“Three Zobles,” whispered Kira. “Why do you need all that juice? For the radio? Can they possibly need that much?” She’d used walkie-talkies back home that fit snugly in the palm of her hand, running off tiny rechargeables. What kind of radio needed three Zoble panels and a five-meter antenna? It didn’t make sense.

Unless they were powering more than just a radio. Unless they were powering, say, a collection of stolen ParaGen computers.

Kira looked around, not at the crater but at the street behind her and the cold, lifeless buildings beyond. She felt exposed, as if a spotlight had just been pointed at her, and she stepped into the shadow of a fallen wall. If there were really something valuable under here, she thought, whoever was protecting this place would have come to dig it up by now. The extra juice was here to power the radio and the computers, and whoever I found collecting radios and computers was doing it in the last few months—long after this building exploded. They’re still out there, and they’re up to something weird.

She looked up at the roofline, and the darkening sky beyond it. And all I have to do to find them is to find what they need: a giant antenna and enough solar panels to run their radio. If there are other such sites in the city, I won’t be able to see them from down here.

“Time to go up.”

Kira’s plan was simple: climb the tallest building she could find, get a good view of the city, and watch. If she was lucky she’d see another smoke trail, though she had to assume her targets had learned their lesson after the last time; more likely, she’d just have to study the skyline as closely as she could, in all directions and in all angles of sunlight, hoping to catch a glimpse of a giant antenna and a bank—or banks—of solar panels.

“Then I just have to keep notes, find them on my map, and check them out in person,” said Kira, talking to herself as she climbed another flight of stairs. “And hope I don’t get blown up, like everyone else has so far.”