Page 112 of Lights Out

I did what she said and ended up facing Junior.

“You remember what to do?” he asked.

I nodded. “Let the A-Team lead the way, and don’t touch anything but the computer.”

Aly slipped my earbud into place, and I lifted my hand and adjusted it until it was comfortable.

“We’re almost there,” the guy at the far end of Junior’s bench called out. He had a laptop open and balanced on his knees. He was the tech guy staying behind to monitor our progress and help with anything we might need, including cutting the power long enough for us to get inside Brad’s place undetected so we could disarm the security system from inside.

Junior shifted across from us. “You sure you can pull this off?”

I grinned. “It’ll be a cakewalk.”

It was not, in fact, a cakewalk. We were only ten minutes into our little operation and had already encountered several problems. The first was that Brad’s house had a beefy generator, and the moment Junior’s guy cut the power, it rumbled to life. Of course, the security system was hooked up to it, and I watched with my jaw clenched while the “hacker” bumbled his way through disarming it remotely, repeatedly telling me to shut up and let him concentrate when I tried to point out there was a faster way.

The second problem occurred as we rounded the property. A raised fist from the front of our five-man line signaled a halt. I waited, breath steaming in the frigid night air, while the leader slunk to the edge of the house. He leaned down and picked something up that I couldn’t see from my distance because Brad’s closest neighbors didn’t have generators, so it was darker than sin between the buildings.

The man made a motion like he’d thrown something, and a heartbeat later, floodlights lit up Brad’s backyard like a Roman candle. We flattened ourselves against the side of the house to keep to the shadows.

Someone swore, their voice loud in my ear because of the earbud.

“What is it?” Junior asked. “What happened?”

“We told you to keep the line clear,” someone snapped at him, and the urge to ooh was so strong I had to bite my lip to shut myself up.

“The lights are tied to the generator,” our lead man said. “We’ll have to disable them remotely.” He turned and motioned to the guy in front of me. “Get up here with the jammer.”

The squat man scurried forward, pulling a device that looked like a radar gun from his Batman-style toolbelt. Watching him carefully aim it around the corner of the house before clicking a button that instantly killed the lights was one of the coolest things I had ever seen, and I wondered if the pocket-pickingskills I’d developed during my brief, rebellious teenage stage were up to the task of lifting it off him.

Apparently, I turned into a kleptomaniac around advanced technology, but who could blame me? A magical jammer that killed lights with a single flick? There wasn’t a tech geek alive who wouldn’t have developed a sudden case of grabby hands in my place.

“Let’s go,” the lead man said.

I kept my hand braced on the wall as we started forward, wondering how he could see where he was going after those floodlights had ruined our night vision. The answer of “he can’t” came a second later when he tripped over something buried in the snow and went diving head-first into the shrubbery.

The noises coming over the line from his struggle to free himself were so loud that I nearly pulled the speaker out of my ear.

“What’s happening?” Junior demanded, ignoring the earlier call for quiet. “It sounds like you’re fighting. Was someone inside waiting for you?”

I couldn’t keep myself from answering. “Our fearless leader just faceplanted into a Rhododendron, but he’s coming out of it now. He looks embarrassed.” The man swiveled toward me, and even in the darkness, I could tell he was glaring. “Oops, now he looks pissed.”

A snicker echoed over the line.

Victory!

“Aly, you owe me twenty bucks.”

“Doesn’t count,” she said. “That was Junior.”

“Keep the line clear,” someone barked.

I covered my mic and tapped the guy nearest to me. “I’ll pay you ten dollars to laugh at my next joke. I need to win a bet against my girlfriend.”

“Hey!” Aly said. “I heard that. No cheating.”

The lead guy pointed at me. “For the last time, keep thefuckingline clear.”

I saluted him and mimed zipping my lips.

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