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Authors: Matthew McElligott

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BOOK: Benjamin Franklinstein Meets the Fright Brothers
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“That's a good point,” said Victor. “I hope we haven't already—”
He stopped suddenly and tipped his head to the side. “Do you hear something?”
Someone was upstairs in Franklin's apartment.
“Did you lock the door?” whispered Victor.
Franklin winced. “I'm afraid I didn't even close it.”
“And the bookcase? Is it still open?”
“Yes.”
The footsteps grew louder.
“How could they find us so fast?” whispered Victor.
“Who?”
“
Them!
The ones listening in.”
“Quick, the lights!”
Victor hit the switch, leaving only the dim blue glow of the Leyden jars to light the room. He and Franklin crouched behind the workbench, peering over the top. Across the room, a silhouette of one foot, then another, stepped down the ladder.
Victor tensed as he tried to form a plan. Should he throw something? Create a distraction? His heart pounded in his chest.
The shadowy form looked oddly familiar. It paused at the bottom rung.
“Hey, guys, are you down here? I brought back your biopti-thing. Whooooah . . . this place is cool!”
For the second time that day, Victor said a very bad word.
 
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CHAPTER FIVE
A Secret Revealed
“Hold on a minute.
Let's go through this one more time,” Scott said. “You're telling me that Mr. Benjamin isn't
really
Frank Benjamin—he's Benjamin Franklin?
The
Benjamin Franklin?”
“Yes,” Victor explained. “And he was kept alive inside this Leyden casket for over two hundred years.”
“My crowning achievement!” declared Franklin. “After the glass armonica, of course.”
Scott peered at the Leyden casket, a long metal and glass coffin that sat on a pedestal in the center of the laboratory. The look of awe on his face transformed into a wide grin. Above the casket hung a giant copper orb, suspended from the ceiling by heavy chains. Scott reached up to touch it.
 
THE GLASS ARMONICA
“Stop!” Victor yelled. “If you make contact, you'll fry your watch and your cell phone. The charging sphere works like a battery that collects and stores electrical energy. It will suck the power out of anything.”
“Anything?” Scott asked.
“
Anything.
You can't just run around touching things, Scott. This laboratory is very dangerous.”
“It's the greatest thing I've ever seen!”
“Splendid!” Franklin said, clapping his hands together. “I knew a true scientist such as yourself would appreciate this remarkable situation.”
“But you can't tell anyone,” Victor added. “There are still unanswered questions about why Ben was awakened.”
“Victor is right,” Franklin said. “As much as I would like to proclaim to the world who I truly am, I dare not. Revealing my identity might compromise our ability to respond to the Great Emergency.”
“What's the Great Emergency?”
Franklin sighed. “Unfortunately, we do not yet know.”
“But the voice on the other end of the electrophone might,” Victor said. “It told us to check out news coverage of the bicycle parade.”
“It's probably online already,” Scott said. “My dad's station, WURP, is usually pretty quick about getting their stuff up on the Web.”
Franklin and Scott peered over Victor's shoulders at the glowing computer screen.
“There it is,” Scott said, pointing at the headline BICYCLE PARADE: RED, WHITE, AND AWESOME.
Victor clicked on the link and waited for the page to load. “What could this possibly have to do with the Modern Order of Prometheus?”
“That remains to be seen,” Franklin said. “Let us keep a sharp eye.”
A new page popped onto the screen, and Victor scanned it for any pertinent information. “It's just an article about the parade. Nothing too unusual.”
 
WURP WEB SITE
Scott excitedly pointed at the screen. “What about that? That stuff about giant monster bats?”
“Monster bats?” Victor scoffed. “There's no such thing. Look here: it says that both the Federal Aviation Administration and a prominent small-mammal zoologist have studied the issue. These so-called bats are just illusions caused by swamp gas. Case closed.”
“Swamp gas?” Scott said. “Do we even
have
swamps in Philadelphia?”
Victor rolled his eyes. “Please don't ask silly questions.”
“Excuse me, boys,” Franklin interrupted. “Can your computing machine allow us to see the lady mayor's press conference?”
Victor clicked on a picture of Mayor Milstead standing behind the microphone, and a video began to run. They watched the clip from beginning to end, listening carefully for clues.
“It's the same speech we heard when we were there,” Victor said. “Nothing different.”
Franklin rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I've noticed two unusual things. First, as you remember, they spoke unusually slowly and deliberately. Why?”
“We already talked about that,” Victor said. “They were nervous. I'd have a hard time speaking in front of a big crowd.”
“Very well,” Franklin said. “But I also found it peculiar that the gentleman from the Federal Aviation Administration said precisely the same thing as the man from the zoo. Word for word. You did notice this, didn't you, Victor?”
“Well, of—of course,” Victor stammered. “How could anyone miss that?”
“Wouldn't you say that is a bit unusual?”
“You know what's unusual?” Scott said. “My grandma.”
“I don't know if them using the same words is so strange,” Victor said, ignoring Scott's comment. “They probably wrote the statement together.”
“Hey,” Scott said, “I just remembered something I noticed at the parade. Play it again.”
Victor clicked on the picture.
“There!” Scott said. “I knew there was something weird about them. Zoom in on their eyes.”
Victor moved the image of the mayor's head to the center of the screen and zoomed in. “Okay, that
is
weird.”
“Her eyes,” Franklin said. “Are they glowing?”
“It does look like it. Just a bit.”
“Check out the other guys up there,” Scott said.
Victor shifted the image around from Dr. Kane the zoologist to Mr. Girard of the FAA. Everyone's eyes had a faint red glow, except for the two men from the bike shop, who wore sunglasses.
“It could be a problem with the video encoding,” Victor said.
“There's more,” Franklin said gravely. “Look at the mayor's neck.”
“Bite marks!” Scott gasped. “She was bitten. By the giant monster bats!”
Victor shook his head. “They're just moles, or birthmarks or—”
“Dr. Kane and Mr. Girard have them as well,” Franklin said. “Does it seem likely that all three would have these marks in exactly the same places?”
“But the two men from the bike shop don't have anything on their necks.”
“They wouldn't,” Scott insisted.
“What do you mean?” Victor said.
“It all makes sense. Giant monster bats? People with bite marks on their necks talking all weird? Those guys from the bike shop
made
those bite marks. They aren't really bicycle repairmen at all—
they're vampires!
”
THAT NIGHT . . .
WURP investigative reporter Katie Kaitlyn reviewed her notes as she crossed the park on her way back to the station. There was no question about it. These giant bats were the real deal, and someone was trying to cover it up. But why?
She had seen one with her own eyes.
Two weeks ago, while walking to her car, she had glanced up. The ominous winged creature had been blacker than the night sky and so big that for one brief second, it blotted out the moon.
Swamp gas? Please. This story had conspiracy written all over it.
The latest interview was the icing on the cake. A highranking source in the police department had confirmed her suspicions.
Katie Kaitlyn wondered how far the cover-up went. The city council? The mayor?
She sat down on a bench beneath a streetlamp and phoned her producer. His voice mail picked up. No matter—she'd fill him in as soon as she got back to the station. If she hurried, the story would make the eleven o'clock news. It might even win her an award.
She stood up and put her phone and notes back into her purse.
The streetlamp flickered and then went out. She heard footsteps approaching, clacking on the pavement. Clutching her purse close, she rushed toward the corner.
As she hurried, the footsteps grew distant, but Katie Kaitlyn wasn't one to let her guard down. She began running faster. At her car door, she fumbled with her keys.
Fwoooooooooooooosh!
Something swooped in and bit her neck.
BOOK: Benjamin Franklinstein Meets the Fright Brothers
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