“Watch your back, Sherlock Holmes,” he said with a snicker. “Soon I’ll be the most famous detective in all of London!”
Satisfied, he put his feet up on the desk and leaned way back, balancing on the rear wheels of his chair. This proved to be a risky move. A moment later, the chair’s plastic joints gave way with a CRACK! and Dash fell backward onto the dusty carpet, dragging a mess of cables, computers, and monitors with him. “What a wipeout!” he groaned, struggling to free himself from the tangle of wires. Fortunately, his mother was out, so there were no witnesses…He didn’t exactly look like the best detective in London!
At that very moment, Dash spotted a silhouette hidden behind the jasmine plants on the terrace. Squinting into the sunset, he could make out a man with a brown peaked cap and a digital camera hiding his face.
The camera flashed ten times in rapid succession, and then the mysterious man took off at high speed.
“Hey! Cut it out!” Dash yelled. “Who gave you permission to…to—Oh no!” His voice caught in his throat. Who would want to immortalize such an embarrassing moment?
There was only one possibility, and it was a doozy: His school must have him under surveillance. And Eye International Detective Academy was staffed by the most elite experts in the field!
Dash jumped up, grabbed his EyeNet, and raced onto the terrace. He looked down the emergency stairs. The man in the brown hat was already a full flight below. There was no time to lose!
Stay calm, he told himself. Follow procedure.
Last month, he’d participated in a Tracking and Diversion course taught by Professor MP37, and he had learned the three fundamental rules of shadowing someone.
First rule: Never attract attention.
Second rule: Never lose sight of your target.
Third rule…
Um…Dash couldn’t remember it. “I need to study the manual more,” he groaned. “My cousin Agatha can store every detail in her famous memory drawers!”
He raced down the stairs to the floor below, just in time to see the elevator doors close. The glowing numbers indicated that it was heading straight to the ground floor.
Dash bit his lip. What was he going to do now?
“The stairs!” he exclaimed, snapping his fingers. He raced down fifteen flights at breakneck speed and arrived in the lobby of Baker Palace, panting and sweating. “Did a man with a brown hat and camera go out this way?” he gasped to the doorman.
The elderly man seemed surprised. “Do you mean Mr. Marlowe?” he replied in a quavering voice. “Well, now, I think he just left…”
Dash rolled his eyes and shot out the front door like lightning.
He couldn’t believe it!
Mr. Marlowe was his whiny neighbor…Who would ever have suspected that he could be a spy from Eye International? Dash figured he’d better catch up with Mr. Marlowe fast, tell him that his cover was blown, and beg him to delete the embarrassing photos!
Remembering his moves from Tracking and Diversion class, he scanned the street like a bird of prey and spied a brown hat near a sign for the Underground. Mr. Marlowe walked briskly, checking his watch, as though he were late for an appointment. Apparently, he had not realized that Dash was hot on his trail.
“I’ll get you, you nosy meddler!” growled the boy.
They turned one corner after another, heading toward deserted backstreets. Finally, Mr. Marlowe slipped into The King’s Head, one of the most popular pubs in central London. Dash stopped to consider his next move. What was that third rule of shadowing? Was he supposed to sneak inside, or wait for his target to reemerge?
After a brief hesitation, he decided to stroll slowly past the pub window to check out Mr. Marlowe’s whereabouts. Dash spotted him at the bar, conferring with a woman in a blonde wig, a floor-length gray coat, and an oversize pair of dark sunglasses. The disguise made her features unrecognizable; surely she must be an Eye International agent.
“He must be passing her the camera!” Dash shuddered, remembering his disastrous fall. “I’ll be expelled for being a klutz!”
Suddenly the woman looked right at the window, and Dash ducked behind a rusty pipe to avoid being seen. At that precise moment, the third rule of shadowing popped into his mind: Be careful you don’t fall into a trap.
“They’ve lured me here for some reason!” he muttered, running a hand through his hair. “I have to get out of here right away!”
As he walked down the street, whistling and doing his best to look carefree, Mr. Marlowe and his accomplice came out of the pub. Dash immediately dived into a Dumpster, covering himself with disgusting garbage bags. The possibility that he’d be discovered made him uneasy. “No, no, no!” he begged quietly, as he peeked out from under the lid. “I don’t want to be expelled!”
Fortunately, the Eye International agents disappeared around the corner. Dash gave a sigh of relief and clambered out of the Dumpster.
“Ha! I was put to the test,” he rejoiced, wiping slime off his clothes. “But I passed with flying colors!”
He barely had time to finish his sentence when his EyeNet started to beep. Dash thought it must be the Tracking and Diversion teacher calling to congratulate him, but a message lit up the screen. His face went pale. “An urgent mission at Niagara Falls!?” he hissed. “And here I am, covered with garbage!”
He scraped a banana peel off his sleeve and almost flew down the steps to the Underground. There was just one thing he knew for certain: Without the help of his brilliant cousin Agatha Mistery, he would be lost!
The King of Scotland's Sword Page 6