I walked slowly back to the Duster, staring down at the item in my hand. It was a perfect match for the rest of Chewbacca’s tech. And it did kind of resemble a cell phone—one of the older ones, before iPhones and Galaxies redefined the shapes. Maybe—if you were in your nineties and your vision wasn’t as good as it used to be. And you considered color TV to be the newest newfangled thing that you cared to own.

I hunched my shoulders. That was unkind. Mrs. Kirby was doing just fine. She lived on her own, and had found a level of technology that was comfortable for her. It could be easy to forget sometimes that no one was actually obligated to be up on all the latest.

Meanwhile, though, we had another shot at the flying saucer. I grinned and waved the gadget as I opened the car door. “To the Bat-Saucer, Robin.”

“Bite me. Robin never drove. That makes you Robin.”

I turned to Nat. “And you’d be Batgirl?”

“Batwoman.”

I looked closely at the gadget. “Interesting. Look at the symbols on the buttons.” I held it out so they could see it.

“Same V and I buttons,” Nat said.

“So on and off. Or maybe open and close?”

“Let’s hope,” Patrick said, and started the car.

We made it out to the accident site even more quickly this time. Practice combined with excitement resulted in a ride that could charitably be described as hair-raising. Patrick parked in the same spot as last time, and we piled out of the car. I stopped for a moment to look both ways. This road really was deserted. I’d be surprised if there was more than one car every ten minutes. I could see how I’d taken Chewbacca by surprise.

The others had moved ahead of me, so I rushed to catch up, and we hiked out to the landing site. Natalie did the zombie thing for a moment, then announced, “Yep. Still here.”

“Now wouldn’t that have been a kick in the crotch, if it had left in the meantime?” I muttered. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the new gadget and held it in the air. “The moment of truth. Anyone want to make a speech?”

“Or kiss their ass goodbye?” Patrick added.

“Do we really want to do this?” Nat said.

“Same logic still applies, Nat,” I replied. “We can’t sneak up on this or do it incrementally. We press the button or we give up the discovery.” I waved the device. “What’ll it be?”

Nat stuck out her chin. “I don’t want to rot in this town. Push it.”

I glanced at Patrick, who had a slightly wide-eyed look, not quite deer-in-the-headlights, but certainly getting there. “Well?”