Operation Sherlock by Bruce Coville

they could concentrate on their tour.
    As the tour circled the island, the kids felt a growing sense of excitement. Anza-bora was truly beautiful. Its low southern end was blessed with spectacular beaches. Its northern tip—barely five miles away—rose to a peak that stood nearly a thousand feet above the ocean. In between were the airfield, the marina, the base housing (mostly deserted now, of course) and a wonderful forest.
    Later the kids would remember many things about that afternoon: their delight as they began to sense the possibilities inherent in the island’s private coves and rocky shores; the way Trip Davis’s father got so excited about a view he wanted to paint that he forgot to look where he was going and fell over a small cliff; Dr. Hwa smiling with pride as he pointed out a long three-story building with an odd central dome and explained that it housed the great computer which would soon be the center of their parents’ lives.
    But most of all they would remember finding the first of the clues that would eventually convince them one of the adults they had just met was a dangerous traitor.

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    Bugged!
    It was Ray who found it. The gang had returned to the canteen after the official tour to compare notes (and to try another round of the new, improved Gamma Ball). Ray was rummaging through his pockets for coins when he pulled out a small metal square with several wires sticking out of it.
    â€œHmmm. I forgot about this,” he said, just before he tossed it onto the small mountain of stuff he had already piled on the table.
    â€œWhat is it?” asked Wendy, extracting the square from the stack of paper clips, transistors, rubber bands, and marbles.
    Ray looked up from his rummaging. “What’s what? Oh, that. It’s a current detector my father and I were working on.” He made a face. “I’ve got to give up fishing,” he said, dropping a dead worm onto the table.
    â€œHow does it work?” asked Wendy, ignoring Rachel’s squeal of disgust. “The current detector, not the dead worm.”
    â€œGot it!” cried Ray, pulling a crumpled dollar bill from his pocket. “I knew I had one in there.”
    â€œRay!” snapped Wendy. “Forget about the money and answer me!”
    The blond boy who had cooked the Wonderchild’s burger that morning appeared at the table with several bottles of soda and a cup of black coffee. Setting the coffee in front of Rachel, he looked at Wendy and said, “Patience is a virtue.”
    â€œSo is minding your own business! Not to mention answering questions,” she added, returning her attention to Ray.
    â€œWendy!” hissed Rachel. “That wasn’t very nice.” She glanced over at the counter. The dark eyed boy had returned to his workstation. But he was staring at them in a way that made her nervous.
    â€œOkay, okay,” said Ray, taking the current detector from Wendy. “There’s a microbattery here, see? Now, these wires set up a small field that can be interrupted by any electrical activity in the area. That trips the beeper. Here, I’ll turn it on.”
    He fumbled with the device for a moment. “Darn lint,” he muttered to no one in particular. “Always gumming things up. Ah, there we go…” He looked up at the others. “Of course, there’s not much point in turning it on,” he said. “It only has a range of a couple of feet, and—”
    He was interrupted by a high, urgent beeping.
    He furrowed his brow. “That’s odd. Is one of you wearing an electric watch?”
    Of course, none of them was. Their watches were all powered by heat transferred from their skin.
    â€œI wonder what it is?” said Ray, slowly moving the device around the table.
    â€œProbably a short circuit,” said Trip.
    Ray snorted.
    The beep was getting louder.
    â€œHey, Rachel, it’s you!” said Wendy. “Maybe