Free The Case of the Wilted Broccoli by William Hertling

people are going to hear the buzz. And you've never flown inside the actual warehouse. You knew which way to bank and turn here."
    Elon shook his head, afraid he might cry. "I'm doing the best I can!"
    "I know, I know," she said, putting her arm around him. "We'll just have to do what we can."
    Linden stood in the doorway carrying the quadcopter. "I have an idea. Doesn't Atlanta's dad have an air horn from those races he judged? That could cover up the sound of the Silver Dragon, and maybe distract anyone from looking where it's going."
    They all nodded slowly.  
    "That could work," Willow said. She looked outside. "It's getting late. I'd better ride over there right away."
    "Wait!" Elon rushed for his camera. "Let's all get a picture with it."
    They gathered around the project table, with the Silver Dragon parked on the surface. Willow held her laptop, and Linden the remote control. Elon set the camera for an auto-picture, then ran around and got in the middle, his arms around his siblings. The flash went off with blaze of light, then Elon checked the photo. Perfect!
    Willow left in a rush, and Linden and Elon set all the batteries to charge. They packed the Silver Dragon inside a cardboard box, because they'd have to take it on the bus first thing in the morning.  
    When Willow got back with the air horn, she packed her laptop and the remote control.  
    "Basil and Atlanta are almost done with their science-fair project," Willow said. "They've got twenty feet of hair-rope, and they built a wood swing set, so people will be able to sit on it and swing. Even Atlanta's dad sat on it and swung."
    "Whoa," Linden said.
    "It's gonna be cool," Willow said. "But I'm still glad we worked on the drone. We couldn't be doing what we're going to do tomorrow morning without it. Good idea, Elon."
    "Yeah, great idea!" Linden said.
    Elon smiled, tired but happy that the autonomous drone worked and their plan to spy on Bannon Foods had come together.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

    T HEY ARRIVED ONCE more at the stop near Bannon Foods. Willow's backpack was heavy with her laptop inside its protective sleeve. Linden's bag also sagged under the weight of batteries and controller, while Elon struggled to fit the light but large cardboard box with the drone through the bus's door.  
    They kept to the shadows as they approached Bannon even earlier than they'd ever gotten there before. A long row of trucks were parked in front of the loading bays. But unlike their prior visits, when the parking lot was nearly full, this time there was only one car parked in the lot and the warehouse doors were shut.
    "Thank goodness," Linden said. "They do sleep like normal people."
    "I'm glad they're not undead," Elon said, "because then they'd never sleep."
    Willow shushed them. "We don't want anyone to look up here."
    They turned into the property next to Bannon Foods, a small brown industrial building with its own parking lot, where they'd never seen more than a few cars. They found an area on the side nearest Bannon. They set up between two garbage dumpsters, carefully unpacking the Silver Dragon, plugging in batteries, and getting the accessories ready. The backlight off Willow's laptop hurt their eyes in the darkness of the night, so Willow turned the brightness way down.
    "It's good for battery life, too."  
    Linden got out the binoculars, laid on his stomach at the edge of the parking lot, and tried to read license plate numbers on the trucks. He couldn't see anything, so he got out his dad's Tiablo flashlight, and focused the narrow beam at the bumper of the first truck. The fancy LED light had a brightness control, so he dialed it down to a mere one percent to start. He had to increase to three percent power before he could see anything, but then the light bounced off the reflective license plate, and he could read it. He went down the line of trucks as fast as he could, knowing that even the tight beam, low-light flashlight would give away his position if anyone