Secret Scouts and The Lost Leonardo

by Mr.

  “And in 1505?” Jack and Tom asked in unison.

  “I know for sure that Leonardo was in Florence in 1505. And I know where.” Sophie saw that her sister grasped what she was getting at because she had been there last night when Sophie had read it out loud to her.

  “The Hall of the Five Hundred,” Lisa quietly concurred.

  Jack trusted Sophie blindly and did what he was asked. “I didn’t expect to be using this thing again so quickly,” he said gleefully.

  “I did,” Lisa laughed.

  “Lisa, promise me one thing. We just go back and get the phone, nothing crazy, okay?” Sophie looked almost pleadingly at her sister.

  “I’ll try my best,” Lisa said with a wink.

  Jack did a few push-ups. “You never know, if they see me again they could come after me.”

  “Jack, it’s been thirty years!” laughed Sophie. “They definitely won’t recognize you anymore. Come on, change quickly so we can go.”

  Dressed again in their costumes, they took up position around the planetarium. Jack went through his set-up routine. They spoke nervously amongst themselves while Jack carefully poured the liquid into the planets.

  “Do we have everything?” Tom asked.

  “Stop!” Sophie suddenly yelled. “We can’t go yet!”

  “Why not?” Tom sounded surprised.

  “That’s Lisa’s phone, there are no apps on it, nothing. Without a translation app we won’t be able to understand a thing!” she said, throwing her arms in the air for extra emphasis.

  “But he still has your phone,” Jack said, “so we can still talk to him.” Jack took a step forward to accept their applause, which was not forthcoming.

  “No,” Lisa’s fingers picked at a loose thread on her dress. “Sophie is right, we can’t risk it.”

  Sophie was genuinely pleased with her sister’s unexpected support. “We’re taking a huge risk already in assuming that Leonardo is actually there. I know he’s there, but then again you can never be certain.”

  Sophie shook her head. “Maybe we’ll need to ask someone directions or something. We have to download the translation app onto the phone,” she looked desperately at her sister. “But we can’t ask Mom and Dad to pay for a subscription. How do we get your phone working within a day so we can download the apps?”

  “I know how!” Lisa pulled something small out of the pocket of her dress and handed it to Sophie. “Here, it’s your SIM card,” she looked at her sister with a wry smile.

  Sophie stared back at her sister, her mouth wide open. “Why do I get the feeling you already had everything figured out before you even swapped phones?”

  Lisa nodded silently and pointed to the phone and SIM card in Sophie’s hands.

  After inserting her own SIM card into her sister’s phone, Sophie rapidly ran though the entire program. She registered the phone to the provider and downloaded a bunch of apps. She handed it to Jack when she was done.

  “What do you think Leonardo looks like now?” she asked her sister.

  “And old man with long gray hair, just like on the internet.”

  “I think so, too,” Sophie said. “Do you think he’ll remember us?”

  “Of course he will!” Lisa said confidently. “He couldn’t forget us if he tried!”

  Jack began counting down. “Three… two… one…!”

  FLASH!

  Tuesday, June 24th, afternoon

  Lisa jumped up and brushed the powdery sand off her dress. She quickly ran to the end of the street. The day was extremely hot and dry. A cloud of pale dust rose up every time her foot hit the ground. At the junction she stopped abruptly, gazing down one street and then the other. She savored every little detail: the smell, the trash on the street, the noise from inside the homes, and the people in the distance.

  Keeping a close eye on her sister, Sophie pinched her nose theatrically. “Oh my god, the smell hasn’t changed!”

  Tom, still a bit dazed, nodded in agreement. The streets were still covered with discarded food and waste. The smell lingering in the air was a pungent mix of rotting fruit and stale urine.

  Jack tried to ignore it. He walked to the studio and stared through the windows. “No Leonardo,” he mumbled, just loud enough for the others to hear.

  Tom took a quick look inside as well. “Nope, I don’t see anyone.” He caught up to Lisa and jumped deftly over a small rock on the side of the street, reacting as if he’d just pulled off a skateboarding stunt.

  “Let me look.” Sophie stood next to Jack and stared inside. “This is not a studio anymore. Look, everything is different. That’s probably why we landed on the street.”

  Jack took another quick look and had to admit Sophie was right. There was a dining table in the corner of the room surrounded by several three-legged wooden stools. The house in front of them was definitely not being used as a studio now. There were no paintings hanging on the walls and no art materials lying around.

  “Maybe we should ask one of the neighbors if they know where Leonardo is? What do you think? One thing’s for sure, he’s not here.” Jack shrugged his shoulders. He seemed a bit baffled.

  Sophie shook her head. Her hands rummaged through her dress pockets until she found the phone and then looked around warily to make sure no one was looking. She pulled it out, ran through the menu, and looked closely at one of the images. She zoomed in while simultaneously trying to orientate herself.

  “We can’t just go knocking on someone’s door. What would we say?” Sophie’s voice was trembling slightly. She switched off the telephone and put it back into her pocket. “Wait! I think I know where Leonardo is. All we have to do is figure out how to get there.”

  Jack sighed deeply, clearly indicating that he wanted a better explanation.

  “Leonardo is working on an enormous artwork in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence’s city hall. In fact, it’s supposed to be his greatest work of all! I’m sure we’ll be able to find him there.” Sophie tried to sound as upbeat as possible. Finding the city hall couldn’t be too difficult, she thought.

  “Let’s go left here,” Sophie said. “We first need to find the big square where we were the last time.” She pointed towards the narrow street that led to the square.

  “I wouldn’t do that,” Lisa said. “Tom and I have been standing here for a while watching and it’s crazy busy over there. I don’t think it would be very clever to walk through the square. If something happens, or if someone asks us something, we’re toast.”

  Sophie shook her head. “Trust me, I’m certain we should go that way.” Feeling sure of herself, she started walking down the street. “If we go to the right, we’ll have to walk all the way around, and I really want to find Leonardo before it gets dark!” Sophie stopped, folded her arms, and waited, hoping that Lisa would follow her.

  “Okay,” Lisa said, “so the choice is between walking around or getting killed? Fine, we’ll do it your way so!” She cocked an eyebrow and looked first at her sister and then at the boys.

  “Aaaggh! You always have to get your own way, don’t you?! I hope you’re right, Lisa! We’ll take your route,” said Sophie, and they all followed her. Jack continued to look around furtively with his fists clenched, just in case someone recognized him.

  They stopped briefly at the first junction.

  Lisa was half humming a tune while Jack and Tom just stood around waiting, and Sophie was doing her best to find her bearings in the hot city.

  “I know where we are,” Sophie said. “This is the same route as last time, but in the opposite direction. If we turn here, we’ll eventually end up at the cemetery.”

  “Because you want to dig up another body?” Tom said.

  Lisa laughed at the joke, but Jack and Sophie, being older, were less easily amused.

  “No laughing allowed,” Lisa said with a French accent.

  “Pfff,” Lisa rolled her eyes when Sophie and Jack didn’t appreciate her joke either.

  Sophie and Jack walked o
n as Tom and Lisa playfully made their way down the street. To avoid any trouble, every time they passed someone they pretended to be engaged in conversation with each other.

  “Look, there’s the cemetery!” Jack pointed to the end of the street.

  Lisa and Tom ran past him and quickly rummaged through the hedges and bushes surrounding the graves. They walked back after checking the last bush. “No shovel, nothing.”

  “It’s been thirty years,” Sophie said. “Maybe he’s learned enough and doesn’t need to dig up bodies anymore?”

  “Why are we here anyway? Where to next?” Tom asked impatiently.

  From the cemetery, which was situated on a hill, they could see the entire city.

  “We have to reach the other side of the square and I think I remember how to get there from here,” Sophie said. She closed her eyes and tried to recall how they had walked with Leonardo. “This way!”

  They walked down a series of quiet streets quickly and without incident. Sophie knew exactly where she was going. The few people they encountered along the way didn’t pay them much attention. After a while they looked at each other, tired and dehydrated from the oppressing heat.

  “We should have brought some water and something to eat. I’m hungry,” Lisa said. “And thirsty.”

  “Me too,” Tom grumbled.

  Jack panted as he walked ahead. “How much farther?” he asked in a whiny voice.

  Sophie took out her phone and stared at the screen for a bit. “Walk to the end of this street. We’re halfway there,” she finally said. “It’s taking a lot longer because we’re walking all the way around.”

  “How do you even know that?” Jack asked. “I thought the phone didn’t work here. You can’t just look up the route, can you?”

  “If only it were so easy. Before we left home I quickly downloaded a map of Florence. Because the screen is small and I can’t type in the location, it’s not working as well as I had hoped. To make matters worse there are no street signs and the city isn’t the same as in our time, but I’m doing my best.”

  Lisa stomped on the ground. “Fair enough, but I really need to eat and drink something or I’m going to get really grumpy.”

  Tom laughed and threw his arm over her shoulder. “Correction!” he said. “We want to eat and drink something because we are already grumpy.”

  Jack and Sophie exchanged a look of dismay. “Let’s just keep walking,” said Jack. “The sooner we find Leonardo, the sooner we can get something to drink. He’ll sort us out.”

  The group stopped at the end of the street.

  “A market!” Lisa’s eyes glistened in the sunlight. She looked left and right. Eyeing all the food, her mouth began to water.

  “Lisa!” her sister whispered. “Lisa, forget it! You said yourself we shouldn’t cross that other square because there were too many people…”

  “Sophie’s right, we can’t risk it. That market on the left of the square is even busier than it was on the other square. I think we should keep to the right and cross it as quickly as possible.” Jack motioned for them to leave, but Lisa and Tom clearly had their doubts. With their stomachs rumbling, they stared at the food as if it were calling out to them.

  “Lisa, seriously.” Sophie tried her best to convince her sister.

  “We don’t even have any money, so we can’t buy anything anyway.” She turned around and without hesitation quickly walked across the square with Jack, certain her sister would follow.

  Lisa inspected her pockets and figured they were big enough. She pulled Tom closer before he could follow his brother.

  Tom giggled as she ran her hands over his costume. “Are you trying to tickle me?”

  “How many pockets do you have?” Lisa asked without the slightest hint of emotion as she carefully inspected the people at the market.

  “Ehm…” Tom checked his clothes. “Four!”

  “Okay.” Lisa took a deep breath and nodded her head a few times before whispering in Tom’s ear. “Listen, this is totally against my principles and I’ve never done anything like this in my life…” She glanced one last time over the square and calculated their odds, “but I’m so hungry, really! Chances are we’ll be spending the next few hours looking for Leonardo, and what happens if we can’t find him? We have to eat before we die of starvation!”

  Tom nodded, he agreed with her on that. Not entirely understanding what she was getting at, however, he shrugged his shoulders.

  “Follow me and stay very close!” Lisa walked along the left-hand side of the square and pushed her way quickly through the crowd. Tom ran after her, dodging people and never letting the distance between them become more than a few feet. They bumped into each other a few times when she briefly stopped and looked around. Like a sly fox, she maneuvered her way around the rows of baskets. After a few minutes they were standing on the edge of the market again.

  Tom didn’t understand a thing, but suddenly he noticed that his tight blue velvet uniform was heavier than it had been a few minutes before. He looked down surprised. His pockets were bulging with tomatoes.

  He glanced quickly at Lisa. She looked like a deformed zucchini with lumps in her dark green dress. All the pockets were filled with food. He couldn’t believe his eyes when he realized what had happened. “What? How?” he stuttered before being interrupted by a loud roar.

  Lisa looked back over her shoulder and saw an enormous man charging through the crowd in their direction.

  “Run!” she screamed. “Run for your life.”

  Tom didn’t hesitate for even a second and ran like crazy towards the street corner where a surprised-looking Jack and Sophie were waiting for them.

  “Where were you guys?” Sophie asked angrily.

  “Run!” screamed Lisa, as she dove into the street with Tom to escape the angry market trader.

  Frightened by the sight of the vengeful man running in their direction, Sophie immediately turned and followed them.

  Jack saw the man, closed his eyes, and briefly thought of the victorious match. “Calcio!” he said quietly to himself. He took a deep breath and stepped deftly aside to let the angry man pass. As he bulldozed by, Jack stuck out his leg and the man tumbled forward and slammed onto the ground.

  As the man lay moaning on the street, Jack quickly retreated. After a few hundred feet he heard Sophie call to him from a side street.

  “This way!”

  The four of them continued running, crisscrossing a number of streets, until they were sure they were no longer being followed.

  Sophie leaned against the wall shaking her head. “I don’t know what to say, you only ever do what you want anyway.”

  Lisa retrieved four apples from her pocket and threw one to each of them. “Bon appétit, and you’re welcome.”

  Jack and Sophie were livid, but at the same time so hungry that they quickly sank their teeth into their apples. They ate the juicy fruit in silence. Lisa looked at her sister and friends and was glad to see that the fruit had the desired effect; everyone looked a lot happier.

  Sophie reluctantly admitted that it was a delicious apple. “What else did you nab, you little thief?”

  One by one Lisa pulled the fruit and vegetables from her pockets.

  “No way!” Sophie burst out laughing. “I bet you even had a recipe in mind!”

  Lisa hadn’t grabbed things randomly. In her pockets she had the exact ingredients needed for a well-known dish. They all started laughing uncontrollably. Jack contributed to the hilarity by theatrically mimicking the angry market trader smacking against the ground after he had tripped him.

  “Okay, very funny, but there’s no time to lose. We’ve got a mob of angry barbarians on our tail again, though this time they’ve got a good reason, I have to say. And we really need to find Leonardo before it gets dark, otherwise it’ll be too dangerous,” said Sophie, suddenly dead serious.

  Everyone seemed to agree and so they set off again, Sophie walking in front with her phone in hand. They
came to a stop in front of a colossal building. She studied the building from top to bottom.

  “I think…” she looked at her phone, zoomed in, and did a little jump for joy. “Do you see that enormous dome on the roof? Up there? This the Florence Cathedral, this is the Duomo! That means we’re almost there. It’s just a few minutes away.”

  They carried on walking, feeling both excited and determined. Side by side they scampered onto the enormous square. Buildings towered high above them on all sides. Impressed by their surroundings, they looked around in amazement.

  “Which one is the Palazzo we’re looking for?” asked Tom suddenly.

  “That square one,” said Sophie and Lisa in unison.

  “The Hall of the Five Hundred,” Lisa said. “Dad told us about it. I recognize the building from the internet.”

  The Palazzo Vecchio was Florence’s city hall, but it looked more like a Roman fort. The cubical building had a fortified look to it, with solid masonry interspersed with marble arches and battlements. The defense systems on the roof facilitated the pouring of burning fluid, the shooting of arrows, and the throwing of rocks from behind protective barriers.

  Sophie studied the entire building and spotted a grotesque marble statue near the entrance. “They have absolutely no shame here, do they?” she said. “I hope we haven’t seen more of Leonardo than we had bargained for...”

  “Why are the statues always naked? Can you imagine it? A statue of our own mayor on the square not wearing any clothes! Gruesome!” Jack joked.

  “I have the feeling I’ve seen that statue before,” said Lisa.

  Sophie walked around the sculpture, nodding her head. “We’ll ask Leonardo when we find him, maybe this really is one of his works.”

  They continued to inspect the statue, letting out the occasional embarrassed chuckle, until they were sure they could sneak into the building without being noticed.

  Sophie stopped in the middle of the beautiful interior courtyard.