“It’s all good. I’ll talk to you later,” Cindy said and hung up.
◊◊◊
I walked into lunch to find Gina glaring at Wolf. What now?
“Aren’t we supposed to be all open and crap with girls?”
I snorted as I sat down.
“Yes, the first sign of a good relationship is being open
“What are you two fighting about now?” I asked.
“Gina is trying to give me relationship advice,” Wolf said, as if that explained it.
I just raised one eyebrow and let it go.
Tim joined us and pulled out his phone.
“You have to see the video of Wolf’s cat, Misery,” he said as he played me the clip.
Wolf had taken one of Bandit and Precious’s kittens because he wanted a ‘guard cat.’ The problem was the one he got turned out to be a complete klutz and scared of his own shadow.
The video showed his cat on the kitchen table. It suddenly leaped to the counter where it slid and knocked off the toaster as it tumbled out of sight over the other edge. You heard Wolf’s mom say a bad word when she saw the damage.
“Misery?” Gina asked. “Why would you name a cat Misery?”
Wolf shrugged.
“Because he loves company.”
A collective groan arose from the table. That only encouraged my friend.
“I’m going to break up with Sarah,” Wolf announced.
“Why would you do that? You can’t do any better than her,” I advised him.
“I’m not sure if that was a compliment or a backhanded slam,” Gina said.
“Slam,” Dare chimed in.
“Valentine’s Day is a week away, and he doesn’t want to spend money on her,” Tim reasoned.
“He is a cheap bastard,” Gina offered.
“Bite me, Princess,” Wolf said to Gina.
“When did Wolf and Gina start dating?” I asked Tim, who busted out laughing.
Both Wolf and Gina glared at me.
“Tell me it’s not just me. You all see it, don’t you?” I asked.
“That they bicker like an old married couple?” Tim asked, volunteering to be my straight man.
“Exactly!” I spouted with a wide grin.
“So, Dare, tell us about your new drones,” Gina said to change the subject.
Tim and I both rolled our eyes when we noticed that Wolf looked at her, relieved that she’d gotten us off the topic. Dare was off describing his newest invention.
“David posed an interesting scenario for his security drones. I programmed them to recognize movement and go investigate. David suggested that he would fool them by throwing something to attract their attention and then sneak in once the drone left its designated area. So, I called Hunter, and he had some ideas,” Dare shared.
“Who’s Hunter?” Tim asked.
“He’s this older guy who helps Dare out,” I supplied to keep the kid on task.
I’d noticed that Hunter had been the catalyst for several of Dare’s ideas. He seemed to turn up when Dare got stuck. I would have to investigate that more at some point.
“Hunter suggested I create what he called a ‘flock of drones.’ It’s a group of drones with one that helps control the others. He also suggested that I not rely solely on a Wi-Fi connection to the drones. Hunter said that if someone wanted to break in or cause harm, they would figure out how to jam the signals that control them. It’s how some military drones have been taken down in the past.
“His solution was programming them to continue on task if jammed and to communicate with each other via lasers,” Dare explained.
I blinked a few times because this suddenly started to sound expensive.
“How much is all this costing me?” I asked.
Dare looked at me sheepishly.
“Not too much more than I originally told you,” he said, and then sat up a little straighter. “Megan approved it and gave me the bitcoins to buy everything.”
At first, I was shocked because Megan wouldn’t just cave to Dare’s begging for money. She stood up to all the people with their hands out for charities and the like. If she didn’t open up the bank for starving puppies, she wouldn’t hesitate to shut Dare down. He must have made a rational case for her to approve the expenditures.
Then I had another concern. Dare had mentioned bitcoins.
“Did you buy more stuff from the Russians or Chinese?” I asked.
“Hunter suggested the Russians,” Dare admitted.
I had visions of someone from the government showing up because Dare had purchased classified military-grade materials and technology. What he was describing had far-reaching implications. I envisioned a flock of drones attacking a military base. Even if the military jammed them, the drones would continue on target.
I would need to talk to someone about all this. The programming alone had to be something that shouldn’t be floating around in my backyard.
“I think I better see all this and maybe have a talk with Hunter,” I said to Dare.
“They’re not ready yet. Give me till the weekend,” he said as the bell rang.
Yep, Darius and I needed to talk.
◊◊◊
During after-school workouts, Cassidy held up my phone. I put her in charge of it so I wouldn’t get distracted while I exercised. Joey was currently torturing me on the rowing machine.
“It’s Magic. Do you want to take it?” she asked as she pulled it away from her ear and looked at me with a question on her face.
