I couldn't tell what they were saying, but I knew they were not happy.
Well, fine.
Let them be mad.
It had all been some cute, childish game to them.
Well, truth and justice were not cute. They were not a game!
They were… They were… everything.
I looked at myself in the mirror.
Man, my hair was a mess! It was sticking out everywhere!
I tried wetting it down, but boiiiiing, it shot back out.
I filled up the sink and dunked my head in.
Brrrrrr!
And now I was stuck. I couldn't reach the towel!
So I dripped across the bathroom, rubbed my hair with the towel, then went back to the mirror.
I looked wild!
Crazy!
Hmmmm. Maybe I should just leave my hair like that.
I took out some gel and went to town, rubbing it all through my hair. I spiked it up.
Looked kinda cool.
I combed it straight back.
I looked like an evil warlord.
I spiked it back up.
I kinda liked it.
I combed it regular.
Bor-ing.
I spiked it back up….
Mom knocked. “Nolan?”
“What!”
“You've just been in there a long time. Are you all right?”
What was she thinking? That I'd flushed myself? Why couldn't they just leave me alone? “
Nolan?”
That did it. I took one last look at myself.
I was going to school spiked.
Mom practically fainted when I opened the door.
I stepped past her.
“Son?”Dad asked when he saw me.
“Don't touch it,”I growled, then went to my room to get dressed for school.
Chapter 4
Escape
At school, Mr. Green acted like everything was normal.
He was cheerful.
Friendly.
He strummed his guitar between lessons and reminded us that, “Attitude is everything!”
For the first time ever, I wanted to call him the Happy Hippie, just like Bubba Bixby always had.
Then, during social studies, Trinity leaned over and whispered, “I like your hair.”
I almost told her to shut up and quit making fun of me, but she was smiling.
Nicely.
So really I didn't know what to say.
Then she whispered, “Everyone's saying it looks great.”
“They are?”
“Uh-huh.”
Randy and Freddy at our table overheard, because they snickered and said, “Yeah, whatcha trying to be? A babe magnet?”
“Shut up, stupid,”Trinity told them. “Like you even know what style is.”
They all pulled faces at each other.
No one else said anything about my hair, though. And at lunch I sat by myself again.
Some babe magnet.
When school let out, I was in a worse mood than ever. Mr. Green called my name as I was leaving, but I just power-walked out of there. What did I care what he wanted to say?
The quitter.
I kept right on power-walking, too. Across the blacktop, through the teachers' parking lot, across the street, straight for home.
Only I didn't want to be there, either.
It was strange. I hate being alone. I hate having no friends. But the minute I crossed the street, I wanted to be alone.
At least I didn't want to have to talk to my mom.
Or even hide in my room. Being around my computer would just remind me that I couldn't do the one thing that made me feel like I wasn't alone. The one thing that made me feel like I did have friends.
Being Shredderman had helped me through the whole school year. It had helped me tame the world's biggest bully—Bubba Bixby. It had helped me learn that being the school nerd didn't mean that people didn't like you.
It meant they didn't know you.
Yet.
How could the three people who did know me—my mom and dad and Mr. Green—expect me to give up the one thing that made me feel good?
And that's why I didn't even open the front door of my house. Instead, I snuck into the garage, grabbed my bike, put on my helmet, and headed out.
I didn't know where I was going. I didn't know how long I'd be gone. I just knew I wanted to be away from school and home.
I pedaled with all my might. Up hills. Down hills. I flew over the Cedar Creek Bridge. Past Old Town! Past the Gazette building! Past the police station! The fire station! I turned off the main road and zoomed down streets I didn't even know existed, pedaling until my lungs hurt.
Finally I pulled to the side of the road.
My legs were shaky.
My head was pouring sweat.
My backpack felt like it weighed a ton. Why hadn't I left it at home?
I looked around.
Where was I?
I made a U-turn and started coasting back the way I'd come. But after a while, I started wonder-ing if I was going the right way. Had I missed a turn? If I was on the right road, why didn't anything look familiar?
I rode a while longer, then stopped again and looked around.
I was lost!
A bubble of panic was rising inside me. Plus, I was dying of thirst. And still so sweaty! Maybe I should have told Mom where I was going. She would have made me pack a juice box.
Okay, I told myself. Try to calm down. All you have to do is get back to Old Town. There's a water fountain at Old Town, and getting home from there is easy. Ask someone how to get to Old Town!
So I pushed on and flagged down the first car that came along. “Hey!”I shouted, waving my arm like crazy. “Can you tell me how to get to Old Town?”
“Sure!”the man shouted back. “Keep going the way you're going, then take a right, a left, and another right. Just like that—turn, turn, turn,”he said, zigzagging his hand. “It'll take you right there!”
“Thanks!”I called, and he zoomed off.
So I pedaled like mad until I came to the first cross street.
I turned right!
I pedaled like mad until I came to the next cross street.
I turned left!
I pedaled like double-mad until I came to the next cross street.
I turned right!
Can I follow directions, or what?
Then I rode along, keeping my eyes peeled. It didn't look like uphill… why was it so hard to pedal?
And it sure didn't seem like I was near Old Town. Where was I? I got off my bike and looked around. No houses.
No cars.
No people.
Just trees, everywhere I looked. And when I saw my back tire, my stomach did a loop-de-loop.
I was in the middle of nowhere. With a flat!
Chapter 5
Where the River Meets the Road
Uh-triple-oh! I was going to be in trou-uh-ble when I got home. If I could figure out where home was!
I checked my bike tire.
It was definitely flat.
I tried riding it a little anyway.
It was worse than walking.
So I got off and pushed my bike along the road, looking for houses. There had to be a house here somewhere! Why else was there a road?
When I got tired of pushing, I just stood on the shoulder of the road for a while, waiting for someone to come by. That's all I had to do, I told myself—wait. I'd flag someone down. I'd have them call my mom and explain where I was. She'd come pick me up!
But I waited a long time, and no one came by. So finally I hid my bike behind some trees and started walking. I didn't want to leave my backpack, because it was full of all the things that matter most to me. Like my digital camera.
My collapsible periscope!
Binoculars!
You know, stuff any cyber-superhero carries around with him.
Not that being a cyber-superhero was doing me
a bit of good, being lost in the woods. But still, spy tools are expensive! I sure didn't want them to be stolen. Or carried off by squirrels!
So I lugged them along and just kept walking.
And walking.
And walking!
And I tried to walk fast, but I was tired. And thirsty!
Man, was I thirsty!
I was also—shhhhhh —scared.
I kept telling myself that if I just stayed on the road, I was bound to run into something.
Someone.
But the farther I walked, the more trees there seemed to be. This road was leading me to the middle of the middle of nowhere!
And even though it wasn't dark yet, I could tell the sun was on its way down. The road was getting really, really shady.
I got to the top of a little hill, and down on the other side there was a wide wooden bridge. No cars. No people. But the bridge made me feel better. It wasn't nearly as big as the Cedar Creek Bridge, but it proved that this wasn't just a road to nowhere. It went to a bridge that took you across a river and…
A river!
I ran down the road as fast as I could.
Water!
I crunched through the leaves and pine needles, down the riverbank to the stream. Wa-hoo! Water!
I found a steady rock, out a ways where the water was flowing strong and clean.
Didn't want to get sick from stagnant water!
I cupped my hands and drank.
And drank!
And drank!
It was delicious!
The best-tasting water ever!
And when I'd finally had enough to drink, I backed off the rock and started up the riverbank.
I felt tons better.
Like I could walk to the moon!
Maybe even to Mars!
Of course, that's 100 million kilometers away, and there isn't any water on Mars—except for maybe some at the poles—so that was probably exaggerating a little.
But I could find my way home.
Piece of cake!
I climbed up the bank and was just getting past the boulders to the trees when a car came thumping over the bridge. I yelled “Wait!”and tried to run out to the road, but I slipped on a bed of pine needles and fell instead.
Some superhero, huh?
I knew it was too late. I knew there was no way he saw me. And I was busy thinking, Drat! when the strangest thing happened.
The car pulled off the road and stopped.
I almost ran out to it, but I didn't. For some rea-son the car looked… sinister.
It was long.
Sleek.
Black.
And it was just sitting there, giving me the creeps.
I crouched behind a tree, and now I was wor-ried that the driver had seen me.
I waited for him to do something, but he didn't. He just sat there in his sinister black car for the longest time.
I crouched lower. Was he waiting for me to come out? Was he planning to… kidnap me?
Very slowly I took out my digital camera.
I took out my binoculars.
If I was going to get kidnapped, maybe I could leave some evidence behind. Evidence that would help my mom and dad get me back!
I looked at the car through my binoculars. I could see a man sitting in the driver's seat. He seemed to be looking in his rearview mirror.
What was he doing?
What was he waiting for?
Then the door opened and he got out.
He was wearing a black hat.
Black gloves!
Shiny black shoes and a gray trench coat.
I crouched lower. This guy hadn't stopped for me. He had no idea I was there! So what was he doing there, wearing a hat and gloves and a trench coat?
In the woods.
I put my digital camera lens up to one of my binoculars' eyepieces. I held the camera and binoculars together tight, then zoomed in on the guy, and click. I took a picture of him.
I checked the image in the display monitor of my camera.
Nice and sharp!
I watched the trench coat guy look around. Over one shoulder. Over the other. Then he reached back inside the car and took out a… What was that? A boulder ?
Yes! The guy had a boulder.
What was he up to?
I took another picture of him with the boulder.
Another nice shot!
The man looked over both shoulders again, then started walking my way.
Across the road.
Into the woods.
Closer.
And closer!
Chapter 6
X Marks the Spot!
Something strange was going on. Why in the world would a guy in a trench coat and shiny shoes stomp through the woods with a boulder?
I scrunched down lower.
And lower.
And just when I thought for sure he was going to see me, he took one last look over his shoulder then turned, slip-sliding on pine needles as he went down to the river.
He hurried over to the bridge.
He went under the bridge!
I watched him through my binoculars, scooting over a few trees so I could keep an eye on him.
I lost him in the shadows of the bridge for a minute.
Two minutes.
Not knowing where he was made me nervous. Had he figured out I was there? Could he be sneaking up behind me?
Did he have a gun?
Then I spotted him coming out from under the bridge. Looking left. Looking right. Hiking back up the riverbank.
Only now both his arms were swinging free.
No boulder.
I watched him get back into his car, and right before he drove away I zoomed in and took a picture of the car.
When he was gone, I just stayed put a minute, thinking. Obviously this guy was doing something sneaky. Maybe even illegal.
But with a boulder ?
The car was long gone by the time I decided to investigate. I strapped on my backpack, then hur-ried down to the bridge. And believe me, I was on the serious lookout for anyone around.
I also wanted to hurry because it was cooling off quick, and the shadows were very long.
The sun was going down!
Or, really, the earth was rotating away from the sun, making it look like the sun was going down.
Anyway, I hurried under the bridge and checked all around.
Boulders, boulders, everywhere!
I found one about the size of the trench coat guy's and went to pick it up.
It weighed a ton!
Well, okay, it wasn't really two thousand pounds. It was more like fifty or sixty pounds. But still! How had the trench coat guy carried something that heavy under one arm? Was he Hercules in disguise?
Wait a minute—maybe it wasn't a real boulder. Maybe it was like one of those fake rocks they use in the movies.
But why would he bring a fake rock down to the river?
I picked up a stick and started poking at boulders. Any boulder that was about the right size, I jabbed.
Clonk. Clonk. Clonk. They were all solid. Didn't budge an inch.
Then, about halfway under the bridge, I jabbed at a boulder and it went thump.
I jabbed again.
Thump.
It sure looked like a boulder. It even had moss growing on it!
I looked left.
I looked right.
The water running downstream made it hard to hear anything else. If someone came along, I'd never hear them.
I reached for the boulder, and that's when I noticed that the moss was glued on.
In the shape of an X!
My heart started pounding.
My skin started creeping.
X marks the spot!
I picked up the boulder.
Compared to a real boulder, it weighed hardly anything!
I turned it over. There was a secret door!
I twisted the latch and opened the door.
And when I saw
what was inside, I knew I had to get out of there.
Quick!
Chapter 7
Things Turn Shabby
I'd never seen so much money in my life. I pulled out a stack that was rubber-banded together and fanned through it.
Wow.
They were all Benjamin Franklins.
All one-hundred-dollar bills!
And maybe Benjamin Franklin was never a United States president, but he definitely deserves to be on the one-hundred-dollar bill.
He invented the fire engine.
The post office.
The library.
He discovered electricity!
How many presidents can say that?
And, I asked myself, how much time was I going to waste thinking about Benjamin Franklin while I was in danger under a bridge?
I looked around quick, then pulled out more stacks and fanned through them, trying to do a speedy count of the money in the boulder. Ten stacks, a hundred bills each, a hundred dollars each…
Holy hollow boulder, Batman! There was a hundred thousand dollars in this rock!
Talk about electricity—boy, was I charged!
Then all of a sudden, the bridge thump-thump-thumped overhead.
Uh-triple-oh!
What if the trench coat guy was back?
I stuffed all the money into the rock, put the rock back where I'd found it, then scrambled up the riverbank, staying under the bridge.
I really wanted to get out of there, but I couldn't risk being seen.
I had to hide!
I found a place way up the bank, behind a pillar of cement that was helping to hold up the bridge.
I held my breath.
One minute.
Two!
Finally I let it out and tried to think. What if no one was up there? I couldn't hear anyone up there. What if I was hiding from no one? How long was I going to sit there, hiding from no one?
Very quietly, I took my periscope out of my backpack.
I extended it up, up, up, until it was peeking over the planks of the bridge.
I turned it left.
I turned it right.
There was a car up there!
It wasn't sleek and black, though. It was small. And tan. And sort of banged up.
The man coming out of it didn't give me the creeps like the trench coat guy had, either. He was just a regular-looking guy. But he was acting kind of nervous.
I put my digital camera up to the periscope's eyepiece.
Enemy Spy Page 2