Page 64 of One Knight Stand

“Guys, I know this sounds crazy, but I don’t have any other options.”

“Actually,” Mike said as he rose from his cross-legged position on the floor, “We might.”

I looked at him in surprise as he headed to the back door. “Jax, if you and Bo would help me, I have some things to bring in from my car. I’ll explain when we get back.”

After the guys left, I turned to the others. “Does anyone know what’s going on?”

No one replied, so we waited until the guys returned, each carrying a large black canvas bag. They set the bags in the middle of the floor, and Jax and Bo returned to their seats.

Mike stood next to me. “So, you’re probably wondering what’s in the bags,” he said. “Before we left the hotel—when it was clear we were going to be involved in something—I figured it might be worthwhile to get my hands on a few items that could potentially help us. I called up Professor Pérez and asked him if I could borrow some of the training equipment while the school was closed, so I could experiment with ways to improve it.”

“Professor Pérez from our MacGyver class?” Frankie asked.

“The one and only. We’ve only been at UTOP for a couple of weeks, but Professor Pérez and I really hit it off. He was born in the same town in Mexico as my grandparents, and I’ve helped him fix a couple of electronic items he was working on. Anyway, I’ve been pestering him about letting me review more of the school equipment and offer suggestions as to how he could improve efficacy and reach. I think he was afraid I’d bug him nonstop over our week off, so he let me take some of the equipment to work on. Of course, I promised him I’d return everything in perfect condition.”

Bo swept his hand over the bags incredulously. “He let you borrow three bags full of equipment?”

“Hey, a week is a long time,” Mike said.

I didn’t know why Professor Pérez had let him have the stuff, and I didn’t really care. I was just eternally grateful he had. “That’s fantastic, Mike. Do you have anything in those bags that will help us get into Remington’s house?”

“Even better.” He reached into one of the bags and pulled out a one-foot-square case and held it up. “I have two of the latest laser microphones that are so sensitive you can hear through walls. If we know what room Remington is in, we can monitor his conversation from outside the house.”

“Wow.” I could picture where in the course handbook the laser mic was described, but I couldn’t recall any of the specifications.

“Cool for sure, but it’s not that easy,” Jax said. “For optimum performance, you must be level with the target or else too much of the laser signal gets reflected and won’t provide acceptable sound quality. That means the laser mic will work only if Remington stays on the first floor. What if he goes upstairs or downstairs to answer and/or talk on the phone?”

“Hey, I didn’t claim this was a perfect solution, but it’s a lower-risk option than Angel breaking into his house,” Mike said.

I put my hand on Mike’s shoulder. “It’s an excellent idea, Mike. Thank you. What else do you have in your bags of tricks? Maybe there’s something else we could use in addition to the mics.”

He seemed mollified by my response. “Well, there are several different miniaturized listening devices, a black light for detecting blood spatters, and a couple of signal jammers—one that’s designed to interrupt cell signals, and the other allows localized spoofing of GPS signals.”

He pointed at the bag nearest Jax’s leg. “That bag has a collapsible, nonlethal sonic rifle that will generally incapacitate someone within thirty yards for about a minute, although with some adjustments, I’m pretty sure I could stretch the incapacitation time to a minute and a half. That means we could take down Remington with this if he pulled a gun on us, but that would have to be a serious last resort. I’ve also got a couple of the chemical fire fuses that they demonstrated in class last week.”

He reached into the canvas bag nearest Bo and pulled out a large, very dark cloth that seemed to absorb the light that tried reflect from it. “But this baby takes the cake. Get ready to have your mind blown. Professor Pérez lent me a piece of black silicon.”

“What?” I exclaimed. “No way.”

“Way,” Mike said grinning.

“The Klingon cloaking device,” Wally said in a hushed voice, coming over to touch the cloth reverently. “Confirmed. Mind blown.”

“It’s not the Klingon cloaking device, Wally,” I corrected, also stroking the cloth. “It’s the Harry Potter cloak of invisibility.”

“Actually, guys, it’s neither,” Mike interjected. “But it would provide a shield against any infrared sensors and allow us to get closer to the house using the laser mic without being observed by Remington’s security camera’s nighttime mode.”

“So, exactly how close do we have to be to the house if Remington takes the call on the first floor?” Kira asked.

“Under ideal conditions, the mic can work up to one hundred meters,” Mike responded. “That should be more than we need.” He looked around at the team. “So, guys, what do you think? Do we have enough equipment and experience to help Angel hear that conversation tonight?”

I held my breath as, one by one, the team nodded. I closed my eyes as relief swept through me.

Jax stood up. “Okay, it’s settled, then. I recommend we run a test on the farmhouse to become familiar with the mic and its quirks and limitations. As Angel said, we’ll probably only get one shot at this.”

Mike stood up, rubbing his hands together. “This just keeps getting better and better. Since, I know the system best, I’ll show you guys how to use it. There are special headphones that come with the system to minimize other noise pollution and increase the clarity of sound. There’s a recording feature, too. Whoever will be using this needs to be sure to know how to use that feature, since we can enhance the sound recording later if there’s something we don’t understand.”

It was great to see activity and energy when fifteen minutes ago we were out of options and ideas, except for my suggestion to break into the house.

---