A hand reached into the frame.

It was thick-fingered, with a silver band on the ring finger that I knew too well.

“That’s Derek,” I whispered.

He was holding a screwdriver.

He leaned over the smart oven, trying to pry open the side panel where the manual reset button was located.

“He is trying to factory-reset them,” I said.

“Why would he do that?” Marisol asked.

“Because they are still registered to my name and my phone number,” I said. “If he resets them, he can register them under his own account and sell them online.”

“But to reset them, they have to be powered on,” Marisol noted.

“Exactly,” I said. “He plugged them into the outlet in that storage unit. The moment they connected to the local network, the GPS activated.”

The smart hub’s app showed a small notification at the top of the screen.

*Device ‘SmartOven_01’ online via hotspot ‘Derek_iPhone’.*

“He is using his own phone as a mobile hotspot to perform the reset,” I said.

“Can you trace the IP?” Marisol asked.