THE END
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ESCAPE
The next morning the Aldens woke to an envelope slipped under the door. It contained the instructions for the last mission.
“We’ll be up against Team Two today,” Henry said.
Benny gasped. “That reminds me,” he said. “Last night, we saw Chameleon and Leopard trying to pick the lock to one of the off-limits rooms in the east wing. We were too sneaky though, and they didn’t see us.”
“But they were saying some really suspicious things,” Violet said. “I think they came here in order to meet A.D. Ashton and reveal his true identity to the public.”
“What? That’s horrible,” said Jessie.
“Then they’re not really fans of Agent Ada or A.D. Ashton at all,” Henry said. “If they were, they’d know how important it is not to reveal secret identities. We’ll just have to make sure to win the competition then. It’s the only way to make sure they’re not able to meet the author and reveal his true identity. Let’s see what our instructions are for today.”
Henry opened the envelope and read the note out loud: “‘Agents: Today’s final mission will be an indoor operation. Please meet Benedict by the east wing at nine o’clock, and bring only one gadget of your choosing.’”
“Only one gadget,” Violet repeated. “Which one should we bring?”
Jessie looked across their gadgets—the two headsets, the sunglasses, the tablet, and the drone. “We have no idea what kind of mission this will be,” she said. “Which of these gadgets has been the most useful?”
“The glasses!” Benny said. “They show hidden messages, and I can see in the dark.”
“I think Benny’s right. Plus, the instructions say the mission is indoors. We probably won’t need the drone,” Violet said.
“And instead of the tablet, we can always use pen and paper,” Jessie added.
“All right, it’s settled then,” Henry said. “Let’s go meet Benedict.”
The Aldens went downstairs to the east wing. Benedict was waiting there when they arrived. A few moments later, Team Two joined them. Chameleon and Leopard had dark circles under their eyes, as if they had been up late. Arctic Fox was holding the drone, the gadget his team had decided to take.
“Good morning, agents,” Benedict said. “This way, please.”
Benedict led them down the east wing hall for the first time. It looked similar to the west wing, where the Aldens had been staying. Benedict stopped in front of a pair of doors on the same side of the hall.
“Spies must be skilled in entering locked rooms unnoticed, but they must be equally skilled in getting out,” Benedict said. “Team One, you will be in this room. Team Two, you will be in the room next door. I will lock the doors once you are inside. You will have half an hour to find the key. The team that succeeds first will be the winner of the Great Spy Showdown. If neither team finds the key before time runs out, then there will be no winner. Are you ready?”
All eight children nodded. Chameleon gave Henry a challenging look.
“Hope you’re ready to lose,” he said with a smile. Then he led his team into their room.
“One last bit of advice,” Benedict said, raising an eyebrow at Chameleon. “If you find yourself at a crossroads, ask yourselves what Agent Ada would do. Good luck.”
The Aldens went into their room. A moment later they heard the lock click.
“This is just like the escape room game we played with Grandfather and Mrs. McGregor,” Benny said once they were inside.
The room was not very big. It looked like an office or a study, with bookshelves along the walls and heavy red curtains on both sides of the tall windows. On the wall was a clock counting down from thirty minutes.
“All right, Team Boxcar,” Henry said. “We don’t have much time, so let’s start looking for clues.”
The four of them split up in the small room. Benny pulled his glasses down over his eyes. Violet investigated the bookshelf while Jessie took a look through the writing desk in the corner. On the desk were some pens and paper.
“Where does that door go?” Violet asked. There was a second door in the room, just visible between two bookcases.
“Probably into the room where Team Two is,” Henry said. He tried the knob, but it was locked. “A lot of old manors have doors that go between rooms like this.”
“Check this thing out,” Benny said. He was looking at a mechanical contraption sitting on a small table. Jessie brightened with excitement when she saw it.
“Benny! Do you know what that is?” Jessie asked. She took out the slides they had gotten at the end of their first challenge. “It’s an old slide projector! Henry, pull the curtains shut, would you? I’ll bet this is a clue!”
The slides sitting next to the projector appeared to be blank, so Jessie instead put in the slides they had found during their mission. With the heavy curtains covering the windows, the room was quite dark. Light streamed out of one end of the projector, showing the first slide on the wall. It was a photograph of Benedict, as they had thought.
“He looks so serious,” Violet said.
Jessie flipped to the next slide. It was a photograph of Dr. Sharpe. The next was a photo of the man in the trench coat from the first mission. “We’ve already looked at these, but it sure is easier to see them when they’re blown up big like this,” Jessie said.
“Hey, do you see that?” Benny asked. He pointed at the wall. The other Aldens did not see anything special.
“It must be more marks only you can see with the glasses,” said Henry. “What is it?”
“It’s a glowing circle on the wall. Right there, under the trench coat man’s pocket,” Benny said. He took off his glasses and pointed again.
Now that the image was so much bigger, Violet could see details she hadn’t been able to see before.
“There’s a key hanging out of his pocket,” Violet said.
“Benedict said we were looking for a key in these rooms,” Henry said. “I thought he meant to unlock the door, but maybe it’s more than that. Maybe the key is the answer to what ties all of these people in the photographs together.”
“Change to the other slides,” Violet said. “Let’s see if we can find more keys.”
The Aldens slowly flipped through the slides. Sure enough, Benedict the butler was holding a ring of keys in his hand, and Dr. Sharpe had an earring shaped like a key. Even the woman in the peach dress had a key dangling like a charm from her opera glasses. When they compared the keys in all four photographs, the children saw that the keys were all the same.
“What does it mean?” Benny asked.
Jessie took out the photograph she’d retrieved from the ski cabin the night before. “The face of the owner of the manor is cut out,” she said. “But the person is holding the same key as all of these other people.”
“Do you think that means that all of these people own the mansion?” asked Benny.
“That’s a good idea, Benny,” said Jessie. “I think it does mean that. And I think it means something more too: I think they are all the same person! Think about it. We have only met three adults this whole time: Benedict, Dr. Sharpe, and the man in the trench coat.”
“And when Benedict picked us up after our first mission, he had a bag that looked like it had a trench coat inside,” said Violet. “I bet he was the man dressed as the mole too!”
“But if there is only one person at Ashton Manor,” said Henry, “that means Benedict, Dr. Sharpe, and the mole are really…”
“A.D. Ashton!” Benny and Violet said together.
The children looked once more at all four of the slides. The person in each of the images had the same slight smile on their lips, as if they were keeping a very important secret. Now that the children were looking, the similarities were impossible to ignore.
“Wow,” Violet gasped. “Ashton really is a master of disguise. Just like Agent Ada.”
“You
know what this means?” Henry said. “We’ve already met the author of Agent Ada—four different times!”
The Aldens jumped at a knocking sound. It was coming from the door that connected their room to Team Two’s.
“Hey. Team One. You in there?” It was Leopard’s voice.
The Aldens moved closer to the door.
“Yes?” Henry asked. “What is it?”
“We’ve got a clue. But we think it’s only half of a clue. We thought maybe you had the other half.”
Jessie looked at the projection on the wall, the photographs, and the slides. She glanced at Henry with uncertainty, then said through the door, “What kind of clue?”
“It’s a message, but it’s in some kind of code,” Leopard said. “I think the clue to decoding it must be on your side. I’ll make a copy and pass it over if you tell us what you’ve found.”
They heard Chameleon’s gruff voice next. “And if we win, we’ll give you credit when we reveal A.D. Ashton’s identity to the world,” he said.
“Hey! Don’t tell them about that!” Katydid called from the background.
“Just a minute,” Henry said. He signaled to Jessie, Violet, and Benny to move away from the door, where they could talk without Chameleon and Leopard hearing them. “What do you think? We’re almost out of time. We might know that Benedict, Dr. Sharpe, and A.D. Ashton are the same person, but we don’t know how to unlock the door to escape the room. Team Two might be able to help us.”
“But if we trade our information for theirs, they could win,” Violet said. “And if they do, they’re going to reveal A.D. Ashton’s true identity to the world.”
“But if we don’t work with them, we might lose the competition,” Benny said, frowning.
“We might lose the competition,” Jessie said. “But remember, Benny: We know now that we’ve already met the author plenty of times, as Benedict and as Dr. Sharpe. Isn’t that what we wanted to do?”
“Well,” Henry said, “we have to make a big decision. What should we do?”
IF THE ALDENS KEEP THEIR CLUE TO THEMSELVES, PRESS HERE.
IF THE ALDENS WORK WITH TEAM TWO, PRESS HERE.
KEEPING THE SECRET
“Benedict said we should ask ourselves what Agent Ada would do,” Violet said. “Remember? And I know what Agent Ada would say about this: ‘A spy should never reveal another spy’s secret identity.’ And that’s just what Team Two is going to do. I don’t think we should work with them.”
“I agree,” said Jessie. “I’d rather lose the competition than help them reveal A.D. Ashton’s true identity.”
Henry nodded. He went back to the door. “Sorry,” he said to Team Two. “But if you’re going to go through with your plan, you’ll have to do it without our help.”
The Aldens waited for the clock to count down. If they didn’t work together with Team Two, there wasn’t any way for them to get out of the room before time was up. Jessie rubbed Benny’s back.
“It’s all right,” she told him. “We had a great time in the competition, didn’t we? And we were finalists too.”
“And we did the right thing,” Henry added. “Just wait until Grandfather hears about all we did this weekend—invisible messages and seeing in the dark and Jessie’s cool ski chase down the slope.”
Benny nodded. “We did get to eat avocado toast and tomato soup right in A.D. Ashton’s fancy manor.”
The clock on the wall rang.
The competition was over.
CONTINUE
WORKING WITH THE ENEMY
“Even if we share our information, I think we can still beat Team Two,” Henry said. “We have the sunglasses, but they brought the drone. We’ll just have to be faster at decoding the message than they are.”
The Aldens went back to the door. Henry knocked again.
“All right, we’re going to tell you what we found out,” he said. “But you should share your information first.”
“Not going to happen,” Chameleon said. “How about we both write our information down on paper, and slide the paper under the door at the same time?”
That sounded fair. Jessie found a pencil and a piece of paper on the writing desk and wrote down what they had learned from the slides and the photographs: That A.D. Ashton, Benedict the Butler, and Dr. Sharpe were all the same person. She folded the paper and handed it to Henry.
“On the count of three,” Henry said. He counted and slipped the paper under the door. At the same time, Leopard slipped their clue to the Aldens. Henry frowned.
“What does it say?” Benny asked.
“Nothing,” Henry said. “It’s blank. They fooled us.”
The clock on the wall chimed. Time was up, and the Aldens had lost the competition.
THE END
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A NEW CHAPTER
CLICK.
The door unlocked, and Benedict opened it. The Aldens followed him into the hallway, where Team Two was waiting. From the frustrated expressions on Chameleon’s and Leopard’s faces, Jessie guessed they hadn’t been able to solve the escape room mystery either.
“Looks like no one’s the winner,” Violet said.
“If you had just shared your clue with us, we could have all been winners,” Arctic Fox said. “Now we’re all losers. Come on, guys, let’s go home.”
The two teams went to their rooms to get ready to go home. The Aldens arranged for Grandfather to come and pick them up.
By the time they had packed and brought their suitcases to the entryway, the members of Team Two had already left. The manor was quiet, as if there was no one there but the Aldens.
“I wonder where Benedict went,” said Henry. “I would have liked to thank him for everything. Especially now that we know who he really is.”
“Grandfather says he’ll be here soon,” Jessie said, looking at the text message on her phone. “Maybe we can find Benedict or Dr. Sharpe to say good-bye before then.”
“No need. I’m here,” said a voice.
The Aldens turned to see a middle-aged woman enter from the east wing hallway. She was tall, like Benedict and Dr. Sharpe, and she wore a peach-colored sweater like the woman in the painting above the stairs. And like the woman in the painting, she had a secret little smile on her lips. Dangling around her neck was a necklace with a pendant in the shape of a key.
“A.D. Ashton!” said Benny. “Is it really you?”
The woman smiled. “It is really me, Hot Dog,” she said. “Did you think I would let you leave without saying hello? It’s why you entered the competition, isn’t it?”
“But we didn’t win,” Violet said.
“Oh, but you did!” said the woman. “Come to my study. I want to show you something.”
The Aldens followed the author down the hallway. She used the key on her necklace to unlock a door to a beautiful study full of books. Manuscripts were stacked in orderly piles on the desk. While the Aldens looked around, the author explained.
“My real name is Ashley Birmingham,” she said. “When I was young, I worked as a spy for the government. That’s why I use a pen name when I write books now.”
Benny and Violet gazed at a wall full of photos. They were like the ones in the slides, but there were many more. When Violet looked closer, she saw the person in each photograph looked a little bit like Ms. Birmingham.
“These are all you, aren’t they?” said Violet.
“Yes. Those are some of my favorite disguises,” Ms. Birmingham said. “Listen, Henry, Jessie. Violet, Benny. Now that you know Benedict and Dr. Sharpe, as well as the mole in the trench coat, were all me, you have probably also guessed the truth. Which is that I have been keeping a very close eye on the entire competition. I knew that Chameleon, Leopard, and the rest of Team Two were planning to reveal my identity. That’s why I arranged the final mission the way I did.”
“You mean with the two clues?” Henry said. “I was really curious what information Team Two had in their r
oom that they needed help with.”
Ms. Birmingham chuckled. “Oh, they just had a letter with a bunch of gibberish writing on it and instructions to ask you for help decoding it,” she said. “I had already decided I would disqualify them because of their plan to expose my identity. But I still wanted them to ask you for help, because I wanted to see what you would do. You see, I needed to know if I could trust the four of you.”
“Of course you can trust us,” Jessie said. “When we found out what they were planning, we knew we couldn’t help them.”
“Why did you need to know if you could trust the winners?” Benny asked. “Because you need to keep your identity a secret?”
“Indeed,” Ms. Birmingham said with a nod. “But for another reason too. You see, I decided to put on the Great Spy Showdown because it was fun, but I also was hoping to find young people who were trustworthy enough to do something very important for me.”
“And what’s that?” Henry asked.
Ms. Birmingham walked over to her desk and picked up one of the stacks of paper. She faced the Aldens and held it out to them.
“I was hoping to ask you the favor of reading the newest Agent Ada book,” she said. “I can tell that problem solving and doing the right thing is important to all of you and that you truly understand the Agent Ada books. I can’t think of anyone better to read my new manuscript first.”
All four Aldens lit up. Violet took the manuscript carefully.
“We’d be honored!” she said.
A horn beeped outside. It sounded like the horn on Grandfather’s car. Violet put the manuscript in her backpack, where it would be safe, and the Aldens went out to the front driveway. Ms. Birmingham brought out the spy gear, which the children had won. Grandfather was waiting, cheeks rosy.
The Great Spy Showdown Page 6