Wired Courage by Toby Neal

Author:Toby Neal [Neal, Toby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Toby Neal

Chapter Twenty-Five

Sophie caught her breath at the sound of footsteps from above. She slid out of sight to take shelter under one of the large peeled logs that held up the two-story dwelling. The space beneath had been kept uncluttered in case of flooding, but was used for storage of unimportant items: stacks of fish traps, gardening tools, her father’s old car, and even a small scooter, thick with dust.

Sophie’s heart squeezed at the sight of a large woven basket filled with discarded children’s toys. She remembered that red truck, that traditional doll with its face paint peeling and garments moth-eaten, the purple soccer ball faded to pink from sun exposure. Whoever this company was, they had not altered anything left behind in her childhood home.

She would use that knowledge to her advantage.

Sophie tiptoed forward to the storage shed built directly under the main living area of the house. Once inside the dark, musty-smelling space, Sophie unslung her nylon bag, setting it down on a heavy wooden project bench and startling a mouse that skittered away with a squeak.

She opened her laptop and booted it up. While it was loading, she unwound the stiff fiber optic cable camera she liked to use for surveillance. A tiny node at one end was her eyes, a second, her ears.

Once again, she heard the creak of a footstep overhead. Now she could catch the murmur of voices.

And then, a sound that woke her entire system with a zap of pure adrenaline: the distinctive cry of a newborn baby.

The hairs on Sophie’s entire body lifted. Her breasts ached and her nipples tightened. She actually felt her uterus contract. Tears sprang to her eyes. That was her baby’s voice!

She had to stay calm and logical. She had to get audio and visual on whatever was going on in that room. She couldn’t rush in blind.

Sophie closed her eyes and took deep breaths until the urge to tear down anything between herself and her child had passed.

Sophie climbed carefully up onto the gardening bench. She took out the sound dampened, battery operated drill she had used on clandestine jobs for the FBI. She targeted a spot in the corner of the ceiling that she remembered being directly below a large armchair. If the new owners hadn’t even removed her old toys, perhaps they had left the inside furnishings of the house untouched, as well.

Sophie pressed her nose against her shoulder, trying not to inhale the wood dust that blew by on a warm stream from the drill as it whirred silently into the native hardwood floor above her. The last thing Sophie needed to do right now was to sneeze and give herself away. She felt the give of the drill as it punched through, and she withdrew it and set it down.

Sophie threaded a stiff fiber optic cable up through the hole she had made. The cable was flexible enough to bend and manipulate. She would look through it, using the window provided by her laptop.

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