Broken Protocols 1-3 Read online

  “I’m right here, Levi.” Milo said as he walked into the kitchen. “There’s nothing there.”

  Levi shut down the intercom, sealed off the pod room, and motioned his brother to come over to him. He tapped the monitor at the red image in the pod room and in a low voice said, “Then what or who is this?”

  Chapter 10

  Dani huddled at the kitchen table. Charmin sat in front of her, but his attention was on the brothers behind her. She’d rather be back in Levi’s arms. A chill rippled up and down her arms. She rubbed them, wishing she understood what they were talking about. Had she just imagined an intruder? The pod room was barely big enough for anyone else to stand in, let alone hide.

  And why hadn’t she seen someone if they were there?

  None of it made any sense. The fact remained; her arm stung from whatever had happened to it. Milo walked over, ran a gentle finger over her arm, and frowned. He said, “The healing pod didn’t fix this?”

  “Not sure it had time,” she admitted. “And I’m not going back in there until I know it’s safe.”

  “We need to know what caused it.”

  “And how do we do that?” She stared down at the puffy skin on her arm. It was a tiny injury. Not worth making a fuss about. Still…“Whatever this was, my body doesn’t like it.”

  Charmin jumped up on the table beside her and rubbed his head against her shoulder. “Hey, Charmin. Wished you’d been in there with me?”

  “I hate strangers – you know that.”

  “True, you used to always run away.” She rubbed her cheek against his head. “Except you like Levi and Milo just fine.”

  His engine kicked in when she kissed the top of his head.

  “They are different,” he said with a yawn, dropping his butt on the table and looking around with interest. “Do you think they have any leftovers?”

  “Probably, but keep eating like a crazy man and they will be forced to keep canned cat food around for you.”

  He looked at her through slitted eyes. “You mean canned shrimp and tuna – right?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know why they would. Besides, you loved canned cat food before.”

  “Sure, but they don’t have that food here. And,” he leaned in, tilting his head so he was whispering in her ear, “what if Milo picks the food? It’s likely to be green and full of boosters.”

  At that, she giggled. And boy, did that feel good. From fear to laughter in a heartbeat. She caught a glimpse of the satisfaction in his eyes. “You did that on purpose.” she accused.

  “Did not.” He twisted and started grooming his back.

  “Did too,” she muttered.

  “So what? Someone has to do something to keep your mind off the intruder.”

  Intruder? It sounded worse when he said it. More real.

  “Nope. It wasn’t.” Charmin continued to clean, sounding completely unconcerned.

  “Then who was it?” she asked in an ominous tone of voice.

  “Not sure,” Charmin said, “But I think it was a what, not a who.”

  Puzzled, she stared at him, wishing he’d pay attention and stop cleaning his butt. “How could that have been anything but a person?”

  “Holograph,” Charmin said.

  Wordless, she stared at her four-year-old cat, who appeared to understand things way beyond her comprehension. Into the sudden silence, he paused what he was doing and lifted his head to pin her gaze with his. “What?”

  “How would you know that?”

  Damn if his nose didn’t go up in the air before he returned to his cleaning.

  Apparently she didn’t warrant an answer.

  *

  Levi strode down the hallway, Milo close on his heels. At the pod room doorway, he stopped and gently pushed the door open as wide as it would go. He couldn’t see anything, but the computer scan wouldn’t have made a mistake like this.

  “I don’t see anything,” Milo said. He almost pushed Levi into the room as he craned to see over his shoulder. “There has to be a glitch.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Levi stepped into the room and bent down to look below the pod. He couldn’t see anything with the naked eye. But…he clicked through the windows on his comp and found the same disturbing hot spot. Above and behind the pod.

  He walked around until he was directly under the spot. He twisted his head, trying to see into the dark corner, when a light shone directly at the spot. Startled, he turned to see Milo shining a light at the spot in question. He turned when something beeped behind him. “What the…”

  “It’s my new toy.” Milo held up the base of the light to show him the flashing buttons that accompanied the beeps. “It’s a bug finder.”

  Levi stared at his brother before switching his gaze from the device to the high corner of the ceiling. “Bugs?” he asked in a hard voice. “Here? After all the sweeps and security measures we have in place?”

  Milo leaned closer and whispered in his ear. “Probably came in with the pod.”

  Damn. As he thought about it, it made perfect sense. He’d been so worried about taking this step and hoping it was the answer to help Dani that he’d not run through any of the special security checks. The normal ones, sure. But who had time to consider beyond that? He hadn’t had a chance to think about anything…let alone act on the thoughts.

  He stared, wondering what to do next. Milo motioned him to retreat the same way he did. Back out in the hallway, Milo closed the door and pressed several buttons on his little gadget. Levi had built in bug sweepers that he used often. His office and home were wired to catch any that made their way inside, but this one…

  He smiled reassuringly at Dani, Charmin in her arms, standing hesitantly at the end of the hallway. They’d obviously followed him and Milo to see what they’d found.

  “It’s very high tech.” Milo muttered as he popped open a 3D screen. Then he stepped back to walk around the image. “These are the blueprints of the bug.”

  Levi stared. “It was inside the unit. Meant to break off as the bug was released from its hiding spot.” He turned to face Dani. “The casing is what hit her arm.”

  “It has audio.” Charmin sauntered closer, making Levi want to back away. “So it can hear us…meaning we should be able to hear it.”

  Milo spun around and stared at the damn cat in excitement. “That’s right. I can track it back using its own programming code.”

  And damn if that cat didn’t sit back on its haunches and nod his head approvingly at Milo. Levi felt like the dummy in the class – again. Milo hadn’t been the easiest brother to live with. “Can you find out who sent this?”

  “Not only that, I might be able to listen in on what’s going on in their office or wherever they are holding the receiver for this unit.”

  “I didn’t see a bug in there.” Levi hated to bring it up, but… “How small could it be?”

  “It’s holographic and invisible.”

  Levi, in the act of walking back to the kitchen, froze. “What did you say?”

  “It’s an invisible holographic bug,” Milo said impatiently.

  “And that doesn’t sound incredibly wrong to you?”

  Milo shook his head slowly, as if to clear his head so he could focus. “We have invisibility and we have bugs and holographs. Someone put them all together.”

  “And that someone wasn’t you?” Maybe that was the biggest surprise here. Levi had never known anyone to get the edge on Milo in a field he loved, and espionage toys were one of his specialties.

  “Nah, no point in adding holograph stuff. Just a waste of time.”

  That almost more sense. It wasn’t a practical application. With a smile, Levi continued down the hallway, gently moving a very confused Dani ahead of him, until he realized what his brother didn’t say. He spun around and continued to walk backwards. “Wait, what about the invisible part?”

  “What about it?” Milo was busy with his little toy.

  “Have you
managed to make an invisible bug?” Levi tried to hang on to his patience, but his brother could try a saint. “Like this one?”

  “Not like this one.”

  Levi waited.

  “Better.” And Milo shot him a quirky grin of success. He didn’t punch the air with his fist, but it was damn close.

  “Better how?” He couldn’t see how an invisible bug could be improved on. He waited, but Milo was busy chuckling and clicking away on his fingerboard comp and matching it to something happening on his bug finder. He waited a moment then nudged his brother. “Milo, how could you make a better bug than an invisible one?”

  Milo looked up in surprise. “I just expanded on your idea.”

  As he looked to be returning to the toys in his hand, Levi quickly interjected, “What are you talking about?”

  “Stealth technology. Duh. On a micro scale.”

  And he walked back into the pod room, leaving Levi to stare after him in shock. He’d developed the home stealth technology system to cloak what they were doing in the company and at home. It was a military type of application, but he’d refined it for their purposes and apparently Milo had refined it yet again. He trailed behind his brother. “So you can send in a bug that is invisible AND have it receive and send data without anyone being able to pick up its presence with any tracking device?”

  Milo stopped and threw his head back in frustration. “That’s what I just said, didn’t I?”

  Levi snorted. “Not really.”

  “Well, it’s what I meant. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to listen in on our uninvited visitor.” Shooting him a dark look, Milo walked forward until he stood just below the spot. Adjusting the monitor, strange voices filled the room.

  “I can’t tell what’s happening. There’s been only static for the last bit.”

  “Any chance they found the bug?”

  A snort. “Hell no. This baby isn’t even on the market.”

  Levi cocked his head, trying to figure out who was speaking. He brought up his own comp and set up his tracking system on the next bit of conversation.

  “Maybe it’s broken.”

  “And maybe you should pull your brain out of your butt and use it once in a while.”

  “Watch your mouth. You might think you are the best of the best, but there is always someone better out there. You can be replaced.”

  That sharp retort was followed by footsteps and a door slamming.

  “Ass.”

  Levi checked his comp to find he had enough to run a voice recognition program. He started it and looked over to see what Milo was up to. He’d held up his bug finder as high as he could to the ceiling.

  A weird ear splitting sound filled the room.

  And then there was dead silence.

  Chapter 11

  Dani didn’t understand what was going on. A virtual invader? Like how was that possible? It was hard to be scared of someone jumping out and attacking you if he was just an image. She’d followed the two brothers as they’d wrangled their way down the hallway. She heard their discussion and some other voices. It didn’t make complete sense, but it appeared that something extra had come in with the pod. And that wasn’t likely to be good.

  Then the room filled with a horrific noise. She clapped her hands over her ears and crouched on her heels. Just as suddenly, the noise stopped and the silence was almost as painful. She shuddered when something touched her. She turned to see Charmin rubbing up against her leg. “That didn’t bother you?”

  “No, not the same way it did you.”

  “And I thought animals had better hearing.”

  “Sure we do, but I also knew it was coming, so I had time to prepare for it.”

  “You knew it ahead of time?” She shook her head at her cat. “How is that possible?”

  And damn if he didn’t give her that look that said she was too stupid to bother explaining it to. She shot a glare at his back and stood back up as the brothers came out.

  “What was that?”

  Levi wrapped an arm around her shoulder, turning her toward the kitchen. “Milo just killed a bug.”

  She twisted so she could see his face. “You mean an espionage type of thing?” At his nod, she raised her eyebrows. “Are you two so heavy into this stuff that people are trying to steal information about Milo’s inventions, or is this about me?”

  “I don’t know. Both are possible. I just don’t know how they knew the pod was coming here to have something like that ready in time.”

  Charmin galloped down the hallway in front of them. He called back. “What’s to understand? The bug and pod came from the same person. If you needed an unregistered pod, they needed a bug in here to find out why!”

  “That’s getting old,” Dani muttered, glaring at her beloved know-it-all pet.

  His tail flicked in several sharp motions as if to say “get over it”.

  “He’s right though.” Milo sauntered past. “It had to have been ready to go before you ordered the pod – or right at the same time. I told you it was a bad idea.”

  Levi pulled up short. Dani turned, about to ask him what was wrong when he said, “This is getting damn old.”

  She grinned. “Milo might have brought me for you, but it looks like he brought Charmin for himself.”

  Levi’s gaze widened and he broke out laughing. “That is so true.”

  They entered the kitchen to find identical looks on Milo and Charmin’s faces. As if reading each other’s minds in tandem, they turned their backs on Dani and Levi.

  She giggled freely, loving it when Levi hugged her close. “Let’s go see if the two geniuses can figure this out.”

  Still smirking, they stepped up to the side of the big holographic monitor that the two smarties were studying.

  “My facial recognition hasn’t found anything yet,” Levi volunteered.

  “And it won’t most likely. You don’t have the latest software.”

  “What?” Levi stared at his comp. “Sure I do. This was just updated last month.”

  “And I updated it after trying to find Lina’s henchmen buddies.” Milo lifted his head to Levi’s glare. “What? I sent it you. It’s not my fault if you didn’t do the upgrade as you were supposed to.”

  “There aren’t supposed to be any. It’s supposed to be seamless, remember?” The deceptively soft tone had Dani searching his face, not understanding the undercurrents.

  She asked, “Updating computer software was constant in my world. Is that the same here?”

  “No.” Levi said, his voice more resigned than hard. “It’s part of Milo’s mockery of my retro preferences.”

  “Not totally. It’s fun to bug you, but it is safer right now to do things manually. You know that. If we have a problem, we have to go into blackout mode. And that means taking everything offline and updating manually.”

  “Damn.”

  Milo laughed. “See. You forgot.”

  “Well, I’ve had other things to worry about.”

  Milo reached out, flicked a couple of holo buttons, and pulled a holo headset out of the monitor and wrapped it around the back of his head. He brought up some kind of white screen and with his hands not touching the monitor or the keyboard, words started to appear.

  “What the heck,” she muttered, leaning closer. “What’s he doing?”

  “Recording his observations and planning what to do next.”

  Dani shook her head. “But his fingers aren’t moving.”

  Levi stared at her. “What does his fingers have to do with it?”

  “Ah…typing?” She gave him a look that should have made him understand the problem, but instead he grinned. “At least audio for speech.”

  He laughed. “Sorry, typing is old school.”

  “Just like me apparently.” She watched as paragraphs of text appeared on one side of this big monitor. “So you can just think what you want onto that screen?”

  “Sure. Works much better.”

  “I can see that.�
�� She stared, trying to figure out how it worked. “It must be set up for his neural impulses.”

  “Exactly.” Charmin looked at her in admiration. “I didn’t think you could figure that out.”

  “Watch it,” she warned. Then had to smile as his face split into a huge feline grin. “You were teasing me, weren’t you?”

  He nodded before turning around on the spot and lying down. Just before he closed his eyes, he whispered, “Nap time.”

  “I wish.”

  Levi reached an arm across her shoulders. “You can go back in the pod.”

  Wistfully, she considered the idea. “Is it safe?”

  “Absolutely. Come on, I’ll take you back.”

  She let him lead her back into the small room. “It doesn’t feel the same.”

  “No, but it is fine. It’s safe and secure. The sounds you heard were coming from the bug.”

  “But it sounded like heavy breathing.”

  “Probably just the initial sounds as it went live. The bug had no visual on it, so it couldn’t see into the room. But it did have audio.”

  At her shocked look, he rushed to reassure her. “They didn’t hear much. It just turned on now while you were in there.”

  “It could have been on then, too.” She leaned in and whispered, “You know, when…”

  “No.” He shook his head. “The bug would have showed up earlier if that was the case. I had to run all sorts of security programs with the raid and the warrant. No. It was turned on just a few minutes ago.”

  “Are you sure?” Because she wasn’t. “What a horrible thought to think someone was listening in like that.”

  “They weren’t,” he reassured her. “It was installed in the pod, to detach at the right time.”

  Inside the room, he opened the pod. “I have something special to make you feel better.”

  She slid him a sideways look, wondering what he meant by that. But he appeared to be studying the computer dashboard on the pod. “Go ahead and lie down,” he said, his fingers dancing on the keyboard.

  Desperate to have the soothing sensation the pod could provide, she scrambled inside and immediately felt better. She had to trust that the Blackburn brothers knew what they were doing.