Pa'an

With the temperature near freezing, a howling nor’west wind and a dry blue sky with the hint of more weather to come, the coat rack in the lab could barely hold the collection of raincoats, boots, scarves and rain hats. Still, the skylight dripped. “Must be ice melting on the roof,” mused Sara.

Kaiser, who was not allowed in the lab, nevertheless escaped from the front office. Aura froze in mid sentence, Deepak looked up, but he didn’t do well with dogs. Everyone expected Elexi to follow in close pursuit.

Sara tried to corner the agile little furball, but there was no way he was going to be trapped with all the wires, chairs, benches and whatnot to squeeze under. Finally, Kaiser got thirsty and wandered over to the drip bucket for a drink. It was Jag who came in, got the dog to “sit” and “stay” and tucked him under his arm. He shrugged, “He’s been stuck indoors too long. He doesn’t know what to do with himself.” Jag touched Aura’s emerald necklace and failed to suppress a grin.

Sara patted the dog, which caused him to wag his tail and lick her hand.

Jag nearly tripped over the bucket. “Is this thing still here?” He looked up at the domed ceiling 20 feet over his head. “Aaah. I think we have a problem.”

Ten minutes later Jag came back with a tall stepladder. He climbed as high as he could, but still could not reach the ceiling.

In another ten minutes he was on the roof. There was the snap of a wire cutter, and a small device the size of a pencil stub dropped into the bucket.

Jag came back into the lab, heavily dressed for the weather and obviously very disturbed. He reached into the bucket and pulled out the device. “Sara, see if you can open this up and take a look inside.”

“Sure, let’s see if I can get this plastic case off with a hot knife. There it goes. Wow, it looks like a video camera and two electret microphones. Jag, that’s a bug!”

“Now I know how that bastard knew what was going on here….” Jag came over and took a look at the bug. What powered it?”

“This little battery – looks like it came from a hearing aid. It’s dead now, probably shorted out by the drip. This little coil and that little chip are probably some sort of a transmitter. Can’t have very much range,” Sara explained.

“How old is that drip?”

“Let me think, we found it before Purndel. Deepak, do you remember?”

“When I was sleeping in the lab on a cot, that drip was in my face after the first rainstorm. But then it stopped. That was just after Aura was poisoned.”

“Deepak, sure it stopped. It was a dry November,” said Sara.

“Well, it looks like whoever installed it drilled a hole in the frame of the skylight, led the wire antenna along the roof, and put putty into the hole to seal it. Thanks to this New England freeze and thaw, the putty cracked and ice formed on the skylight. The ice inside thawed and dripped. Whew! We were saved by the drip.” Jag blew out his lips and shook his head in relief. It seemed Aura’s recovery was still a secret.

“Won’t they just replace it?” asked Deepak?

“Probably not, it’s too obvious. They have other means now,” he pointed his finger down the corridor to the front office, indicating Elexi.

Aura swiveled her head and “whispered” to Jag, “If you get me another high-speed line I’ll do one hell of a Purndel imitation for Elexi, and jam every other signal from this lab.”

Jag smiled and nodded. But then, there was Elexi waiting nervously for him when he got back to his office with Kaiser still under his arm. The smile vanished.