Amy and Barb were catching up on cable news and had finished dinner when the happy-go-lucky whistling that was Derek’s ringtone erupted from Amy’s phone.

“Hi, Derek!” Amy greeted him, having anxiously awaiting his call.

“Hi, Sis. I just got home after dropping off Alex.”

She grabbed the TV remote and muted the volume. “I’m putting you on speaker.”

“Hey, Derek,” Barb said. “What’s going on?”

“It’s mayhem downtown,” he said. Amy knew he was exaggerating, but not by much. “The fires are out, and a couple of people died.”

“We heard,” Amy said. “The news reported that they were cops, but didn’t release the names. Anyone we know?”

“Yeah. Alex’s partner Mark was one of them.”

She suddenly felt lightheaded. “No,” she breathed.

“A patrol officer too. Tom Jenkins. Alex said he was one of the best.”

“How is Alex?” she asked.

“He’s pretty shaken up, but he’s also determined.”

“Determined?”

“Determined to find out what happened and why. He also gave me some marching orders.”

“I’ll bet that went well.”

“I’m willing to cut him some slack, this time.”

“What did he want?” Barb asked.

There was a pause which Amy read as discomfort. “He wants me to make sure you’re both okay.”

“He meant Amy,” Barb said.

“Alex said ‘both’. It’s going to be a long night, as you can imagine. He also wants me to dig deeper into what happened with the drones, since he doesn’t buy David’s explanation.” Before they left the house, David had suggested that it was either an optical illusion or an unknown default configuration.

“What do you think happened?” Amy asked him.

“The system’s still in development. My bet is that somebody left a joke in the code.”

“Geeks,” Barb said.

“What are they saying on the news?” Derek asked.

“No one has a clue what happened,” Amy said, “but they have plenty of ideas.”