now has his own cell phone,” Pug said.
“We got the phone last night,” Autumn said. “Then Pug hacked the phone and wired it to your control box upstairs. Then we wrote an app for my Galaxy, using its accelerometer and gyroscope to control Donovan’s movements. So now all we have to do is call Donovan’s number, key in a few top-secret codes, and we get his audio and video on the phone we’re calling from. All you have to do is tilt your phone the way you want him to go.”
“No kidding?” Rigger asked. “Can I get it on mine?”
“Well, Donavan does have an unlisted number.”
“Great. The boys at the CIA will go nuts over this.”
“We might give them his number.” Autumn grinned at Rigger. “You ready to key it into your address book?”
Rigger nodded, and she read the number to him. He added it to his address book.
“You need to download the app,” Pug said.
“Okay.”
Pug gave him the instructions.
Rigger called Donovan’s number. “Password?” he asked.
“Clicker,” Autumn said.
Rigger keyed in the password. “Hey, take a look, Kat.” He turned his phone toward her so she could see the screen.
“Yep, there’s Autumn and Pug, sitting side-by-side,” Katrina said. “Where’s the camera?”
Pug turned Donavan to face Rigger and Katrina. “Two tiny video cameras for eyes.”
“They work pretty good for being so small,” Katrina said.
“Yes, they do,” Autumn said, “but transmitting the video back to the control box upstairs uses up the battery.”
“Type in one-h-one,” Pug said.
Rigger keyed in the command, and the video shut down.
Pug turned Donavan to his back and held him steady for Autumn.
She removed the old battery from a bracket on his belly and inserted a fresh one. “We soldered a battery holder to his stomach to make it easy to change batteries.”
“Good idea,” Rigger said.
“Okay,” Autumn said. “Now call his number again.”
Rigger dialed his number as Pug set the Dragonfly on the table.
After the call connected, Rigger got Donovan’s video signal on his phone’s screen. “Now what?”
“Wait a minute,” Autumn said, “it’s not going to work with his phone. You’ve got to have at least a Galaxy S-five model, because it has the tilt sensors.”
“Right,” Pug said. “Rig, you’ll have to get a new phone. But for now, use Autumn’s.”
“All right. I’ll get a new phone later today.”
Autumn handed her phone to him.
“Key in two-d-two,” Pug said. “Then you control him by tilting left, right, forward, and backward.”
Soon, Donavan’s wings began to flutter, and he lifted off the table. He turned in a slow circle as he flew up near the ceiling.
“This is a lot better than those two joysticks we were using,” Rigger said. “What’s the range?”
“We flew him all the way to the kitchen this morning,” Autumn said.
“Go open the front door,” Rigger said.
Pug went to open the door, and Rigger maneuvered Donovan out into the hallway. He turned the Dragonfly to the left as he watched the video on his phone.
“Follow him, Pug,” Rigger said. “Let’s see how far he can go.”
“Okay,” Pug said. “Hey, someone’s getting off the elevator.”
Rigger watched the video and raised Donovan up near the ceiling of the hallway, where he set him to hovering. “Let’s see if they notice him,” Rigger said to Autumn and Katrina.
A man and lady stepped off the elevator, then came along the hallway, eying the grinning Pugsley.
Rigger rotated Donavan to keep the couple on video. They didn’t notice the tiny insect at all.
The couple went into the apartment across from Rigger’s front door, then Rigger turned Donovan back the other way to fly toward the elevators, with Pug following along. A little way beyond the elevators, the signal from Donovan began to fade.
Rigger turned around the tiny aircraft to come back toward his apartment.
Autumn went to the door. “Where did he turn around?” she asked Pug.
“About ten yards past the elevators,” Pug said.
“And maybe twenty yards from here to the elevators,” Autumn said. “Plus another twenty-five or so, up to the control box in his room. His range is about fifty yards. Not bad for a little critter like him.”
Pug followed Donovan back inside. “If we can change to a higher frequency, I think we can improve the range.”
Rigger set Donovan down in Katrina’s outstretched hands. “He’s a cute little guy,” she said. “But what does the CIA want him to do?”
“He’ll be carried to a particular area by a larger drone,” Rigger said, “then released to flutter around a missile site or a terrorist training camp. The theory is, no one will pay any attention to a Dragonfly flitting around. His video and audio signals will be relayed through the mother-ship circling high above, then back to headquarters.”
“What happens if his battery goes dead while he’s on his spy mission?”
“He has an incendiary device that’ll trigger automatically when his battery goes dead,” Rigger said. “But if he docks with his mother-ship before he runs out of energy, the incendiary will be disabled.”
“Too bad he doesn’t have a tiny machine gun,” Pug said.
“Um…”
“Don’t tell me he has a gun.” Katrina looked at the belly of the Dragonfly.
“No,” Rigger said. “But I’m working on a weapon.” He looked at Autumn.
She laughed. “Does it involve a carnivorous fish or poison frog slime?”
“Frog slime.”
* * * * *
“Can I ask something, Mama?” Katrina asked Rachel as they sat in Rigger’s living room, while Rigger, Autumn, and Pug were upstairs, working
