The Case of the Bug on the Run

by Martha Freeman

  “Actually, I already knew that,” Mom said.

  “So then what’s the problem?” Tessa asked.

  “Well,” Mom said, “Mr. Schott’s top secret project is awfully expensive. Also, some people don’t like drones.”

  “You mean because they can spy on people?” I remembered what Nate had said at lunch.

  Mom nodded. “Yes, and they can be used as weapons, too. That sounds bad, but drones are good if they help keep Americans safe. Also, Mr. Schott’s company employs a lot of workers who need jobs. . . .” She shrugged. “What to do about them is a tough question.”

  “Mama,” said Tessa, “did you know it was going to be so hard to be president?”

  Mom nodded. “I had a feeling.”

  “Then why did you want to do it?”

  Mom thought before she answered, “It’s a little like solving mysteries, I guess. Even though it’s challenging, you girls and Nate do it because it’s worthwhile and you’re good at it.” She shrugged. “Those are basically the same reasons I wanted to be president.”

  Tessa always has more to say, but that night she didn’t have the chance. Mom leaned over and gave her a kiss and a snuggle. Then she came over to my bed, leaned down and gave me a kiss and a snuggle, too.

  On her way out the door, Mom said, “One more thing. Please don’t tell your friend Courtney my concerns about the drone project. If her father mentions it in his blog, it will only make things worse.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that,” said Tessa. “Because Courtney only cares about the bugs.”

  “The bugs?”

  We explained how Courtney thought Mr. Amaro had talked Mom into putting bugs in school lunches.

  Mom laughed. “Well, I hope someone set Courtney straight! I have no intention of adding bugs to school lunches.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Usually the Ks wake us up.

  But now the Ks were in not-so-solitary confinement in Hooligan’s room—two doors down from ours.

  So instead, we were awakened the next morning by people drumming and chanting outside:

  “Liberty, equality—set the White House cockroach free!”

  Tessa and I rolled over, looked at each other, threw off our covers and ran to the window. The yelling came from a crowd on Pennsylvania Avenue just outside the White House fence. Some of the people carried signs with pictures of butterflies, beetles and grasshoppers. Two women held up a banner between them. It read: BUG LIBERATION FRONT.

  Tessa stood next to me. “Cammie, what’s ‘liberation’?”

  “Same as freedom. But I never heard of bug liberation.”

  “I am all over it,” said a voice behind us—Cousin Nate. He and Aunt Jen have an apartment on the White House’s third floor. Usually he sleeps as late as he can. The people outside must have waked him, too.

  “Don’t you know how to knock?” Tessa asked.

  “Don’t you want to know what the Bug Liberation Front is?” Nate asked.

  Unlike some kids I could name (Cammie and Tessa), Nate has his own computer.

  “Oh, fine,” said Tessa. “What?”

  “They’re a political group. They believe bugs will inherit the earth, and humans should be nice to them.”

  Tessa faced the window and waved her arms the way she does. “So what’s the problem, people? We are so very nice to James Madison!” She looked around. “Where are my shoes? I am going down there to talk to them.”

  “No, Tessa, don’t!” Nate said. “See, the BLF also believes bugs should not be kept in cages.”

  “Aha!” Tessa smacked her forehead. “That’s the solution to the mystery, then! It was the BLF that let James Madison out yesterday.”

  “Wait, what? James Madison got out?” Nate said.

  “I guess we forgot to tell you,” I said. “And I don’t think it was the Bug Liberation Front. Because then who put him back? And besides, how would they even know we had a cockroach?”

  “True,” said Tessa. “And for that matter, how do they even know we have a cockroach now?”

  “From Jan and Larry.” Granny came in behind Nate. “As I expected, you were on the local news with Jan and Larry last night. They mentioned you’d adopted a cockroach from the zoo. I have to give these bug liberation people credit. They move fast. But now we have more pressing issues to discuss.”

  “Like how we’re not in trouble anymore?” said Tessa hopefully.

  “And we don’t have to give away the Ks?” I said.

  “Actually, you’re in more trouble than ever,” said Granny. “Wait till you see the news coverage of last night’s dinner. But first things first. You have an appointment. Mr. Morgan and Mr. Webb will meet you in the Treaty Room in twenty minutes.”

  Mr. Morgan and Mr. Webb are security officers who work for the Smithsonian Institution. Sometimes we help them out with detecting. Since the National Zoo is part of the Smithsonian, I was pretty sure I knew what our appointment had to be about—a certain mysterious bug on the run.

  As for the news coverage—what was Granny talking about? It couldn’t be that the news guys cared about Hooligan and the Ks’ minor misbehavior at a formal White House dinner. I mean, could it?

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The Treaty Room is across the Center Hall from our bedroom. Sometimes my mom uses it as a second office or for meetings. When Tessa, Nate and I walked in, Mr. Morgan and Mr. Webb were sitting in comfy chairs drinking coffee. As usual, they were wearing rumpled gray suits.

  Granny and Mom were also waiting for us in the Treaty Room. If Mom was there, that meant our mystery must be important.

  Mom stood up, ruffled Nate’s hair and gave me and Tessa each a squeeze.

  When she sat back down, she was all business. “Mr. Morgan? Could you go over what you told my national security advisor this morning?”

  Tessa was wearing her pink sparkly ball cap, the one she always wears for detecting. I had my pen and notebook, and now I got ready to write.

  “Briefly,” said Mr. Morgan, “as of twenty-oh-seven hours yesterday, a government sensing device detected a new radio signal in the White House residence—specifically the East Bedroom.”

  “Twenty-oh-seven is seven minutes after eight o’clock at night,” Nate said.

  “We know, Nate,” Tessa said.

  “And the East Bedroom is our bedroom,” I said.

  “I know that, too,” said Tessa. “And there aren’t any signals there, I mean, unless it counts as a signal when the Ks purr. Maybe the device heard the kittens?”

  “Impossible,” said Mr. Morgan.

  “Yeah, Tessa,” said Nate. “Because if you remember, at eight-oh-seven last night, your kittens were causing chaos at a White House formal dinner.”

  “Right!” said Tessa. “Please continue, Mr. Morgan.”

  Mr. Morgan did. “In fact, we do believe the signal is coming from one of your pets—the newest one, the bug you named James Madison.”

  Tessa waved her arms. “Oh, fine. Whatever happens, blame the bug.”

  “I like bugs, actually,” said Mr. Morgan. “I had an ant farm as a child.”

  Tessa’s eyes lit up. “Granny? Can we get—”

  Granny said, “Don’t even think about it.”

  “Specifically, we believe the signal is coming from an audiovisual transmitter affixed to the bug,” said Mr. Morgan.

  I looked up from my notebook. “You mean our bug is shooting video?” I said. “And recording what we say?”

  Tessa squealed. “You mean our very own bug is a spy?” She smacked her forehead. “And to think all this time we trusted him!”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Mr. Morgan did his best to calm Tessa down.

  “Your bug could hardly have bugged himself,” he said. “Therefore, your bug is not the spy. Instead, it appears some other spy is using him for his or her own purposes.”

  I looked at Tessa. “So whoever stole him yesterday afternoon must’ve attached a transmitter before they brought
him back.”

  Granny raised her eyebrows. “I don’t recall anyone telling me the bug had been stolen.”

  “That’s because you said you didn’t want to hear it,” said Tessa sweetly. “Remember?”

  I explained before Granny could reply. “We noticed the bug was missing at, uh . . . about sixteen-forty-five. He was back when we came in from Mr. Amaro’s dinner at, uh . . . twenty thirty hundred hours. That’s four-forty-five till eight-thirty in regular-people time, not quite four hours.”

  Mr. Morgan nodded. “And presumably he had been returned by twenty-oh-seven when the device picked up the signal from your bedroom.”

  “But wait a second,” Tessa said. “We’ve seen our bug since he came back. There’s no camera attached to him. He just looks regular.”

  Mr. Morgan nodded. “With miniaturization technology, the transmitter could be very tiny. It may also have been camouflaged—painted to match the cockroach.”

  Mom cleared her throat and looked at her watch. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting with Mr. Schott and the joint chiefs five minutes ago. What is it you want the children to do, gentlemen?”

  Mr. Morgan said, “Find out who bugged the bug.”

  Mr. Webb nodded.

  Mom stood up. “All right, fine. Provided, of course”—she looked at Granny—“you think it’s safe?”

  “I think we can keep it safe, yes,” said Granny.

  Mom nodded. “Good luck, muffins. You, too, Nate. I’ll talk to you tonight.”

  Mr. Morgan and Mr. Webb stood up. Mom shook hands with each of them. When she was gone, Mr. Webb took a crumpled piece of paper from his vest pocket and handed it to Mr. Morgan, who looked it over.

  “This is our plan of action,” Mr. Morgan said. “The first step is to disable the transmitter. However, I must warn you. Our technician cannot ensure your pet’s structural integrity.”

  Tessa looked at Nate. “Translation?”

  “He means when they unhook the transmitter, they might squash James Madison by accident,” Nate explained.

  Tessa looked horrified. “That is not okay! And anyway, who cares what goes on in Cammie’s and my room? We hardly have any secrets . . . I mean, unless you count the snack stash in Cammie’s underwear drawer.”

  Granny said, “What snack stash?” at the same time that I said, “How did you know about that?” and Nate said, “Anything good?”

  Mr. Morgan wasn’t interested in my snacks. “I think you underestimate the risks,” he said. “All sorts of people could be interested in something you girls say, or something your parents or grandmother says to you—a foreign power, a reporter, even the political opposition. You may not even realize what you know and what you talk about.”

  “He has a point, Tessa.” I remembered how Mom had told us her worries over Mr. Schott’s drone last night.

  Tessa said, “But that doesn’t mean you can just go squishing my pet!”

  In our family, I am quiet, Tessa is loud, and Nate is smart. Now I thought of something that might be a good idea, but—not being either smart or loud—I felt shy about saying it.

  “Uh . . . ,” I mumbled.

  “Go ahead, Cameron,” said Granny.

  “Well,” I finally said, “what if we leave the transmitter alone?”

  Nate twirled his finger next to his head—crazy—and pointed at me. The grown-ups shook their heads. Even Tessa looked doubtful.

  Oh, fine. What else had I expected?

  Still, I tried to explain: If we left the transmitter alone, the spy—whoever it was—wouldn’t know we were investigating. On the other hand, if we took the transmitter off, the spy would see us doing it. And then he (or she?) would do his best to hide his tracks.

  Mr. Morgan nodded thoughtfully. “Good point,” he said.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  There was more discussion. But Granny’s vote was the one that counted. When she said we should try my plan, I—for once—felt smart.

  “All right then, it’s decided,” said Mr. Morgan. “But please remember this. You kids must be very careful what you say in front of the bug. Because we have no idea who it is that’s listening, a single slipup could endanger not only you and your family but the entire United States of America.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Before he and Mr. Webb left, Mr. Morgan asked us to do one more thing—take a look at our cockroach and see if we could spot the transmitter.

  “What does a transmitter even look like?” Tessa asked.

  Mr. Morgan said, “It will be the part of the bug that doesn’t look like a bug.”

  I scratched my head. Was that supposed to be helpful?

  Granny told us to meet her and Nate for breakfast in the Family Kitchen in ten minutes. I should bring my notebook so we could get right to work detecting.

  But first Tessa and I went to wash up and take a good look at our cockroach.

  The two of us had been in our room about five seconds when I realized that life with a bugged bug was not going to be easy.

  Challenge No. 1: How do you look for a transmitter without looking like you’re looking for a transmitter?

  Finally, I said, “Oh, Tessa. I am so worried about our cockroach, James Madison!”

  I tried very hard to sound exactly normal, but Tessa squinted like I was acting weird.

  “I mean”—I nodded at the tank—“didn’t James Madison appear a teeny bit sick this morning? He might have a case of the sniffles. We had better look at him very closely to make sure he is healthy.”

  Tessa said, “I don’t think cockroaches get sniffles.”

  Now I was exasperated. “Tessa, would you for gosh sake get with the program?”

  “What are you talking—Oh!” Tessa finally caught on and tried to sound exactly normal, too. “Yes, Cameron. You are so correct. We had better look at James Madison closely. Also, you should get a tissue in case we have to wipe his nose.”

  I got a tissue. Then the two of us knelt by the tank and stared. James Madison stared back. I thought of how some spying stranger was probably staring at us on a video screen, his version of Bug TV.

  I couldn’t help it. I crossed my eyes and stuck out my tongue.

  Then I got serious. Was there anything different about our cockroach today? Maybe the government sensing device was wrong. Maybe there had never been a new signal.

  But wait! Now that I looked harder, I did see something: James Madison used to have two horns on his head, and now there was a third one—right between the others. Could it be a camera lens? Also, there was a narrow black band like a belt around his middle. Maybe attached to the band was a microphone? Maybe the microphone was painted cockroach orange?

  I tried to imagine how the bad guy had attached the tiny equipment to Tessa’s and my bug. Tiny belt buckles? Tiny Velcro? Tiny laces?

  I knew Tessa had seen the same things I saw. I knew she was dying to point them out. But instead she said, “I have looked and looked but do not see a trace of cockroach snot, Cameron. Do you?”

  “Not a trace,” I said. “He looks exactly as healthy as he did yesterday before he went on the run.”

  “Phew!” Tessa wiped imaginary sweat from her forehead. “I am so relieved! Now, dear sister, shall we go and have a lovely breakfast with our grandmother and cousin?”

  On our way to breakfast, we took a quick detour to the window above the North Portico. Only a few members of the Bug Liberation Front remained out front. I wondered where the other ones had gone.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Depending on how you count, there are at least three kitchens in the White House. Our family’s is next to the second-floor dining room, just off the West Sitting Hall. When we walked in, Nate was pouring milk, Hooligan was dreaming under the table, Mr. Bryant was reading the newspaper, and Humdinger, Granny’s canary, was doing a canary dance-and-song—twee-twee-twee—in his cage by the window.

  Here’s the best part: Granny was standing at the griddle, spatula in hand, cooking bana
na pancakes!

  We said good morning to Mr. Bryant. For the past couple of months, he and Granny have been special friends, so I could be pretty sure she had told him already about our bugged bug.

  Mr. Bryant said good morning back, then held up the front page of the Washington Post for us to see. On it was a huge picture of Fluffy sailing across the State Dining Room toward the sunflower arrangement at the dinner last night. The headline said: MEOW! WHITE HOUSE PETS OUT OF CONTROL?

  “Uh-oh,” said Tessa and I at the same time.

  “Hmph,” said Granny. “The sooner those kittens of yours are gone, the happier I’ll be. Now, who wants pancakes?”

  I got milk and maple syrup from the refrigerator. Tessa got silverware from the drawer. As she and I set the table, we took turns telling everyone about James Madison’s new horn and new stripe.

  Granny served the pancakes and sat down. “I’ll pass that information to Mr. Morgan and Mr. Webb,” she said. “Now then, Cameron. While we eat, what if you share your notes with us? That way everyone can help.”

  Between bites, I read my notes out loud. When you’re detecting, the next step after you take notes is to identify anything in them that seems strange, important, or both.

  Nate spoke first. “I have a question. Did you guys know when you went to the zoo that you were going to adopt a cockroach?”

  “Nope,” said Tessa. “It was just a good idea I had when the zookeeper told me he had an extra.”

  “In that case,” said Nate, “whoever bugged James Madison didn’t have time to plan.”

  “Write that down, Cammie,” Tessa said.

  “I will,” I said.

  “And he couldn’t have come from the zoo already bugged,” Granny added. “It must have happened here at the White House.”

  “Something else,” said Nate. “Our spy has to be an expert on technology, someone who knows about miniaturized microphones and cameras, not to mention how to attach them to cockroaches.”

  “Write that—”