Chapter 78
Mark had endured just about enough of the girls’ overly cautious thinking. After all, they had worked for almost three weeks to develop a microchip version of the quantum twin device, and it had tested out perfectly. The thing was a masterpiece.
It looked exactly like a wide variety of small multifunction chips common in TV remote controls, cell phones, and computers. Countless numbers of electronics used this chip type. And this one didn’t have to be directly inserted into any circuitry. It worked by Faraday's principal of induction, picking up the faint signals from nearby circuitry. Of course, its quantum twin also picked up the same signal with no communications between them.
Even better, a signal could be injected into the quantum twin, and that signal would be propagated to the remote device where the other chip had been placed. It allowed for two-way communications.
There was nothing new about any of this. They had long since modified their own cell phones to have a QT mode, which let Mark, Heather, and Jennifer talk with complete security. What was so exciting about the tiny version was that they could place a bug in someone else's electronics that was completely undetectable unless a person happened to open the electronics and had enough knowledge to spot the extra microchip stuck to the circuit board.
Even though they could now hack into any system through their subspace transmitter, that system was bulky. Worse yet, it required them to specify the exact coordinates of the system where they wanted the subspace tap to occur. If someone was moving the equipment around, like a cell phone, then that just didn’t work.
What annoyed Mark most was the two girls refusing to accept his plan to plant one of the new QTs on one of Jack’s or Janet’s devices. When he had mentioned it, Jennifer’s mouth had dropped open wide enough to swallow an orange.
“Mark, are you insane? You’re not talking about any Tom, Dick, or Harry here. Those two are intelligence agents.”
“Jen’s right,” said Heather. “There are too many things that could go wrong. We can’t risk it.”
Mark had argued with them, pointing out that without being able to monitor Jack or Janet, they were flying blind. And hadn’t Jack hidden bugs in both the McFarland and Smythe houses?
But the girls refused to cooperate. They had outvoted him, two to one. The subject was closed.
For two weeks, Mark had chaffed under the yoke of the girls’ decision, but no more. At least he could stop by the Johnson house after school on the pretense of asking about homework. No doubt Janet would just think he was there because he thought she was hot.
Well, that was true. But it still provided a good excuse to get inside the house. Then he’d just have to see if the opportunity to plant the QT presented itself.
As Mark approached the street with the Johnson house, he saw Janet’s car pull out of the driveway and head down the street in the opposite direction. Mark stopped, found a secluded spot to secure his bike, and walked up to the house on foot, a new plan forming in his mind.
Skirting around into the backyard, Mark glanced up to the second-story windows. As he had hoped, one of them remained open, just a crack to let the air in. Apparently, Janet did not plan on being gone for long.
Measuring the distance to the windowsill, Mark jumped, his hand just catching the edge. With a quick pull, he lifted his entire body, holding himself in place with one hand as he lifted the window with the other. Within seconds, he was inside.
His eyes swept the bedroom, but he did not linger. Mark needed to quickly find something they used, plant the bug, and get the hell out. He moved down the hallway, past the stairway leading down to the den, past the bathroom, to the spot where a rope dangled down from the trapdoor to the attic. Mark glanced up, then moved past it to the door at the far end of the hall. The door stood open and led to a room with a desk covered with school papers and a laptop, the screen saver busily constructing a network of multicolored 3D pipes. Bingo.
Moving quickly, Mark flipped the laptop up onto its side, extracted the set of tiny electronic screwdrivers from his pocket, picked a small Phillips head, and began removing a single screw.
Within seconds he had removed the small panel allowing access to the circuit board and memory cards. Picking a spot directly adjacent to the central processing unit, Mark retrieved the QT chip from his pocket, added a tiny drop of superglue, and pressed it into place, holding it just long enough for the adhesive on the back side to take hold.
As he finished replacing the cover and spun the screw tight, he heard the front door open.
Shit.
Mark set the computer back in its spot on the desk, grabbed his tools, and moving as quietly as possible, left the room. As Mark moved down the hallway, he spotted Janet’s head in the den. Ducking back from the spot where the stairway opened to the room below, he barely avoided being seen. Making it down the hallway to the bedroom and the window he had entered was impossible without being spotted.
Mark moved back to the spot where the rope dangled down from the attic. Holding his breath, praying that it would open silently, Mark pulled on the cord.
For once his luck was good. The hatch opened, soundlessly lowering the steps leading up into the dark opening above. Mark climbed up and pulled the hatch closed behind him. As he glanced around, he found the small room cluttered with sophisticated-looking electronic gear. Unfortunately, it did not have the one thing he was looking for: another way out.
The sound of footsteps on the stairway ended his perusal of his surroundings. Janet passed through the hall below him heading directly for the office. Through a small crack where the trapdoor closed, Mark could just make out her lithe form.
Suddenly she stopped, staring directly at the laptop computer. As Mark watched, a new horror dawned in his mind.
Damn it. He had forgotten. When he touched the laptop, the screen saver had stopped, leaving the secure login screen in its place. The timeout on that screen had not expired, so the screen saver had not yet restarted. And as she did with everything around her, Janet had noticed.