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Chapters (48)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Chapter One: Fender Bender
  5. Chapter Two: Bigfoot Burrito
  6. Chapter Three: Treasure Hunt
  7. Chapter Four: Open Sesame
  8. Chapter Five: Central Intelligence
  9. Chapter Six: First Flight
  10. Chapter Seven: Park It
  11. Chapter Eight: Next Steps
  12. Chapter Nine: Search Strategies
  13. Chapter Ten: Overflight
  14. Chapter Eleven: Barn Doors
  15. Chapter Twelve: Saturn Fly-By
  16. Chapter Thirteen: Getting a Clue
  17. Chapter Fourteen: Hacked
  18. Chapter Fifteen: The Spy Game
  19. Chapter Sixteen: Investigations
  20. Chapter Seventeen: Break-In
  21. Chapter Eighteen: Battening Down
  22. Chapter Nineteen: Shoring Up Defenses
  23. Chapter Twenty: Third Time’s the Charm
  24. Chapter Twenty-One: Proxy
  25. Chapter Twenty-Two: Rescue
  26. Chapter Twenty-Three: Chase
  27. Chapter Twenty-Four: Spies R Us
  28. Chapter Twenty-Five: Surveillance
  29. Chapter Twenty-Six: Making Plans
  30. Chapter Twenty-Seven: Going In
  31. Chapter Twenty-Eight: Infiltration
  32. Chapter Twenty-Nine: Accidental Captive
  33. Chapter Thirty: Interrogation
  34. Chapter Thirty-One: Reaction
  35. Chapter Thirty-Two: Kidnappings
  36. Chapter Thirty-Three: Reviewing Options
  37. Chapter Thirty-Four: Public Debut
  38. Chapter Thirty-Five: Distractions
  39. Chapter Thirty-Six: The Big Reveal
  40. Chapter Thirty-Seven: Regrouping
  41. Chapter Thirty-Eight: Waiting for Results
  42. Chapter Thirty-Nine: It Hits the Fan
  43. Chapter Forty: Disassembly
  44. Chapter Forty-One: Wrapping It Up
  45. Chapter Forty-Two: Negotiations
  46. Chapter Forty-Three: Coda
  47. About the Author
  48. About the Publisher

“Okay.” I nodded. “For now, let’s get our security upgraded, get our new phones, then we start spying.”

Chapter Eighteen: Battening Down

Chapter Eighteen: Battening Down

Day 12. Tuesday evening

Sheldon had been busy running his printers, and we eventually found ourselves facing a large number of items needing installation.

Patrick and Nat began with bars and privacy frosting film on all the windows, while I worked on the people entrance. Sheldon had printed a completely new door, with a reinforced frame and a locking system that included dead bolts on all nonhinged edges. It was even Wi-Fi enabled so we—or Sheldon—could lock or unlock it remotely. The replacement looked enough like the existing door that it wouldn’t raise any eyebrows, but the material was a fake wood that seemed more akin to Kevlar than anything.

The new frame fit neatly over the existing one, so no demolition was required. However, the reinforcing rods required some foundation drilling. Fortunately, Sheldon helpfully provided a drill from the Gen ship inventory. That was interesting—it didn’t use a rotating bit at all. Instead, it seemed to pulverize or disintegrate the concrete. The word patents came unbidden to my mind. In Patrick’s voice, strangely.

The last items were the cloaking detectors, which were installed on the outside of the barn walls, craftily integrated into quite normal-looking motion-sensing lights.

It was well after dark when we finished. I returned the Gen tools to the Halo, then sat heavily in my chair. “Remember when we were young and could go all night?”

“I’m pretty sure alcohol figured into that,” Patrick replied. “Likely as an anesthetic. And we weren’t doing actual work.”

“Whatever.” Nat groaned as she stood and grabbed her stuff. “I’m bagged. Let’s go.”

Patrick gave me a wave as he and Nat headed for the car. I looked wearily around the barn, searching with minimal enthusiasm for anything left to clean up.

“It’s all good, Jack,” Sheldon said through the communicator. “Detectors are working, door lock is on Wi-Fi, nothing has been left out. You can go get some rest.”

“Thanks, Sheldon. I guess tomorrow we get down to the real work.”

I woke to the sound of my name being called.

“Jack. Jack. Wake up. Please respond.”

It was Sheldon. Groggily, I grabbed for the communicator, which I had placed on the bedside table. “Wha. Whazzup?”

“We have an intruder. Human. Someone is circling the barn, trying to approach without triggering the motion-detector lights.”

“Aagh. Next step, webcams.” I sat up slowly and put my head in my hands. Honestly, even when I was a teenager, I’d been mostly useless when woken up in the middle of the night. Apparently, I hadn’t improved with age. “I don’t have a gun.”

“You have the disruptor.”