Kyrie

Later that evening Hod waited in David's Tesla. David usually took about an hour after school saying goodbye to people, during which time Hod would listen to music or a book on tape of some kind, but tonight David was at the car in minutes.

"What took you so long?" Hod still asked querulously.

"I was keeping track of not-Claire, and I had to say goodbye to a couple people."

"She'll be driving the real Claire's car. Anything that can look so close to the real person would be driving her car."

"Hod, shut up."

"Sorry." Hod shifted uncomfortably. Mozart's Mass in C Minor (Kyrie) was playing, and small patters of rain broke the quiet in the car. "David, you don't think I'm crazy, do you?"

"Hod, I was there when you won the poetry contest," David tried to keep his voice light. "And... you know how most people react to me. I think, for us, weird is kind of normal."

"This is a completely different level of weird."

"I've seen you ice a drink in your hand. Despite being blind I sometimes think you have a better sense of direction than me, and I would place bets on you vs Jet Lee. Hod, I glow sometimes. Literally. Like a light bulb. I think what we do is a little bit past parlor tricks."

They were quiet a little longer, idling. "She just came out of the building, didn't she?" Hod asked.

"Yeah. Now she's talking to some people."

"Does she have anything in her hands? Or is she wearing anything different from usual?" Hod asked suddenly.

"Well, she has on a silver chain necklace that she keeps playing with, but I don't know if it's new." David was quiet for a moment. "She's getting into her car. Let's go."

Claire's family lived in a large "house" about 20 minutes away from school, just outside of town. Large Corinthian columns connected the first and second floors, and wings arched off the sides. White-gabled windows jutted out of the steeply pitched roof for the third story. In the back the house connected to a circular indoor pool. Huge iron gates and a high stone wall surrounded the house and 40 acres of private property.

"What are we going to do now?" David asked stupidly, as they sat down the road a little ways. Of course the thing that looked like Clair would be in her house. "How are we going to get in?"

The problem was Claire's father. He was an insurance mogul who had spent the last 15 years perfecting personal home security; David and Hod knew for a fact that he had saved a few tricks especially for his own house.

Closed circuit video cameras and motion detectors were just the beginning; Mr. Lords  had also installed laser fields, ultrasonic and microwave sensors, pressure detectors, a camouflaged moat, tazer panels, hidden bunker installations complete with underground passageways, on two levels, and a few barely-legal turreted "deterrants". In addition, a small staff of dedicated armed guards with guard dogs patrolled the grounds on a constantly rotating schedule, and a pair of tigers haunted the back acreage.

David wasn't sure how Mr. Lords had managed the tigers, but he had personally designed the Prime Minister's security detail; he doubted anyone was going to call him on it.

"We could just ask." Hod suggested.