Einstein’s theories about black holes. Toma was also big on “dark matter” and wormholes. He usually dressed in T-shirts blasting intergalactic messages. Today’s simply said, “Space Nerd.”

  Hana, from Japan, was a botanist, totally obsessed with plants. She was a vegan and thought the planet would be much better off if everybody followed a plant-based diet. You did not want to get her started about beef cows and methane gas.

  Then there was Tisa. A biochemist from Kenya who hated tests just as much as Max did. Maybe that’s why they’d become such good friends. Tisa also made sure everybody knew that even though her father was one of the wealthiest industrialists in all of Africa, this had absolutely nothing to do with her being chosen for the CMI team. “Ben doesn’t need my father’s money,” she’d say. “He has enough of his own.”

  Annika, from Germany, was a master of formal logic, which she considered to be a science right up there with chemistry, biology, and astrophysics. “Without logic,” she’d argue, “none of those other sciences could function.”

  Vihaan, whose home was in India, had university degrees in quantum mechanics even though he was only thirteen. But he wasn’t in Oxford because he was needed back home, overseeing the team’s extremely successful water purification project. Despite the best efforts from the Corp to sabotage their plans, Vihaan’s community now had access to clean water, something many people took for granted.

  When Toma, Hana, Tisa, and Annika (Max wondered if there was something to geniuses having an “A” at the end of their names) looked up from their studies and saw Max, they cheered.

  Klaus and Leo strode into the room behind her.

  “That’s right,” said Klaus, pretending the applause and cheers were for him. “I’m here. Leo, too. It’s time to get this party started!”

  “This is not a party, Klaus,” snapped Ms. Kaplan. “This is a deadly serious endeavor.”

  “Doesn’t mean we have to be deadly serious, now, does it?” said Tisa with her sunny smile. “Just sayin’, Ms. K.”

  “Just because we are smart,” added Annika, “does not, ipso facto, mean we need to be glum.”

  “So, let’s get busy,” said Keeto. “What’s the next global problem we’re gonna slay?”

  “World hunger,” said a voice broadcasting out of a miniature Bluetooth speaker Charl had just brought into the room.

  It was Ben!

  Max grinned. This was real. It was officially time to go back to work.

  And Max couldn’t wait to get started.

  Right after she learned everything Leo knew about her past.

  15

  “Welcome to, uh, Oxford.” Ben’s voice rang out from the speaker. “I’ve brought you all together here because Sir Gordon Richards, one of the world’s foremost experts on the global food crisis, will be giving a series of lectures at Rhodes House, which is here in Oxford.”

  For a nanosecond, Max forgot all about Leo and the secrets buried in his memory chips.

  Rhodes House on South Parks Road in Oxford was where Albert Einstein lectured in May 1931. He talked about the density of matter in the universe. (Too bad Toma hadn’t been there to hear that lecture.) Professor Einstein was also given an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the university. Rhodes House was another space that Max wished she could visit about ninety years ago.

  “Ms. Kaplan will tell you the details,” Ben’s voice continued. “I just, you know, wanted to say, uh, ‘Welcome to Oxford,’ which I already did and, you know, wish you guys luck. If anyone can solve the world hunger problem, I hope it’s you! So, like I said, good luck! Tari? The floor is yours. Not literally. It belongs to Oxford, so…”

  The speaker went silent for a second.r />
  “Never mind,” said Ben, who obviously hated speaking in public, even when nobody could see him. “As always, if you need any resources or, you know, money—just give me a call.”

  And, with a click, he was gone.

  Ms. Kaplan strode to the front of the room.

  “You should take notes,” she announced. “This will be included on the final exam.”

  “Exam?” Tisa said what Max was thinking.

  “Yes, Tisa. You heard correctly. We will be conducting a new battery of tests and examinations to determine who among you will be the new project leader. This world hunger task is so monumental it might require different talents than those utilized thus far.”

  In other words, Ms. Kaplan didn’t think Max should be the “chosen one” anymore.

  Ms. Kaplan clicked a remote and the projected image of a very proper-looking English gentleman filled a blank space on a white wall.

  “Meet Sir Gordon Richards, the world’s premier thinker on the global hunger crisis. In his lectures, Sir Richards will examine the very serious issues critical to our global food supply, from the science of agricultural advances to the politics of food security. He will also outline a plan for ending hunger that is sustainable and achievable.”

  “And then we’ll come up with something better,” cracked Keeto.

  “Perhaps, Keeto,” said Ms. Kaplan through a nasty squint. “However, we all have much we can learn from Sir Richards. Even a so-called genius such as yourself. Our hope is that the lectures will stimulate new ideas, new thinking. And, even more important, new leadership for this team.”

  Wow, thought Max. She seriously wants to demote me.

  Max boldly raised her hand.

  “Yes, Ms. Einstein?” said Ms. Kaplan. Actually, she kind of sneered it. “Do you have a question?”

  “Yeah. When are the lectures?”

  “Tomorrow. The first one will commence at eight a.m. sharp.”

  “Great. Thanks.” That meant Max had all night to find out what Leo knew about who she was.