Sleight of Hand

Chapter 23

Mac was already in the warehouse when Bacon sidled in on Thursday morning.

"Ready to get started?" Mac asked, peering over his glasses at the blueprints on the worktable in front of him. At the start of the week, the two of them had brainstormed ways to create surveillance around Kurtis's house based on the materials Kurtis was able to provide them. They'd finally come up with a simple—but effective—device that would alert them if something or someone was approaching the house on any side. They found an old camera that Bacon would wire into a laptop computer so they could see exactly what they were dealing with. Mac was just here to build everything.

"Yeah, I think I have everything," Bacon said, and it was only then that Mac noticed Bacon carried a bag full of supplies. Mac watched as he set the bag down on the oppo­site side of the table and pulled out a dated laptop, the old camera they found along with some smaller lenses that Mac guessed Bacon had located in the days they hadn't met because of training, and some wire.

Mac looked up at Bacon and cocked an eyebrow.

"What?" Bacon asked, positioning everything to his lik­ing. "I came prepared."

Mac chuckled. He'd known Bacon longer than any of the other Elite because they'd met when the war started and they'd worked together briefly. Now, it seemed, nothing had changed.

Mac read over the roughly-drawn blueprints he'd made again, and said, "Okay. We'll start with making the camera. Where are we gonna put it once it's done?"

Bacon replied, "The roof, probably."

"I mean... that could work, but we also want to be sub­tle. We don't want anyone who comes looking for us to know that we can see them before they attack us."

Bacon countered, "Where else are we going to put it?"

Mac racked his brain.

"Kurtis's house is next to the woods; we can attach it to a tree in a way that no one can see it from a distance. By the time they do see it, it'll be too late because we'll have already trapped them."

Bacon nodded his agreement. He handed Mac the metal camera. Mac studied it for a moment, then said, "So, what am I here for again? You're the tech whiz." Bacon smiled.

"I'm gonna hook up all the cameras to the computer so we get signals. But we need the cameras to be all one device. I need you to attach all the lenses to that camera so we can use its power source for all of them, and we also need some way to mount it to the tree."

"Okay, I'll work on that. What are you going to do?"

Bacon opened the laptop.

"I'm going to get this thing working right so that we can use it."

Mac rolled his eyes at Bacon's goofy grin. He gathered up the camera parts, grabbed his blueprints, and started to work.

When he was finished attaching all the cameras, Mac stepped back and surveyed his work. He'd left a space open for Bacon to get inside to the wiring and electrical stuff, but he'd managed to attach all the lenses in a way that would allow them to see completely around the house. He said as much to Bacon when he brought the contraption over to him. Bacon nodded in satisfaction as he inspected Mac's handiwork with glowing eyes.

"This will work great," he said. He started typing on the laptop. "I still need to work out some things on this piece of junk, but I've got it running, at least. Once that's done, I'll hook up the cameras. In the meantime, can you make a mount for this?"

Mac returned to his station. He grabbed a few pieces of scrap metal and studied it. He looked over at the camera contraption and back at the metal again. All the measure­ments were still in his head. Laying the metal on the table, he dragged his finger over a section, and where he did, the metal cut in half along a neat line. He continued to cut the metal until it was to his liking, then bent and shaped it with his bare hands until it was the correct dimensions. He took the mount back to Bacon, and fitted it on the camera.