“Unfortunately, the Harris systems, while of human manufacture, seem to have been given a security audit by someone with Covenant-level training. There will be no hacking in, not without a valid log-in.”

“Got it.” I looked down as my phone dinged. “Dinnertime,” I said. “Nat and Patrick will be here later, and we’ll go over everything then.”

“Be still, my CPU.”

Nat was delighted that Karen Ingram turned out to be one of them. She did a dance around the room, chanting, “Oh, yeah, Karen’s a lizard, bet she has a gizzard, don’t have to be a wizard, could spot her in a blizzard.”

“Even I can tell that’s terrible,” Sheldon said. “And you are right for all the wrong reasons.”

“Don’t care. She’s a lizard. I’ll take the win.”

“Fine. It’s like dealing with unruly children. I’m beginning to reconsider the advantages of sentience.”

Nat finally stopped the celebration and waved her phone. “And we have enough to disguise me?”

“Yes, and Jack too,” Sheldon replied.

“Good,” Nat said. “Tomorrow’s Friday, so we can do this after working hours.”

“Are you sure Karen will leave on time?” I asked.

“Are you kidding? Loranna are bigger clock watchers than humans, judging by the way the entire third floor stampedes out the door come quitting time. You take your life in your hands if you’re standing in the wrong place at five-oh-one. She’ll be gone.”

“All right. So the plan … ”

Nat held up something too small to see between thumb and forefinger. “This little nubbin is an audio-video bug, which goes under a keyboard on the forward side so it can see the monitor. It also, according to Sheldon, picks up keystrokes. We go in, I stick this under Karen’s keyboard, and we get out. No heroics.”

“Jack’s not really the heroic type,” Patrick interjected with a laugh. I scratched the side of my nose with my middle finger, which just produced a wider grin.

Nat gave us both a patronizing smile before continuing, “The next time Karen logs in, we get her log-in credentials. Then I can remote in and we’ll see what we can find.”

I nodded slowly. “It’s a plan. Which is more than we generally run with.”

“We should test the system,” Sheldon said. “Natalie’s and Jack’s belts are still in the fabrication shop waiting to be picked up. I’ve set out a couple of necklace speaker systems for replicating speech. The necklaces will also give me audio and video of whatever you are experiencing.”

“I’ll grab them,” Patrick said, and hurried off.

He was back in less than two minutes and handed belts and necklaces to Nat and me.

“A lot less bulky,” Nat said as she snapped her belt on. “But still not usable as a fashion accessory.” She poked a spot on the belt. “It’s rigid in a couple of places.”