Chapter Twenty Five

Devon and Merrell stood behind Jacinda as she feverishly tapped out commands on her datapad.

“Okay, everyone is locked in wherever they are. That should give us some time.” Jacinda said, in between keystrokes.

“Any chance they can get out and stop us?” Devon asked.

“Nope, not unless they know some way to override that I don’t know about.” Jacinda answered. “Give me a minute. I need some time to concentrate. I think I figured out a way to shut this whole operation down.”

Devon and Merrell nodded silently. She worked away, mumbling and sighing several times.

“I think I have it.” Jacinda broke the silence and smiled.

“So, what are you going to do?’ Devon asked.

“Well, I found out that these bandit miners injected lots of smart probes into a couple of volcanoes. The probes were supposed to give off signals that would make the volcanoes even more active. Well, the plan seems to have worked a bit too well, or maybe they just used too many probes. Not only did the volcanoes erupt, new ones popped up. That stirred up the really heavy metals and that is what they have been mining.”

“You said you figured out how to stop it.” Devon said, seeming impatient.

“I’m getting to that.” Jacinda rolled her eyes. “I found the control sub-routines for the probes. I can control them now. I could just turn them off, but I have a better idea.” Jacinda smiled, mischief in her eyes.

“What are you up to, Jacinda?” Devon asked.

“Well, according to their records, the miners have a dozen more of these mining modules, all of them unmanned. I reprogrammed the probes to return to the closest unmanned module and wait for another signal. In an hour they will all be in place. Once they are we can tell them to self destruct and they will blow up, along with the unmanned modules.”

Merrell smiled. “Wow, Jacinda, you have a mean streak. I like it.”

All three laughed and sat back to wait the hour until it was time to activate the probes’ self-destruct protocol.