Orchid Blues (Holly Barker 2)

"I did for a minute," Peck said. "Then it went away. Just a small surge, but definite."

"All right everybody," John said, "we're now going to show you just how careful we are. Stand up and line up against the wall over there."

Everybody did as instructed.

Peck went down the line and, one by one, had each man extend his arms away from his body, then swept the antenna over his clothing. Ham was third in line, and he watched out of the corner of his eye while Peck did his work. Finally, Peck was in front of him, and he gave Ham a wink that said, "Don't worry pal, this is just for show."

Ham hoped to God that turning off the recorder in his heel also turned off the microphone in his button, because if it didn't, he was about to be nailed. He began thinking about how fast he could get out of there and to his truck, and the answer he came up with was, Not fast enough.

Peck went up and down the top and bottom of each of Ham's arms, then his legs and crotch. "I'm not feeling you up, Ham," he said, "it's just that undercover cops just love to hide bugs in their crotches."

"Don't worry, Peck, you're not my type anyway."

Everybody laughed.

Peck then moved the antenna to the top of his head and worked his way down both sides of his torso. Ham turned to allow him to sweep his back. Peck moved on to the waist, paying particular attention to Ham's belt buckle, then, as he started up the torso, the black box beeped. "What you got in that pocket, Ham?" Peck asked, pointing.

Ham reached into his pocket and produced the smoke detector.

John walked over and took it from him. "What's this?"

"A smoke detector," Ham said. "I was putting some up last night, and I guess I forgot about that one."

John unscrewed the two halves of the detector and looked inside. "Two batteries," he said. "That's unusual."

"Is it?" Ham replied. "First ones I ever had anything to do with."

John motioned with his head for Peck to sweep the smoke detector, and Peck complied. A tiny beep came from the black box.

"Interesting," Peck said.

"Not really," John replied. "You've got some electronics in there, and the batteries. You sometimes get a reaction from small devices, even when they're not transmitting." He handed the smoke detector back to Ham. "Let's get this finished up, Peck, and get back to our class. I've got a lot of ground to cover."

Ham stuck the smoke detector back into his pocket and tried not to look relieved.

41

Ham entered the beach house, and for once, no one was eating.

"Ham, I don't know if you should be here every night," Harry said.

"I had a close call today, and I want to talk about it."

"What happened, Ham?" Holly asked.

"I found out that they have been sweeping the place, and not just the place, but people, too. Can they do that without anyone knowing?"

Eddie shrugged. "It could be done, but they'd need some pretty sophisticated equipment. Somebody could carry around a small sweeper in his pocket that would signal if he got close to somebody wearing a transmission device."

"I'm glad I haven't been wearing anything up to now."

"Ham, tell us what happened," Holly insisted.

Ham told them about the lecture and Peck's sweeping of the participants. "I managed to turn off the thing in my heel," he said, getting his foot out of the boot and handing the shoe to Eddie. "When it's off, does the button emit any signals?"

"No," Eddie said, working to remove the heel from the boot. "When you turn it on, it activates the button microphone."

"Their sweeper beeped when Peck got to me," Ham said. "They found the smoke detector."