Ethan Edwards & Noah Rogers ~ Family Affairs. By Carter P, Monacur

Chapter ~ 17# ~ Testing Grounds

Ethan ~ POV

I smiled as I sat with the other robotic club members. I made some calls and got them to meet us at Jeremiah's house. He was the closest to everyone, so meeting at his house was the easiest for everyone. We all stood in a small shed that seemed to be his own home workshop. I felt like I was in one of those secret labs that make fancy gadgets for spies. I looked at everyone as Noah looked around the shed. Honestly, I know I should go to the police with this... but with Ben gone, I don't think any of the sheriffs would take me seriously. And if they did, we... all end up in more trouble. I had been talking with them, trying to figure out any kind of location Nathneial and his dad might have mentioned.

"Honestly, we mostly built our robots here or at school," Emily mentioned as she sat in a rolling swivel chair.

"You guys can't think of anything? Maybe a spot in the woods... or...." They all shook their heads as I tried to think of other locations they could be hiding in.

"We do field testing either at the school's parking lot or at the park." Jeremiah leaned against a table as he said that.

I groaned; we're so close but missing a piece of the puzzle.

"Hey... what kind of robot is this?" Noah asked as he pointed to a small robot that sat on a display shelf with others.

It was a miniature robot that looked about the size of a softball. I saw a tiny camera hidden along a thick, clear plastic ring. The club members look over to the shelf Noah was pointing to.

"That's a prototype for a project we were working on," Alex mentions as he walks over to the shelf.

"So it was you guys." Noah mentioned, which caught not just me but everyone off guard.

"What do you mean?" Samantha asked as she walked over and leaned against a tool chest.

"Back at Nathaniel's house, there was something like this there... about the same size. It bumped against my foot and led me to the room key." As Noah talked, I noticed everyone in the robotics club looked at each other nervously.

"You don't think...." Emily asked but stopped, not wanting to finish her thought.

Though judging from the other's worry reaction, I guess they all were thinking the same thing.

"What's wrong?" I asked the question that was hanging in the air.

After all, nothing got solved by dancing around the problem. Alex rubbed the back of his neck as Samantha turned to me.

"We built this robot and others like it for a competition to explore maintenance lines. Slip the robot into a pipe; use a wireless signal to look through the pipe for any damages or blockage ...." She said before Alex took over.

"The only problem is that we couldn't build a small enough model in time, and we lost the competition... We each kept one of the robots as a souvenir... like our own personal trophies." He said before Emily took over next.

"So you guys weren't the ones to point Noah to the key," I asked as I stood up and walked over.

Noah didn't tell me about a small robot that pointed out the key to him. But who could it be if it wasn't someone from the club? I began to think until the obvious answer hit me. I looked to Emily and Jeremiah as I needed to clear up something.

"How far is the reach for those things?" Emily and Jeremiah looked at each other for a moment.

"That one, we managed to get to one end of the football field. Drove it around the track as a test." Emily mentioned as she looked at the others.