“Then how did you find it?” asked Nick.
Uncle Newt walked back over to the computer station that he and Mr. and Mrs. Holt had been working at earlier, sporting a goofy grin on his face. “The government has lots of other satellites, you know,” he said. “I’m assuming one of them spotted this.”
When he typed a few lines of code into a keyboard, the picture on the nearest monitor began to change. The clouds it had been showing moved aside, for the first time revealing what was beneath them.
It wasn’t Washington, D.C. It was a barren yellow landscape with a single black strip running through it.
They were looking down on the road leading to the base. A huge, black symbol and four words were burned into the desert soil to one side of the blacktop:
The arrow was pointing to a gray smudge on the road: the melted remains of the solar rover.
“So the satellite was never over the White House?” Bob asked, incredulous. Both he and Doyle were now in handcuffs, held back by hulking federal agents gripping them by their elbows.
“Nope,” Mrs. Holt said with obvious satisfaction. “The whole time we were pretending to adjust its position, we were really leaving that message in the desert.”
“It was Newt’s idea,” said Mr. Holt, looking at his brother proudly.
Uncle Newt beamed at Nick and Tesla. “I’ve learned a thing or two this summer about improvising,” he said.
“Ugh. Would you people just go ahead and do a group hug so I can barf already?” grumbled ex-Agent Doyle.
Agent McIntyre looked at him, then at Bob, and shook her head sadly. “I am so disappointed in you two,” she said. “Hawaiian shirts? Tacky.”
“Are you almost done in there?” Ethel (or Gladys) called from the hallway. “I’m gettin’ a little tired of lying here with my face on the floor.”
“That group hug sounds like a good idea,” said Tesla. “What do you say, guys?”
The Holts—Nick, Tesla, their parents, and their uncle—huddled up and threw their arms around one another. Rather than join in, Silas and DeMarco went around the room giving Agent McIntyre and the men in black high-fives.
The bad guys were defeated.
The good guys were reunited.
The world was safe.
And Nick and Tesla’s summer vacation was finally over.
About the Authors
“SCIENCE BOB” PFLUGFELDER is an award-winning elementary school science teacher. His fun and informative approach to science has led to television appearances on the History Channel and Access Hollywood. He is also a regular guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Dr. Oz Show, and Live with Kelly & Michael. Articles on Bob’s experiments have appeared in People, Nickelodeon magazine, Popular Science, Disney’s Family Fun, and Wired. He lives in Watertown, Massachusetts.
STEVE HOCKENSMITH is the author of the Edgar-nominated Holmes on the Range mystery series. His other books include the New York Times best seller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls and the short-story collection Naughty: Nine Tales of Christmas Crime. He lives with his wife and two children about forty minutes from Half Moon Bay, California.
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