I am Baaack! Part 7

Down on the street, in the back of Karen's black Ford van - a van indistinguishable from thousands of other vans like it, which is why it had been borrowed for tonight - a previously red light on the control panel in front of Joyce changed from red to green. She flipped some switches, and a tape recorder began to run. "Show time!" she said. "Robbie's planted and activated the mic." Rose, seated kitty-corner from Joyce and facing the back of the van, turned and gave her a thumbs up; then her fingers began to dance over a computer console.

Up in the apartment, two things were happening:

1) As they returned to their living room, Lou and Ed were sky high and in a gloating mood. They couldn't believe their good fortune. Joan decided to go home and leave them to it. She'd had a busy week and needed some sleep, and now she knew she'd have sweet dreams. 'Counting dollars instead of sheep!' she thought, and smiled. She promised to stop at the 24 hour Osco and get the evenings pics developed. Once she was gone, Lou and Ed refilled their glasses, relaxed into their recliners, and toasted each other; Ed lit a cigarette. They began to talk about how they would sell Robbie, to whom, and how much money they expected to make from the sale - totally unaware of the tiny, perfectly working microphone Robbie had planted on the back of the couch.

2) Robbie couldn't believe her good fortune; their best case scenario had come true, and she was alone with Lou and Ed's computer. The plan had been to give Lou and Ed enough rope to hang themselves, and record it all. The computer would be a bonus; now, if it was only connected to Transformation System's mainframe. Robbie got up and turned it on; it was! Quickly, she followed the instructions Rose had made her memorize for bypassing Lou and Ed's security, and connecting the mainframe to Rose's computer down in the van. (Since Ross had been the one to install Transformation Systems' security in the first place, this wasn't difficult.)