Enemy Spy (11 page)

“And Miss Simms!”

“There's Miss Surkit!”

“And look! There's Mr. Hoover!” Marvin
Speltz cried. “I tell you, guys—janitor by day, Shredderman by night. That's why he's here!”

“Don't be a doof,”Mike McDermish told him.

Miriam interrupted them. “Look! There's Dr. Voss! Even our
principal
is here!”

Half an hour grew into an hour. Chatty Adams spent half her time yelling into her cell phone and the other half snapping at Roy and her cameraman. She was trying to keep people away from “her”area, and boy, was she being mean!

Then I got an idea. And I started wondering— was a news camera like the video camera we had at home?

I couldn't see a power source.

Did it run on batteries?

Chatty's cameraman was standing pretty close to her. His camera was resting on the pavement by his feet

I snuck over.

If only I had an invisibility cloak.

Or a magic Aztec wristband!

If only I could get in close enough to…

Chatty noticed me and yelled, “Scram! You hear me? Get
away
from this area! You have no business being here whatsoever! I said scram!”

Drat! How was I ever going to…Then I noticed that the guy from another news station had a camera just like Chatty's.

I inched my way over to it.

He was holding it by its handle, alongside his leg.

“Pretty cool rig, huh?”he said when he saw me checking it out.

“Sure is. Looks heavy, though.”

He shrugged. “You get used to it.”

“How's it powered? Batteries?”

“Yup.”He hefted it and pointed. “Right here.”

“That's it? That powers this whole camera?”

“Well, the battery goes way inside.”He pressed a lever and pulled it out. “See?”

It was big!

“And when this one gets low, I've got a backup right here.”He popped the backup off the camera, where it was stored. “See? Two seconds is all it takes to swap them, and I'm good to go.”

“Wow,”I told him. “That is one cool camera.”He let me look it over for a minute, so I said, “Thanks for being so nice.”

He grinned and said, “No problem.”He shot a look at Chatty and dropped his voice. “Besides, I saw how that prima donna was treating you. Believe me, she's not anyone's favorite.”

Just then, the police station door opened.

A man in a suit and tie came out.

A man in a uniform came out right behind him! Was that… Sergeant Klubb?

It was!

Photographers all around hoisted their cameras.

All the reporters jockeyed for position.

The men from the station were moving slowly toward the podium.

I raced over to Bubba and whispered,
“Pssst!
I need your help.”I pulled him over to the side.

“As the Bouncer?”he whispered.

I nodded. “See Chatty's cameraman?”

He looked over at him. “Yeah?”

“I need you to bump him. Hard.”

“You want me to bring him down?”Bubba whispered. “I can land that dude, easy.”

“No! Just distract him so I can pop the battery pack out of his camera.”

“But why? There's all these other news guys here.”

Why did my sidekicks always argue with me? I frowned at him. “Because Chatty Adams is not here for truth or justice. She's here for herself.”

He nodded slowly and said, “Got it,”but I could tell he didn't.

“Besides,”I whispered as we hurried over, “didn't you hear her call you 'fatso' back there?”

“Hey! That's right!”

“You think I'm gonna let someone call my side-kick 'fatso'?”

For a second his face went blank. Then a light seemed to come on inside him. He grinned at me and said, “Dude, you really do shred!”

And with that, Bubba Bixby
charged.

I know from experience that when Bubba wants to bring someone down, he brings them
down.
Chatty's cameraman didn't have a chance.

“Oh, dude! I'm so sorry!”Bubba said. He helped him up, then “accidentally”tripped and knocked him over again.

Meanwhile, I was zeroing in on the camera.

I got my hands on the battery.

The camera twisted away!

I got my hands on it again, and
click, thwack!
Battery number one was mine!

Boy! Was it heavy!

I held it between my knees and…

Click, thwack!

I pulled off the backup battery!

Lucky for me, Chatty was too busy being pushy to pay attention to what was going on.

The cameraman was back on his feet now.

Bubba was dusting him off!

So far, Bubba the Bouncer rocked!

He looked my way and I gave him a nod.

Mission accomplished!

We raced back over to the rest of the kids. “Stay cool,”I told him as I stashed the batteries in my backpack and strapped the backpack on. “Stay totally cool.”

He nodded, but he was anything
but
cool. He was amped, and panting like crazy!

After he caught his breath, he whispered, “I am
lovin'
this! So now what?”

“So now we listen,”I whispered.

“We
listen
?”Bubba whispered back.

“Shhhhh!”
I warned. “I've got to find out what's going on.”

“Good evening,”the man in the suit and tie said, holding on to the podium with both hands while Sarge stood off to one side. “As many of you know, I'm Scott Yardland, Cedar Valley's chief of police. Unfortunately, our bucolic community—”

“Bucolic? What's that?”Bubba whispered.

“Lots of trees,”I whispered back.

“—has apparently been home to the maneu-verings of an international spy ring.”

“Have you apprehended the spies?”Chatty Adams shouted.

“If you'll
please
be patient,”Chief Yardland
said, giving her a hard look, “we'll get to that.”He went back to his speech. “Please understand that we're in the middle of a very complex and delicate situation. There are things we are not yet at liberty to disclose—”

“Disclose?”Bubba whispered.

“Tell us about,”I whispered back. “There are things he can't tell us about.”

“—but what I
can
tell you is that we have arrested one individual and have detained three others, all connected to a cash-for-secrets exchange that we believe took place under the Blackstone Way Bridge. Unfortunately,
none
of the individuals in custody is cooperating with authorities. I can also tell you that the arrested man has been positively ID'd as the individual we suspect of selling the highly sensitive classified documents.”

“What is the nature of the documents?”a lady with a notepad called out.

Chief Yardland gave her a friendly little smirk.

“That they're classified. Top-secret.”

“Military?”another reporter asked.

“The FBI has asked me not to discuss specifics. I am not at liberty to say anything more about the documents at this time.”

All of a sudden, there was a big commotion across the crowd from us. Chatty's arms were flying in the air as she yelled at her cameraman. Then she started yelling at Roy!

I grinned at Bubba.

Bubba grinned at me.

We slapped a sly-five on each other and watched as Chatty zoomed around, trying to bum a battery off other cameramen.

“How about the other people you've detained?”a reporter shouted at the chief. “You've got a woman, her husband, and a teacher in custody, is that right?”

“Yes. They have not been charged with anything yet. Our initial impression was that they were only involved peripherally—”

“Peripherally?”Bubba whispered.

“On the edge. Only a little,”I whispered back, wishing Chief Yardland would stop using such big words.

“—but it's clear that they are holding back information. We'll see what transpires over the next few hours.”

“Transpires?”Bubba whispered.

“Happens,”I whispered back.

“Why doesn't he just
say
that?”

I shrugged. “Good question.”

“What's the Shredderman connection?”Harry Kane called out.

The chief sighed. “Shredderman is the one who brought the money-for-secrets situation to our attention. At first we thought he was assisting law enforcement. We now believe he—or
she,
or
they
—may be someone with an axe to grind. Someone who was once part of the spy ring and is now on the outs.”

“You're crazy!”I shouted.

People nearby stared at me.

Oops!

Bubba whispered, “Stay cool, dude, remember?”

But how could they think that? How could they possibly think that?

The chief went on. “Regardless, our three detainees will either be released if they answer questions to the FBI's satisfaction or be arrested on charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice.”

Arrested for conspiracy!

Obstruction of justice!

No!

“No, no, no, no!”I didn't even know I was shouting it out loud. Bubba tried to hold me back, but I twisted free and pushed through the crowd. These were my parents! My teacher! They were the best friends I'd ever had.

How could I let them be arrested for obstruction of
justice
?

They weren't answering questions because they were protecting my secret identity! I could see them now, under a hot, bare bulb, being grilled by the FBI! Being tortured with questions the wouldn't answer because of me! All because I'd been so stubborn about fighting for truth and justice.

Well, what kind of truth and justice was
this
?

They were going to go to
jail
because of me!

“You're wrong!”I shouted. I ducked under the yellow CAUTION tape and cried, “You're com-pletely wrong!”

Chief Yardland said something about removing me from the area, but Sarge stepped in and said, “It's okay, Chief. This is the Byrds' son. He's just upset.”

“I am
not
just upset!”I shouted.

Boy, did I ever sound upset!

But I kept right on shouting. “They're not spies! They don't have an axe to grind! They didn't have anything to do with
any
of this!”

The chief was looking at me like he felt so,
so
sorry for me. Like I was just a poor little kid who didn't understand how the real world worked.

I looked around at the crowd.

Everyone was thinking the same thing as Chief Yardland: Poor kid… his parents are spies.

“They're not spies, and they're not Shredder-man!”I looked at the crowd. At all the cameras aimed my way. At all the people staring at me. At the kids from my school and the teachers and my principal.

Sarge put his arm around my shoulders and tried to pull me aside, saying, “Now, Nolan…”

I twisted away from him and shouted, “I know for a
fact
they're not spies! And I know for a
fact
they're not Shredderman! I know because…”

The crowd fell quiet.

I could hear the breeze sweep through tree branches.

Pine needles seemed to fall in slow motion.

Everything seemed a little fuzzy.

Soft.

“Because… ?”Sarge prompted.

I took a deep breath, and slowly everything came into focus.

So I turned to face the crowd and said it loud.

Said it strong!

“I know, because
I'm
Shredderman!”