“Well, do us all a favor while they wait,” Nick said. “Don’t let those old ladies anywhere near the cleaning supplies.”
When Sergeant Feiffer walked Nick and Tesla out to the police station’s small lobby, Silas was already gone—picked up by his parents ten minutes before. DeMarco, Oli, and Uncle Newt were still there, though, saying their goodbyes to Not-Skip.
“Thank you for not you-know-what,” Not-Skip was saying as he shook Uncle Newt’s hand.
“I thank you, too,” Oli chimed in. “You are good man.”
“You-know-what” meant “pressing charges.”
Both Oli and Not-Skip looked a lot more comfortable when Sergeant Feiffer turned to go back to his office.
“Sure you won’t tell me who hired you?” Uncle Newt asked Not-Skip.
The man shook his head.
“There really is some honor among thieves, you know. But I can tell you this: whomever she hires next to go after that thing in your attic, it won’t be me. From now on, I’m steering clear of Half Moon Bay!”
With that, Not-Skip turned and hurried away.
“ ‘She’?” Uncle Newt mused as he left.
The door hadn’t even fully closed behind Not-Skip when DeMarco’s parents came charging through it, little Elesha and even littler Monique in tow.
“I—” DeMarco said.
“Don’t give me that!” his mother thundered. “I don’t want to hear it!”
“But—”
“No excuses, young man!” his father boomed. “You are in a world of trouble!”
“If—”
“Outside! To the car!”
“Right now, young man!”
DeMarco gave his friends a look of sheer misery and started trudging toward the door.
Tesla took a step after him.
“Mr. and Mrs. Davison,” she said, “I hope you’ll keep in mind that your son was only trying to help friends in trouble.”
“It is our opinion that certain friends are in trouble altogether too much,” Mrs. Davison sniffed.
“And the kind of help they need, a twelve-year-old shouldn’t be giving,” Mr. Davison added.
Each parent put a hand on DeMarco’s back and steered him toward the door.
“Oh, don’t forget to pick up the D-Rocket!” Nick called after them.
Mr. and Mrs. Davison stopped and glowered down at their son.
“We had to leave my bike behind a Dumpster this afternoon,” he explained. “It kind of broke in two.”
His parents looked at each other, shook their heads in a “Where did we go wrong?” kind of way, and began guiding DeMarco away again.
As they left, Elesha and Monique paused just long enough to look back, mime mocking laughter, and then stick out their tongues.
“What unpleasant little girls,” said Oli. “Perhaps they need more magnesium in diet.”
A moment later, he and the Holts were leaving the police station, too.
“So, what’s next for you?” Uncle Newt asked him.
“I am not excited about flying home to tell Uncle Yorgi I do not steal your design for vacuum cleaner. So maybe I stay in America a while. I already do with the Google and find many fine undergraduate programs for nutrition science.”
“That’s a great idea!” Uncle Newt said, slapping Oli on the back. “Get some more science in you, and maybe you could come back as my real apprentice one day. You’re the best banana masher I’ve ever seen!”
Nick noticed that Tesla seemed distracted while Oli and Uncle Newt were talking. He followed her gaze and saw a familiar black SUV parked up the block.
“So that’s what Julie and Ethel and Gladys have been waiting for,” he said.
Tesla nodded.
“It’s not Sergeant Feiffer they have to worry about,” she said. “It’s her.”
One of the SUV’s back windows rolled down, and a woman with short red hair and a pale, grave face leaned out.
“Got a minute?” Agent McIntyre said.
When Nick and Tesla climbed into the SUV, they found they weren’t alone with Agent McIntyre. A gray-haired man in a black suit sat behind the wheel. He didn’t even look back at the kids as they scooted in behind him. He just stared straight out through the front windshield as if he was a mannequin propped up in the driver’s seat.
“I hear you’ve had quite a day,” Agent McIntyre said to the kids. “Wanna tell me about it?”
They did. Tesla did most of the talking, though Nick contributed whenever he felt she’d skimmed over something too quickly. They both talked fast, though. They had an important question to get to.
“Are our mom and dad all right?” Nick asked when the story was finished to his satisfaction.
“Julie made it sound like the people she works for were about to get them,” Tesla added.
“Don’t worry about your parents,” Agent McIntyre said. “Things got a little … stressful, but everything’s under control now. Our enemies tipped their hands today. That’s going to help us in the long run.”
“The long run?” Nick said. “How long is that gonna be?”
How long before we see our parents? he meant. How long before our family is together again?
“I’m sorry. I don’t know the answer to that,” Agent McIntyre said.
“Why are people like Julie after Mom and Dad in the first place?” Tesla asked.
The pinched, pained look on Agent McIntyre’s face made it plain that was the one question she really didn’t want to be asked.
“Please tell us something,” Nick said. “Our lives have been turned upside down. If there’s a good reason, it’d help to know it.”
“Well …”
Agent McIntyre looked at the man in the front seat.
“They’re intelligent children, and the theories have been a matter of public record for years,” he said in a deep, dry voice. He spoke without so much as glancing into the back seat or even moving a single muscle other than his mouth. “If they want to look up SBSP when they get home, it wouldn’t do any harm.”
“SBSP?” Tesla said. “You mean space-based solar power?”
“Laser-beaming energy to Earth from giant satellites?” said Nick. “We had no idea Mom and Dad were working on something so cool!”
The man finally looked back at the kids, cocking an eyebrow in surprise as he examined them in the rearview mirror.
“You are intelligent children,” he said.
Nick shrugged. “We watch a lot of PBS.”
“But I don’t get it,” said Tesla. “SBSP is just a fancy way to generate a lot of solar power. Why all the lies and secrets and spies?”
“If you could beam thousands of megawatts to Earth from orbit, you could use it to power entire cities,” the man said. “Or …”
Again he turned his gaze away, staring blankly ahead into the darkness.
“Wrap it up, agent,” he said. “There’s been enough chitchat.”
Agent McIntyre slipped a hand into the inside pocket of her suit jacket.
“I have something for you from your parents,” she told Nick and Tesla. “New and improved.”
She pulled out two star-shaped pendants hanging on thin chains. Gold now instead of silver.
“More tracking devices?” Tesla asked as she took one.
Agent McIntyre gave her a tight, cryptic smile.
“Sort of,” she said. “Wear them close to your hearts.”
“We will,” said Nick.
He and Tesla put on their new necklaces and tucked the pendants under their shirts.
“Well,” Agent McIntyre said, “I’ve got business to attend to inside. A transfer of custody from the Half Moon Bay Police Department to …” She flashed the kids another of her little enigmatic smiles, and her eyes darted toward the man in the front seat. “A higher authority.”
The door Nick and Tesla had come in through popped open on its own.
“Oh. Okay, then,” said Tesla, getting the not-so-subtle hint. “Bye.”
She and her brother started to slide out of the SUV.
“Goodbye. You two stay out of trouble, now,” said Agent McIntyre.
“We will,” Nick told her.
“Somehow,” said the man in the driver’s seat, “I doubt that.”
When both Nick and Tesla were out on the sidewalk, the door slammed itself shut.
There are times when siblings can communicate without saying a thing, and this was one of them. Nick looked at Tesla, Tesla looked at Nick, and there was no need for words.
They knew what the man in the SUV had been hinting at—and why it made them very, very nervous.
Yes, the orbiting solar energy system their parents had been working on could be used to power entire cities.
Or it could destroy them.
Uncle Newt and Oli were waiting patiently by the Newtmobile while the kids had their talk in the SUV. When Nick and Tesla rejoined them, Uncle Newt slapped his hands together and rubbed them back and forth with glee.
“You know what I’m in the mood for?” he said.
“Food,” Nick and Tesla said together.
It wasn’t just the third time they’d been to the police station. It was the third time they’d been there with Uncle Newt. They knew by now how excitement affected him.
“I’m pretty sure there’s gonna be an unclaimed pepperoni pizza waiting at Ranalli’s Italian Kitchen,” Nick said. “Maybe we should go get it.”
The idea had Uncle Newt practically dancing a jig with joy.
“Maybe with stromboli and garlic bread and chicken vesuvio?” he said.
There was a rumbling, gurgling growl nearby.
It came from Oli’s belly.
“Excuse me,” he said, his broad face turning red. “We never got to sit down for pickle salad, and by now I am sure your cat has licked the bowl clean.”
“You should come along, then,” said Nick. “Would that be okay, Uncle Newt?”
“Of course! I’ll call Hiroko and tell her she should come, too.”
“Silas never got any dinner either,” Tesla pointed out. “Maybe you could call the Kuskies and see if they want to meet us at Ranalli’s.”
“Great idea!”
As Uncle Newt pulled out his cell phone, the little group started walking up the street toward the restaurant. Nick and Tesla glanced at each other and exchanged small, sad smiles. Once again, they were speaking without words.
It’s scary not knowing when our family will be back together, they were saying, but it’s nice knowing there’s something like a new family we can be part of in the meantime.
Oli noticed the kids’ melancholy looks and slapped his hands onto their backs.
“Why looking glum?” he said. “The evildoers are in jail, and we are going for pizza and perhaps visit to one of these wondrous salad bars I have heard tales of. You should be happy, like Oli!”
“Oh, we are,” said Tesla.
“See?” Nick said, pointing to the big grin he was giving Oli. “No more glum.”
But the grin flickered and faded a minute later when Nick noticed Tesla giving the starry sky above them a long, brooding look.
Somewhere up there right now, skimming along the edge of space, might be the invention that had taken their parents from them. And it was only a matter of time before it brought them more trouble down on Earth …
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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CALLING ALL KIDS!
Does your idea of fun include inventing a homemade rocket, making friends with a ghost, building your own robots, or matching wits with tentacled horrors from another dimension? Then we’ve got the books for you! In the scientific adventures of Nick and Tesla, two smart kids outwit crooks, spies, and other clueless adults by creating crazy gadgets out of ordinary household objects. And in the spooky mysteries of Lovecraft Middle School, 7th grader Robert Arthur and his friends must figure out why their school keeps attracting weird, supernatural creatures—including some of their teachers!
The Nick and Tesla series starts with Nick and Tesla’s High-Voltage Danger Lab. Each book includes instructions for building the same contraptions that Nick and Tesla make!
The Lovecraft Middle School series starts with Professor Gargoyle. Each book features a a cover photo that morphs into a monster right before your eyes!
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Nick and Tesla's Secret Agent Gadget Battle Page 13