The Guy Named Harrison: Book One

97

Today's practice was a cold one already. Carrie stood on the sidelines in snow pants and a Panthers winter coat with a winter hat. She was already freezing.

She momentarily lost focus of being cold when she saw Harrison strolling by. Today the defense was wearing their black practice jerseys. He wore all black with a sweatshirt underneath and sweatpants. Carrie could see him wearing a black balaclava under his helmet.

Then she saw the black blanket he had draped over his back as a cape. He was walking with a few of his teammates who were on offense and wearing their white practice jerseys. Harrison stopped in front of her and pulled out a toy lightsaber.

Harrison ignited the glowing red lightsaber and together, he and a few of the guys from offense ran towards everyone else already stretching. He found Luke first. Luke tried to run, but stopped when Harrison held his hand out. His hands were clamped around his neck when Harrison playfully stabbed him in the stomach with his toy lightsaber.

Carrie couldn't help but laugh when she realized what he was doing. It was snowing pretty hard, and he was reenacting the Battle of Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back. Harrison was pretending to be Darth Vader and the offensive guys in white were his stormtroopers.

❺❾

The snow finally let up after the first hour of practice and the sun came out. As the practice field was cleared one last time, Carrie used that opportunity to change lenses in her camera. She slung her bag over her shoulder and began to take pictures as the guys got back to work.

Carrie was surprised how much security went into these Super Bowl practices. A 10 foot wall was built around the field to keep anyone from looking in. There were security guards at practice and police officers on the other side of the wall. The only ones allowed inside were the security guards, and certain people employed by the Carolina Panthers. It was the first time Carrie had to show her ID to get into practice.

She was taking pictures of Harrison running a route with a receiver when she heard a buzzing noise. It took her a few seconds to figure out it wasn't her camera or phone. Then she looked up. About 50 feet in the air was one of those remote controlled drones lots of people flew.

As Harrison ran by her on the sidelines, she stopped him. "Harrison!"

"Yeah!"

Carrie pointed upward. He looked up. "What the hell is that doing here?"

"I have no idea," he said, before running over to find Coach Rivera. The two of them looked up at it. Then Coach Rivera blew his whistle, stopping all drills running at practice. Now all the players were looking up at it.

Very surprisingly, whoever was running the drone didn't fly it away once everyone noticed it. Instead, it flew even closer.

Carrie met Harrison, Luke, and Cam out on the field as police officers and security officers came running to midfield where the drone was hovering.

"Why do you think this is here?"

"Somebody trying to see a Super Bowl practice, or somebody trying to spy on us."

The security officials were trying to figure out what to do about it. They already tried taking over the drone to no avail. Then Harrison got an idea.

"Cam, can I see that?"

Cam tossed him the ball. "Can I?" Harrison asked his coach and the security officials.

"If there's no other way to get it down," Coach Rivera said. The police officer nodded.

Harrison took a step and launched the ball into the air, right at the drone. The ball hit the drone, sending both flying to the ground.

He picked up the drone and switched off the one propeller still running. "What the hell were they doing?" He muttered to himself.

"Hey Carrie?"

She walked over. The players all made room for her to sneak through and to Harrison's side. "There's a card in here. Will it fit your camera."

Harrison handed her the card. "It should."

Carrie quickly handed him her current camera card and put the other one in. It turns out that the drone wasn't capturing video, but instead taking very careful and precise photos of the players wristbands and coaches playbooks.

"Is there any way these could've been sent to anybody?"

She shook her head. "Most cameras have a wifi setting to wirelessly move photos." Carrie picked up the drone. "Since these are very similar to cameras, this one doesn't look like it has a wifi function. The photos taken by this drone are only on the card."

Carrie handed over the drone and card to the police who were going to trace the signal and figure out who was taking those pictures. After everyone was sure it was okay to start practicing again, Harrison gave her a high five.

"Good eyes. If you didn't see that I don't think I or anyone else would've."

"What are they going to do with whoever took those photos?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. This is the first time I've ever seen anything like this."