Waylaid in the Windy City

Whit has invited Connie to come along on one of his business trips to Chicago, where he is due at meetings about the encyclopedia his company publishes. Connie has barely stepped off the plane before the adventure begins. At O'Hare Airport a police officer pulls Whit aside for a "random security check" and makes him open up his laptop computer. The officer finally admits what all the police are really looking for: a stolen computer that looks exactly like Whit's. On the shuttle van to the Excelsior Hotel, the hard-of-hearing driver explains what he has heard on the news - someone broke into a Department of Defense courier's car the night before and made off with a laptop full of top secrets. Sharing the van is a jumpy young man who snaps at Connie's friendly small talk and suddenly demands to be let out before the van ever reaches the hotel.

At the hotel, Connie bursts into Whit's room and turns on the television just in time to catch a news bulletin. The suspect is Greg Kelley, a small-time thief who probably had no idea what he was taking, and whose life may now be in danger. His picture fills the screen, and Whit and Connie realize he is the young man from the van.

Meanwhile, the frightened thief has run to the man he works for, who sits stroking a cat and calling him Gregory. It is Dr. Regis Blackgaard. Gregory swears he only meant to grab a car radio and took the computer along on impulse, then panicked and tried to leave town. But when Blackgaard's quiet, menacing assistant Pinky examines the stolen laptop, he finds it is the wrong machine - just an ordinary computer full of boring academic files. Once Gregory is led away, Blackgaard rages that his whole scheme has collapsed. He has planned the theft himself, disguising Pinky as the courier, only to have Gregory steal the computer first and then apparently switch bags by accident in a hotel van. Then Blackgaard turns the laptop over and reads the name engraved on the bottom: Property of John A. Whittaker. He knows that name very well.

Whit and Connie, having reported what they saw, spend most of the day at the police station. Special Agent Frank Phillips of the Department of Defense finally appears and reveals something Connie has never known - years ago Whit was a government agent, and he has worked on secret computer programs ever since, including the Applesauce program that once made Whit's End go haywire. Phillips finds it hard to believe that a man with Whit's background just happened to share a van with the thief, and though he lets them go, Whit is sure they are still under suspicion. He has even figured out that the waiting room was bugged.

Back at the Excelsior, the manager, Victor Herman, hurries them into his office with alarming news: two sharply dressed men have tried to break into Whit's room, and the staff have locked his belongings in the hotel safe. While Connie goes up to check her own room, Whit examines his computer and finds his identification plate missing. A look at the programs confirms his fear - the machine in front of him belongs to the United States Department of Defense. He is holding the stolen computer, switched in the shuttle van. Upstairs, Connie is met at the elevator by a man who is plainly not the bellboy.

Whit has the computer sealed back in the safe and telephones Agent Phillips, who orders him not to move, not to open the door, and not to talk to anyone - he could be in great danger. The word makes Whit's blood run cold as he thinks of Connie. She, meanwhile, is riding a back elevator down to the parking garage with her silent escort, warning him that he had better watch it because she knows John Avery Whittaker. A smooth voice answers from the shadows: what a coincidence, so does he. Dr. Regis Blackgaard, at her service. And there the story breaks off, to be continued.