“Huh,” Ashton grunted. “That’s not good.”
“It didn’t feel good, either,” Smith vouched.
“I’ll bet, pal. Why are both of ‘em sorta attached to the power?” Ashton wondered.
“Oh, that,” Armbrand said, pointing at the various components. “Alan thought it would be easier and faster to detach everything but the timer part of the package, then install a new charger around it. Since the timer had to stay connected, the system wasn’t quite as modular as it oughta be, so...”
“Oh, okay, I see now,” Ashton decided, studying the setup as Armbrand explained. “Well, shit. Hang on.”
Ashton ‘checked out,’ developing a blank expression, and the others realized he was in VR. After a few moments he came back to reality.
“Okay, I’ve notified Lee what’s happened,” he said. “He’s going to come rushing over here like any concerned homeowner would, to see what’s going on – but he’ll swing by the car dealership and pick up another charger first, and once he gets here with it, we’ll install it...but we’ll keep a closer eye on the radar-sat weather maps, and allow a little more leeway for the lightning. According to what I’ve been seeing, the meteorologists have been expecting this storm system to die back for the last three days as it swept inland, but the feeder bands just keep on developing new storms.”
“That matches what I’ve been seeing,” Mott agreed. “I’ve been trying to watch out for alla that shit in VR, but I can only handle so many channels at once.”
“It’s okay, Adrian. You done good, and kept us from having this happen sooner. How long you think it’ll take to put in a new charger, Nick?” Armbrand wondered.
“Shouldn’t take too long; the charger itself looks to be the only thing damaged.” Ashton shrugged.
“Other than Alan and Johnny,” Armbrand sighed.
“Yeah,” Ashton agreed, as they all slumped in discouragement and worry for their friend and colleague.
Director Carter showed up at his house fifteen minutes later, agitated and upset. And he didn’t have to act much to do it, either. Fortunately the ‘sentry’ couldn’t tell that.
Brandt watched as he parked in the driveway before the front door, and entered through the front of the house, carrying some sort of small attaché. By this time, the latest rain shower had finally stopped and Brandt was soaked to the skin and dripping as if he’d just emerged from a pool, but he doggedly stuck it out, surveilling the premises.
Inside the house and out of sight of Brandt, Carter detoured into the garage.
“How’s Smith?” he wondered immediately.
“I’m okay, Director Carter,” Smith said. The others had righted his stool, and Smith now rested on it in the corner, leaning back against the wall. He still looked a little too pale, and his voice was slightly shaky and weak, but he held a bottle of water from which he was sipping, and seemed reasonably alert to Carter.
“Good,” Carter said, a bit gruff. “I sent Maia over to the hospital to see about Alan. She was pretty upset. It didn’t do me any favors, for that matter.”
“I can imagine,” Ashton said. “None of us is too happy, either. Any word?”
“No, not yet.”
“All right, I guess we wait on that. Did you grab another charger, Lee?”
“Right here.” Carter held up the small valise he carried. “I went by the parts store on my way. I gather Alan was the electronics guru?”
“Yup,” Armbrand sighed. “I’m not sure what to do now.”
“I do. Okay, Nick, sit down here with me and let’s you and me finish this.”
“No, no, no,” Armbrand protested. “You two are the main guys these jerks are after. We’re not letting you two get zapped trying to undo what they did.”
“Look, son,” Carter said, turning to the younger man. “First off, I checked the weather readings while I was headed up the driveway, and I even pinged the local weather office, using my authority as the Imperial Police Director to get a bit of info. They estimate we have a break of around forty-five minutes, give or take, before the next line of storms arrives, maybe a little more. That’s time enough to do this, even with the way Nick told me you were doing it – and I understand why you were doing it that way, and it makes sense. Two, I know how to install one of these. Three, if we don’t have a way to charge our car overnight, it’s a dead giveaway to the ‘oldies’ who are after us that we’ve uninstalled the charger they booby-trapped, and they’ll just come in and do it to something else...or worse, go off on another plan that we might not know about, next time. At least, not in time.”
“C’mon, Lee, let’s go,” Nick said. “Guys, if you’re worried, just stay back and let us use the tools. We can have this done pretty quick, I think.”
“It’s not ourselves we’re worried about, Nick!” Armbrand pointed out.
“I know, but if we go now, we have a chance to get this done,” Carter argued.
“Alan said it was a slow go,” Mott noted.
“It may be,” Carter responded. “But it has to be done. So let’s get to it.”
“I’m here,” Smith said, scooting the stool over to the workspace. “Let’s finish, guys.”
“That’s the spirit!” Carter said, encouraging. “Smith, son, if you’ll get the tools organized for us – Armbrand, you help him, so he doesn’t overdo – while Nick and I have a look at the situation...”
It was nearly an hour later when they finally got the new charger installed...around the timer on the old charger, the way Compton had wanted. Right as they laid down their tools, a distant rumble of thunder announced itself.
“Just in time,” Mott determined. “I’ve
