Max pulled away and turned to look into the eyes of a young boy. He was dressed in a striped shirt and jeans, with a lone sneaker on his left foot.
“Did you call me?” Max managed to ask. “Are you Johnny?”
The boy said nothing but continued to stare, unblinking. That’s when Max realized that instead of eyes, there were camera lenses in the boy’s sockets. And worse, the veins in the boy’s pale arms were pulsing with a silver-blue glow. No matter where Max’s eyes fell, he found machinery in place of humanity. There wasn’t much left of the boy, but the single tear running down his silicon cheek was real.
Max’s stomach lurched and he tried to look away, but the same cold hand forced him to look back. This time the boy was gone. Ernie Tweeny, one of Max’s best friends, was standing in his place.
“Help me…” Ernie moaned through blue lips. Max stumbled back and fell against a tray of rusty instruments, sending them clanging to the floor. As Ernie walked into the light, Max saw that part of his friend’s skull had been cut away, revealing a mechanized brain of whirling gears ticking like a clock.
Max cried out as strong hands took hold of him from behind, lifting him into the air. He struggled against the invisible grip as his arms and legs were strapped to the table. A convex mirror hung over the table, and strangely, it wasn’t his own face looking back at him. Somehow Ernie had taken his place. Max fought to break free from the straps as a man in a stained lab coat walked into view. He was tall, with neatly combed silver hair, and as he turned to face the table Max’s blood froze. He would never forget those eyes. They were intelligent, cold, and as sharp as the scalpel he held in his gloved hand.
The man raised the gleaming instrument.
Max screamed. Then he woke up.
PART ONE
IRON BRIDGE ACADEMY
01
THE UNMARKED PACKAGE
Max Sumner pedaled his bike through the quiet streets of Avalon, Minnesota, trying to shake the nightmare from his head. He had been awake all night, too frightened to go back to sleep. The only thing keeping him from taking a nap was the last summer meeting of the Secret Order of the Grey Griffins. Max didn’t want to be late.
With school starting on Monday, the four friends had decided to spend their last day of summer vacation reading comic books and watching movies in their secret headquarters—a tree fort that Max decided to call the Griffins’ Aerie. Over the last year, Max, Harley Eisenstein, Natalia Romanov, and Ernie Tweeny had faced everything from leprechauns to six-armed ogres, and just about every monster in between. Their adventures had brought them closer than ever, but they were about to embark on their most intriguing quest yet—the Grey Griffins were transferring to a new school.
Iron Bridge Academy was a private military school run by the Knights Templar. The curriculum was designed to train students to combat unseen forces from the darkest of nightmares. The academy had been shut down for nearly a century, following an explosion that destroyed most of the buildings. Now the doors were opening again.
There were only two ways to be admitted into a Templar academy. The first was through birthright, which Max possessed. The Templar also chose individuals from the general populace who had extraordinary talent, intellect, and ingenuity, so Harley, Natalia, and Ernie were extended invitations as well.
By the time Max reached the Old Woods, Harley was already waiting for him.
“What are you doing?” Max asked as he set his bike down. Harley had a screwdriver in one hand. In the other, he held a palm-sized device with its electrical guts exposed.
“Just making a couple of adjustments,” Harley replied as he replaced the casing and screwed it back together. “It’s a tracking device.”
Harley handed Max a metal chip and told him to put it in his pocket. Harley then twisted a dial on his invention, and the dark screen flickered to life. Two flashing green dots instantly appeared. “That’s us.”
“What about Natalia and Ernie?”
“I gave them ID chips this morning,” Harley replied. “According to this little gizmo, they should be here right about… now.”
Max turned to find the other two members of the Grey Griffins coasting down the gravel road on their bikes. Natalia’s red hair was woven into braids that flew behind her. Ernie’s vintage World War I Army helmet