Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Don't look at me like that! It's entirely logical to do a bug and secret camera sweep when you first move into a new place made just for you and suspect someone in the family is a mad scientist. We were not being weirdly paranoid. Sheesh. Have you never participated in a spy caper before?! I mean, sheesh. Paranoia is the name of the game, citizen.
If you get that reference, you have been digging through the archives way, way, waaaaay too much.
Much to our surprise, we didn't find any bugs or spy cams or even repticulates. We expected to find...something. We didn't. Not at all. Zip. Zilch. Nada. That was both anxiety causing and a relief at the same time. If Dad and/or Khiara were the mad scientists, then they were being more subtle in their spying. If they were not, which now there was a itsy bitsy glimmer they weren't, not finding anything lent credence to their innocence. On the gripping hand, they might just have thought we were not smart enough to figure it all out. If that was the case, it wasn't Dad thinking that: he never doubted how bright kids were, just what they'd learned so far. That would have meant it was Khiara as the mad scientist alone.
And if that had been so, then I could have turned her into Dad and gotten him away from her. That thought made me take pause. Was I merely suspecting Khiara instead of Dad because I was uncomfortable with Dad being romantically with someone other than my Mom? And so I was thinking to let Dad off the hook just to get away from him? That thought bothered me for a moment, but then Veena intervened.
She wanted us to unpack and set up. We were going to need to move somewhat quickly, even if we had all weekend, because we only had all weekend to prove one way or another whether Dad and/or Khiara were the source of the repticulates. So, we did. I might have been something of the Merry Prankster's leader, but we were pretty democratic. Good ideas, wherever they come from, ought to be followed and used.
We got everything unpacked, even with the stupid comments and wildly inappropriate gestures Tom made, and then made everything somewhat discreet. We didn't need Khiara and Dad wandering in and seeing all our gear everywhere. Yet we still needed to have ready access at the same time. Soooo...lots of hiding behind cushions and books and things. Yes, Dad had even put paper books for me. I loved those. The feel of the paper was unique and special. Yes, I could check out more books than anyone could ever read via my booster, but holding the book felt right. It made the possibility Dad was a Bad Guy all the worse.
We were almost done when Khiara knocked on the door and came in. We froze. Rosa had out her micro drone swarm and had been about to put it under the table in a box. We hadn't thought we'd see Dad or Khiara tonight. Teenagers often went off to do their own thing. Dad respected and expected that. Khiara, it seemed, wanted to come over and be friendly. From the innocent point of view, she wanted to spend some time with her boyfriend's daughter to become friendlier, the daughter who had become more standoffish to her Dad. From the suspicious point of view, perhaps she was clearly there to spy on us.
Khiara definitely saw the micro drone swarm: she wen straight to it. Then, she asked if she could pick one up. Rosa, nervously, assented. Khiara looked at it and then grinned. She started asking questions and talking shop with Rosa about the drones. She had her own swarms for her work! When she'd moved to Shadwell for Dad, she had applied for and received a survey contract for the local ecology. She wanted a source of income besides whatever she was doing with Dad just in case things hadn't worked out. She'd enjoyed the work so much, she continued to do it as well as whatever she was doing with Dad. Her swarms flew out everyday and were conducting a spiraling, daily search and categorization. Despite all the decades of improvement, the bots still had issues with things they didn't recognize, so Khiara tagged the images as being the same and then had another swarm collect genetic samples.
She enthusiastically talked about the drones with Rosa. Despite everything, Rosa was warming up to Khiara. At that moment, I felt a little betrayed. Rosa was my friend and we were here to find out if Khiara and Dad were the source of the wildly illegal repticulates...yet Rosa was getting all buddy, buddy with the potential perp. harumph.
Maybe she sensed something was off, maybe she just wanted to come in and talk for a moment, but Khiara decided pretty quickly she'd stayed long enough. She wished us all a good night and even gave me a hug. That was beyond awkward. However, she seemed to be making an effort and seemed sincere, which made me feel even more awkward and uncomfortable. With that, she departed and I was in a less than enthusiastic mood.
Jackie gave me a look, shared a look with Veena, then looked at Rosa with a raised eyebrow, and then looked back to me to suggest we start looking. Jackie seemed...inscrutable. Tall, dark and silent. I hated when she did that and wished I understood what she was thinking.
Jackie suggested to Veena they sneak around back. Rosa went up in the loft, laid down and communed with the drones. One of the bits she had not shared with Khiara, thank all that was good and light, was Rosa's drones were far, far quieter than normal. She'd adjusted the speed of the rotors and increased their size. Her swarm lifted up and off and out into the airlock. Tom sealed the inner door and then opened the outer. The swarm took off like bees, if bees were mostly silent. Tom came back in and we departed together. We were agreed we would all search the outer grounds tonight, up to and around the berm. We doubted we would find anything, but that was the starting point. Tomorrow, we had agreed, we were going to search the farm and then finally, on Sunday, we were going to search the main house. Sneakily.
Tonight, though, was outside.
So outside Tom and I went, to the north. Veena and Jackie went south. Rosa scouted everywhere looking for the repticulates. It wasn't long before we found something, but it was not the something we expected.