by AJ Scudiere
Kayla nodded, she’d thought about exactly that. “Plus you have to sign on with the power company. Most systems only pay you a fraction of what you pay for power.” She paused, “which makes sense, since you then become the wholesaler. But in the meantime, they charge you full price every month for the power you draw, then at the end of the year credit you—at the lower rate—for the power you put onto the grid. So you can easily run a surplus onto the grid and still wind up owing them money.”
“Really?” Ivy put her sandwich down for that one.
Kayla didn’t. “Yeah, I looked it up. Seemed like it was worth figuring out the phaselock until then. We’ll just take people off the grid entirely. I wonder if the Amish will be able to use it?”
The Amish used gas generators sometimes but would never hook into a system like the phone lines or the power grid.
“No Amish yet, Kayla.” Ivy touched her arm and kept her from trailing off. “They aren’t a big enough market to accomplish what you want.”
Kayla saw exactly what Ivy had done. She knew she’d been neatly steered back on track. And she didn’t really care. Ivy was good at that.
After they cleaned up from lunch, she headed outside, Ivy trailing her, helping with the last of the work. Faraday stayed with them, his leash staked to the ground with a bent piece of metal that both kept him in place and also allowed her to release him quickly should the need arise. But it didn’t matter, the newly adopted dog seemed to have nowhere better to be than at her side.
Ivy held parts and tools for her, the heat finally soothing rather than baking as it had just a few weeks ago.
Midafternoon, Reggie called to let them know that Marcus had arrived in D.C. and filed the patent in person. Ivy was musing out loud that he could have changed his name to all the papers and filed it as his own.
Kayla was shaking her head, having finally figured out why Marcus wouldn’t do just that. “You have to be the true inventor to file it. And he could lie, but it would put him back in Big Oil’s crosshairs.”
Just then the photo of the receipt popped up on her phone, marked as filed by Marcus Winter for a patent for Kayla Reeves. Underneath the picture it read, “On my way back.” She showed Reenie, who smiled and happily admitted to being wrong.
Then she frowned. “We keep saying ‘Big Oil’, but who is that really? I mean there are a small handful of companies, it could be any of them.”
Kayla nodded. She had this very conversation once with Reggie when everyone else had been asleep. She passed on what she knew. “Reggie said that the term ‘Big Oil’ refers to the group of companies and that the group has consultants, who in turn employ contractors, who in turn hire the people who ‘get things done’.”
Reenie handed over a connector as Kayla hooked the small gas generator she was tying to the Whitney Device. “So no one’s really responsible for things like this and it’s really difficult to tie it to any of them.”
“Yeah,” She checked her cables one last time and connected to the car battery she was using for the first run. “It means we’ll never really be able to take them to court, unless Marcus can find another link. But he found one before and he only got so far up the chain before shit rained down on him.”
Ivy nodded and Kayla asked if she wanted to do the honors.
With a flick of her wrist, Ivy looked like a pro starting up the Whitney Device the old way—manually. The generator would do that in the future. Kayla flipped switches and started up the entire connection. They watched it run for a few minutes, then quickly set about constructing a small house for it.
“Why do you keep looking over your shoulder, Kay?”
At the worry on her friend’s face, Kayla laughed. “I don’t hear anything or suspect anything if that’s what you think.” She watched her words all day, but they were being freer in range of the listening devices now. “It’s Evan. If he sees me, he’ll give me another lecture on the proper way to use hand tools. You, too.”
Ivy laughed at that, the smile genuine and deep. It lit up her eyes and her entire face in a way that made Kayla pause and catch her breath. She stared at her friend for a minute.
Kayla had experienced that skip of the heart before. Of the handful of times it happened, it had never lasted. Twice she’d had a boyfriend for more than a year, but the little things, the pieces he missed and didn’t understand about her just wore down the relationship. And always, that catch of breath had happened right when she met someone. It never came from someone already embedded in her life, in her heart.
Ivy had kissed her before, but since Kayla hadn’t known what to do with it, she waited it out. When it hadn’t happened again, she’d written it off. But here it was, Ivy’s smile, her dark gaze locked with Kayla’s, and that feeling of a hiccup in her heart.
It took a conscious thought about how to react. Smile back.
It wasn’t as if it was difficult to smile at Ivy, it was that her natural reaction was to sit there, stunned, and not really respond. But once she thought about smiling at Ivy, she couldn’t stop it.
She grinned while they finished building the housing together, working in a seamless fashion, Ivy knowing what she wanted even before she did. Kayla smiled through dinner and thought she caught Reenie and Evan looking at her funny, but she wasn’t sure and they didn’t say anything.
With Reenie on the first watch, Kayla and Ivy were both supposed to sleep. And they did. It worked until Ivy flung off the covers and headed out to the bathroom at the end of the hall. Kayla listened to the running water, the closing door, and the footsteps that told her where exactly Ivy was. So she was on her feet when her friend opened the bedroom door and found her standing there.
Ivy sighed but didn’t say anything. And Kayla felt it coming.
In two steps, Ivy was right in front of her, then Kayla felt soft hands frame her face and pull her close. She gasped at the feel of Ivy’s lips on hers, stiffened at the shock of lightning in her system, and melted underneath the storm that followed.
She was kissing Ivy back when the deep barks sounded from the first floor. Almost simultaneously, Reenie yelled for all of them, and Kayla heard footsteps pounding down the hallway. Before she could even assess what just happened, her own feet were racing down the stairs, right behind Ivy.
31
Hazelton House
The back step was broken. Evan knew it had been a problem and now the old board had given up and split in two, jagged edges pointing toward the middle. Probably someone running had leapt onto it at high speed; from the looks of it, that someone went right through.
Shit.
The Whitney Device stayed tucked into its safe house, neatly hidden in the angle of the porch and the back side of the house. It was the obvious choice.
Evan headed down the steps, now avoiding the second one because he had to.
Looking at the lock—a relatively cheap key-and-number combo—didn’t yield any clues. The housing looked untampered with.
He glanced up. The moon was just a sliver, not giving up enough light to check for tracks. And even if it had, there was a good chance he’d cleanly erased them as he came over here and crouched down, looked for clues that he wouldn’t find at night anyway. Maybe he’d have better luck in the morning.
Evan was standing up, stretching his legs, and musing how he had simply raced down here without forethought, when fear brought him fully upright. “Reenie! Ivy! Go check the front. What if this was just a distraction?”
Both women took off running, three dogs following. The canines at least seemed to enjoy the games of “bark at the intruder” and “run around the big house,” Evan not so much.
As he scanned the dim horizon, he heard them reach the double front doors, and though he couldn’t hear what they said, the tones carried well on the night. Neither of them seemed upset, which allowed his shoulders to relax just a fraction.
It was Kayla who was still uptight.
From the looks of her, she didn’t even notice that Ree
nie and Ivy had dashed off. She stood on the back porch, turning slowly in a circle, her eyes scanning everything. At last they settled on him, delivering her worry directly into his system.
“Evan, they didn’t come for the machine.” Pointing to the housing she’d built earlier that day, Kayla asked him, “There are no marks on the wood or around the lock, are there?”
He shook his head, knowing that in a moment she’d explain how she arrived at that conclusion without even looking at the very thing he’d just inspected. Her gaze trailed away from him and her focus hit the middle distance, as though she were seeing the action unfolding here. “The dogs barked once and we all ran. Whoever it was barely got away and surely didn’t have time enough to do two things.”
Evan nodded. So far, so good.
Reenie and Ivy appeared behind Kayla, and some part of her brain must have catalogued that, but she gave no outward appearance of sensing their presence.
“Whoever it was broke the step as he ran off the porch. So he couldn’t have gone to the device. He wanted something here on the porch.” She turned, scanning the porch, and closed the door in Ivy and Reenie’s faces. “Look, Evan.”
He climbed the steps, peering where she pointed. Even in the dark, he could see the faint gouges in the wood. As though it were silk or velvet, Kayla ran her fingers along the door frame. “He was trying to get inside.”
For a petty moment, Evan put aside what that meant and considered the repairs. It was easier to be mad about putty and paint than to be scared or concerned about someone jimmying the old lock.
The dogs had saved them and suddenly Evan no longer begrudged the extra scraps Kayla had been sneaking to them at meals. He opened the heavy door to find Ivy and Reenie standing right where they’d been.
He was starting to explain what Kayla had figured out when the other two suddenly looked over his shoulder. Turning, Evan saw Kayla walk off the porch. She missed the broken step cleanly, without a falter in her stride; anyone watching from a few feet further away would have no idea the step was even out of commission.
In her socks, she made a beeline for the back corner of the house, and standing there, facing the wood slat siding, she began to speak. The three of them stayed still, straining to hear the words.
“You can come for us, but it won’t matter. If you stop the patent, which you already know we filed for, it won’t matter. You can even kill us, it won’t matter. The machine is already out there. Too many people know. And there are many who can build one from scratch. There’s nothing you can do. But if you come for us, know this: we’ll be ready.”
Kayla had been speaking directly into the bug.
Kayla felt like crap. Evan had chastised her for making her bold statement without first consulting everyone. She hadn’t thought of that, but she still didn’t think it was in any way the wrong thing to do.
Then he made them run drills. They’d been too haphazard, everyone sliding in socks and pattering on bare feet, all running to the same place. It was unorganized, and worse, maybe unsafe.
Though he was right about all of that, it still felt like punishment.
Go to your room. Lay down. Sleep in your clothes. Now think about where your shoes are.
Once they’d practiced that, he reorganized them. Ivy and Reenie would take the front door, regardless of where the commotion was; Evan and Kayla the back. Once the front and back doors were secured, each team would sweep counterclockwise through the ground floor rooms to be sure nothing was amiss.
He made them run the drill five times before finally going back to bed.
In the morning, Kayla helped Evan with some sanding, then they quickly assembled a Whitney Device in a cabinet that Evan built for just that purpose. He braced and locked it before they trudged in for lunch.
Reenie looked perfectly chipper, the lack of sleep not bothering her at all. In the face of all that bushy-tailed wakefulness, Ivy looked even more tired and Kayla figured she looked about the same herself. After eating, she declared it nap time for the two of them and took Ivy’s hand, pulling her out of the Overseer’s kitchen and into the big house.
She heard Reenie behind them telling her brother that she’d be making vendor calls from the main house anyway and to let the girls sleep. Evan pulled the dogs inside, cooping all eight souls inside one building, which either meant they were safer or they could all be blown up with a single good plan.
Even so, what she told the listening device was true. Reggie knew. Marcus couldn’t build it himself, but he had all the info, and if he put it into the right hands, someone else could. And there were two patents—one for the device itself and a second, “new use” patent for the hybrid technology she’d added to make it look like it was using fuel.
She turned the corner toward the room she shared with Ivy, her feet dragging, sleep stealing over her before she was even tucked under her covers. But a hand grabbed her and pulled her back. Off her feet a little, she rocked into Ivy, who pressed a fast kiss to her mouth and then declared that she was exhausted. Before Kayla could move from the spot she was suddenly rooted to, Ivy slid into the bed and disappeared into slumber.
Kayla was jealous and a little frustrated. She’d been exactly that tired herself, but the kiss had startled her. Still, she climbed in and felt the sheer bliss of crisp, cool sheets and the comfort that if anything happened, the machine was already out there.
Kayla woke up to the sound of Reenie and Evan speaking somewhere downstairs.
The slant of the light told her she’d been asleep for at least a few hours. She stretched and started to roll over before she took into account the body next to her. Ivy was still deep under, so Kayla stayed quiet.
The voices downstairs filtered up without the benefit of clarity. Though she couldn’t understand exactly what was going on, when the door opened then closed, it became clear that Evan had stepped out. She could almost see him, traipsing down to the barn—his favorite place to be on the plantation. He had no desire to help with the hordes of people coming through the future museum. He didn’t even want to run classes, though he probably would until they could hire someone else to handle it.
So Kayla lay there drowsily, and sure enough she heard a faint beep and Reenie’s voice. Evan had arrived at his destination and was checking in.
She drifted in and out of consciousness, not knowing when she fell asleep again, but only coming aware when Ivy nudged her shoulder. “Someone’s at the door.”
The words were hushed—rushed—and Ivy wasn’t looking at her. She looked at the bedroom door as though it were a portal to the front porch.
A knock came again; Kayla heard it clearly. It was followed by the beep of the phone and Reenie’s voice, which became clearer as she came out of the back parlor and entered the grand space of the central staircase. “. . .the door. . . . police officer. I’m answering it.”
Kayla and Ivy’s attention snapped to each other as they heard Reenie pull back the large front door and in her best Southern Miss voice ask what she could do to help the officer today.
There was no way Evan would arrive in time.
Kayla, already out of bed and peering through the back window at the police cruiser parked there, motioned quietly to Ivy. Without talking, they each grabbed a gun and slipped over to the servants’ staircase. Bracing themselves on the walls, they came as fast as they silently could, unable to hear Reenie as they snaked through the back walls of the old house.
By the time Ivy and Kayla made it into earshot again, the officer was standing in the front hall, fingers hooked at the waistband of his deep-blue uniform, exasperation painting his features. “Ma’am, I need to ask if you’ve seen this man.”
Just then, Kayla got her head around a corner and saw the officer holding up a paper photo. Reenie shook her head and the officer explained. “This is Robert Bell, he was last seen in Effingham County and never arrived at his destination in Savannah. We�
�re checking areas in between.”
Reenie shook her head again. “I haven’t seen him.” Then she gestured to the road out the open door behind him. “We don’t get many visitors. I’m sorry.”
Kayla tiptoed around the edges of the room, Ivy right behind her. They reached the open arch that led into the foyer, the voices loud on the other side of the wall. They were too close to talk, so Kayla mouthed a few words to Ivy, who nodded. Then, gun ready, she rushed the officer.
“Don’t move!” Ivy nearly yelled it, but she appeared right behind Kayla. Quickly, Kayla put the officer between herself and the barrel of Ivy’s gun.
He was responding to the threat, trying to knock Kayla out of the way, but aware that he had a nine-millimeter aimed at his head. He acted as though he was confident Ivy could hit him, too. Her right hand darted out and slipped off the snap on his gun holster. Quickly, too quickly for him to react with Ivy drawing down on him, Kayla slipped her fingers into the space and pulled the gun free. Stepping back, she handed it sharply to Reenie, who looked bewildered but followed along.
Kayla then pulled the cuffs from his utility belt and ordered Reenie to cuff him.
He fought only slightly, his eyes darting from Kayla, now standing square in front of him but out of reach, to Ivy, still steady, still with her Glock trained on him. Reenie slid the bracelet around his wrist and ratcheted it down. As she reached up to pull his other arm into place, he tugged again, protesting just a little, his eyes darting to Ivy.
Kayla spoke. “You know Ivy has a bullet chambered. You don’t know if she’ll shoot you or not, but you’re fully aware she’s a crack shot, aren’t you?”
He pressed his lips together for just the briefest moment, a tell if Kayla ever saw one. “No ma’am, I don’t know what’s going on here.” Then he stood straighter. “If you’ll release me and explain, I won’t press charges. No one has gotten hurt . . . yet. But you’re at least up for assaulting an officer.”
