Astrid Maxxim and Her High-Rise Air Purifier

By Wesley Allison

The world’s climate is in crisis and Astrid Maxxim is determined to help by building a device to remove carbon from the atmosphere. A journey to the Beijing Auto Show might provide her with a way to get her invention into production faster, but sinister forces are out to get her. What’s a girl genius to do?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wesley Allison
• Release date: Mar 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005855055

Wesley Allison

At the age of nine, Wesley Allison discovered a love of reading in an old box of Tom Swift Jr. books. He graduated to John Carter and Tarzan and retains a fondness the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs to this day. From there, it was Heinlein and Bradbury, C.S. Lewis and C.S. Forester, many, many others, and finally Richard Adam’s Shardik and Watership Down. He started writing his own stories as he worked his way through college. Today Wes is the author of more than thirty science-fiction and fantasy books, including the popular His Robot Girlfriend. He has taught English and American History for the past 29 years in Southern Nevada where he lives with his lovely wife Victoria, and his two grown children Rebecca and John.For more information about the author and upcoming books, visit http://wesleyallison.com.Books by Wesley Allison:Princess of AmatharHis Robot GirlfriendHis Robot WifeHis Robot Wife: Patience is a VirtueHis Robot Girlfriend: CharityHis Robot Wife: A Great Deal of PatienceHis Robot Wife: Patience Under FireEaglethorpe Buxton and the Elven PrincessEaglethorpe Buxton and the SorceressThe Many Adventures of Eaglethorpe BuxtonEaglethorpe Buxton and... Something about Frost GiantsThe Sorceress and the Dragon 0: BrechalonThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 1: The Voyage of the MinotaurThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 2: The Dark and Forbidding LandThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 3: The Drache GirlThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 4: The Young SorceressThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 5: The Two DragonsThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 6: The Sorceress and her LoversThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 7: The Price of MagicThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 8: A Plague of WizardsThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 9: The Dragon's ChoiceThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 10: For King and CountryKanana: The Jungle GirlTesla’s StepdaughtersWomen of PowerBlood TradeNova DancerThe Destroyer ReturnsAstrid Maxxim and her Amazing HoverbikeAstrid Maxxim and her Undersea DomeAstrid Maxxim and the Antarctic ExpeditionAstrid Maxxim and her Hypersonic Space PlaneAstrid Maxxim and the Electric Racecar ChallengeAstrid Maxxim and the Mystery of Dolphin IslandAstrid Maxxim and her High-Rise Air Purifier

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Astrid Maxxim and Her High-Rise Air Purifier

By Wesley Allison

Astrid Maxxim and Her High-Rise Air Purifier

Copyright © 2021 by Wesley M. Allison

Smashwords Edition

Revision 08-23-21

All Rights Reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Cover art by: Shaed Studios, shaedstudios.com

ISBN: 9781005855055

Dedication

For Vicki, Becky, and John

Patrons

Richard Weiss

Darryl Schnell

Macaroni Drill

To find out about how to be a Patron and support this author’s writing, visit:

www.patreon.com/wesleyallison

Astrid Maxxim and Her High-Rise Air Purifier

By Wesley Allison

Chapter One: The Police Station

Astrid Maxxim stepped up to the counter in the Maxxim City Police Station. The officer, who had been busy writing, looked up.

Oh, Miss Maxxim. How can I help you?

I’m here to meet my friend Valerie Diaz. She’s writing a report on the police department for school.

Right. She’s with Chief Gillespie. He said to bring you on back when you got here.

Stepping out from behind the counter, he waved for her to follow and led her back down a hallway to a door. He knocked once and then opened it for her to step inside. The room beyond was a small one, unremarkable except for a large window filling up one wall, and a camera on a tripod pointed at it. Standing there, looking through the window, which Astrid surmised was a two-way mirror, were the Chief of Police and her friends Valerie Diaz and Valerie’s cybernetic twin Robot Valerie.

Astrid Maxxim was a cute girl of fifteen. Her shoulder-length strawberry blond hair set off her very large blue eyes. Valerie Diaz had been Astrid’s friend for years. She had a crewcut of black hair, as well as flashing brown eyes. Robot Valerie was the result of one of Astrid’s experiments a year before. She had a metallic blue polycarbonate skin and long blue hair but was otherwise very similar to Regular Valerie.

Come here, Astrid, whispered Regular Valerie. We’re watching an interrogation.

Astrid stepped over next to her to peer into another room where a female police officer and a man in dirty clothes faced each other over a small table. Astrid knew Officer Cutler. The policewoman had helped write the safety rules for Astrid’s hoverbike. The man across from her, despite his clothes, had very clean hands and face. He was bald, with a bit of a scraggly beard.

So, let me make sure I have everything, said Officer Cutler to the man. Your name is Thomas Eckles, and you’re from the future

That’s right. Twenty-five years in the future.

But you lost your time machine.

I didn’t lose it, he said with a sigh. The government took it.

Then you came here to Maxxim City. Why was that again?

To get another time machine. They invented it here. I mean, they’re going to invent it here—any day now.

Are you working on a time machine now? Chief Gillespie asked Astrid.

Of course not, said Astrid. Time travel is impossible.

If you say so, but I’m standing here next to a robot.

Well, it’s good to know that Maxxim City is still here in the future, Officer Cutler told the man.

It is, but it’s different, he replied. It’s very different.

Come on, let’s get you girls on your way, said the Chief, waving them toward the door.

You’re going to get a psych evaluation at the hospital, said Cutler, from the other room. If they say you’re not a threat, you’ll be free to go.

I understand, replied Eckles, if that was really his name. I’m not worried. This is before things got bad. If this were my time, they’d throw me in the reeducation booth.

Wait. What did he say? asked Astrid, who had just stepped out into the hallway.

Just more gibberish, said Gillespie, closing the door after them. Let this be a lesson to you girls—don’t do drugs.

We wouldn’t do that, said Robot Valerie.

Um, I wasn’t really worried about you, he clarified.

The future is always dystopian, isn’t it? asked Cutler, still in the interview room.

It’s because of the Internet, replied the so-called time traveler. Once someone controls all the information, robot stormtroopers are sure to follow.

Astrid looked back through the mirrored window.

I think I want to hear more.

Don’t get too invested, said the chief, guiding her by the shoulders out of the room. There are a lot of crazy people in the world. He looked at the Valeries. I hope you were both able to get all the information you needed. We’re a small-town police department, but we’re proud of the job we do.

I think we did, said Regular Valerie. Thanks so much for taking the time to give us the tour.

You’re welcome.

The chief led them to the lobby and then, bidding them farewell, turned and marched back toward his office.

That was really fascinating, said Robot Valerie. I think I might want to go into law enforcement someday.

I like your new shoes, Astrid, said Regular Valerie looking down, but if you don’t keep them tied, you might fall on your face.

Oh, said Astrid, following Valerie’s gaze to see that her left shoe was untied.

She dropped down into a squat to tie it.

Governor! How did you find me?

Astrid turned to see that Officer Cutler had led the man calling himself Thomas Eckles, his hands cuffed behind his back, into the lobby. Now he was staring at Valerie. Astrid stood up. Eckle’s eyes turned to her and suddenly his face drained of color.

No! he wailed, dropping to his knees. No! I didn’t tell them anything! I swear I didn’t tell them anything!

Johnson! called Officer Cutler, to the other officer on duty, who ran around from behind the desk. They each took one of the man’s arms and lifted him up, pulling him back down the hallway. You girls go on out, she said.

As the two police officers half carried/half dragged the man away, Astrid could hear him shouting. No! Don’t you understand? We’re all dead! Nobody crosses the Supreme Ruler and lives!

I hope they get him the help he needs, said Robot Valerie, once they were outside the station’s front door.

Unless he’s really from the future, said Regular Valerie, in which case, I hope he gets another time machine. I guess you better hurry up and invent it, Astrid.

Time machines are not possible, said Astrid, with a frown.

Just because nobody’s made one before, doesn’t make it impossible that they might someday, said Valerie. Nobody thought a rocket to the moon was possible, but they built one.

You can go to the moon, because the moon is there. Time isn’t. Time isn’t a place you can go. It’s not really like another dimension of space. The past is just what has already happened, and the future is just what hasn’t happened yet.

Didn’t Stephen Hawking say time travel was possible? wondered Robot Valerie.

That was theoretical, Astrid replied, under very confined parameters, and only at the quantum level. Why does nobody seem to get that?

Because nobody knows what any of that means, said Regular Valerie.

I think I’m going to throw up, said Astrid.

Never mind all that, anyway, said Valerie. Do you know what is coming up in the next election this November?

Um, state treasurer? Astrid tried to remember. It was an off-year election and hadn’t been well publicized.

No! They’re voting to change the driving age!

They what now?

If prop one gets passed, fifteen-and-a-half-year-olds can get a Graduated Instruction Permit, so they can drive with an adult. After twelve months, they can get a Graduated Driver License, so they can drive with only a few restrictions. We won’t have to wait until we’re eighteen!

What are the restrictions you mentioned, asked Astrid.

You can’t drive after 11:00 PM until 6:00 AM, except in an emergency, or if you’re going to and from work, school, or church or in an emergency. Oh, and you can’t have more than one other underage person in the car.

Gosh, said Astrid. I hope it passes.

The three girls climbed aboard their hoverbikes and put on their helmets. Minutes later, they were flying over Maxxim City on their way home. Astrid had invented the amazing hoverbike, building upon some of her father’s work, a little over a year earlier, and for a long time, she and her friends owned the only seven hoverbikes in the world. Now, Maxxim Industries had sold millions of them around the globe.

With a wave, the two Valeries sent their bikes circling downward toward their home, while Astrid flew another five minutes to reach the huge Maxxim house and set down in the back yard. She was surprised to find Toby Bundersmith sitting in a lounge chair by the pool, though he was fully dressed in slacks and a shirt.

Toby lived next door to Astrid and had since she was born. He was a tall, muscular, and athletic sixteen-year-old. He had brown hair and hazel eyes and was just about as perfect, in Astrid’s opinion, as a boy could possibly be.

Be right with you, she said, pushing her hoverbike into the pool house.

When she