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Silence settled over the room.
Pally Pamela tooked at me.
“Your daughter just stole our only cloaking device.”
I sighed.
“Yes…”
“She did.”
Jason couldn’t help smiling.
“And somehow…”
“I have the feeling we’re actually going to get it back.”
None of us moved.
I watched the doorway where Alice had disappeared through before finally letting out a small laugh.
Everyone looked at me.
“…You do realize something, right?”
Jason raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
I smiled sheepishly.
“The cloaking device already belonged to Alice.”
Four confused faces stared back at me.
I rubbed the back of my neck.
“It was one of the school projects.”
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Mrs. Sun had wanted the children to work on real-world engineering challenges instead of textbook exercises, so I
had started giving them projects based on problems they might one day have to solve.
“I asked the children to think of a way to avoid appearing on security cameras.”
Marcus blinked.
“… You gave elementary school children the assignment of defeating surveillance systems?”
I nodded.
“It encourages creative problem-solving.”
Pamela burst into laughter.
“I absolutely love the way your brain works.”
Jason covered his face with one hand.
“So…”
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“The reason Alice immediately knew what it was…”
is because she built the prototype?”
I nodded again.
“She and Alex worked on it together.”
“They never managed to make it stable enough for continuous use, but apparently they left one finished version. in the castle.”
Jason slowly lowered his hand and laughed for the first time since Alex’s kidnapping.
“Sometimes I forget…”
“…our children are terrifying.”
I smiled proudly despite everything.
“So do I.”
Then my smile faded as I looked toward the laboratory where Alice had disappeared.
“If anyone can build a second cloaking device in under an hour…”
“…it’s our daughter.”
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Louder
Amber POV
Alice did not need an hour.
She needed exactly thirty-seven minutes.
Jason timed her.
He insisted he hadn’t, but the first thing he said when she came running back into the living room carrying a second black cloak was, “Thirty-seven minutes.”
Alice beamed with pride, completely unaware that four adults were staring at her in stunned silence.
“I finished!”
Pamela immediately took the cloak from her little hands and spread it across the dining table.
Her expression grew more incredulous with every second that passed.
7
She checked the tiny circuits woven into the fabric, the miniature battery hidden inside the collar, and finally pressed the activation switch.
The cloak shimmered.
For a heartbeat, it seemed to melt into the background.
Pamela slowly looked up.
“It works.”
Marcus walked around the table to see it for himself.
“It actually works.”
Jason looked from the cloak to Alice and then at me.
“Our daughter built this in thirty-seven minutes.”
Alice nodded proudly.
“I remembered how I made the first one.”
Jason turned toward me with narrowed eyes.
“I’m starting to think you’re building your own spy agency.”
I laughed.
“I wish.”
He continued staring.
“You got quiet.”
I blinked.
“I did?”
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His expression became mockingly serious.
Amber.”
“Please tell me you’re not secretly building a spy agency.”
I couldn’t help laughing.
“No.”
“I promise.”
“I was only trying to make sure the children could protect themselves if they ever needed to.”
The room became quiet.
I shrugged.
“It started as one of their engineering projects.”
Jason frowned curiously.
“What project?”
“I asked the children to figure out how not to appear on security cameras.’
Marcus pinched the bridge of his nose.
“You gave elementary school children the assignment of defeating surveillance systems?”
“It encourages creative thinking.”
Pamela burst into laughter.
“I don’t know whether to congratulate you or report you.’
Jason simply shook his head, smiling despite himself.
“Our children are terrifying.”
“They’re resourceful,” I corrected.
“They get that from you.”
He smiled.
“I was going to say they got it from you.”
Less than an hour later, we quietly left the castle.
No official vehicles.
No military escort.
No helicopters.
Only the four of us.
Marcus piloted a small gasoline-powered fishing boat that looked old enough to belong to any local fisherman.
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It wasn’t fast.
wasn’t luxurious.
Most importantly…
It wouldn’t attract attention.
Pamela sat beside him with binoculars resting around her neck.
Jason and I sat in silence.
Each of us wore one of Alice’s cloaking devices beneath lightweight jackets.
If they worked, cameras wouldn’t see us.
If they didn’t…
We would discover that soon enough.
The island slowly appeared through the evening mist.
From a distance it looked abandoned.
Exactly as the official records described.
Rocky cliffs.
Dense vegetation.
Old mining structures swallowed by nature.
Then Pamela suddenly raised her hand.
“Stop.”
Marcus immediately cut the engine.
The silence that followed was almost deafening.
Pamela slowly lifted the binoculars.
She watched the shoreline for nearly a minute.
Then quietly said,
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