The tallest Suit yelled out what sounded like a command in Chinese, and the other Suits scurried to his side, forming a circle around him.

The tall, lean man, who towered over the rest of the Suits, said sternly, "这是一场灾难！我们如何向老板解释这个!" (This is a disaster! How will we explain this to the Boss?)

He continued in Chinese, looking around stealthily as he spoke. "They transported with the device and now we have no idea where they are. We are finished. Everything depended on getting the Ching."

They called Stevie's phone the Ching because the Suits knew that Stevie's dad, Chang Ching, had been the lead engineer of the LightYear project and the app's mastermind.

Three of the Suits hung their heads, looking properly ashamed, but a short, stocky Suit, the one who had been first on the platform when the flash had gone off, was scrolling on his phone, apparently unfazed by the scolding. 

He looked up from his phone and raised his hand. "Um, Chief?"

"Yes, Joe?" Chief's tone was calm, but it had an undercurrent of annoyance.

In public, the Suits had American names for each other— these two were Chief and Joe.

"Chief, for dinner tonight, can we get some Italian food? I'm kind of tired of eating Chinese."

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