Charlie was getting really tired of Kelly. She was being outright mean, rather than just secretly mean like she’d been before. She’d lied about the bracelet when she knew it was important for Dr. Sharma to have it back. And she’d stolen the top secret documents from Charlie’s locker. And why? So she could secretly learn about her bracelet while keeping Charlie and the others from learning about theirs? What kind of friend did those kinds of things? Charlie wanted to write her off as totally horrible. But there was still something about Kelly that made Charlie hesitate. The girl had been through a lot lately. Maybe all the turmoil from her parents’ divorce combined with her newfound fame was messing her up and making her act so awful. Still, Charlie didn’t know how much more she could take when Kelly wasn’t acting anything like a friend.
Before they went home, Mrs. Wilde dialed Ms. Sabbith on speakerphone to tell her about Kelly and the media and the text messages. The engineer said she’d just seen the TV news clip.
“This is troubling,” Ms. Sabbith said gravely. “Kelly seems unstable, and obviously I’m worried for her. But I’m more concerned about Dr. Gray finding out. He’s been so secretive for years—I’m afraid if he sees Kelly flaunting her hybrid powers, and worse, if she lets the world know a device like this exists, he’ll get even more paranoid. Will he worry that others will be able to track him down through her? And if so, does that put our scientists in danger? After all, he threatened to hurt them if you called the police.”
Mrs. Wilde glanced at the kids. They all felt uneasy. “What do you recommend we do?” she asked. “When can you come back?”
Ms. Sabbith blew out a consternated breath. “I have everything I need from Dr. Sharma’s list except for one crucial component,” she said. “It’s being delivered to me at our lab on Saturday—I have to do it over the weekend so no one else here intercepts it. As soon as I’ve got it, I’ll fly right out to you with all the equipment. Has Quinn been able to communicate at all with you since the first time?”
“Not really,” Mrs. Wilde said. “We’re still trying.”
“If you can somehow give them a sign to wait to make a move until Monday that would be great. Maybe you can put something up in the window for them to see. Then we’ll cross our fingers that Kelly doesn’t do anything else and hope that Gray isn’t paying attention to what she’s already done. I know that’s a lot of wishful thinking, though, so you should be prepared to make a move without me, just in case the scientists have to make a break for it.”
“Gosh, I hope we’ll be ready,” Mrs. Wilde said, her voice grim. “But the situation seems stable over there, and Jack isn’t moving around very quickly yet. Fingers crossed that things go our way.”
Wednesday was filled with new developments at home base.
“I have an idea for the window sign,” said Maria when they arrived. “Your dad likes phone number puzzles, right?”
“Yes,” said Charlie. “What’s your idea?”
“Well, we don’t want Dr. Gray or the soldiers to suspect anything if they happen to glance out the window and see it, so we can’t just write, ‘Don’t try escaping until next week!’ or anything obvious.”
“Right.”
“So, what if we do a cipher in the form of a For Lease sign using a fake company name? Then the phone number can be the date?”
“I’m not sure I get it,” said Charlie.
“I’ll show you what I mean.” They found a large piece of cardboard. Maria carefully wrote, “Grand Escapes Leasing Co,” on the top in block letters, then paused. “Monday is March thirteenth,” she said. “March is the third month, so we can make the phone number (313) 555-0313. What do you think?”
Charlie nodded. “That’s perfect. It even looks like a professional company phone number, so the soldiers and Dr. Gray wouldn’t think anything of it. But if Dr. Sharma sees it in our window, she’ll know it’s got to be a message.”
They showed it to Charlie’s mom for her approval. Then they removed part of the window film that Ms. Sabbith had put up and slid the sign behind it, propped on the sill.
While the girls worked on that project, Mac finally found a way to get the dragonfly into the lab through the vents. He kept it hidden, balancing on the grates above Mr. Wilde’s workstation. Now the group could hear conversations, but so far the only talk was about mundane things like the weather or what was for lunch or vague references to supplies needed to continue the work. None of the soldiers discussed anything secretive, probably because the scientists were in earshot, and none of the scientists would talk about anything risky at all, most likely because the soldiers were hovering around them constantly.
If only they could figure out how to get Dr. Sharma’s attention and let her know the camera was in the lab now. There seemed to be more opportunities here for instructions to get whispered in passing or written on notes and held up to the camera but only if the scientists knew the dragonfly was there.
Once, around lunchtime when there were only a few soldiers in the lab with the scientists and all was quiet, Mac tried making the dragonfly’s wings buzz against the metal grate. It sounded ridiculously loud to them, but that was because the microphone was right there. But Mr. Wilde didn’t look up. Mac thought about having the dragonfly swoop down to get their attention but didn’t dare risk being seen by anyone else. They needed this camera and couldn’t afford to lose another one. So they waited. Like always. But at least while they waited the kids could train. And it was time to dig in and take their training to the next level—somewhere Mac’s claws could dig in deep without destroying the office building.
That afternoon Mrs. Wilde drove the kids to the Superstition Mountains nearby and parked at one of the trails that didn’t seem to have many hikers. They set out to find a private area where they could test out their skills. As soon as they saw an area of huge boulders near a sheer rock wall a little ways off the trail, they went toward it. Mrs. Wilde stayed behind to keep a lookout in case anyone started toward them.
“I did some more research on the pangolin,” Mac said to the girls. “Their claws are supposed to be able to dig through concrete.”
“That’s amazing!” said Maria.
“I can’t wait to see what you can do to this mountain,” said Charlie.
Mac beamed. He used his inhaler, then tapped his device to release the liquid suit. When it hardened, he clicked through his bracelet screen to find the claw feature. Once his fingers transformed into claws, he tapped hard against the mountainside to see what would happen. They made a small divot in the rock. He wound up like a pitcher and slammed his claws into the rock. They sank in deep.
He tugged, but they were stuck fast. “Uh-oh,” he said under his breath. He pulled and wriggled until they came free, and he breathed a sigh of relief. “Maybe not quite so much force,” he said. He hit the mountainside again, and this time the claws sank only a little way. He bent his knees and hung by one hand, testing their ability to support him. He held. Then he did the same with his other hand and slowly began climbing. He used the claws on his feet, too, trying to get used to that strange feeling.
Maria climbed the boulders, still looking like her normal self. When she reached the top, she grinned back at the others, then cringed and ran off the edge, changing into a weremonkey in midflight. She landed and looked around cautiously, then jumped to a lower boulder. A natural hunk of rock jutted out of the rock face above her. She leaped and swung from it. With her other hand she clicked her bracelet into Turbo Mode. When her legs, arms, and tail were fully extended, she continued swinging, jumping, and climbing all over the area.
It was fun for Charlie to watch her friends figure stuff out for the first time, but she knew that she needed more practice too. So after a few minutes she kicked off her shoes and followed what Maria had done: climbing up the boulder pile and jumping off but toward the rock face instead, letting the bracelet kick in on its own. With fingers and toes tingling she hit low on the side of the mountain and stuck there, then worked on becoming more quick and agile with her climbing.
They spent the afternoon working on their various skills. Mrs. Wilde came to watch their progress for a while. “You’re doing great!” she called out to them. “I’m trying not to have a heart attack watching you. Charlie, aren’t you a little high off the ground? No?”
Charlie laughed and crawled down the rock face to the ground. Then she went over to her mom. “That was fun,” she said, her face streaked with dirt and sweat. The others followed, turning off the enhancements that they could.
Once Maria had changed back to normal, they went back to home base to check the cameras. With the roach cam destroyed, the dragonfly keeping eyes and ears on the scientists, and the ladybug on the window with a different view of the lab, there was no longer a camera in Dr. Gray’s office. Mac occasionally brought the elevator spider cam out into the hallway. They caught Dr. Gray going into his office and not coming out for several hours at a time, and they debated whether to try to put the spider cam on him in there. But ultimately they decided it was more important to keep tabs on who was coming and going, especially now that new soldiers seemed to be showing up. They needed to get a solid count of them in order to know what they’d be facing when they went on their rescue mission.
On Thursday the kids returned to the Superstition Mountains and spent much of the day training, then they went to home base for the evening.
“It’s good we’re learning to use our devices better,” remarked Charlie, “but I still don’t know how to throw a punch very well. I always feel awkward.”
“Same,” said Mac. “I bet we can teach ourselves, though.” While they were resting up, he pulled up some videos on self-defense and martial arts, thinking that if they just learned some key moves it would help. After watching several videos, they started practicing techniques.
On the other side of the room Mrs. Wilde skimmed through the day’s footage, finding nothing of note, then held the dragonfly poised on the ceiling grate for an opportunity to alert Mr. Wilde to its presence above them.
Meanwhile, Mac activated his device. “Try punching me,” he said to the girls. “It won’t hurt.” The girls practiced throwing punches like they’d just learned. Once they figured out punching, they moved to doing kicks on Mac.
When they grew tired, Charlie offered the same opportunity to Mac, so he could get some basic training in too.
“What? No! I can’t punch you,” Mac said.
“Don’t be silly,” said Charlie. “I’ll work on blocking your punches. And if you accidentally hurt me, the pain won’t last long. I’ll heal right away.”
“Are you sure?” asked Mac, looking skeptical. “My mom would kill me if she heard I punched my friend.”
“We won’t tell her. Besides, you need to practice too.”
Finally Charlie convinced Mac to fight her. He worked on his punches and kicks, with Charlie trying to block them. Slowly but surely they were learning how to use their devices and their fighting skills like experts.
When Mac unintentionally landed a well-placed punch to Charlie’s jaw, knocking her to the floor, Maria gasped. Mrs. Wilde looked up from the drone controls, then jumped to her feet, upsetting the laptop, and ran over to make sure Charlie was okay.
The dragonfly teetered on the edge of the ceiling vent grate, then it fell through and plopped onto Mr. Wilde’s workstation, directly in front of him.