LITMIR.BIZ

      “Stop, you’re distracting me!” Soul said, out of breath. “Password guessing is over, I’m getting the root rights. The only step left is to enter the command.”

      With trembling fingers, the boy typed into the console:

      root: /stop executable process GolemActivation password: LionBoy596.

      A message appeared on the screen: “Are you sure у/n?”

      Once Soul removed his fingers from the keyboard, the robot’s red eye switched off; it stood still for a second, and then it fell down. Its arms broke into dozens of pieces, burying the white lion.

      Soul and Arewa looked at each other, breathing fast, and exclaimed at the same time, “The lion!” “Omlion!”

      CHAPTER 2. FRIENDSHIP FOR DUMMIES

      Please come in, it doesn’t bite.

      Usually. With rare exceptions…

      Although, not that rare.

      Well, you’d better stay away!

      Rasens’s place was fabulous. Arewa’s father knew a lot about elegant interiors and was not overly modest. Unreasonably expensive furnishings seemed to shout at Soul from each corner.

      Rasens was shouting at his daughter and the newly minted hacker, angry with their foolish actions. You could understand him: any parent is prone to hysterics once they find their child miraculously saved from mortal danger.

      “Dad, but we won! Wasn’t it you who said that there is no success without risk?”

      “Are you being serious right now? I was talking about investments, not about fighting a combat golem!”

      “But…”

      “With no weapons, no plan and, most importantly, without my knowledge! You’re in deep trouble, Arewa van der Hope.”

      “We had a plan, actually.” Soul tried to stand up for his friend.

      “Who are you anyway, and how do you know my daughter?”

      “Well, you know… I met her today.”

      Rasens’s face got covered with deep wrinkles, and his gaze became so scary that Soul envied Omlion, who was sleeping peacefully on the sofa in the living room.

      The boy remained unconscious since Rasens pulled him out from underneath the rubble. He appeared as if out of nowhere when Omlion got pressed down by some parts of the robot, and Arewa and Soul tried to get him out, unsuccessfully. It should be noted that the very process of his extraction impressed the kids just as much as the white lion. Rasens sorted out the rubble quickly and easily, as if the piles of scrap metal weighed nothing. Arewa was simply amazed by the incredible strength of her father – she had never seen anything like that before.

      As Rasens was about to start ranting about responsibility and prudence once again, Arewa began asking questions that had been left hanging in the air for a long while.

      “Dad, I’m quite scared now, you know? And… I don’t want to be afraid of you, too. Why did Omlion turn into a lion? And, and… this thing… golem? Or the robot? Some kind of bionics! Where did it come from?”

      At this point, Rasens, who looked adamant, seemed to have lost his footing. Instantly turning from a strict mentor into a kind and caring parent, he sat down on the edge of an armchair and looked at sleeping Omlion sadly.

      “It’s too early,” he began, looking down. “Ameed and I always knew that sooner or later this would happen. The creature… no, the machine that you encountered, was to train you and Omlion in about eight years, when you are old enough,” Rasens raised his head, and a sickly smile appeared on his face. “I can’t imagine how you defeated it…”

      “It was me who hacked it, its software was merely prehistoric.” Soul chuckled.

      There was an awkward pause and then, to the surprise of those present, Rasens laughed out loud, stood up from the armchair, and looked at the children with unabashed pride. “You have no idea, my young friend, how prehistoric,” he said. “This machine, the golem, to be precise, was constructed by me and Ameed out of an old research probe. Its task after arriving on Earth was to study organic and inorganic samples. It had to be re-equipped a little, so to speak, its functionality had to be expanded, although it was not meant to fight teenagers.”

      “Arriving on Earth? Does this mean it’s from outer space?” A surprised voice came from the sofa.

      “Omlion, you’re awake!” Arewa exclaimed and jumped up to her friend to help him get up.

      Once the boy sat down, he started coughing violently and spit out a ball of white fur on the carpet.

      “Please excuse me,” he said scratching the back of his head, “I don’t remember eating this.”