Free Road to Clover (The Breanna Raven Series) by Katarin Haley Pope

the cylinder is waiting patiently. Once the second guy is done, the first soldier hooks on the contraption to the clamp.
    “Agni, can you tell what they’re attaching to the telephone pole?”
    He narrows his eyes trying to focus and answers, “I have no idea.”
    The thing starts flashing a bright white light. One of the soldiers brings out a palm size silver electronic notebook and a stylus. He starts pecking on the screen, and then he starts writing. The other soldier has opened a small compartment below the flash on the cylinder, and he’s messing with whatever is inside of it.
    This is happening all up and down Sun Drop Highway, and two soldiers are now coming towards me and Agni. We take off running back towards direction of the drugstore. Agni has a strong grip on my hand, and he isn’t letting go. The dogs are with us. Just as we are about to round the corner, we come face to face with two more soldiers. They have the same devices in their hands. King is growling, and Miss Kiki is barking and trying to nip at the closest soldier. They give us blank, unemotional stares, and we’re watching them with frightened eyes. I am ready to faint. I know we are about to die. I swallow hard and prepare for a gunshot or a hit in the head or something.
    To our surprise, the soldiers go around us. Agni, the always mindful one, grabs King so he won’t chase them. They rush up one more block, and they cross the street. They begin to set up another one of those contraptions on another telephone pole.
    I am so confused, and I know Agni feels the same way. We are both watching those two, and they don’t even look in our direction. It’s like we don’t even exist. I finally begin to breathe again. I have to put my fear in check. First of all, those soldiers might not be soldiers at all. They’re not carrying rifles, and I don’t think I see a pistol, either.
    When they finish, they run right back by without acknowledging us. Agni and I are kind of stunned as we watch them run all the way up Kangaroo Paw Street to Calla Lily Road. They make a left and disappear behind the building.
    “Can you explain what just happened?” I ask Agni.
    He doesn’t answer, but he is looking back at the black cylinder perched on the pole. His curiosity is peaked, and he heads over to that thing. King is right with him, but Miss Kiki hangs with me.
    The white light starts blinking as Agni gets closer. I stay right where I am. I’m just too afraid to go near that thing. I can only hope it’s not dangerous. When Agni is within arm’s reach, that thing flickers like a camera flash. He doesn’t move, and I’m thinking that thing has frozen him in place. Or it has hypnotized him. Why hasn’t he moved?
    “Agni!” I call to him.
    He straightens up and twists around. He waves for me to come over. King is up on his hinds legs trying to sniff the device. He gets down and lifts his leg to the pole. Boys, I swear. Any kind of weird new device, be it man or dog, they have to check it out. In King’s case, he has to pee on it. I’m not interested, and I shake my head and cross my arms. Miss Kiki barks the same exact sentiments as I’m thinking.
    “Now, you’re being a chicken!” He yells.
    “Better to be a yard bird than dead,” I shout back.
    “Breanna, you really need to see this thing!”
    “Agni, it could be a mine. It could be a nuclear bomb. It might even be a deadly laser. I’m not going near it.”
    He backs away from it, and King pees on the pole before coming back, as well. Agni is enamored with that thing. He keeps looking over his shoulder until he’s finally at my side.
    “I don’t think it’s a bomb.” He states. “There is a light and a display screen on it. When I got close enough, it flashed. I looked at the screen, and it had the word ‘unknown’ flashing on it with numbers below it.”
    “What is it supposed to do?”
    “I’m thinking it’s some kind of device that supposed to sense who I am. Maybe, it can read