“Use as many resources as necessary. Cost is not an issue. Has the Woo connection provided any cross-links?”
“Too many. We’re sifting through it.”
“Call me when you find them.”
THE CALL CAME at seven-fifty that evening.
“I’ve located the targets in an apartment above the Happy Dragon Family Restaurant,” Santee said. “We’re currently directly across the street from the building.”
“On the sidewalk?”
“Negative. I’m off the street.”
“Do you have a van?”
“Affirmative. Do you want me to extract them from the building?”
“No. It would be best if you secured them in a less-populated area.”
“Agreed.”
“Hold your position. I think I can arrange for them to leave cover.”
Bowdler looked at the bed where the boy was dozing. “Company’s coming, Dominic,” he said. “Let’s give your pal Eddie a call.”
negotiation
I WAITED UNTIL after the third ring, trying to calm my nerves. Then I flipped open the phone. “Eddie’s Wrecking Service.”
The slight pause told me I’d scored a point.
“You’ve caused a lot of trouble,” Bowdler said.
“I can cause a lot more. Right now, you can probably still patch things up with those companies. Or find some new partners. But I’d be happy to wipe out the rest of your experiments. You’d never make another dime.”
Instead of a reply from Bowdler, I heard a shout of pain. Then he said, “Do you recognize that voice?”
I bit back the angry words I wanted to use. “Hurting him doesn’t get you anything.” I could feel sweat pouring down my back. I tried to keep my voice calm. “Let him go and all of this stops. You get to keep running your research scams. I get to go on with my life.”
“We need to discuss this face to face. Go to Rittenhouse Square,” he said. “Call me when you get there and I’ll give you an address of a house where we can meet.”
I didn’t like the way he gave in so easily. And I wasn’t going to play any of his super-spy games. “Not a chance. We’re meeting someplace open.”
“The square is a bit too public for our purposes,” Bowdler said. “There’s a park nearby.”
“Too many trees.”
“So what would you suggest?”
“Maybe a field.”
“Now there’s a great idea,” he said, speaking to me like I was a child. “Do you think the Phillies would let us use their stadium?”
“No. I meant a school field or something.”
“In the city?”
Playing dumb, I guided him along and, amazingly enough, he finally agreed to meet right where I wanted—at the ball field Cheater had found. I think Dad would have been proud if he’d heard me.
I turned to the guys. “We’re meeting him at nine at the ball field behind the high school.” It was a small victory, but it gave me hope.
Torchie glanced at his watch. Then he shook his hand like he was trying to fling water from his fingertips, and studied his watch again. “Darn. It isn’t working.”
“Don’t worry about it. The cell phone shows the time.”
“I got a new battery in it last month,” Torchie said. “It’s my favorite watch. It’s my only watch, but even if I had another, it would be my favorite.”
I got up from the couch. “Forget the watch. It’s not important.”
“Everything’s breaking,” Flinch said. “Your watch. The microwave. The kitchen radio. Nothing works. It’s like someone has the hidden talent to kill electronic stuff.”
“Wait!” Cheater said. “Torchie, what time did your watch stop?”
“How would I know that?” Torchie asked.
Cheater grabbed Torchie’s wrist and looked at the watch. “That’s it. I’ll bet it stopped when we were at the lab. That thing you found. What did you say it was?”
“There was a note,” Torchie said. “To Bowdler. From one of those companies. It said something about a sample of their new FME thing.” He went over to the table next to the couch and picked up the device.
“Not FME,” Cheater said. He was so excited now he was almost hopping. “I knew that didn’t sound right. You got it backward. It’s an EMF gun. It fried your watch when Flinch pointed it at you. And you’ve been frying stuff with it for the last two days. This is awesome.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Electromagnet fields. An EMF pulse kills microprocessors,” Cheater said. “We can knock the disrupter right out.”