Double Vision (13 page)

Luckily, Amy was talking enough for the both of us. “We could have been captured by the bad guys. Imagine that! Kidnapped—maybe they would have put us in a dungeon. Interrogated us until we gave up the Dangerous Double.”

“We don't have it, remember?” I practically spat at Amy. But then I saw her shocked expression, and I chilled out. “Sorry. I guess I kind of had it coming, after that phone prank.”

“That's not exactly the same thing,” Amy argued. We stopped at E Street, waiting to cross. “You didn't send him evil guys.”

“I'll get him back,” I said. But as we crossed the street, the cold wind chilled my boiling temper. And I thought of my mission—I had to find the Dangerous Double.

We walked for ten more minutes to get back to the motel. Amy went on about all the ways the bad guys could have made our lives miserable—I think she might be a crime show fan, like Grandpa. I sort of tuned her out, though. I tried to focus and think of how I was going to get the Culper Ring book.

But when we were back at the Thrifty Suites, I still had no
plan to get inside the CIA.

Steve was motioning Amy to the car. We parted and promised to meet in front of the White House at five.

Standing in the Thrifty Suites lobby, I realized that I was pretty hungry. And I wanted some advice on this mission, so I called Henry.

“Perfect timing,” Henry said when I suggested food. “I sort of skipped lunch, and I'm starving.” He told me to meet him outside the White House visitor center.

I skateboarded over there, finding Henry by a food truck with a wiener dog painted on it. He was third in line.

“Hot dogs for dinner?” I asked as I strapped my skateboard to my backpack.

Henry nodded. “Look at this line!” He pointed to the dozen or so people behind him. “If it's this busy, it must be good.”

Now, I wasn't so sure about that. But this was probably my only chance to have dogs for dinner, since Mom is real particular about my nutrition and all. “Why not?” I said. I ordered a drink and one hot dog.

Henry ordered four. “What?” he said when I gave him a look. “I'm having a growth spurt.”

We sat down on the edge of a concrete planter in front of the visitor center. “So how's the mole hunt going?” I took a bite of my hot dog.

Henry swirled the ice in his soda cup. “We're getting nowhere. And Agent Stark is all cranky—you ever get the feeling she hates kids?”

“Try sitting next to her on a five-hour flight.” I took another bite of my dog.

Henry went on to tell me how they were looking at security footage from the White House. “But we're coming up empty. This guy is just too good, you know?” He chewed on his food for a minute. “It's almost like the mole is an expert at being a mole. Does that make sense?”

“No. But then, not a lot of this case does.” I told Henry about Ben setting me up, which made him choke on his hot dog. Then I told him about John Smith and the whole Culper Ring business.

“So who has the Dangerous Double?”

“Shhh!” I looked around, but the tourists were too busy taking pictures, studying maps, and eating hot dogs to care about our conversation. “We have to find the Culper Ring book to find out who has the coat.”

“Your mission sounds a lot like our hunt for the mole,” Henry said. “Confusing.”

“There's this Culper Ring, a secret book, and all these agents that are after us like we're the bad guys. It's like a puzzle with a ton of pieces, but none of them fit together,” I said.

“When I do a puzzle, I always look at the picture on the box,” Henry said.

“Only we don't have the box right now.” This hot dog dinner conversation was beginning to depress me.

Henry polished off his last dog and belched. “Maybe I'll get another one. I'm still kind of hungry.”

My phone buzzed. There was a text from Ben:

MEET ME AT HENRY'S LAB ASAP.

He was one of those all-caps texters who didn't get that was just like yelling. And I felt like giving him my all-caps reply—only in person. I clenched my jaw and got up, wiping the crumbs off my pants. “I need to meet with Ben. Catch you later, Henry.”

Henry tossed out the trash and got back in line. “Let him have it.”

“Oh, I will.” I walked through the visitor center, toward the elevator. Inside, it was nice and quiet.

I made my way to Henry's lab above the White House visitor center. I'd get my phone and maybe whack Ben with my skateboard on the way out.

When I got to Henry's lab in room 418, Ben stood behind the desk like he owned the place. He uncrossed his arms, dug into his cargo pocket, and put the phone on the table.

I slammed his phone on the desk. “There's yours.” I pulled my hand away, clenching into a fist.

Ben smiled. “I had to retaliate after that phone prank you pulled. You must know that.” He tossed me Amy's hat and red glasses. “Thanks for the great cover.”

I put the disguise in my backpack. “Well, your brilliant plan didn't work.” It was my turn to dish out a smug smile. “I used one of Henry's gadgets to escape—the ones you were too good for, remember?”

Ben squinted.

“You know, you almost got the first daughter—how
would you say it—captured by the enemy?”

The smugness disappeared from his face. “How . . . ?”

“She was with me. Thankfully, she got out in one piece,” I said. I grabbed my phone off the table. It felt cold and different, even though it was the exact same model as the one I'd been using.

Ben leaned on the desk. “Are you fraternizing with the first daughter?”

I couldn't really deny that, since I just threw Amy's presence at the Smithsonian in his face.

“I would advise against putting her in harm's way. The mission is far too dangerous for civilians.” He picked up his phone. “Thank you for saving me back at the Smithsonian.”

“You're
not
welcome.”

Ben clenched his jaw. “Well, I suppose we're even now.”

“Huh.” I was still too mad to call a truce or anything. I took a breath to relax.

Ben hesitated. “You are a better junior agent than I thought.”

I was. But this wasn't the time to gloat. Like it or not, I had to share my suspicions with Ben. “I've been wondering something,” I said, holding my phone. “Those guys at the Smithsonian.”

“Ex-CIA,” Ben said. “The clothes, the aggressiveness—they all point to contract agents. Not government. These guys somehow tracked me to the museum.”

“I've been followed, too.” First, to the fish market. Then there were those agents at the Lincoln Memorial. I was
beginning to put the pieces together. “Mine were actual agents.”

“CIA, active agents?”

I thought of what Frank Two said and John Smith. “I'm pretty sure.”

Ben frowned. “But
we
are CIA. Why are they following us?”

“I don't know why.” Maybe John Smith was right. “I do know
how
they're following us.”

Ben gave me a skeptical frown. “How?”

“They're tracking us by our cell phones.”

BEN CLOSED HIS EYES AND SHOOK HIS
head. “Of course, why didn't I think of this?”

“So now what? Should we throw them out?”

Ben popped the back cover off his phone. “No. You'll need to remove the battery.” He did, and I followed. “We won't be able to use our phones, only in case of absolute emergency.”

“The CIA, these ex-agent dudes . . . Why would they be tracking us?”

Ben frowned and tucked his phone in his pocket. “Pandora is black ops—deep undercover. Maybe they were not notified of our mission.”

I put my phone away, too. But I didn't buy that whole black ops excuse. These people seemed to think
we
were the bad guys.

“Very well,” Ben said. “We'll resume our mission to find the Dangerous Double.”

“That's right,” I said, ready to get back to the mission. I leaned on the desk so my face was close to Ben's. “And the next time you try to set me up, I'll use a Sure Shot
and
a Ruckus on a Roll on you.”

He looked confused.

I stepped back. “If you showed Henry some respect, you'd know what I'm talking about.”

“Fine,” Ben said. He crossed his arms. “Our bet is still on. I find the coat, I get the medal.”

“You're forgetting that
I'll
be the one finding the coat,” I retorted.

Ben squinted. “May the best junior agent win.”

“Right.” Because we all knew the best agent was me, right?

I thought of a dozen excuses to give Amy for why we wouldn't break into the CIA. But they were all pretty lame. So I did something horrible.

I stood her up.

Then, I used the office phone on the desk in Henry's lab to see if he would come.

“Where are we going?” Henry asked. He sounded way too excited—probably because he'd get to be a field agent.

“You'll see.”

“Is it part of the mission? Did you find the
c-o-a-t
?”

“I'm sure if any bad guys are listening in, they know how to spell.”

“Right.” Henry snickered.

I told Henry I'd meet him outside the visitor center and went downstairs, feeling kind of guilty about ditching Amy. I tried to tell myself I was keeping her safe, but I still felt terrible.

When I got outside, Henry was already there, waving wildly, smiling. He was the opposite of secret. A few passing tourists were giving him a sideways glance. Then a black SUV pulled up. Henry gave me his proudest smile. “I even got us a ride and everything.”

I was about to explain to Henry what the secret in secret agent was all about when the rear window of the SUV rolled down. Amy leaned out. “You ready to go?”

So much for me standing her up.

“She drove right by the visitor center,” Henry said, all excited. “Cool, huh?”

I pulled Henry's arm. “This is a really bad idea. The mission is supposed to be secret. We can't have the Secret Service along, dude.”

“How else are we going to get there—on our bikes? It's in Langley; that's half an hour's drive from here, you know.”

Henry had a point.

“Fine. But Steve parks far away from the CIA building.”

Henry shrugged. “Sure. You're such a worrywart, you know that?”

My friend Sam is really good at basketball and pretty much any other sport. So when it's time to pick teams in PE, he's a top choice. Daryl is your last option because he monkeys around too much. Me, I'm your middle pick: no jock, but I can surprise you when I put my mind to it. I'm the wild card.

Our team of CIA burglars? We were your last-pick crowd. Amy was chattering all excited. Henry was gazing at her with a weird twinkle in his eye. And I was beginning to feel a disaster was waiting for us at Langley.

At least Steve was oblivious, with the little divider window up. Apparently Amy told him we were stopping by Langley because Henry wanted to see what CIA headquarters looked like. She told him her mom set it up and he believed her. Steve was kind of a sucker.

But his Secret Service badge got us past the gatehouse. Then he parked at the far end of the parking lot.

“Has anyone thought about how we're going to break into the CIA?” I asked when we were on our own. “I mean, the place has to be like a fortress, right? You don't just walk in there and ask to search the file cabinet in room 355.”

“Can't you call your boss to get you clearance?” Amy asked.

I shook my head. “I don't want them to be in on what we're doing. For all we know, the mole will hear what we're up to.” Good guys, bad guys—there was no way to tell who was on which team. Better to keep everything to ourselves.

“I could crawl in through the air ducts,” Henry said. He was just a little too excited about his first shot at being a field agent.

“This isn't some spy movie, man. And you have to be inside already to even get into air ducts.”

“Yeah.” Henry sighed. “Maybe we can parachute in. Or climb up the building with some gear. I saw that on TV once.”

Amy laughed. “You're looking at this all wrong. We can just walk in through the front door.”

Walk in through the front door? This girl was nuts. So I said, “I think they have security here.”

Amy shrugged. “And? You just have to look like you're supposed to be there. Blend in, like you belong.”

“I saw that in the movies, too,” Henry said as he pointed at me. “This guy pretended to be with the power company and got inside anywhere. All you need is a uniform.”

“We're kids, Henry,” I said.

“You have a better idea?” Amy asked me with a challenging look in her eyes.

“Actually, I do,” I said, looking at Henry. “We make a delivery.”

They both leaned forward at the same time. “What?” Amy asked.

“Easy.” I slapped my hand on my gadget guy's shoulder. “We bring them Henry.”

My plan was simple enough: Henry would walk in, pretending to be a CIA employee's kid. While he distracted the guard, we would slip inside. No problem, right?

“So you know what to say, Henry?” I asked as we walked up to the entrance. Amy and I were careful to stay in the shadows.

Henry nodded. He looked a little pale, like he was going to be sick or something. “But . . .” He stopped. “What if they don't believe me?” He swallowed. Tugged at his jacket collar. “They have security, and weapons.”

“Relax, Henry,” I said, glancing around to make sure nobody was watching. It was starting to get dark in the parking lot, but still. There had to be cameras, right? “Amy and I just have to get to room 355 and grab the book. But we have to keep moving.”

“What if they have Tasers and stuff?” Henry was beginning to panic.