“Oh! No! Well, probably,” Tess said. “I mean, if they stole two animals, they’re looking for more, right?”

“Yes,” said Theo’s mom. “That’s what I was thinking. I watched the video taken from Jaime’s building on the day Karl went missing. Clarkson is tracking down some people of interest right now.”

“What people?” Tess said.

“I don’t want to get your hopes up too much, but there were several people acting a bit strangely in the video. As a matter of fact, I should get going, too. I want to be there for the interviews.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Tess said.

“And to watch the other videos to see if that will help my case.”

Theo said, “What other videos?”

“You don’t know?”

“Know what?” Tess asked.

“I’m surprised. You kids seem to know what’s going on in the city before I do. There was an incident at Station One. Apparently, there were machines concealed in the stone eagles on the front of the building. Possibly Morningstarr Machines, but that hasn’t been confirmed.”

“Huh,” said Theo. Tess and Jaime said nothing.

“I have to say I would have thought the three of you would be more excited at this news. Previously unknown Morningstarr Machines in the shape of eagles? They weren’t known to design birds.”

“Fascinating,” said Theo.

“About as fascinating as congressional hearings, I can see,” said Theo’s mom, standing up.

“I love congressional hearings,” Theo said.

His mom laughed. “Right. Anyway, there were a bunch of people still at the station when the machines went bananas. They crashed windows and dive-bombed people and generally caused a lot of mayhem.”

“No one was hurt, though, right?” said Tess.

“Luckily,” said Theo’s mom. “And no one has seen the eagles since. But there was else something a bit strange. Well, stranger than mechanical eagles flying around a train station scaring everyone, that is.”

“What was a bit strange, Mom?” Theo asked.

“A witness said he saw some city employees fixing a clock. One of those employees was saved by an eagle. And one of the others of them took something from the eagle. The witness couldn’t see what it was. But the city said that there was no scheduled maintenance on that clock. And the men weren’t wearing the standard city uniforms. So we have to assume these men were working with the machines somehow. Maybe they did something to start them up. I don’t know. We’ll figure it out when we pull them in for questioning.”

Theo’s stomach dropped. Tess asked, “How will you find them?”

His mom smiled. “Easy. The witness got the whole thing on video. It’s hard to make out their faces from the distance at which it was taken, but I’m sure our techs can enhance it.”

“Great,” said Theo. “That’s really great.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Jaime