Amped: A Kid Sensation Companion Novel by Kevin Hardman Read Free Book Online Page B

– it always feels like she knows when I’m not being sincere. That being the case, I typically try to cloak my fibs in some semblance of the truth.
    On this particular occasion, after Smokey was finally on board with Operation Locke Infinite, I called to tell her I’d be hanging out with friends (which was technically true) and would be home later.
    Her response was to ask, “Have you done any homework or studying at all this weekend?”
    “I’m ahead in all my classes,” I reminded her. “Plus, you know what they say about all work and no play…”
    “Alright,” Esper said, giving in. “But don’t stay out too late.”
    I agreed to come in at a reasonable hour and then got off the phone. I turned to Smokey and Li. “Okay, let’s do this.”
    *****
    According to Murphy’s Law, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. With respect to breaking into Locke Infinite, however, the opposite of Murphy’s Law – Yhprum’s Law (“Yhprum” is just “Murphy” spelled backwards) – seemed to apply: Everything that can work, will work. Basically, it was the smoothest operation I had ever been part of.
    First of all, Smokey – who is excellent at procurement – was able to get us some stealth suits. These were essentially form-fitting bodysuits with face-hugging hoods, gloves, and goggles. They were made of a synthetic material that would, among other things, hide body heat and absorb sound waves – making us invisible to things like thermal imagery, radar, and sonar – as well as confound motion detectors. (They were also pretty good at keeping out the cold.) After donning the stealth suits and putting our regular clothes on top of them (so as not to arouse suspicion should anyone see us), we left HQ in my car and headed towards Locke Infinite.
    It was early evening when we got near our destination, but already dark – the result of the shorter winter days. The Locke Infinite facility was a large, multi-story building located on what was – in summer – a flat, grassy plain for the most part, with only a few groves of trees here and there. At the moment, however, the expansive grounds surrounding the structure were covered with snow.
    We ended up parking at a strip mall about a mile away. Once out of the car, I gave a thumbs-up to Smokey, who nodded in return. A moment later, dense fog began to fill the area – the result of Smokey providing us with his namesake smokescreen. (And for one of the few times in recent memory, Smokey kept his human form while creating the mist that wrapped around us.) Once we were safely obscured by it, we began to move out.
    Able to see almost nothing, I put on my goggles (which were equipped with various features, such as night vision and infrared) as we strode towards our destination. With them on, the fog was far less of a hindrance to my vision. Smokey didn’t seem to have any problem navigating through the fog he had created; likewise, Li hadn’t donned his goggles either. (That said, I wasn’t sure that Li, being an android, could actually “see” in the same sense that biological creatures could.)
    Walking briskly, it took us about twenty minutes to reach the Locke Infinite facility. (We took only one detour en route: stopping to strip out of our exterior clothes and placing them under a tree in a garment bag that Smokey had brought along for that purpose.) Thankfully, the facility wasn’t gated and there were no exterior patrols – facts that Li’s online research had intimated and which we were happy to confirm. There were, however, very bright external lights and exterior cameras, but to anyone looking at an image from them, it should have only appeared that a dense fog was rolling in. That being the case, we didn’t have any trouble getting close to the building.
    As a result of a little hacking, Li had also been able to pull up schematics and blueprints of the Locke Infinite site. After reviewing them, we had decided that an emergency exit at the back of