by Raymond Bean
The tone in her voice sounded kind of like she was upset with me, which was strange because she was usually very cool.
“Is something wrong?” I asked.
“No, but you’ve missed more school than I had expected on your last adventure. I spoke with your mother about it, and we agree that you should take a break from missing school for a while.”
“I know,” I said. “We already talked about it at home.” I realized there was no point in trying to get out of more school or make a pitch as to why I needed a few more days to work on the new mission. “I think you’re probably right,” I said.
“Good. You’re going to need all of your attention on schoolwork in order to catch up on the assignments you’ve missed.”
I figured I’d missed a few assignments, but it couldn’t be too bad. She logged onto her computer and made a face. “Oh my. You have several assignments that are overdue.”
“That can’t be right. You said you were going to send me any assignments to complete while I was away. No one sent me anything to work on.”
“I had asked Cindy to keep track of your assignments and pass them on to you since she’s in all your classes,” the principal explained.
“She didn’t email me anything while I was away,” I said. It figured too, because Cindy was always giving me a hard time about everything. She probably didn’t send them on purpose just so I’d get in trouble.
“That’s odd. Why don’t you track her down and see if she’ll catch you up on what you’ve missed.”
I wasn’t looking forward to seeing Cindy. She always gave me such a hard time about being out of school. She did help me a little bit with the mission, which was a nice surprise, but now it seemed like we were right back to her giving me a hard time.
I walked out of Mrs. Petty’s office and down to my secret office in the storage closet. I held my hand up to the word storage on the door and it unlocked. I glanced over my shoulder to make sure no one was looking and slipped in.
I knew Cindy had been in my office while I was away, but I still couldn’t figure out how she did it. The only way to get in was to scan your hand over the sign, and as far as I knew, I was the only one with the same fingerprints as me.
I sat at my desk and realized right away that my computer and all my screens were gone. An ancient-looking computer, like the ones in the classrooms, sat on the desk. I felt like I was in some kind of a time warp. I hadn’t used a computer that old since I was a baby. The computer was probably older than me! I tried to log in, but it denied me access.
Just then I heard the door open and close. From behind the pile of boxes in front of my desk, Cindy appeared. “Welcome back,” she said.
“How’d you get in here? Where’s my computer?” I asked.
“Didn’t your mother ever teach you to say hello to someone when they say hello to you?”
“Of course she did,” I said, “but right now I would like to know where my computers went.”
“Mrs. Petty gave me permission to remove them. We had them sent back to your house.”
That must have been the boxes that were delivered the day before. “Why would she do that?”
“She realized, after I pointed it out, that it wasn’t fair for you to have access to the latest technology when the rest of the students use the oldest computers known to humans.”
“But she agreed to let me use this office,” I said.
“That’s true, and I tried to convince her that it was unfair and you should lose that privilege, but she said she had worked out some sort of agreement with you and that man Sir Robert.”
She was right. Sir Robert had convinced Mrs. Petty that if my parents were going to make me continue to go to school like a regular kid, I should have a secret office where I could work on my missions in quiet. Mrs. Petty agreed. Now Cindy was trying to take that away.
“What do you care if I have a secret office?”
“Because it’s not fair. I’m the head of the Committee for Fairness and Equality for our school, and I couldn’t sit by while something like this was going on that is unfair for all the students.”
“But how am I supposed to get anything done in here?” I asked. “These computers look like they came over on the Mayflower.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said. “There weren’t computers when the Mayflower sailed.”
I didn’t have time to explain to Cindy that I was only kidding because the first bell rang.
“We’ll have to find some time later today to talk about all the assignments you have due,” she said.
“How come you didn’t send me my assignments? I could have worked on them while I was away.”
“I tried emailing you on the computers from school, but the connection is very unreliable. Most of the time the emails don’t go through.”
“Why didn’t you just send it from your home computer or tell me when we talked on the phone?”
“Mrs. Petty asked me to email you the assignments from school. That’s what I did. I tried from school several times, and the technology failed. That’s not my fault,” Cindy said.
I didn’t want to spend another moment arguing with Cindy, so I slipped out into the hall and made my way to my first class.
As soon as I walked in the door, my math teacher handed me a folder full of work that was due by the end of the week. The same thing happened in reading, writing, social studies, and science.
I stopped into Mrs. Petty’s office at the end of the day, plopped all the work on her desk, and fell into the chair. She looked at me and smiled. It was kind of weird, because I didn’t feel like smiling at all, and she had a huge grin on her face.
“It looks like you have some work ahead of you this week,” she said.
“I do, and I’ll get it done,” I explained. “But I don’t understand why Cindy or my teachers couldn’t have emailed everything I needed.”
“The system isn’t very reliable when it comes to emails and the Internet,” said Mrs. Petty. “Cindy tried, but her emails must not have gone through.”
“Don’t you think that’s kind of a problem?” I asked. “Everything takes place online these days. The school should really have better computers.”
“You’re right, but our system is very outddated.”
“What about my office? How come Cindy snuck in and removed all of my technology?”
“Don’t ask me how she got in. I don’t even have access to that space, and I’m the principal. However, it did seem like the only fair thing to do. You can use the office, of course, as we agreed. But I feel it’s not fair to the other students if you’re allowed access to the better equipment.”
“But those were my computers,” I reminded her. “I paid for them. I wasn’t using up any of the school’s resources.”
“True,” Mrs. Petty agreed. “But unless you plan on buying new computers for the entire school, I’m afraid you’ll have to use the same old computers as everyone else when you’re in school.”
I could buy new computers for everyone in the district if I wanted to, but it wasn’t my job to supply computers for the district.
“As much as I’d like to help the school,” I said, “It’s not fair for me to buy them for everyone.”
“Then you’ll understand how it’s not fair for you to have the best of the best while the rest of the kids have to work with the old computers.”
I understood her point, but I still didn’t like it.
Chapter 14
Name Your Price
That night, Mom, Dad, and I were at the farm checking up on the livestock when Mr. Crow landed his helicopter on one of the old runways. The farm had been an old airport before we converted it to a farm.
The same two Secret Service–looking guys from the other day were with him. He introduced himself to Mom and invited us all to go for a ride. He said he wa
nted to show us something that might help us make our decision. I didn’t tell him that Mom had already decided to give me permission to take his mission.
“It’s happened again,” he said over the headphones once we were in the air.
“What’s happened exactly?” Mom asked.
“The majority of all the money that exchanged hands today across the entire country for my group’s businesses has vanished. One moment it was there and the next—POOF—it was all gone. We’re talking about almost every transaction from our stores, websites, doctor’s offices, and hospitals. It’s a major situation, and we can’t keep it quiet much longer. And when word gets out about this, we’re all in big trouble. Worse, if our businesses suffer, the people that work in them might lose their jobs.”
“Can’t you simply track the money?” Dad asked.
“We’re talking about electronic money, Mr. Franklin,” Mr. Crow explained. “It’s not like bills that we can put fingerprint powder on or track the numbers on the bills or something like that. This money is digital. It went somewhere in cyberspace, but we don’t know where ‘somewhere’ is.”
My phone vibrated. It was Sir Robert.
“Please do not breathe a word of this to anyone else,” Mr. Crow warned.
“It’s just Sir Robert. He’s basically my partner,” I said.
“No disrespect, but I don’t want Robert knowing about what’s happened,” he said.
“You know Sir Robert?” I asked.
“Yes,” Mr. Crow replied, “and I don’t want him to know what’s happened or that you’re helping me. He’s one of my competitors. I don’t want him to have the satisfaction of knowing I’m being hacked. For all I know, it’s him.”
“Please put your phone away, Mr. Franklin,” one of the guys in black said.
I clicked to ignore the call and felt kind of funny about it. Sir Robert had always been my mentor and someone I talked to about all of my missions. It would be strange working without his help.
“I realize that Sir Robert and you have a strong history, but if you’re to take this job, you mustn’t breathe a word of the details to him. Do you think you can do that?”
I looked at Mom and Dad. “I can.” I was really excited about the mission, but I didn’t expect to have to hide it from Sir Robert.
I felt myself slip off into a bit of a daydream. There were so many things on my mind—the schoolwork I’d missed, the missing money, Sir Robert. It all swirled in my head.
“Do you have any ideas on how to figure out what’s going on?” Mom asked. She knew me so well. Sometimes I slip into a bit of a haze, and then the idea comes to me. It’s kind of like a waking dream.
“I do,” I said. I had the beginnings of a plan forming.
“Your reputation for working fast is accurate,” Mr. Crow said.
“It’s not fully formed yet,” I explained, “but I can see a solution to your problem. I think we can catch the hacker and get your businesses back to normal, but it’s not going to be cheap.”
This was always one of my favorite parts of the mission. It was interesting to see how people would react to the news that solving their problem might be fast but very expensive.
“If you can solve this problem, you can name your price,” he said. That was the answer I’d been hoping for.
“Fantastic,” I said. “Do you have any companies that sell computers?”
“Of course,” Mr. Crow replied. “We own the three biggest computer companies in the country.”
“I’m going to need a lot of computers,” I said.
“How many?” he asked.
“About five hundred to start, but I’ll need way more when the job is done.”
“That doesn’t seem like a problem,” he said.
“I’ll need you to deliver them to my school first thing tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll make the call the moment we’re back on the ground,” he said.
Chapter 15
Special Delivery
I woke up before the sun rose the next morning. I was super excited to get to work. I looked out my window and saw that the light in the shop was already on, so I got dressed and went down.
“What are you doing up already?” Dad asked.
“I guess I’m excited to get to work.” I couldn’t wait to see Mrs. Petty’s face when those computers started rolling in. “What are you doing up so early?”
“I had a breakthrough on my robot last night. I haven’t been to bed yet,” Dad said. Dad sometimes got so caught up in his work that he worked through the night.
I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. It was Sir Robert calling. “I should answer this,” I said.
“Hello, old boy,” Sir Robert said. His face was crowded in close to the screen on his phone.
“Hi, Sir Robert.”
“How are you, Benji? I haven’t heard from you since you returned from your last journey.”
“I know,” I said. “I’ve been busy getting back to my schoolwork. I have a pile to get to that’s pretty massive.”
“Tell your principal you’re busy with things far more important than reports and homework. The world is your classroom now.”
“Tell that to my mom,” I said. “She doesn’t even want me taking on any new missions.”
“She wants you to be like other kids. I get that. I just don’t feel school should be holding you back from your calling in life. Have you had any job offers since your last mission? Several of my business associates have asked for your contact information. You’re services are very much in demand.”
“Nothing too exciting. Like I said, Mom won’t let me take off any more time from school, so I can’t do much.” I felt bad about not telling him the truth, but I didn’t know if I could completely trust him.
Later that day during second period, I noticed three massive black trucks roll up in front of the school. Through the window I watched as one of the drivers walked up the front path and went in the school. I waited for the announcement that I was sure was going to come over the PA system once Mrs. Petty learned what was in the trucks.
I looked at the clock. The announcement would come any second. I counted down in my mind. Five, four, three, two, one . . . It came right on cue: “Excuse the interruption. Would Benji Franklin report to the main office, please? Benji Franklin to the main office.”
The kids in the class all looked at me like I was in trouble, but I just smiled. I couldn’t wait to see the look on Mrs. Petty’s face. I strolled out of class and made my way slowly to the office.
I walked in and Mrs. Petty said, “May I speak with you in my office, please, Mr. Franklin?”
“Of course,” I said. The driver sat in the chair that kids sit in when they’re in trouble and waiting for the principal.
We walked in, and she closed the door behind us.
“What’s going on?” she asked once the door was completely closed.
“You said I could have my computers back if I updated the computers for the school. I figured out a way to make that happen,” I explained.
“Benji, as generous and considerate as that may be, you can’t simply make a decision like this without asking me first.”
“I thought we talked about it yesterday,” I said.
“Well, I didn’t expect you to go out and find a way to provide new computers to the entire school the next day,” Mrs. Petty replied.
“Well, I did,” I said. “It’s kind of how I roll.
“It’s not that simple, Benji,” she said. “We are one school in a very large school district. I can’t provide new computers to this school if the other schools don’t have the same opportunities.”
I knew she would say that and had already set it up with Mr. Crow so that I could get more computers if I needed them.
“If you allow me to install these
computers today, I promise you that I’ll get new computers for the entire school district when my mission is over,” I said. Then I realized I was in a position to negotiate. “But I’d like something in return.”
“I’m listening,” she said.
“Give me a week off, but in the school. All my attention is going to have to be on my new mission. I can’t be distracted by reports, late homework, and going to class. I also need you to forgive my missed assignments.”
“This is highly irregular. Students don’t generally come into the principal’s office and negotiate their way out of missed assignments and going to class.”
“But they also don’t offer to supply new computers for the school district. I’m saving you millions and helping the school at the same time.”
“You have a good point,” she said. “I’ll give you a week to complete your new mission. If at the end of the week you supply new computers for the entire district, I’ll direct your teachers to forgive your assignments.”
“You have yourself a deal,” I said. “You also have new computers for the school.”
“I’ve never experienced a student quite like you, Benji Franklin,” said Mrs. Petty.
I wasn’t sure if she meant that as a compliment or if she was criticizing me, but I had an opportunity to solve the heist, avoid my missing work, and keep my promise to Mom that I wouldn’t miss any time from school.
“One more thing,” I said.
“I’m afraid to ask,” she said.
Then I said something that I thought might just knock her clear out of her chair. “I’d like to partner with Cindy on this mission.”
Chapter 16
Invisible Data
Later that night, Dad and I decided we should head up into space. We needed to get a better look at the satellites orbiting the planet to have a better understanding of how they worked. We climbed into the cockpit, and my ship’s computer said, “Good evening, Mr. Franklin and Mr. Franklin.”