“Will, can you identify the unit?” I asked.
“Trying,” said Will. “It’s equipped with a camera, and I think a lot of environmental sensors. Brie’s attempting to intercept its signal now.”
The drone edged closer to the robot, dropping almost to the floor to hover under its mechanical legs. Hopefully, it didn’t have cameras on its underbelly.
Through the audio feed, Mario’s voice grew clearer.
“Che ci fai qui?” Mario called out to the robot, his voice echoing in the tunnel. “None of the scouts are scheduled to be in here until tomorrow. Let’s get you back to the office to make sure you’re ready for work.”
His performance was perfect—exactly what a park employee would say upon finding unauthorized equipment. Except he was speaking in English?
“Any luck with the signal?” Brooke asked.
“Negative,” Will replied. “It’s running on an encrypted frequency we can’t access remotely. We’re capturing its transmission pattern.”
“Mario needs to disable it now,” I said. “Before whoever’s controlling it gets suspicious.”
Percival nodded in agreement. “If Fenix has eyes on that feed and spots our drone, the entire operation could be compromised.”
“Do we have comms with Mario?” This was not a position I liked—being in the dark when my own team was working a job.
“Such a clever boy,” said Mario. That was an odd thing to say.
Brooke said, “Malcolm also gave him an earpiece. He can hear everything we say.”
Of course. That was why he was speaking in English, not in Italian.
The drone pulled back to show us Mario kneeling beside the robot dog. He pulled a tool from his pocket and opened a panel on its side. The robot lurched forward, but Mario grabbed it. “You must be malfunctioning, little one. I’ll get you repaired. You just need to wait here until I can find someone to help me transport you back to the office.”
The robot’s legs jerked, but Mario poked at something inside the panel. Its legs stiffened momentarily before folding beneath it, settling onto the tunnel floor.
“It’s off,” Brooke said, the barest smile forming on her lips.
Mario stood and faced the drone, putting out his hand as though hoping for a butterfly to land. “I need one of these.”
“We’re coming down,” I said.
“Sì, but of course.” Mario put his tool back into his pocket. “If it was recording locally, you may be able to access its data.”
Brooke was already gathering her equipment. “Good idea. Maybe we can find out where it was before this.”
“Or,” I said, “who delivered it and why.”
We moved to the back of the shed, where a hatch in the floor led to the tunnel system below. After donning helmets that had hung from pegs on the wall, Percival descended first, followed by Brooke and then me. The air was cool and damp, smelling of earth and stone.
Mario met us halfway, his headlamp illuminating the narrow passage. “The robot is this way. Someone’s gone to a lot of trouble to smuggle it in here. I’ll have to speak with security.”
“Any identification?” Brooke asked as we followed him deeper into the tunnels.
“Nothing obvious. I didn’t see any serial numbers.” He led us to where the robot lay motionless on the stone floor, its mechanical limbs folded neatly beneath its body.
Brooke knelt beside the robot, reaching into her pack for a multi-tool. “Will, can you walk us through extracting the memory module?”
“You’ll need to remove the top panel first,” Will instructed through the phone. “There should be four recessed screws at each corner.”
I held out my hand, and his drone landed. I brought its camera to where Brooke was working.
Mario kept the light on us while Brooke loosened the screws. I flashed back to the day we met and to how those hands had captivated me.
