Patrick grinned. “I have to admit, a remote-operated set of doors would be handy. Could we rig up a remote for Sheldon too?”

“Oh, please. I built this unit. I simply trained the receiver to accept a signal from me as well.”

“Ah. Of course.” Patrick cocked his head at me. “Think we can get it done this evening?”

“Piece of cake.”

It wasn’t quite a piece of cake, as the wagon doors, which were old and starting to rot, didn’t submit gracefully to a new top rail. Some emergency bracing was necessary to prevent them from simply disintegrating. The sky was darkening by the time we collected our tools and put away the ladders. But finally we had the new automated rolling gate mounted, powered up, and ready to go.

Patrick stood, arms crossed, a smug grin on his face as I pressed the button for the third time and watched the doors majestically slide open.

At that moment, my father walked up. “Nice work, Jack. Been meaning to do something like that for years, but it never seemed urgent. To what do we owe this?”

“Uh, we may at some point be moving some large equipment around. Patrick and I had already decided that there isn’t enough WD-40 in the world to keep the old hardware moving.”

“Hmm. And the money? Those things run four grand and up for doors that size.”

“All paid for, Dad. No strings.”

He gave me a hard look. “You aren’t doing something illegal are you, Jack? A life-changing event like you went through—”

“No, Dad, nothing illegal. No drug running or smuggling or running booze. It’s … ” I knew I had to give my father something. “Look, we’re working on a really revolutionary propulsion system. But patents and crap take years, and you can’t do an IPO without having your intellectual property properly protected. The other people behind this company are working on that, but meanwhile they want to do some early testing, to figure out some unknowns. We’re getting equity instead of pay, which is why we’re all still doing our day jobs. But we’ll be major shareholders if this pans out.”

Dad peered speculatively at me; at the doors, which had just come to a stop; at Patrick and Natalie, both of whom gazed back at him with guileless expressions. Then he nodded, having apparently come to some kind of conclusion. “All right. Weirder things have happened. Apple started in someone’s garage. As long as you don’t get involved in anything illegal. Or burn down the barn.” With that he turned and walked back to the house.

Patrick let out a breath. “Wow, dude, that was the most fine-tuned line of bullshit I’ve ever heard. I salute you, sir.”

“And there go our souls,” Nat added. “Meanwhile, I think we’re done for the evening again. Maybe tomorrow night we can get back to working on the search.”