Nick and Tesla's Solar-Powered Showdown

by Bob Pflugfelder

  Nick put a hand on her shoulder. She looked at her brother and gave him a stiff “I’m all right” nod. The trembling stopped.

  “They knew you were?” Uncle Newt said, reading over Tesla’s shoulder. “Does that mean anything to you two?”

  “Not by itself,” Tesla said. “I think Mom started a message she didn’t have time to finish.”

  She glanced over again at Nick. His widened eyes told her that she didn’t have to tell him what she was thinking. He was thinking the same thing.

  Their mother had been there. She’d been there that day. They’d missed her by hours … perhaps mere minutes. And as she’d been forced to leave, she’d tried to leave her children a message … and a warning.

  THEY KNEW YOU WERE COMING

  Uncle Newt seemed to figure out what the message on the Post-it really meant about two seconds after his niece and nephew.

  “Uhh, kids … I think we should go,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at the impenetrable black shadows at the far corners of the parking lot. “Now.”

  He didn’t really need to add the “Now.”

  Nick and Tesla were already running.

  “Do you think the house is bugged?” Tesla shouted at her brother.

  They were on the interstate headed back to Half Moon Bay, and once again the cool night air whipping past the roofless Newtmobile created a deafening roar.

  “What?!” Nick shouted back.

  “DO YOU THINK THE HOUSE IS BUGGED?!”

  Nick pointed to his ears and shrugged.

  “I think she’s asking if you drink from the mouse’s jug!” Uncle Newt hollered from the driver’s seat. “Whatever that means.”

  “What?” Nick said again.

  “Do you drink from the mouse’s jug?” Uncle Newt yelled.

  “I don’t understand!”

  “NEVER MIND!” Tesla roared.

  No one spoke for the next half mile. Then Nick elbowed his sister in the ribs.

  “Hey,” he said, “do you think the house is bugged?”

  “What?” said Tesla.

  The second that Uncle Newt pulled off the interstate onto the last stretch of winding road leading home, the roar of the wind died down to a mild whoosh. Nick and Tesla turned to each other.

  “Do you think the house is bugged?” they said in unison.

  “Jinx!” Uncle Newt said. He counted quickly from one to ten and then said, “One of you owes me a Coke.”

  “What are you talking about?” said Tesla.

  Uncle Newt blinked at his niece and nephew in the rearview mirror. “Don’t you know that game?”

  “What game?” said Nick.

  “Oh. Well,” said Uncle Newt, “never mind.”

  He returned to concentrating on the darkened road ahead.

  “Anyway,” Tesla said to her brother, “how do you think they knew we were coming?”

  “I don’t know. There’s all kinds of ways they could be keeping track of us. Spies. Homing devices. Satellites. Hacking into … of course!” Nick slapped his own forehead. “I’m an idiot!”

  “Only occasionally,” said Tesla. “There’s no need to beat yourself up for it.”

  “Tez—think about it! Where did we do the research that led us to that office? How did we find out where it was?”

  “On the—oh … I get it!”

  Tesla gave her brother a glare that communicated that he had her permission to slap himself in the head again.

  “Are you saying the laptop’s been hacked?” Uncle Newt asked.

  “I opened a weird e-mail yesterday,” Nick said sheepishly. “At first, it seemed like it was about Mom and Dad. Then we thought it was spam. But now—”

  “It was spyware,” Tesla said. “Which usually means some company or crook is trying to invade your privacy and steal your data. But in our case, it was sent by real spies!”

  Nick sank low in his seat. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

  “No need to apologize, Nick.” Uncle Newt said. “It was an accident. Could’ve happened to anybody. And in the end, all you did was infect my computer with malware that allowed the bad guys to track our every move and foil our only real shot at rescuing your parents. It’s not the end of the world.”

  Nick whimpered.

  “You can stop telling him not to feel bad,” Tesla told her uncle. “He feels bad enough already.”

  Uncle Newt looked at Nick in his rearview mirror and saw that his reassurances hadn’t been very reassuring.

  “Nick,” he said softly, “you made a mistake. It’s OK. Scientists make mistakes all the time. Experiments fail, hypotheses are proved incorrect. And each and every time that happens, it’s another step toward success because it’s another opportunity to learn. So the laptop was hacked—that’s information. If we think hard enough, we can figure out how to use it to our advantage.”

  Nick sat silently for a moment, absorbing his uncle’s reasoning. Then he smiled. “Thanks,” he said. “That helps me feel better.”

  Uncle Newt smiled back. “I guess I must be getting better at this wise, responsible adult thing, huh?” he said. “Now who wants ice cream and Pop-Tarts before we go to bed?”

  The next morning, a bleary-eyed Nick and Tesla stumbled downstairs to find Uncle Newt at the dining room table eating ice cream and Hot Pockets for breakfast. (They’d eaten all the Pop Tarts the night before.)

  “You know, I’ve been thinking,” Uncle Newt said, dipping his pepperoni pizza pocket into a bowl of rocky road. “If the laptop is sending out information about us, it can be traced to an IP address—the location of the computer that’s hacking in. Our enemies might think they’re spying on us, but they could be leading us right to them.”

  Nick’s droopy eyes were suddenly wide open. “Really? You can do that?”

  “Who, me?” said Uncle Newt. “No. I’m no hacker.”

  Nick slumped. “Oh.”

  “Then who?” Tesla said.

  “I was thinking of Agent McIntyre and Agent Doyle,” said Uncle Newt. “I don’t know if they work for the CIA, the FBI, or the YMCA. But whoever it is must have programmers who can crack that spyware and see where it leads.”

  “Makes sense,” said Tesla, sounding a bit surprised, given the source.

  “But if we go to Agent McIntyre and Agent Doyle, we’ll have to admit we ignored their warning,” Nick said. “They’re gonna be mad.”

  Tesla scowled and shook her head dismissively. “So? It’s their own fault for not telling us everything. If they didn’t keep so many secrets, we wouldn’t have to take matters into our own hands.”

  “I guess so,” Nick muttered. “It’s too bad we can’t bug them.”

  Tesla spun so sharply that Nick yelped, recoiling in surprise.

  “What did you say?”

  “Uh, it’s too bad we can’t bug them?” Nick repeated uncertainly. “You know, so we could find out everything they haven’t been telling us?”

  “That’s it!” Tesla cried. “Brilliant plan! I love it!”

  “Umm … it was more a wish than a plan.”

  But Tesla was no longer listening. She turned from her brother and hunched over, fingers pressed to her temples as if she were trying to squeeze inspiration from her head by sheer force. “How do we do it?” she asked herself. “How, how, how?”

  The doorbell rang, and since Tesla was still muttering “How, how, how?” and Uncle Newt was scooping up more ice cream with the last soggy corner of his Hot Pocket, it was Nick who went to answer.

  “Look who’s here,” he said when he returned a moment later.

  Following him into the dining room were Silas and DeMarco. The former was grinning; the latter was glowering.

  “Ice cream for breakfast?” Silas said. “Lucky ducks!”

  DeMarco whacked him on the arm. “What?” said Silas.

  “We’re mad, remember?” DeMarco said.

  “Oh, yeah.” Silas turned toward Nick and Tesla and Uncle Newt, his smile replaced by a scowl. “Than
ks for keeping us in the loop,” he said sarcastically.

  “First you run off without us, and then you don’t even bother letting us know you made it back alive,” DeMarco added. “If you’re going to keep us out of trouble, the least you can do is tell us about it afterward.” DeMarco said “keep us out of trouble” as if it were a bad thing.

  “Sorry, guys,” said Nick. “We didn’t get back till late.”

  “Just tell us what happened.”

  And so they did. Nick did most of the talking, with Tesla chiming in when she disagreed with her brother’s description of the events. Uncle Newt got everyone ice cream.

  “Whoa!” Silas said when Nick was done telling the story (and Tesla was done interrupting). “So if it hadn’t been for that computer virus warning the bad guys, you might have rescued your parents!”

  Nick winced. “The virus could still lead us to our mom and dad,” he said. “We’ll give the laptop to the agents, and hopefully they’ll find a way to trace whatever messages or signals the virus has been sending.”

  “And while they’re here, we’re going to eavesdrop on them to find out what they haven’t been telling us,” Tesla said. She clapped her brother on the back. “That was Nick’s plan.”

  Silas and DeMarco turned toward Nick.

  “How are you going to get Agent McIntyre and Agent Doyle to come back here?” Silas asked him.

  “I don’t know,” said Nick.

  “How are you going to get them to talk when they think you’re not around?” DeMarco asked.

  “I don’t know,” said Nick.

  “How are you going to eavesdrop on them?” Silas asked.

  “I don’t know,” said Nick.

  “Hmm,” said DeMarco. “Sounds like more of a wish than a plan.”

  “That’s what I said,” Nick grumbled.

  Silas took a step forward and put a hand up, his index finger pointing at the ceiling.

  “I have a plan!” he declared. “Pen and paper! I must have pen and paper!”

  “Look in the freezer. I saw a notepad in there when I was getting the ice cream,” Uncle Newt said. “There are pens on the counter.” Nobody bothered asking him why a notepad would be in the fridge. It was just that kind of house.

  Silas marched into the kitchen and returned a few seconds later with a (very cold) legal pad in one hand and a marker in the other. He sat down at the dining room table and began to draw.

  “This isn’t going to be one of those crazy diagrams with you and an eagle doing something impossible, is it?”11 Tesla asked.

  “No,” said Silas, pouting. “This isn’t going to be like that at all.”

  A few minutes later, he proudly displayed his drawing to his friends:

  Everyone gathered round and stared at the diagram.

  “It’s a little, ah, busy,” said DeMarco.

  “I’m not even sure where I’m supposed to look first,” said Nick.

  “I think I get it,” Uncle Newt said. “Silas finds a dead squirrel in a tree, then uses it to lure his father to … no. Sorry. I’m lost.”

  “It’s perfect,” said Tesla.

  Everyone gaped at her in shock—even Silas. “It is?” he said.

  Tesla nodded. “Absolutely. I mean, I think it could be streamlined a bit. We don’t really need the squirrel or the condor—”

  “Awww,” Silas said.

  “—but other than that I think it’s pretty solid,” Tesla continued.

  “Pretty solid?” said Nick. He pointed at the notepad in Silas’s hands. “That?”

  Again, Tesla nodded. “We put our pendants in one of the solar cookers, which brings Agents McIntyre and Doyle to see if you and I are really getting broiled. When they get to the house, we give them the laptop and tell them what we found in Mountain View. At the same time, someone’s hiding a walkie-talkie near their SUV while Silas’s dad blocks the car in. If we trap it between the Newtmobile, the house, and the trees lining the driveway, Agent McIntyre and Agent Doyle will be stuck. When they come out and realize they can’t leave, we’ll eavesdrop on everything they say. Maybe we could even whip up a solar-powered walkie-talkie so we don’t have to worry about the batteries running out before we learn what we want to know.”

  Nick and DeMarco looked dubious. Uncle Newt looked confused.

  “I still think it’s better if we put the walkie-talkie on a condor,” Silas said. “But your way might work.”

  “Wait, wait, wait,” Nick said. “I have a question.”

  DeMarco glanced down at Silas’s diagram. “Just one?” he said.

  “For now,” Nick said. “Silas, would your dad really help us block in Agent McIntyre’s SUV?”

  Silas nodded firmly. “Absolutely. You saved his comic book shop.12 He owes you one. And it’ll be totally believable that his Rabbit broke down. It breaks down for real all the time.”

  “OK, if you say so,” said Nick, sounding unconvinced. He turned to his uncle. “What do you think?”

  Uncle Newt shrugged. “It’s worth a try. But the only walkie-talkies I have lying around don’t have a lot of range, and a solar-powered one would be bulky. We’ll need to find a way to hide it if we’re going to get it close enough to pick up a conversation.”

  “I’ve got it!” Silas burst out. “We’ll disguise it as a condor nest!”

  “Well …” said Uncle Newt.

  “Hmm …” said DeMarco.

  “Umm …” said Nick.

  No one looked enthused about the plan. But Tesla smiled.

  “Silas,” she said, putting a hand on his shoulder, “I can’t believe I ever doubted you.”

  Silas beamed.

  TESLA’S (AND NICK AND UNCLE NEWT’S BUT MOSTLY TESLA’S)

  SOLAR SPY BIRDHOUSE

  THE STUFF

  • A birdhouse (available at craft and hobby shops)*

  • Hot-glue sticks

  • Electrical tape

  • A rubber band

  • Double-sided tape

  • Thin plastic-coated wire, like speaker wire or black and red electronic-project wire from a hobby shop

  • 2 walkie-talkies that run on either 2 or 3 AA or AAA batteries**

  • A solar panel***

  * You can skip the birdhouse if you want, but you’ll need some way to hang or place your gadget in the sun.

  ** A walkie-talkie that runs on a 9-volt battery won’t work for this project. The less expensive the walkie-talkie, the better; pricier models have an auto-shutoff feature or will let you press the Talk button for only a certain amount of time.

  *** The cells of the solar panel need to have a voltage equal to that of the batteries your walkie-talkies use. Two batteries equal 3 volts. Three batteries equal 4.5 volts. Also, the solar panel should put out 1.5 watts of power or more. Small solar panels are available from hobby shops that sell parts for electronic projects; they are also available from online specialty stores and some large online retailers.

  THE SETUP

  1. Cut two hot-glue sticks the same length as the batteries used in the walkie-talkies. Cut two pieces of wire about 6 inches (15 cm) long. Strip about ½ inch (1.25 cm) of the plastic from each end.

  2. Open the battery compartment of one walkie-talkie and find the metal tab marked with a plus sign (+). Place a wire against the tab and put one of the glue-stick pieces into the battery holder to keep the wire in place. Find the metal tab marked with a minus sign (–) in the battery container that’s farthest from the wire you just attached. Place the other wire against this tab and hold it in place with the other glue stick.

  3. Connect the wire that you attached to the positive (+) tab of the walkie-talkie to the positive wire on the solar panel (usually red). Connect the negative (–) wire from the walkie- talkie to the negative wire on the solar panel (usually black).

  4. Wrap the connections in electrical tape and replace the battery cover. Tape the glue sticks in place if it seems like they might fall out.

  THE FINAL STEPS


  1. Time to test the walkie-talkie. Go outside on a sunny day and hold the solar panel so that it faces the sun. You should be able to turn on the walkie-talkie; test it with the other (battery-powered) walkie-talkie to make sure they can transmit and receive audio. For the walkie-talkies to work, the solar panel must directly face the sun at all times.

  2. Wrap the rubber band around the solar walkie-talkie tight enough to keep the Transmit button depressed. If necessary, place a piece of the hot-glue stick between the button and the rubber band. Use the double-sided tape to attach the solar walkie-talkie to the bottom of the birdhouse and the solar panel to the birdhouse roof.

  3. Hang the birdhouse directly in the sunshine so that the sun’s rays can power the walkie-talkie. As long as the walkie-talkie has enough sunlight, it should transmit audio.

  4. Remember: Always use any listening device for good and not evil! And if a bird happens to make a nest in your spy birdhouse, enjoy the sounds of everyday bird life.

  11 See every other Nick and Tesla book.—The authors

  12 Nick and Tesla’s Robot Army Rampage. We’re hoping this is the last footnote, but you’ll have to keep reading to find out.—The authors

  Uncle Newt had a cheap set of walkie-talkies he’d bought as a Christmas gift for his niece and nephew four years ago. He rummaged around the closets until he found the box and then handed it to Nick and Tesla. “And a happy new year!” he said. Then he headed to the basement.

  “I was tinkering with a solar- powered lawn mower a while back,” Uncle Newt explained as he clomped down the stairs. “But it kept—”

  “Let me guess,” interrupted Nick. “Exploding?”

  “No, of course not!” Uncle Newt said. “It kept melting. Now, let’s see …”

  He opened a particularly musty, cobweb-covered cabinet in a darkened corner of the lab. He rooted around inside for a moment, tossed a microscope and a gas mask over his shoulder, and then turned around, holding a flat black rectangle.

  “A photovoltaic cell solar panel,” he announced. “Uses photons from sunlight to excite electrons, so they’ll separate from their atoms and create a current that can be used as electricity. You know who made these puppies possible, don’t you?”