



“Something’s happening, it may not be your friends the Fislers, but we need to figure out who this group is.” Jeff handed Al the phase-linked glasses and a report. A few weeks had passed since the start of the operation and Jeff was glad to have any development, but he was taking a risk bringing Al to his temporary office, even if it was a nondescript storefront with brown paper over the windows and a back entrance. Not knowing who your enemy was didn’t mean they didn’t know who you were. However, moving these reports around more than necessary was more of a risk.Jeff tried to wait patiently laying his hands on top of other reports he couldn’t read until he got the glasses back. Of course he could go code another pair, but the process was long and tedious, and he wanted to see Al’s reaction. When he started playing with the corners of the paper he caught himself and watched. Finally he was rewarded, Al grunted.“What part are you on?” Jeff thought he knew“They are definitely referring to the DOD moss project. I am pretty sure that this line talking about the infrared properties wouldn’t be common knowledge, I guess that was why it was flagged?”“Yeah, but it is a a bit stale. The date was from two weeks ago.”“Are they monitoring these communication lines? Who’s voice was it originally recorded in?”“No and I don’t know.” Jeff shook his head and curled a fist on top of the documents on his desk. “The connection was a burner, it’s been dead since this communication, and of course it will take awhile just to figure out where it broadcast from. The voice is artificial, but very flat inflection, essentially just transmitting data.” He forced his fist to relax.“So it wasn’t broadcast from the Lab? But why would someone do a data dump this way?” Al tried to stay hopeful.“It was an outside line of communication, the source wasn’t near the lab.” Jeff watched Al’s face fall with his acceptance of the logic. “Though we could still do a bug sweep.” He left the other question unanswered, and tried not to fidget.A bit of hope crept into Al’s knit brows. “Can I do that without alerting them?”“I have some multi-spectral bug kits, basically bugs themselves, but built to listen for devices not on normal frequencies, or riding other carriers. I’ll bring a kit tomorrow.”“Oh good, I think they are taking Edward to his first day of school the day after tomorrow.”“Sounds like the perfect time.”“Yes, speaking of a perfect time I had better get out of here and walk back, I don’t want to look too fresh after one of my ‘exploratory walks.’”***The kit was delivered as promised. There were several options, but Jeff had included a note indicating that the multi-spectral radio interceptor model would probably be the best thing. Al spent the evening reading through the documentation and committing the setup to memory as the noises of the Fisler’s big day preparation echoed softly through his bedroom door.After doing a short trial run, spreading out the foil, attaching the tiny circuit board and then calling a friend in Hong Kong. He then attached a device that wasn’t just powered from the radio waves it was listening to, and pulled out the strongest signal, which he ran against the encryption that the call was made through, it was a match.After carefully folding away the bug into a pocket of his bag he prepared for bed, the noises of the house settling down as the family attempted to get some rest before tomorrow’s major disruption to their normal routine. He thought about how much trouble he was going through in order to clear their name. “They were my favorite students.” He almost slept soundly.***The backing on the foil that kept the stickiness protected must have expired, that or the adhesive was also used to patch battleships.The Fislers were out, just as expected, taking Edward to his first day of class. As usual these days it was expected that anxious parents would attend the first day of class with their children. If there were any stay-at-home parents they were often known to stick around for a week or more until firmly guided to the principal’s office and then carefully told to leave. Kids these days were coddled, he idly wondered how the Fislers had ever dealt with his brusqueness in school.He had just managed to peel off half the backing when the door lock beeped. He quickly opened a bench drawer and shoved the bug in, closing the drawer and moving toward the microscope to adjust a knob as though he had just been taking notes. The door closed and he looked up.It was Mr. Smith, the custodian, who waved cheerfully from beyond the second set of doors. “Is this all of your trash for this week?” Of course he had a high security clearance as well, but all he knew about the lab were the phased windows and the sealed bags of trash. He didn’t have access to the interior and was just assuming that someone was in the lab.Al looked at his watch and realized the man was several hours early for his Wednesday run, he cursed himself and went to the door, he punched a button that cleared a “window” that looked red to him but hazy except for Al’s face to Mr. Smith. “Yes, that’s it for this week. Um, how are things going?”“Pretty well, but we are only halfway through the week, no telling what might happen in the next few days!” He was altogether too cheerful for Al’s taste.“Um, yes. Thanks, have a good day.”“You do as well Prof!”Al released the button and cursed himself again. He was getting jumpy trying to help his friends, why should he be so jumpy hiding perfectly harmless things from them? “Because, how am I going to explain it to them?”He opened the drawer with the bug inside of it. He tried to gently extricate it, but it was stuck to several automatic pipettes and a test tube stand as well as the interior of the drawer. He had been planning on putting it on the back of a ceiling tile, but between the adhesive and his force to remove it the foil antenna tore in several places.No amount of patching got the electronics to give him any good data. He gave up and wadded it up in frustration and threw it at the phased glass wall. It bounced and he went to pick it up, berating himself for getting upset when he saw a trash bag by the door. It was mostly empty and unsealed, he thought about chasing down the custodian, but just chuckled and then went to throw chuck the defunct bug in the bag.It only had one thing in it, an organic mass not much bigger than his big toe, mostly brown with a few silver wires wrapping it. He stared at it for a few minutes before gingerly reaching in and picking it up between finger and thumb. It wasn’t slimy, in fact it was dry and fuzzy to the touch. It was a bit hefty as though a small chunk of hard wood, and there weren’t any obvious ends to the wires sticking out.He considered what to do again with the failed bug and the now empty trash bag. The bug couldn’t be thrown out here and an empty trash bag would be too conspicuous for whoever had forgotten to take it any further. He folded it, lifted the edge of a bag already in a can and set it below on top of the few extras that made emptying a can that much easier.He was just moving the pipettes and other items back into the drawer when he heard the door beep. Rather than jump and go to the microscope, he pulled out the petri dish, spritzed the moss and was walking back to specimen storage when the Fislers came in.They greeted him and talked about how well Edward had already adjusted. They told of their little rebellion too, they and another couple snuck out before lunch and went to celebrate at a restaurant by themselves. It wasn’t just for the exclusion of Edward, they temporized.While they were happily talking, Al unhappily decided not to confront them with the unknown object burning a hole in his pants pocket. Just the thought of a lab item not on a bench, or at worst, in his lab coat was slowly killing him inside.“Are you alright?” Gus paused from describing the small chocolates that each student had received.“Uh, yes, sorry.” Al grimaced, and then regained his composure. “I don’t think my lunch settled well.” His non-existent lunch, though it wasn’t the only time he had worked through lunch and left it in the fridge, so it would be hard to prove his lie, he smiled and asked another question about their school experience.