He’d throw together some food to bring out to her and then he’d find her.
And fix things.
Now You See Me
Tansy climbed the maple tree until she was higher than the roof of the cabin. The branches above her head were too thin to support her, so this would have to do.
Buds were forming and she was careful not to disturb any as she settled her feet into the crook of a couple of branches and wrapped her arm around another. She slid her backpack off, pulled out the tablet, and opened her program.
It was an awkward angle, but if she was below the solar panel, she wouldn’t be able to see the results.
The program was complex, and she knew it wouldn’t have the results she needed yet, but she was hoping for some improvements.
It had taken her far too long to run off the humiliation she’d felt earlier.
The double set of Tai Chi exercises had helped center her. And if she didn’t stop thinking about Sam, she’d have to start all over again.
Arrogant man. Thinking he and her brother got to decide if she would be in a relationship. The dumbass had been thinking about her brother while she hadn’t been able to do anything other than feel.
Once again, she was the lesser one in the relationship. The needy one who wasn’t capable of seeing things clearly.
A blue jay screeched out from a nearby tree and brought her back to herself. Now, she was definitely a dumbass wasting time.
Tansy blew out a deep breath and closed her eyes to bring herself back to the science. This was the important stuff, not her love life.
Or lack thereof.
Focus.
Tansy opened her eyes and tapped the tablet again to start the program.
Earlier, she’d wired ten holographic devices into the panels and placed them to aim at the sky above the cabin. She pressed the button and triggered the panels to direct their energy to the devices. Instantly, the air above the cabin shimmered.
Very, very cool.
The hologram was basic. Mostly browns and greens, aiming to imitate a regular cabin roof in a forest.
She’d thought about aiming for an entire leaf canopy, but the cabin was visible from the lake and the dock indicated its presence. If she could make it look like a regular cabin without solar panels from the air, then no one would notice it as unusual. No one would suspect it was her lab.
She’d been concerned about air surveillance even before the fly-overs earlier. Not because of James, but just a general security procedure. The lodge was too big and obvious to hide, but there was no sense in advertising the cabin.
And this was the perfect practice size for the DOD project. They weren’t out to hide large buildings. They wanted to protect people hiding in various climates so they could rest when moving toward extraction points. Portable holograms.
From her angle, Tansy could see gaps in the program and that the hologram was thin in some areas. The solar panels were shining through. Once she could hide solar panels while still absorbing the light, she could hide a few people huddled together in the desert or forest.
Tansy made notes and studied the images. She’d made a working hologram, and that was pretty cool.
Wanting to see the results from all angles before she stopped the program, Tansy slipped the tablet back into the backpack and climbed down.
She was on her fourth tree when she realized the sun was setting behind the trees. With a sigh, she collected all the information she could while dusk deepened.
She slipped the tablet into her pack and started down the tree when she heard someone moving through the bush.
Tansy froze and waited, even though she was almost certain it was Sam. No one else would be out here. No one else would know where her workspace was.
Unless the people from the plane had been doing spying.
When Sam moved into the clearing, his steps slowed to a halt as he saw the open door of her cabin. He didn’t mutter to himself, didn’t make any noise as he reached behind his back.