“The projectors can only be miniaturized to a point. The design hasn’t changed much in a century.” Sheldon paused until Nat and I were both ready. “Now, I will activate the disguise function based on the two subjects.”

We shimmered for a moment, then were replaced by two people who had appeared on the surveillance videos.

“Damn, that is freaky,” Patrick said. “Say something, Nat.”

Sheldon interrupted. “She will still sound like Nat if she speaks. I must supply the voice. Thus … ”

The ersatz Karen Ingram began speaking. “Hi, I’m Karen. I’m a human, and therefore not very intelligent. I trip over my own feet and then drool on the carpet—”

“All right, Sheldon, we get it!” Nat’s voice said from the direction of Karen. Karen grinned in response.

“That,” said Patrick, “was both very cool and extremely creepy. Nat, did you do anything?”

Nat became Nat again. “Not until I yelled at Sheldon. Before that, I was just standing there. Did my lips move?”

“Completely believable,” Patrick said. “Sounded real, looked real. Sheldon, you’re a genius.”

“You belabor the obvious, but I’ll take the win.”

Nat laughed. “What worries me is if we don’t agree on what Karen should be doing. What if I want to go left and you have her go right?”

“The disguise field follows your movements by default. I have very limited control to make changes. The programming interface is actually being stressed to its limit just to control the facial movements in real time. Under normal circumstances, the wearer would be providing the speech, and the cloaking field would respond appropriately. That’s what the Loranna are doing.” Sheldon paused. “Nevertheless, you bring up a good point. You need to know what reasonable behavior is. I will coach you over your cling-ons, and I will translate all Lorannic for you.”

I nodded. “That sounds like it’ll work. We can’t make this zero-risk, guys. We just have to do the best we can.”

“You’ll need security cards as well,” Sheldon said. “I am printing them as we speak. They’ll be done by the time you’re ready to leave.”

Patrick was visibly surprised. “You can duplicate their security cards?”

“They are using Earth security technology. RFID cards. Barely better than a carved stick. I suspect the Loranna got lazy when setting up this operation and just went with local talent.”

I nodded. “Seems reasonable. Security through obscurity. They’re trying to look as uninteresting as possible, so no one will think to investigate them.”

We settled into an uncomfortable silence, everyone glancing at everyone else. It was the moment of truth.

“No more excuses,” Nat said. “We’re as ready as we’ll ever be. Tomorrow after work. Like you said, Jack, do or do not.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Infiltration

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Infiltration

Day 22. Friday afternoon