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After having read about it on the newspaper, Colin goes to downtown Chicago to check the robbed jewelry store. It's been a while since he heard about the band of the robots, and would like to check if this new job has any connections with the ones that came before. Armed of his good smile, his camera and a tape recorder, he cycles to the reported street, looking around for the store.

The store isn't hard to find.  The front looks to be normal, with the types of precautions one would expect to see on a jewelry store.  There is no sign of anything being wrong.

A middle-aged man with graying hair and a finely groomed mustache is behind the counter.  He is chatting with a young couple.  They're finishing up and making their way out.

Colin waits for them to get out and enters the store. He smiles politely at the man at the counter and introduces himself.
"Good evening, sir. My name is Colin Crow. I work at my school's newspaper, and I'm doing a little research on some of the events that made it to the news lately. I understand that this store has been robbed, hasn't it? I'm sorry about that by the way. Could you tell me something about it, please? For our research it's important to be able to tell if there's a difference between how the newspaper tell a story, and how we're able to investigate about it on our own."

"Certainly."  The man shakes hands with Colin, "I am Emanuel Perch, welcome to my establishment."  He comes out from behind the counter and wlkas to the front window to straighten a nechlace in a display.  "It's really a strange tale.  I got the call from the security company that the store had been broken into.  When I arrived the police were already here.  We looked at the security tapes, and it looked like something out of one of those television shows about the future.  There were all these robots running about, breaking cabinets and collecting jewels.  One even went in the back and cut open the safe to take the loose stock."

Mr. Perch leads Colin to the back room.  There is a new safe, and they pass it.  Out in the alley sits the old one.  A hole about the size of a basket ball is cut in the door, right where the handle and combination tumbler were.  "I've never seen anything like it, astonding."

Colin has, instead. He takes a few photos.

"How many robots were there? Could you describe them to me?"

"Well, I have a copy of the tape if you'd like to see it?"  Mr. Perch leads Colin back into an office in the back room.  there he loads a disk into a DVD player and lets Colin watch the roberry.  It's broken into sections that show what each camera saw during the break in.

The robots mostly resemble large remote controlled trucks.  One exception is a flying sphere that doesn't seem to do anything except hover in the middle of the main room while the others go about their various tasks.  They all have 2 to 4 arms which they use to grab things.  A centrally mounted camera on a swivel mount so that it can look in multiple directions as needed, and large knobby tires.  They move quite quickly, zipping around the shop.

The robot that opened the safe rolled up to it, and raised up some type of lens device,  zap, there was a hole in the safe.  It reached in with it's manipulator arms, grabbed the sacks of loose diamonds and then sped off.

Colin tries not to make a face. This is exactly what he was afraid of. It's Kirby's device, no doubt about it. He takes a couple photos of the safe and the hole in it. Then, as an afterthought, he touches it too, but he doesn't think he could pick up any impression from a robot, no matter how intelligent. He wonders if they have some sort of artificial intelligence, or are merely remote controlled. He also wonders who he could ask, since technology is not his strong point.

Maybe I should start back from the beginning, and talk with Kirby again. Whoever stole the death ray, had a reason to be in our school. I'm not exactly 'Unbreakable' but maybe I could pick some impressions from the science club guys and teachers.

"Mr Perch, you've been extremely helpful. I hope there's not any problem with your insurance. It looks like those robots stole a lot."

"Well, you're very kind young man.  My insurance took care of the monetary loss, but some of those pieces were one of a kind.  You really can't replace it, you just have to start again."

Colin frowns. He thinks of how he would feel if someone stole his photos, or his drawings.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I fancy myself a bit of an artist, and I think I know how you feel. Well, thank you again and goodbye, Mr Perch. I hope the police find the culprits soon, and that they might recover your pieces."

This thought keeps making him feel uneasy as he cycles home. Money is so impersonal. It's got no value beyond what's written on it. But art, is a different thing. This thief has to be stopped. He thinks up a plan in his mind. He might need Sylvia too. What he can't see, maybe she will.

The following days he looks for Kirby at school.

"Thank you."  Mr Perch says.  "Oh, here."  He opens a drawer on his desk and gives Colin a CD.  "I have copies of the video, in case you need some pictures for your story.  Papers do like pictures."  he says with a smile.

"Oh, they do indeed! Thank you very much, Mr Perch." says Colin with a big smile.

Once out, he sends a message to Sammy and John.

I've got something to show you, and maybe you could help me. Can you drop by my house in half an hour? It won't take long.

Sammy replies

I'll be there as soon as I can.

Sammy shows up about 45 minutes later.  "Sorry, I was at rehearsal and I had to figure out an excuse to leave.  What's up?"

"You and John have investigated a bit about the science club, haven't you? Here, take a look at his, and let me know if it reminds you of something or someone."

He shows her the footage of the robbery.

"This little robot here, it's using a sort of modified version of Kirby's death ray. Whoever is behind these robberies is the same one who stole the device, and those mechanical hands too." He shows her his notebook with the articles he gathered too.

"He must be someone who's good with technology, really good, because he can take someone else's work and somehow integrate it into his own. And it has to be someone who was at school when Kirby carved the hole in the wall. Can you think of anyone like this?"

"I had almost forgotten about that hole in the wall stuff," Sammy says.  "I can only think of one kid who's extra good with robotics, but I can't remember his name right now.  Do you remember him, John?  The guy with the robotic camera vehicle that he could send into really tight spots?  He was showing it off at the science club meeting, that day I got dosed with love goo and..."  She stops abruptly.  She is blushing.

"Preston Wilde."  John says.  "He's got a thing for robots, and he left the Science Club recently.  He wanted to spend more time working on robots, and the club was taking up some of that time."

"Yes, that's it.  Preston."  Sammy looks back and forth between the two boys.  "So what are we going to do about it?"

"Well, if those are remote controlled he has to have help.  That's a lot for one guy to be running himself."

"Does he?"  Sammy takes control of the remote and zips back to the middle of the recording.  She points at the robot in the middle that didn't seem to be doing much. "What if a lot of this was automated and being controlled by the bigger robot in the middle?  Then all he'd have to control is that one, right, and just tweak the other ones if they needed it."  She rocks back on her heels.  "But I could be wrong.  Who are his friends?"  She grins at John, a hint of devilry in her eyes.  "You've been hanging out at Science Club, right?  Want to infiltrate his circle?"

"Well, that's just it."  John says, sitting down.  "Preston doesn't have many friends in the club.  Most of the guys think he only joined so he could show off his robots.  I know he hangs out with a group of enthusiasts, from all the local schools.  Not sure who the others are though."

"That makes it tougher," Sammy replies.  She stares off into space for a minute.  "I could ask him for help with something.  I haven't talked about it much to you guys, but I'm singing in the Winter Concert.  I could ask him to do camera work, see if he can pull together something complicated and mobile and unobtrusive... like a bunch of small robot mounted cameras?  He might have to call in his buddies for their help."

"It's worth a try, unless Colin wants to do whatever it is that he does with people."

"I thought I could tell him the paper needs his help, show him the tape, and study how he reacts."

Or even better, ask Sylvia to check what he thinks when he sees it.

"That could work.  It might tip him off though, which means he might become dangerous."

"My way could work then.  It's a reasonable request, and its not asking for anything I don't know about without being a snoop.  Maybe we could have you guys around in the background when I ask?  You might notice something if he reacts strangely."

"Uhm." Colin thinks about it for a while. He liked his idea.

"Do you think we could put things together? I mean, we go together, you ask his help for the concert, and at the same time I tell him I'd like to do an article about him and his lab. If I could get there I could probably learn if it's him or not. At some point I could ask him what he thinks of the robberies that have been in the news..."

"You don't even have to start with the article," Sammy replies.  "You could be taking still photos for me, and could work with Preston.  When you've been around him for a little while, you can 'suddenly realize' that his story would make a very interesting article."  She smiles at Colin.  "I'm going to need you to coach me through the song rehearsal anyhow Colin.  You're good at getting the right emotional expression on my face, and this song is... pretty emotional."

"Uh... Ok, then, I guess."

Sammy tilts her head sideways, not sure what Colin is saying "OK" to.  "OK, you'll tell Preston you're taking pictures for me?"  or "OK, you'll coach me for the performance?"

She turns to look at John.  "You need to come too.  Somebody needs to be able to get a close enough look at his robots to know how to take them apart someday.  Besides, Megan is in the show too, so it'll give you a legitimate excuse to hang around the theater to watch rehearsals.  Nobody will chase you off if they think you're working."

"Ok to both. I don't think you'll need much coaching, though."

Sammy looks ever so slightly worried, then it passes.  "You don't know yet what Nick and I will be singing.  Its a song from the Broadway play Wicked.  The song is As Long As You're Mine*."  She starts it up on her iPod.  "Listen."





*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCD1jVXhONE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCD1jVXhONE)
*http://www.musicalschwartz.com/wicked-lyrics-4.htm (http://www.musicalschwartz.com/wicked-lyrics-4.htm)*

"It's a demanding song." He seems thoughtful. "Did you plan on being green, or to sing it out of context? What would you like me to do, exactly?"

"We haven't worked that out yet, but I think I'll skip the green part if I can.  It should work just fine out of context."  She looks at him and shrugs.  "You were so good when you took those pictures of me, I thought maybe you could help me get my expression right for the song?  Its going to be difficult to put this together in two weeks.  I need all the help I can get.  And if helping me opens up an excuse to get close to Preston..."

"I'll think of something. I might have to ask Greg for advice too." He takes a long look at her, clearly thinking over something, then he smiles. "I kind of have an idea."

Sammy looks at him, as hopeful as a fresh spring morning.  "You do?"

"Well, it's just a thought for now." He grabs a notebook and starts sketching away.

"At the beginning it's all dark. Then the spotlight shines on you, with a warm, orange-red light. You walk, or dance around the stage a bit, Your movements are sudden, violent, and then you find Nick. Another spotlight starts shining on him too, but slowly, getting brighter as you slowly walk towards him, and his color is blue gray, because you're a being of flame, and he's a being of ice. So your love, the love you start singing about looks doomed, for either you will melt him, or he will snuff you out. But instead, something magic happens, and your light, passing through him, is reflected away in a thousand rainbows. And stars begin to shine all around."

He shows her a little sketch of her face, with his hair tied up with red ribbons and flowing wild, and make up making her look beautiful but dangerous.

"Maybe it's a bit too much."

"Wow.  Look at this John.  Colin is... good.  Very, very good."  Sammy is speechless, but not in a bad way.  "Do you think we could pull this together in just two weeks?"

"Well, the most important thing would be the lights. I guess that's what would take the most work. You and Nick should learn how to move, but that not too difficult. We could keep the costumes simple so it wouldn't take a lot to get them done, if the lighting works. There'd be work for a lot of people, but it could be done. You'll just owe many people a favor."

"Before I go getting into debt for favors..."  She calls Nick on the phone to see if he'll be home in a little while.  She has something she wants him to see.  "Its about the song."

"I'm almost always home."  Is Nick's reply.  "You want to come by?"

"Yeah," Sammy says.  "I'm bringing by a friend who has some staging ideas for the song.  You'll see when we get there.  We'll be there soon."

She turns back to Colin and John.  "Walk or fly?"

"Well, you don't need me there for this."  John says, "So why don't you two fly and I'll see you at school."

"If we fly, you'll have to bring me back here too." he shrugs, gathering his stuff.

"One day, John, you're gonna find out how much fun it is to fly.  When you do, remember I told you so!"  Sammy turns to Colin and grabs his hand.  "Let's go see Nick.  I'll bring you back."

Sammy flies to a spot near Nick's house, and she and Colin walk the rest of the way.  She rings the doorbell, introduces Colin to Nick's mom, then heads downstairs to Nick's room, where she introduces Colin to Nick.

"Hi Nick, I'm Colin Crow. Nice to meet you. Sammy insisted that I helped a bit, because she liked a lot some photos I did for her. I hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes."

He explains him his idea, showing him the notebook and sketching an ice version of him to go with Sammy's fire, and the two of them singing together.

Nick looks over the sketches, he puts the song on and stares at the images while it's playing.  "This could work out really well.  It's got enough of everything that I think it'll really go over well."

Sammy is very pleased by all of this.  "Colin is a visual genius!" she exclaims.  "You should see his photographs, Nick.  He really knows how to work the images.  I've asked him if he wouldn't mind taking pictures either during rehearsal or during the performance itself.  I'd like to have them for myself, and they might show up in the school paper too.  He'll figure out a way to be very unobtrusive.  Is that okay with you?"

Sammy mentally crosses her fingers.  Nick has to agree before they can take the next step of trying to lure Preston into the slowly closing net.

"Sure, that sounds great.  I've seen his stuff in the school paper, you'll get no arguement from me."

Sammy does a happy little bounce but refrains from gleefully hugging everybody in the room.  She smiles triumphantly at Colin.  Now he has a perfectly innocent reason to talk to Preston about the robot camera vehicle.

"So, what else could I do for you? I've never done anything with the theater club before, so I don't know how you use to work."

"Do you want Nick and I to sing it for you?" Sammy asks.  "It might help you later when you have to tell Greg about the lights, or figuring out where to be with your camera."

"Well, I think I should see you on stage. I've already got something to start from. I'll get home to do some more sketches." he looks at Sammy meaningfully. "You'll take care of the rest?"

"I'll do my best" is her reply.  "I'm going to owe a lot of favors to a lot of people by the end of this if I'm not careful."

OOC:  Sammy will not talk to Preston right now, but will wait until a school day to track him down.