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“Sonofabitch,” Edison repeated.

Galen noticed his flushed face.

Better check his BP later
.

“You’re right. I do feel like a mama grizzly,” Nancy retorted.

“Easy, easy, all of you; we’ve got some serious talking to do,” he said, turning to Carmelita.

“Carm, I’ve heard a lot of this over the years from my women patients. I know you’d rather walk away and not face this guy again. But you’ve got a lot at stake here. Why should you throw away everything you’ve worked for because this lowlife wants to use his power to prey on you?”

“Lowlife predator sonofabitch,” Edison snorted.

Usually Nancy would shoot her husband a “cool it” look at such a remark. Not this time. She felt her own anger.

“You three hotshot doctors have been through the academic gauntlet. What are Carm’s options?”

“They’re limited,” Sandy said. “Whatever he did in that office it was just the two of them, so it’s his words against hers. He was clever enough not to cause her any physical harm. If Carmelita says or does anything now, no one would believe her to be anything but a disgruntled graduate student.”

“Wouldn’t his fellow professors know that Zieg is a womanizer and a predator?” Nancy asked.

“They probably do,” Galen said. “This stuff gets around. But academics tend to tolerate a lot—unless somebody hits on their own wives or daughters. I’m also sure he’s not alone.”

“Sons of bitches,” Edison huffed again.

Galen noted that the flush on his face was deepening.

“Carm, is there anything else you can tell us about this man?” Nancy asked.

“Tia, even if the professors won’t say anything, their wives certainly know. Campus gossip has it that Mrs. Zieg has been trying to rein him in for a long time.”

Momentary silence, then Edison jumped in once more.

“Sonofabitch!”

His tone was different this time. He was upbeat, jubilant even.

“What the hell?” Nancy asked him.

“Carm just gave us the answer!”

The face flush gone, Edison grinned a big wide grin. He reached for an apple in the table’s fruit bowl and took a healthy bite out of it. Four pairs of eyes reacted with puzzled stares.

“Uh ... dear, you want to let us in on this?”

“Wouldn’t think of leaving you out,” Edison said, continuing to beam.

He was a mild-mannered genius, but when riled this particular genius was to be feared. Exclamations and laughter filled the room as he detailed his battle plan.

The oldsters slept well that night.

She had always been afraid of water.

Her first vivid memory was of the day that Sandoval Hidalgo, her beloved father, had taken her to the beach at
Santa María del Mar, where he coaxed his timid 4-year-old into the surf.

No sea el asustado, pequeña
.

“Do not be afraid, little one.”

She could see his smiling face beckoning her, his back to the sea, when suddenly a large wave appeared and swept them both off their feet.

She remembered choking, fighting for breath, alone and underwater—until her father’s strong hands grasped her waist and lifted her into the air.

She remembered that moment when her father told her that they would all be leaving for America on a boat. When she said she didn’t want to go, again her father reassured her.

No sea el asustado, pequeña
.

And she remembered watching her parents, Sandoval and Felicita, drift away from them in a storm-tossed sea, after they had lashed her and Antonio and Federico to the raft.

¡Excepto mí, papá!

“Save me, Papa!”

She felt those strong hands reach around her waist and begin to lift her.

¡Papá, usted me ha ahorrado!

“Papa, you have saved me!”

She turned to him.

Her relief became horror as she saw the face of Winston Zieg, his mouth wide open, his tongue protruding at her, waving back and forth like the head of a snake, coming closer ... closer...

Carmelita sprang awake in a cold sweat that drenched her nightgown.

Edison brought the wireless speakerphone to the breakfast table. Carmelita dialed Mike’s number in California. A yawning voice answered.

“Dimitriades.”

“Mike, it’s me.”

“Carm? Hi, babe. You coming out tomorrow?”

He perked up quickly.

“No, Mike, you’re coming here.”

“Huh?”

“Listen, honey, I’ve told my folks what happened with Zieg. Tio Eddie thinks we can take him down.”

“Hey, kid, still listening to satellites?” Edison chimed in.

“Uh-huh. Why?”

“We’re going to catch a rat and we need you and Freddie and Lilly to be the catchers. You game?”

“Uh ... sure, if it’ll help Carm.”

“Get out to LAX. We’ll have a ticket for you to Greater Pitt at U.S. Airways this morning and a commuter flight to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. You’ll be spending a couple of days with us. Then you and Carm and Freddie and Lilly are going back to school!”

Four electronics experts stood in Edison’s workshop, one of the younger three shaking his head in disbelief.

“Tio, what do you think you can do with that?”

Federico Hidalgo’s skepticism was obvious. Mike said nothing. He had been the first to arrive, the first to be briefed, and the first to be blown away.

Lilly Daumier slapped him on the shoulder.

“Freddie, shut up and listen!”

The old man was holding what looked like a standard-issue, pen-sized tripod smartphone, but with a mottled metallic surface.

“So you think you know what this is?”

“Tio, I build these things.”

“Where’s the camera, boy?”

“It’s right there at the top, just like every other...”

“Nope!”

Freddie took the device and examined it.

“It’s right ... uh ... huh?”

He began studying it from all angles.

“Tio, what the hell is this thing?”

Edison grinned and shook his head. Lilly took the device from Freddie.

“This is different. There’s no camera lens, no projection lens, no speaker. And this material, it’s ... Tio, what is it?”

Nancy, Sandy, Carmelita and Galen stood silently in the background. This was Edison’s show.

“Stumped you both, eh? Watch this.”

Edison took the little tripod back from Lilly and set it up on a tall wooden stool in the middle of the workshop. Then he motioned for everyone to follow him upstairs and into the dining room—except Mike, whom he directed to stay.

“You know the drill,” he said.

As soon as everyone got seated, Edison dimmed the chandelier a little and set up a twin of the device on the table.

“Unit 1 activate,” he said softly, “unit 2 activate.”

Suddenly the room brightened with a full-size, 360-degree, holographic projection of the workshop. The image clearly showed Mike walking around, handling objects, and smiling in various directions as though he knew where everyone was sitting upstairs.

Freddie’s jaw dropped. Carmelita hugged the old man, kissed his cheek, and whispered in his ear, “You’re wonderful, Tio Eddie!”

“You ain’t seen nothing yet. Okay, Mike, do your stuff.”

“Right, Tio.”

With that his holographic image began interacting one at a time with everyone at the table. He patted Galen’s shoulder, lunged out to punch Freddie’s nose, causing him to duck, and planted a kiss right on Carmelita’s lips. She covered her face in shyness. It was obvious that the device Edison had left in the shop was interacting with the one on the dining room table. Each was projecting what the other was seeing.

“Okay, Tio Eddie, you’ve duly impressed me,” Freddie said. “How did you do this?”

Edison’s eyes twinkled.

“It can do two other little things, too. Unit 2, playback.”

At his command the images from the previous few minutes reappeared in the room.

“Fantastic!” Lilly exclaimed.

“And what else?” Freddie asked.

“When you check your video mail you’ll find the recording in your inbox.”

Freddie sighed.

“Why did I bother going away to school?”

“I’ve been thinking the same thing,” Mike said, entering the room and taking a seat next to Carmelita.

Galen hadn’t seen Edison look so pleased in a long time.

“So, little brother, this thing can record or project room-sized holographic images and transmit them instantly to the Internet?”

“Almost. The electronics are very capable, but I need a nearby power booster, and a friendly satellite, if I want to move the data more than 20 feet or so. That’s why I’ve called for reinforcements.”

He turned to Carmelita.

“Think we can trap our varmint?”

She smiled, and nods reverberated around the room.

“I can’t believe it,” Freddie said, holding up one of Edison’s wonder phones. “This thing is bristling with microlenses, Tio. I thought it was just the texture of the metal.”

“You built these yourself, Tio?” Lilly asked.

“Mike helped me with the second one.”

“How many more will we need?”

“I figure three more, plus the relay/booster. I’m going to need all of your help to get this done in time.”

“Where are we going to get the satellite?” Freddie asked.

Edison frowned.

“Boy, haven’t I taught you anything?”

“Oh, right, I forgot, you ‘have your sources.’”

“Let’s get to work, chillun.”

“I’m going with them.”

“Sandy, what can you do?”

“Galen, we’ve already discussed this. You know the plan. Besides, your June was an alumnus of Yale.”

“So?”

“She was my big sorority sister.”

His eyes widened.

“You were a Yalie?”

“Yes, and a lot more, but you’ll learn.”

Two days later, four young adults and one of their elders stood outside the front door ready to leave. Three had strained eyes and aching fingers from several days of micro assembly work.

Nancy stood next to Carmelita.

“I sure hope this works.”

“Me, too, Tia, but coming from Tio Eddie I’m not worried.”

“You shouldn’t be, young ’un,” Edison said. “We’ll be watching your every move.”

Sandy smiled, hugged Nancy, and whispered “Make sure you keep an eye on him, old girl.”

“Who are you calling old, girl?” Nancy chuckled.

“Gonna miss me, Bear?”

Galen surprised them all by hugging the Dresden doll-sized woman.

“Behave yourself, little vixen, and don’t set a bad example for the kids.”

“You wish.”

The trio watched the van carrying the five conspirators down the mountain. They wanted to go with them, to be in the midst of the action, but as Galen had pointed out, this operation called for quick timing and if necessary fast thinking on the fly.

Their appetites were ravenous that evening as they sat in the dining room waiting for the plan to unfold. Edison poured himself a second cup of Jasmine tea and uncharacteristically gulped it down.

“Easy, little brother. It’ll be okay. With those magnificent phones I think we can count on our professor having an interesting experience, maybe even an educational one.”

“It can still go wrong.”

Galen noticed that Edison’s hands were shaking. Nancy noticed, too.

“Galen and I have faith in your genius, Bob. Now let’s have some faith in what the kids can do.”

“Kids?”

“Okay, the kids and their mother hen.”

They began fanning out through the campus early the next afternoon amid the students, faculty and staff who had returned to begin the new school year. The quintet had arrived at Carmelita’s apartment just off campus in New Haven the night before, exhausted not so much from the drive but from the constant gabbing on the way and their anticipation of the following day’s activities.

Freddie and Mike sought out every bulletin board they could find. Amid the “Welcome Back” posters and activity notices they tacked up a sign: “Free holographic movie demonstration, tonight at 8, Silliman Quadrangle.”

“Think this’ll draw a crowd?” Freddie asked when they posted the last one.

“Enough for our purposes,” Mike answered.

“Now where to?”

“IT Services.”

Lilly walked up Dixwell Avenue to the Zieg residence guided by her palm navigator. She stood on the front porch and rang the doorbell. Ophelia Zieg answered.

“Mrs. Zieg?”