Grayson pointed a finger gun at Garth and pulled the trigger. “Exactly, my good man!”
“Huh?” I grunted.
Garth’s bloodshot eyes aimed in my direction. “You remember. That kid used a trail of Reese’s Pieces to get ET to follow him home. And then ET tried to phone home with that contraption he made out of toys.”
Dear God! Have I had a stroke?
Grayson sighed thoughtfully, his gaze skyward. “A truly inspired movie, if you ask me.”
Garth nodded violently, like a head-banging Queen fan. “Totally!”
I fought in vain against a sudden attack of involuntary eye roll. “Uh ... sorry to burst your space bubbles, dudes, but I’ve got a feeling it’s gonna take a lot more than a bag of Halloween candy and a souped-up Speak & Spell to entice alien life forms into this ratty old RV.”
Grayson rubbed his chin. “Of course it is, Drex. That’s why I plan to supplement the trail of Reese’s Pieces with induction coils.”
Something inside me broke. I think it was whatever little hope I had left for the future.
I smiled weakly, resigning myself to my fate. “Oh, sure. I mean, there’s not an alien out there who can resist a tasty induction coil.”
Garth snickered and shot Grayson another knowing glance.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
Grayson locked his green eyes on mine. “Drex, it’s not the coils’ flavor they’ll be enticed by. It’s the frequency the coils will be emitting.”
Oh. Well that explains everything.
NOT!
I slapped on a studious look and tried to focus. Whatever those two science jerks were talking about, I had a feeling understanding it might come in handy soon for my ongoing survival.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m afraid I need a little bit more of an explanation.”
“Let me make it easier for you,” Grayson said.
He held up a black plastic box the size of a juice box. I recognized it as that stupid bug sweeper gizmo I’d found the other day under the passenger seat.
“During our expedition last night, I used the EMF detector to measure the magnetic frequency fluctuations being emitted by the alien craft.”
Not exactly a sentence I thought I’d hear in my lifetime, but okay...
I smiled weakly. “Well, um ... well done!”
Grayson nodded. “Thank you.”
“But Grayson, I thought that thing in your hand was a bug sweeper.”
He smiled. “It is. This morning, I’m going to recreate those identical magnetic fluctuation patterns electronically, then retrofit this bug sweeper to serve as a transmitting coil.” He smiled at the black gizmo. “This little baby is going to become a beacon, transmitting the identical electromagnetic signature as the alien craft.”
I cringed with confusion. “Wait. I thought you said you were going to use induction coils, not transmitting coils.”
Grayson’s cheek dimpled. “Right again. I did. You see, by embedding induction coils into the back room of the RV, we can use them to pick up the bug sweeper’s transmissions and amplify the signal for a broader reach—all while keeping the homing source localized to the back bedroom, or what you’ve so eloquently dubbed, ‘the monster trap.’”
Geez. If that’s the dumbed-down version, I’m a goner.
“Uh ... okay,” I said.
Garth snickered. “Mr. Gray, it looks like your ETs are about to phone the wrong home!”
Grayson’s eyes twinkled. “Exactly! And when they do, all we’ll need to do then is entice them into the trap and slam the door shut on them!”
A sinking feeling came over me. I raised a finger. “Let me guess. That’s where the Reese’s Pieces come in?”
Grayson grinned. “Precisely!”
I shook my head.
All right, Universe. All we need now is a good extinction event.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“This is the last one,” I said, putting a dab of glue on the only remaining induction coil.
I’d been surprised at how tiny they were—no larger than half a c-volt battery. Still, according to Grayson, they were supposed to be able to amplify electronic transmissions all the way to the ozone layer.
I pressed the coil onto the baseboard behind the nightstand in the back bedroom and held it for sixty seconds. “There. All done.”
I heaved myself up of the floor. As I moved the nightstand back in place, my mind flashed to the mysterious folder labeled Experiment #5. It was right there—in that drawer—mere inches from my hand. But with Grayson in the room with me, it was as out of reach as if it had been on Mars.
Hot bodies. Is Grayson a perv?
I glanced over at my partner. He was sitting on the bed, happily filling a Mason jar with Reese’s Pieces. I shook my head.
What am I supposed to do with that information?
I took a deep breath and carried on with my life like a hapless victim of Stockholm Syndrome. “So, how do these induction coils work?” I asked.
Grayson looked up from the jar brimming with pill-shaped, bright yellow, orange and brown candies. “By taking advantage of the Earth’s natural electromagnetic field.”
“You mean like radio waves?”
Grayson set the jar full of Reese’s Pieces on the nightstand. “Same principle, different medium.”
I nodded. “Wow. There must be a lot of technology packed inside those tiny little coils.”
“Not really.”
Grayson clamped a chip-clip on the open end of the industrial-sized bag of Reese’s Pieces. “An induction coil is really nothing more than a core of metal with wires wrapped around it. The Earth’s molten core means it’s one big induction coil itself, radiating electromagnetic energy. We’re just tapping into the motherlode, if you will.”
I forced a smile. I still didn’t quite get the technical mumbo-jumbo, but I guess it didn’t matter. It was only my lousy life at stake.
“Uh, Grayson—”
“I talked to Sherman, Mr. Gray,” Garth said, poking his head into the room. “He’s prepared the digital oscillator as you requested.”
“Excellent.” Grayson rubbed his hands together. “We just finished up in here. Drex, do you want to come along?”
“Uh ... gee, thanks,” I said. “But I just reached my nerd quotient for the day. Besides, Earl may need help installing the water pump. I used to be a mechanic, remember?”
Garth stared at me with what I assumed was
