* * * *
“It’s empty.” Jessie whispered after closing her dad’s office door behind her leaving her standing alone in the hallway with Sofie.
“Bea said they were in a meeting. Let’s just go in and get it.” Sofie gave her a push.
“I still think this is fishy.” Jessie stood firm. “It just doesn’t make sense. Why would my dad leave us clues... unless this was a trap?”
“He’s just playing a game with you. Just like all those other coordinate games. I’m sure it’s OK.” Sofie tried again to push her in again.
“It still doesn’t make sense. It was Eugene who told us about the storeroom. And he just happened to see my dad go in there?” The more Jessie thought about it, the more it seemed wrong. Despite her apprehension she turned back to the door and opened it; this time she let Sofie push her in.
The office was dark even though it was late afternoon as they were on the north side of the building and the blinds were shut. To their right was a small round table surrounded by cushioned chars. Ahead of them, in front of the windows sat a large desk.
“Looking for something?” A familiar voice came from a darkened doorway on their left.
Sofie jumped letting out a small squeal.
Jessie turned and stomped her foot. “Dad!” she recognized the voice immediately. “Oh, and hi Mr. Matteson” she added after seeing another tall shadowy figure coming out from behind her dad.
Knowing they were caught red handed, the girls dejectedly sat down in two visitor chairs conveniently placed in front of the desk. Alec took his place behind it. Clay turned on the light then leaned on a small table behind Alec. After an uncomfortable silence, Alec opened his desk drawer and pulled out a small blue ceramic ball with 6 evenly spaced wires poking out its sides. “Is this what you’re looking for?” He held the gravity inductor temptingly in front of them. Jessie made a grab for it. He pulled it away. Sofie looked on in disbelief at Jessie’s brazenness.
“Not so fast.” Alec seemed to enjoy the moment. “I think it’s about time you tell us how you’ve been getting into every part of this building.”
Jessie shifted uncomfortably. She’s been having a bad feeling that this would happen someday. She had never been a good liar and had sensed her dad’s suspicions for a while now. It was just that... they didn’t like being locked out of parts of the building. And there was just too many neat things going on.
After another uncomfortable silence Alec said. “Hand them over.” He said tapping his finger on his desk.
“Hand what over?” Jessie said dryly crossing her arms. She had worked hard on her secret gadgets. Alec’s tapping finger held her attention and she didn’t notice Sofie looking imploringly at her.
“Ouch, what did you do that for?” Jessie rubbed her ankle looking up at Sofie. She was lucky Sofie was wearing her sneakers.
“Give it to him.” Sofie whispered. Jessie saw her look nervously at her dad and realized for the first time Sofie was in real trouble. She reluctantly reached in her backpack and pulled out one of her gadgets and set it down in front of her dads tapping finger.
“Ahem.” He continued tapping.
This time Jessie heeded Sofie’s look and not wanting another kick, pulled out the second.
With a smile, Alec picked up the nearest one and held it up. Clay leaned over his shoulder to get a better look. “An iPod?” It looked like an iPod connected to a small circuit board.
“Is this how you’ve been getting access to restricted areas?” Clay glared at Sofie.
“Yes” Sofie responded meekly and then looked pleadingly at Jessie.
Alec and Clay waited silently.
Jessie, feeling the pressure... and sensing another kick, started talking. “We use the iPod to store everyone’s card data.” She saw Sofie’s relieved look and was relieved herself at avoiding another kick. “We just need to get close to somebody’s access card to read it… I think we’ve got everybody’s, even yours.”
“How did you learn to build this?” Alec asked.
“Well… we just came up with the idea.” Jessie gestured to Sofie, who winced at the compliment. “One of the engineers helped me build it. He used to work for a security company and was able to get hold of the parts. I told him it was a project for school.” Jessie was a little embarrassed that she didn’t build it herself. Especially once she saw how easy it was.
“You have all of our cards in here?” Clay asked, reaching around Alec to fiddle with the iPod; watching the names of their employees scroll down its screen. He frowned in disappointment. Alec nodded.
“What about this mess?” Alec turned his attention to the tassel of gravity blanket material attached to the box with the video screen and game controller.
“I finished building it yesterday.” Jessie began. “It seems Sofie is the only who can work it.” She grumbled.
Sofie winced at the remark… as her dad’s attention returned to her.
“I used our 3D electromagnetic field detector design to view electromagnetic fields created by this.” Jessie picked up the tasseled end of the cable. The blanket strips were not connected directly to the cable but to a small round magnet. “It lets us see inside a door lock.” She said pointing to the small LCD screen. “We can control the strips of blanket with this.” She tapped the controller.
Alec stared at her with a blank expression then nodded with a grunt.
“I had a little help.” She said referring to her dad’s engineers. “I talked them into it. I told them it was for another school project.”
“Don’t worry. They won’t get in any trouble.” Alec leaned back. Clay resumed his earlier pose leaning on the table. They sat in silence for a painful couple of minutes.
“Can I have the gravity inductor now?” Jessie broke the silence.
Alec looked back at Clay who shook his head negatively. Turning back to the girls, he opened his laptop and turned it so the screen faced them. On it was a picture from a security camera showing the second floor corridor.
Jessie and Sofie looked at each other, then curiously back at Alec. He hit a couple of keys. The scene on the screen showed Jessie and Sofie step into the hallway from the stairwell door. Jessie slipped into the maintenance room and few seconds later, Sofie disappeared followed by the maintenance door opening and closing, as if by a ghost.
He hit a couple of more keys and they watched Eugene first, then Olivia, enter the hallway from the same stairwell door, to run towards the camera and disappear from view below it.
“What about this?” Alec asked.
Clay leaned on the side of the desk seeing the video for the first time, looking more confused than angry. “Girls?”
Jessie crossed her arms again, not wanting to give away her last secret. Sofie looked at her dad and shook her head… trying to tell him she didn’t know.
“Jessie!”
She looked up at her dad, startled at his tone. She didn’t hear it often and decided that she didn’t want to hear it again. “It’s sort of like a digital video recorder. I can analyze the picture and erase whatever it is I don’t want recorded.” Jessie said dejectedly.
“Let me get this straight, you can intercept the feed from the cameras. Then erase images while leaving the background in place, in real time, with this?” Alec held a small black box, its sides lined with video connectors.
Jessie grew even more dejected realizing she had forgotten to remove it after their incident in the storage room. “Yes.” She said meekly.
“Did anyone help you with this?”
“No one but me knows about it... at least until now.” Crestfallen, she lowered her head.
Alec grinned from ear to ear. All pretense of hiding his delight at her accomplishments were gone. He couldn’t remember being more proud of his daughter, other than when they invented the anti-gravity box. He looked at the gravity inductor in his hand then looked to Clay.
Frowning, Clay shook his head. “Sorry girls
, the cost of these things are just too high. I just don’t know how we could write one off our books.”
Alec reluctantly nodded in agreement. “You guys can go. Be lucky you’re not getting punished for this.”
Jessie stood and stormed out. Sofie hesitated. A nod from her dad was all she needed before racing after her friend.
“Well, I guess we better get back.” Alec said then seeing the sour look on his friends face, he added. “Don’t be so hard on Sofie. It looked like most of the damage was done by Jessie.”
“I know Jessie did the technical stuff. But don’t believe for a minute that Sofie wasn’t behind her, pushing her every minute.” Clay growled.
“Yea, they make a pretty good team, don’t they?” Alec grinned at his friend of 30 years. He thought he saw Clay’s scowl turn into a grin before turning to the door.
“Wait, what about those?” Clay stopped in the middle of the office doorway pointing back to the desk. Alec stumbled almost running into him then looked back at Jessie’s ‘school projects’ still sitting on his desk. “I guess I should take them with me. They just might not be here when we get back.”
Chapter 3 ~ The Test Flight
Alec's Dream Page 6
