They looked around...
...And spotted the familiar body lying against the far wall.
“OH, DAMN!” Armbrand cried, and ran to their fallen comrade. Mott, supporting a wobbly Smith, was close behind. Armbrand dropped to his knees beside a very still, pale Compton, and reached for his throat, looking for a pulse. “Shit shit shit! He’s flatlined on pulse and respiration, both! Adrian, call the paramedics, then help me start CPR. Johnny, sit tight – literally, just sit down and stay put – but see if you can reach Alan in VR and activate his nanites. Otherwise, we may lose him.”
“Done,” Smith and Mott replied in unison.
Across the yard and in the adjacent lot, Pete Brandt watched in amazement as the Carter house seemed to abruptly and briefly light up from within, just as a titanic thunderbolt shook the very ground on which he stood. Brandt flinched badly and instinctively ducked down, crouching as low as he could get between the cubes of brick.
“Shit,” he murmured. “That hit awful damn close! And ran in on some of the systems, by the look of things. Damn, I hope the place don’t burn down and ruin all our hard work.”
Within a couple of minutes, several emergency units arrived at the Carters’ gate. These included police, an ambulance, and a paramedic truck, but did not include a fire suppression truck, somewhat to Brandt’s relief.
He eased over between the cubes of brick until he was as close as he could manage to the front of the targeted house without being seen, and listened closely to the voices drifting on the breeze.
“...So yeah,” the Harcourt Plumbing repair man told the cop, as the emergency medical attendants brought out a gurney through the front door; another man was strapped to it. “My partner was in the back of the van when I drove in, preppin’ our tools an’ shit like usual. So we went in through the garage and headed to the second floor, where th’ problem was, and started in. House owner already knew where th’ leak was, pretty close anyhow, so we were able to zero in on it quick. Then we turned off the water for th’ bathroom an’ set to work. It was all goin’ fine, an’ we were gettin’ the leak under control when that damn lightning strike hit, an’ ran in on everything in the house! Alan there got caught in it, ‘cause he was all wet from sloppin’ around in the leakin’ area, an’ it nailed him but good.”
“Damn,” the cop said, seeming shocked. “You s’pose he’ll make it?”
“Dunno,” the repair man said, becoming morose. “I sure as hell hope so. He’s a buddy, ya know?”
“Yup, I totally understand,” the cop replied, then turned to the nearest paramedic, who was right behind her patient. “How’s it look?”
“Hard to say yet,” the paramedic replied. “His partner got him rebooted, and he’s breathing, with a heartbeat, but it’s pretty irregular. We’ll get him to the nearest hospital as fast as we can go.”
“So he’s not… you know, dead?”
“Not yet.”
Brandt watched the ambulance leave with its patient, along with the paramedic truck, right behind. The cop, unsurprisingly, went back into the house with the plumber; from long association with various cops, Brandt knew he’d have to see the scene of the accident, make sure it really was an accident, and file a report on it.
That’s not good, he thought. I hope he doesn’t go out into the garage and look around. But chances are, he wouldn’t see anything if he did. Me an’ Joe did a damn good job tuckin’ those packages outta sight. I’m just bein’ antsy.
He settled down under the nearest tree as the rain started up again, intent on waiting to see what happened when the police officer emerged from the Carter house.
The cop followed the repair man into the house. Once out of sight from the outside, the repair man – Mott, still in disguise – promptly turned and headed through the garage door. The cop followed.
When they reached the garage, the police officer knelt beside Smith, who was now sitting on the floor again – after having hidden in the back of the van, alongside Armbrand, while the paramedics worked – and still a little too pale.
“Hey, Johnny,” he said familiarly. “You doing okay? Adrian told me you got zapped a little bit, too.”
“I’m not too bad, Nick,” Smith said, voice weak. “I was just sitting too close. I’ll be okay in a little while.” He pointed at the overturned stool on which he’d been sitting; the adjacent stool, also overturned, had a few mild scorch marks. He waved at it. “That one’s where Alan was sitting.”
“Damn,” Ashton said, concerned.
“Listen, Nick, I’m sure glad you were handy and close,” Mott said. “That enabled us to get Alan to medical help and still keep the guy out there believing what we want him to believe.”
“Sure, and no problem, guys,” Ashton – who was the ‘beat cop on the scene’ – said. “I deliberately spent most of the day at the precinct nearby, in case you guys needed help of some sort. It was a piece of cake to throw on my uniform, remove a pip on each side of my collar, and come straight out. I coded the precinct car and hit emergency speeds on the way, so it didn’t take long. Listen, did Alan manage to get the thing finished before the storm zapped things?”
“No, not quite, but I think that’s a moot point right now, Nick,” Armbrand said. “Lookit the replacement charger.”
The box of said charger had slagged; it was now nothing more than a semi-molten blob of plastics, metals, and various other formerly electronic components. What it was not any longer was a functional charger. Nearby, the old charger lay completely unconnected except for the timer
