Hotwire

that something was about to happen. I couldn’texplain it, but I knew it.

“Hold it—he’s exiting the home. I’m on histail. Ace, take me out of the com grid. Going radio silent. Contactme only if there’s an emergency.” With that, his line wentdead.

I waited for a snarky comment from Halluis,but there was nothing. I breathed out slowly. The moment of truth.If Jericho was really just on his way to a date, the night would bewasted, and I’d have no more information going in to the school onMonday than I did right now. And that would not be good. I reallyneeded something to go on.

It felt like an eternity of waiting, but itwas only twenty minutes later that a hint of movement caught myattention. I whipped my head toward it, focusing my green pool ofvision on the shape—it was a man, a kid really, walking silentlydown the street toward the Mercedes.

I pushed up higher on my elbows, the snowcrunching under my coat.

“You see something, Christy?” Ace asked.

I shifted the goggles and whispered,“There’s someone approaching the Mercedes. Is it Jericho?”

I heard some tapping over the line, probablyAce performing some kind of analysis on the feed from my goggles.“That’s a negative. But it is one of our tagged suspects. MikadoKawaguchi, another student at the school. This could be good.”

I held my breath and watched thekid—Mikado—nonchalantly pass right by the car. I sighed,disappointed, until I noticed he was slowing down. He stopped at astreet lamp about ten feet away from the car and just stood there,standing almost inhumanly still. His straight, chin-length hairhung loose around his face, and he was wearing dark clothing. Thedarkened street lights, and now this suspicious behavior—it waslooking good for the car being a target at least.

Five minutes after midnight, Mikado shiftedslightly, straightening his shoulders in anticipation.

“Incoming,” Ace said. “On your ten.”

I turned my head farther to the left, up thestreet from where Mikado stood, and saw another kid approach thedarkened street lamp.

“Positive ID,” Ace’s voice chirped in myear. “It’s Jericho.”

Yes. I celebrated inwardly. Finally,the break we needed!

He walked up to Mikado, and I could tellthey were talking, though I couldn’t hear what they were saying.Jericho slapped Mikado on the back, and Mikado nodded, then theyapproached the Mercedes. I watched, nearly in awe, as they expertlybroke past its defenses. All it took was a roll of sticky filmslapped on the driver’s side window, a computer, a blank key, and aGPS jammer, and in three minutes flat they were inside. Even Icouldn’t do that.

“I can’t believe it. The kid was right.”Halluis’s flippant tone was back.

“Hey, that’s Wonder Kid to you. Show somerespect.”

“I’m activating the tracker now. See you atthe van.”

“I’ll expect some humble words of apologywhen you get there.”

Halluis snorted. “Not likely.”

I let the night vision goggles fall aroundmy neck and watched the lights of the Mercedes as it sped away down69^th Street and skidded onto 5^th Ave. Theheadlights shone right at my position for a few quick secondsbefore darkness descended on me once again.

“Tracker activated,” Halluis said. “Thosekids are fast.”

“We’ve got them on the screen,” Ace said.“Their days of stealing cars are numbered. Great job, Christy. Wefinally got a break in this case, and it’s all thanks to you.”

“Now, that’s what I like to hear,” I said asI climbed out from under the bushes and stretched before brushingoff the snow from the front of my jeans and jacket. After liftingoff the goggles and depositing them into my go bag, I pulled out aRitter Sport mint chocolate bar and took a big bite beforedepositing it back into the pack. The chocolate melted slowly in mymouth, and I savored the rich flavor in celebration. I looked backdown 69^th street and then out at the sprawling black pitthat was Central Park at night before jogging to Park Avenue tojoin Ace and Halluis in the van.

I beat Halluis there.

“Shotgun!” I cried as I pulled the doorshut, the slow beep of a tracker sounding in the background. Once Isat down, I flipped the heater on full blast to clear the frostedwindshield. I rubbed my hands together and held them in the warmblast. “In fact, I think I get shotgun for life—what with me beingtotally right, and you two being totally wrong.”

Ace didn’t respond. I glanced back at himand saw that his brow was furrowed and he was staring intently atthe screen. It was only then that I noticed that the beeping hadstopped.

“I don’t get it,” he said, brushing his handthrough his shaggy blond hair. “The tracker stopped working.”

“What?” I said, climbing into the back tolook at the monitor, too. Sure enough, the tracker was dead, and wewere no longer tracking the Mercedes. Sirens wailed in thebackground.

Halluis crashed into the front passengerseat yelling out, “Shotgun!” as he did.

“I already claimed it, you dork. What tookyou so long?” I made a face at him.

“I’m not as young and sprightly as you, mylittle chicken. The real question is why is this van still so cold?Have we decided to start selling ice cream?”

We didn’t answer, but Ace asked, “Any waythat tracker wasn’t secure, Hal?”

“No. It was totally secure, as all my bugsare. Why?”

“We lost the signal. I thought maybe it felloff the car.” Ace bit the corner of his lip as he looked at thescreen. I leaned back against the van wall and exhaled loudly.

“I can’t believe we lost it. It would havedone so much for us if we could find out where they’re taking thecars.” I pulled my knees up to my chest and hugged them.

“It was secure. They must have found it anddisabled it,” Halluis said, looking at the monitor.

“They must be actively looking for bugs,then. I’m going to have to step up my game.” Ace rubbed his handsover his face, obviously angry with himself for losing thetracker.

I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s all right. Imean, it’s not great I know, but we’ve now identified two of thethieves. I can get in with them, learn how the operation works, andget to the cars that way. We’ll find our target in no time, you’llsee. Where’s Jeremy, shouldn’t he be back