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"Ahh, come in Alec…just squirreling around until you got here. Come here—I’ve got something to show you."
Monty
motioned Alec over as he swung open the double doors on the
lacquered Chinese cabinet behind his desk, revealing a small TV
monitor and a control panel with odd switches and lights. Alec
never suspected that Monty had any closed-circuit TV cameras in
the large, three-storied café. But the image on the monitor was
unmistakably from the front entrance. Monty flipped a couple of
switches and the patio view snapped onto the monitor. The alien
creature and the glowing sphere were clearly visible, although
now surrounded by a small wire fence and an assortment of
cameras, three Omnivore 90s on mobile platforms, and some
odd-looking machines with parabolic dishes mounted on their
tops.
"See,"
Monty said, "there’s our little monkey."
"Boffo
view," Alec blurted out. "I never saw a camera up on
the patio, where’s it at?"
"Mum’s
the word, Alec, don’t say anything to the feds…not even to
Chief Cook. OK?"
"Sure
thing, Monty. But how do you do it?"
"Well,
you know that old, weather-beaten bird feeder that hangs under
the Wisteria, well…"
"Boffo!"
Alec exclaimed. "And I bet you even rigged it up to rotate,
eh Monty?"
"Right
you are. Plus, look at this…I can record up to a whole day’s
worth of video automatically. In fact, I started recording from
the patio camera just before I called my lawyer yesterday."
"Double
boffo," Alec said, obviously impressed by the
sophistication of the setup.
"Fact
is, I’ve got four other concealed cameras in the café…had
to put them in after a punk plastique gang blew into town a few
years ago. Built the hiding spots myself—even the motorized
mounts," Monty boasted. "But remember, not a
word of this to anyone."
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