Misplaced Pages

Life changes beyond recognition for the Clarke family when Eve, the world's first fully sentient "artificial person", comes to live under their roof. Eve is the first of her kind and, on the surface, she seems perfectly human. But scratch beneath that surface and you find a robot capable of amazing feats—if she manages to navigate her way through the perils of teenage life first. When maverick scientist Mary Douglas is thrown out of her own scientific institute, Calimov Systems, she orders Nick Clarke to destroy her top secret "Project Eternity" prototype Eve. But just as he is about to disconnect Eve, Nick is stopped by his teenage son Will. Will reconnects Eve, bringing her to life. He persuades his dad to take her back to their home, where they will need to keep Eve's existence a secret to protect her. But hiding Eve proves harder than expected. It will take all the ingenuity of Eve, Will and his best friend Lily to sort things out. Meanwhile, at Calimov Systems, Katherine Calvin is desperately trying to unlock the mystery of Project Eternity.

Will reluctantly has to explain the differences between boys and girls to a surprised Eve, and discovers that his robot friend has a hidden talent for goalkeeping. Will begs her to play for his failing team, but Eve wants to win, whatever the cost. Lily uncovers a mysterious Wi-Fi signal, but Eve insists it is not coming from her. Meanwhile, the cleaning spiderbot Nick has brought home from his work at Calimov has become sentient and goes out of control. Lily finds a connection between Eve and an attempt to hack into the systems of a local nuclear power station controlled by Calimov.

Eve is desperate to try ice cream for the first time after Abe gets "brain freeze" from a Goliath sundae. Nick absolutely forbids Eve to eat or drink, so she builds herself an ice cream machine. Nick wants to find out more about Project Eternity and discovers that the military are hunting for a missing computer chip. He realises that Mary put it inside Eve, so he bans her from leaving the house. When Nick finds out that the military chip will explode if exposed to very cold temperatures there is a desperate rush to stop Eve trying the ice cream she craves.

Will, Lily and Abe try to help Eve cope after she is devastated by the news that her "mother" Mary is dead. Eve receives a hologram message that Mary had prerecorded, which gives her instructions about where to hide if she and her friends are ever in trouble. But, for now, Eve and Will do not want to leave their lives behind. In trying to silence Mr Bevan, who now knows Eve's secret, the gang inadvertently gives him more solid evidence. He threatens to tell the truth to the whole school. To keep Bevan quiet, Eve solves a famous maths problem and offers to give him the credit. Delighted, Bevan agrees. At Calimov, Katherine traps Nick into confessing his involvement with Project Eternity to save a colleague—and then tricks him into revealing the location of the secret lab. With the clock ticking, Nick, Eve and Will plan to run away. As Katherine closes in, a heroic Abe buys time for his friends.

Will and Nick are caught by Katherine's minions and escorted to Calimov. Lily and Abe realise it is up to them to save the day. Lily hacks into Calimov's systems, but someone is there before her. At Calimov, Katherine offers Nick a choice: help her build an army of killer robots, or she will take Eve apart.

Calimov has attracted the attention of an anti-artificial intelligence group called PRICE. Under pressure, Katherine promises Calimov's board representative, Mr Gwenlan, something extraordinary and plans to reveal the truth about Eve. But with the help of some old friends, Eve upsets Katherine's plans. When a Calimov drone is sabotaged, this is the last straw for the board. Katherine and Nick get fired. Eve and Will suspect that Mary is behind the sabotage. But Nick cannot stop Mary attacking Eve's systems without access to his Calimov lab. So Eve has to go back into Calimov and pretend to work, right under Mr Gwenlan's nose.

An ordinary day in Green Park begins with Eve helping Will to cheat on his homework and Abe teaching Eve the importance of "dares". But then Will's mum Rebecca arrives from Dubai. Nick is adamant that Rebecca must not learn the truth about Eve. Will is upset that his dad does not trust his mum. Meanwhile, Zac returns from Cuba determined to win Eve back. Eve is initially uncertain that she wants to be won back. Zac goes all out to prove his good intentions, but as Eve starts to think more positively about Zac, her body seems to protect her from her feelings and drives her away from Zac. At dinner with his mum, Will asks tough questions about her disappearance from his life and realises why Rebecca has come back. They get interrupted when Will spots Mr Gwenlan—who is supposed to be in prison. Mr Gwenlan chases after Will and finally corners him.

With Mr Gwenlan on the loose, Katherine wants Eve to be locked up at Calimov. Eve and Nick talk her out of it as long as Eve stays out of trouble. Yet when Eve offers to babysit Zoe, Lily's tearaway cousin, staying out of trouble seems wholly unlikely. To understand the behaviour of "small humans", Eve lets Zoe run riot in the local park. When Katherine realises that Mr Gwenlan stole a spiderbot from Calimov, she is determined that Eve be kept under lock and key. Meanwhile Will and Lily start getting followed around everywhere by a strange boy called Cain. And when him and Lily start bonding, Will starts becoming a little jealous.

When Lily is arrested for hacking Lord Hoffman's computer, Will and Eve are desperate to save her. But Nick and Katherine cannot help them as they concentrate on getting their new robot working in time for a major presentation. Inspired by her favourite robot film, Eve breaks into the police station, analyses the evidence against Lily and concludes that Lily has been set up. Will and Lily contact Mary, who believes Lord Hoffman is behind the arrest and offers to destroy the evidence against Lily—if Will and Eve destroy Katherine's new robot.

Eve tries to return KT by offering herself to Mary but Mary reveals that it is Will that she wants.

Mary resorts to extreme measures to head off the threat of Cain and PRICE, enlisting KT to help her temporarily transfer her consciousness to Eve. With KT AWOL from Calimov, a distracted Nick and Katherine welcome back Zac, who is helping them answer questions about how Mary was able to duplicate his personality. Excited about Zac's return, Eve suggests he join the gang's picnic that afternoon. To everyone's surprise Zac brings his new girlfriend, and for the first time Eve experiences jealousy. Spotting KT hovering nearby puts Eve on high alert. Operating under Protocol Zero, KT is Mary's automaton, and is primed to execute her mother's plan. Meanwhile, on Abe's misguided advice, Eve kisses Will in an attempt to make Zac jealous. For a moment, in robot communion, Will sees inside Eve's mind and then passes out. In the ensuing chaos, KT places a magnetic patch containing Mary's consciousness onto Eve. Inhabiting Eve's robot body, Mary begins to question Cain about PRICE. Separately, a revived Will tells Lily that when he kissed Eve he could see inside her systems. They theorise that this made her malfunction and fixate on the idea of jealousy—perhaps she is attempting to make Zac jealous by paying Cain so much attention? Little do they realise the truth. Later, Eve—still possessed by Mary—meets Cain in the park, where she interrogates him about PRICE's super-EMP. Mary decides that Cain must be terminated. Will intervenes in the nick of time, kissing Eve again. The disruption to her circuits forces Mary to relinquish control, but Will hears Mary's voice in Eve's mind. The gang are left with a burning question—could Mary be alive? Meanwhile at Calimov, unbeknownst to Nick, Katherine is using nanobots to heal.

The discovery that Mary has cheated death throws the gang into chaos. If Mary were to take control of Eve permanently, she would be unstoppable. Sending KT as bait, Mary lures Eve to a secret bunker beneath Calimov. Will and Lily are horrified to discover that Mary has built herself a body out of the reclaimed childbots. Mary wants Will to bring her inanimate body to life! The ultimatum for Will: do as Mary demands or risk Mary deleting Eve and KT's memories. Unable to bear the thought of losing his friend, Will ignores Lily's pleas and uses his nanobots to force Mary's disembodied consciousness into her robot body.

Will and Lily are not speaking. Worse still, Will is suffering adverse side effects from protecting his friends from the rogue KT. Nick, fearing that he might not find a way to repair Will's nanobots, puts Eve on the spot, asking her if she can find Mary. Knowing the danger Mary poses, Eve lies—and tracks her mother down in secret. Meanwhile, cajoled by Abe, Lily finally softens and visits Will just as he takes a turn for the worse.

The Clarke household is in crisis. Will's nanobots are rapidly failing, and Nick is at a loss. Determined to save his son, Nick lays aside his initial suspicions when Katherine appears with a hi-tech solution. Will comes round and, despite a nano-hangover, seems well. But, as Nick knows, he is not out of danger yet—Katherine has supplied only a temporary fix. Heeding Nick's warning, Eve tracks down Peterson with Abe in tow, and Abe finds out what happened to Rebecca.

When Eve tries to prevent a war between humans and robots, Will struggles to control his nanobots and his feelings for Lily, Whiles Mary plots her revenge.