Chapter 3—An unexpected visitor…No, two unexpected visitors!
"These are…" Walter breathed.
"Blueprints," said a gravelly voice behind them. Everyone turned at the sound.
"Cabe! We weren't expecting you to be here!"
The agent stopped and gave a small smile. "Well, isn't that the greeting everyone wants to hear?" he said.
"I thought you were on your way to visit your family," said Toby, raising his eyebrows.
"I was. I am. I just stopped by to wish you all a happy holiday season."
Everyone turned to look at each other and then back at Cabe. Clearly, there had to be something more.
And there was…
"And I wanted to stop by to see who had given me this," Cabe said, holding up a pair of rose-colored aviator sunglasses.
"You got one too!" Sylvester cried, pointing.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Cabe. Did you check it for safety? We all received mysterious gifts, too."
"Yeah, I had it checked. It's safe, only…"
"Only what?" everyone said, holding their breath, their hearts stopped.
"Only it keeps giving me all these weird numbers and abbreviations every few minutes."
"What do you mean by weird numbers?"
"Here, let us check it out," Sylvester said, stepping forward. Cabe held out the sunglasses and Sylvester picked them up with a clean handkerchief, just in case it had disease-carrying germs. The geniuses crowded around him as the sunglasses spat out little numbers and letters in a corner of the lenses.
"These are…" Sylvester began, eyebrows knitting together as he concentrated on them.
"Vital statistics," said Toby. "I learned them when I was in medical school. The numbers here, they represent your blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory response."
Happy took the glasses from Sylvester to examine them. After a minute, she said, "Toby's right. The temple and earpiece have sensors to pick up electric pulses from when they come in contact with your skin." She turned them over in her expert hands. "It's good craftsmanship, too. The sensors are embedded so as to be almost invisible to the naked eye, but they are as sensitive as electrodes. Whoever made this knew what they were doing."
"But why?" Cabe asked. "Why would I get a pair of sunglasses that measures my vital statistics?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out," said Walter. He turned to the team. "The rest of you, open your boxes. If we put all of the contents together, we might be able to figure out where they came from and who sent them."
The rest of the team scrambled to retrieve their packages. When they were all open, everyone looked at each other in bafflement. One by one, they took out the contents of their box and laid them on the table next to Walter's blueprints and Cabe's sunglasses. Most of the "presents" seemed to be things to wear. For example, inside of Toby's box was…a new hat. The hat was a dark fedora with a warm wool lining and the initials TMC embroidered in gold on the band. Happy received a new pair of motorcycle boots, sleek and smooth with extra reinforcements for safety and comfortable soles in the bottom. Paige received a fancy dress, emerald green tied with a silk sash and encrusted with jewels. Sylvester's present was the most baffling of all. When he opened his box, there lay the remnants of his precious Birdroni. Underneath the bird drone, however, was a letter which simply said, "If you look behind you, you can find the real Birdroni. I named her Tweety."
Everyone turned this way and that, looking for the target of the letter's hints. Ralph was the first one to spot it. "Here!" he called. They all rushed into the next room, where Ralph was pointing at a tall pole covered in a long sheet of cloth.
"Whoa, Ralph, get away from there," Walter said, moving quickly towards the boy genius. "It could be dangerous."
"I don't think it is," said Ralph. "I think it's just lonely. Maybe hungry, too."
"It? What it?" Paige said, putting her arm protectively around her son.
Walter stepped closer to the pole and carefully pulled off the sheet of cloth. What lied inside surprised them all, even more than the mysterious blueprints.