“Is it a woman?” Bry asked.
Mr. Coyle shook his head in confusion as he looked intently at the screen for a second. Then he straightened up and put the laptop back in his bag. “I’d better go call security.… Thanks, girls,” he added before rushing out the door.
Cam leaned in, whispering conspiratorially with her friend. “Now, think, Bry. Who in our tiny little town would want to threaten the prince and his mission?”
“Got me,” Bry said, stumped. “It’s the coolest thing to happen here since Emma Danielson thought that pop singer was following her ’grams and then found out it was a different girl with the same name.”
Cam sparked with a wild idea. “Ahhh, but what if the blurry hacker isn’t from here? What if it’s someone who showed up out of nowhere, makes iffy excuses, and carts around a picture of the prince?”
Bry smiled and raised a brow, knowing exactly whom Cam meant. “Hmmmm … what an interesting and weird thought … at the same time.”
“But how can we know for sure that it’s McKeyla?”
Bry snapped her fingers. “What if we matched her fingerprints to the ones on your dad’s laptop?”
“Very sly, Bry … If only we knew anything about lifting fingerprints.”
Bry sat up and smirked “We don’t. But we know someone who might.…”
* NEW GIRL ON THE SCENE
Chapter Three
Y.C.C.I.R.A.T.*
Adrienne Attoms sat in the back of history class with perfect posture, watching interviews for the upcoming space launch on the television at the front of the room. Adrienne was the most girly of all her friends, with long blond hair and a fierce dedication to pastels. Her love of the pale colors was only trumped by her loves of pastry and the chemistry of baking it. She was wearing lavender and mint green. (Somehow it worked on her.)
The launch was taking place in less than thirty-two hours. A British reporter stood outside the Space Inc. facility as Prince Xander was escorted in. The prince was flanked by bodyguards and his personal assistant, a thin brunette woman with sharp features.
“One-point-five million dollars,” the reporter said. “An exorbitant amount of money by any account for a ‘vacation.’ But for Britain’s own Prince Xander, it’s another extreme stunt that has him, once again, in the international spotlight. Perhaps best put in his own noble words—”
“It’s friggin’ awesome!” the prince shouted out as he waved to the massive crowd outside the gates. They cheered him on, and he ate it up.
Adrienne wasn’t studying the screen, though—her intense focus was trained on a girl with long, wavy brown hair. McKeyla, or “M” as she had told their teacher she preferred to be called, sat in the front row staring up at the TV. She was absently twirling a pen in her fingers.
“I’m so happy you’re helping us,” Cam whispered from behind her.
“Anytime,” Adrienne, or Adri, as her friends called her, said in her distinctive Spanish accent. Cam and Bry had approached her that morning, asking if she wanted to be part of a “top secret investigation.” Adri was the best and youngest culinary chemist in the entire United States. When anyone wondered out loud if culinary chemist was really a thing, Adri would emphatically say, “Yes, it’s a thing!”). See, she was born and raised in Spain, where she learned culinary chemistry from her grandmother, her abuela, who taught her how to make drinks that tasted like cookie dough and gum that bubbled up in your mouth the more it was chewed.
But today Adri had something else brewing: helping Cam and Bry get and verify fingerprints from McKeyla McAlister, the girl they suspected of sabotaging the prince’s launch. Not an easy task, but there were three of them and only one of her. The odds were in their favor.
After studying McKeyla’s every move, Adri turned to her friends. “Now is our chance.” She stood up and strutted to the front of the room. But when she passed McKeyla, she flung her body forward, quite dramatically, pretending she’d tripped on one of McKeyla’s purple boots.
“Oh no!” Adri said, looking up at her target. She started talking with her hands, trying to distract her. She was by far the most dramatic of all three girls … and a little goofy, too. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t see your petite little feet there! By the way, nice boots. We haven’t met. I’m Adrienne Attoms. Adri. Wanna do lunch sometime? I am such a foodie. I know all the fanciest places to eat in this town. There’s, like, two. But they’re fabulous!”
Before McKeyla could respond, Adri moved her hand in a great sweeping arc, sending M’s pen flying to the back of the room. It landed right at Cam’s and Bry’s feet, and Bry quickly snatched it up—holding it carefully by one end so she didn’t smudge any fingerprints.
McKeyla jumped up and walked to the back, scanning the floor for her missing pen. It was obviously in Bry’s hand. M looked somewhat embarrassed as she said, “Hey, you guys again. I can’t seem to hang on to my supplies around you. Weird, huh? That’s my pen…?”
“You don’t want this pen,” Bry said, starting into one of her rambles. “It got sticky. From the sticky ground. But I like sticky things … sticky notes, sticky glue, sticky rice, sticky tape.… So here, take mine!”
Bry handed her a pen sitting on her desk. M narrowed her eyes, unsure if something peculiar was going on, but she took it anyway. “Um … thanks…” she said, then walked away.
Bry, Adri, and Cam all stared at M’s pen, which was now sitting on Bry’s desk. They had finally got their first piece of evidence! High fives all around!
* * *
Adri darted excitedly around her kitchen, a measuring cup in each hand. She had on her favorite apron, the one with little cupcakes all over it that she wore whenever she was working on a special recipe. The counter was covered with the necessary supplies: clear tape, cinnamon and sugar, black construction paper, Mr. Coyle’s laptop, and McKeyla’s pen.
As Bry and Cam stood at the ready, Adri took command of the kitchen, narrating each step, as she always did. It was almost like she was starring in her own cooking show. “You pour in a quarter cup of flour and two dashes of cinnamon. Dash! Dash! Then mix it up.” She stirred the ingredients together in the bowl, waiting until it was a uniform color. She reached out her hand to Bry. “And now … the pen…”
Bry cautiously removed M’s pen from a plastic bag with tongs so she wouldn’t ruin the prints. She passed it to Adri, who carefully took it by each end.
“Roll it, dust it … take the tape and press down lightly. Pat! Pat! Pat!” Adri sang out as she rolled the pen in the mixture, then brushed the extra powder off with a pastry brush, took a piece of clear tape, and pressed it to the side of the pen, right where the biggest print would be. “And olé! The print!”
“Rad!” Cam said, staring at the print on the tape. “Homemade fingerprint kit.”
“And it’s great for churros!” Adri laughed as she took a tray of churros out of the oven and rolled them in the remaining mixture, plus sugar, of course.
Bry aimed her cell phone at the fingerprint, capturing a picture. She opened a code scanner app of her own design and uploaded the print. “Hey, we did it. We got a partial print.…”
Cam swiftly brushed the last of Adri’s mixture onto her dad’s laptop cover, then lifted the print using the clear tape. She immediately handed the piece to Bry to scan. When Bry uploaded that print into the app, her phone beeped.
“And a partial match!” Bry said, smiling. “Go, us! Now we know for sure that McKeyla’s the bad guy … or girl.”
Adri furrowed her brows. “I don’t know. If this girl is really involved in something as huge as threatening the prince’s flight, I think we’ll need more proof than a partial print, even one that tastes as good as it looks.”
Bry stared at the phone screen and that definitive word: MATCH. How could it not be enough proof? The word match was in all caps.
“We could tell your dad,” Adri suggested to Cam.
“Sure, he’ll believe us,” Cam said, her mouth full of a piping-hot chu
rro. “But who’s going to believe him? Adri’s right, Bry. We need more evidence.”
Needing to think this through, Bry set down her phone and put her chin in her hands. “Well, then I guess we’ll just have to catch this McKeyla McAlister in the act of doing something worth catching!”
* YES, CULINARY CHEMISTRY IS REALLY A THING!
Chapter Four
I.S.O.O.T.G.G.I.M.G.*
McKeyla walked home from school with her backpack on one shoulder and the composition notebook tucked under her arm. She was the epitome of cool in her slouchy purple hat, long burgundy sweater, and up-cycled tee. The earbuds plugged into her ears ensured that she didn’t hear the three girls following her.
Adri, Cam, and Bry were dashing from tree to tree. They squeezed themselves behind one trunk, peered out across the sidewalk, then ducked behind some shrubbery. When M hooked a left, a right, and another left, then went inside her plain, unassuming tan house, the girls ran around the side.
“Go, go, go, go,” Bry whispered, ushering the girls toward the backyard. There wasn’t much there—no patio furniture or barbecue grill, unlike in most normal yards. It looked as if no one lived in the house. They plopped down in the bushes, staring at an open window on the side of the house. McKeyla appeared for a few seconds, then pulled the curtains closed. They groaned.
“Now what do we do?” Adri fretted. “We can’t see or hear what she’s doing in there.”
Cam riffled through her backpack. She pulled out one of her favorite inventions for eavesdropping. She’d spent three whole weeks working on it, trying to get it just right. Her dad had grounded her for breaking curfew and she’d wanted to know (1) if she’d ever be un-grounded, and (2) what she was getting for Christmas. Plus, her new next-door neighbor was pretty cute. It wouldn’t hurt to know if he was crushing on her like she was crushing on him. (Verdict: He was!)
The clear plastic bowl-shaped object was attached to a small, battery-powered speaker. She held them both in the air, and it transmitted sounds from inside the house. They could clearly hear McKeyla, and she was most definitely up to something. They huddled closer to listen.
“Give me a sec, Addison,” M’s voice said. “I want to check the news before reporting back to headquarters.”
“Sweet,” Adri said, adjusting her chic lavender glasses. “But I wish we could get a peek inside and see what she’s doing.”
“Camera pen!” Bry smirked as she hit a button on her smartphone, syncing it with the camera pen. Within seconds, the three girls had a view of McKeyla’s room. The image kept jumping around because McKeyla was walking around with the pen, but they were still able to catch glimpses of her box-filled room and cluttered desk.
“The Quail wants to brief you on the mission status right now,” a somewhat-familiar voice said offscreen.
“The Quail?” Cam whispered. “That must be a code name for the evil mastermind she’s working for!”
On-screen, McKeyla approached her walk-in closet, pressing her hand to an electronic scanning device that recognized her handprint and granted her access. The door slid back, revealing a secret laboratory. Beakers filled with colorful liquids were scattered on countertops, and there were several computers with different data on each screen. A red lava light with floating blobs sat next to an open laptop.
“Who the heck is this girl?” Cam said to the girls while staring at the live feed.
“Who wants to know?” said McKeyla as the camera view flipped around to her face.
Busted! Cam, Adri, and Bry squealed and scrambled to their feet, trying to gather all their stuff and take off, but McKeyla made it outside in a flash to confront them. “So … you were all spying on me?” she accused.
“Please don’t hurt us,” Bry begged, her words running into one another. “We were just…”
“We were just…” Cam added, trying to help Bry explain.
Adri gave it a shot: “We were just … uh…”
“Spying on me,” M repeated. “Isn’t that right, Adrienne Attoms? Or was this your idea, Bryden Bandweth? Or yours, Camryn Coyle?”
“She. Knows. Us,” Bry whispered.
“Of course I do,” M said. “My organization researches all my new schools before I arrive. They said you’re the three smartest girls at Maywood Glen Academy.”
“Not surprised,” Adri said, tossing her ponytail over her shoulder proudly.
“I’m surprised,” a voice sniped.
“Is that a talking notebook?” Adri stared at the composition notebook tucked under McKeyla’s arm. Her hand drifted toward McKeyla as if to grab it, and M possessively clutched it tighter and twisted away.
Cam pointed at it. “I knew it!”
“I’m not an it!” the voice said indignantly. “My name is A.D.I.S.N. Pronounced ‘Addison.’ Short for ‘Advanced Digital Intelligence Spy Notebook.’ Heavy on the intelligence. Unlike others out here! Hmmph!”
“A.D.I.S.N., quiet!” McKeyla said quickly, and refocused on the girls. “Let’s hope you know enough not to tell anyone what you saw here today,” she said sternly.
Bry’s heart was racing. What exactly had they seen? She swallowed hard. “We won’t … but please don’t hurt us!”
“Relax, I’m one of the good guys.… I mean, girls,” M said.
“OMG, she’s not going to kill us!” Bry laughed, relieved.
“So why are you here, in our town, at our school?” Cam asked curiously.
“I’m here on a highly classified mission. That’s all I can say.” She stared at Cam’s plastic contraption, then pointed at it. “Cool listening device … Did you make that?”
“Yeah, thanks!” Cam smiled. “I call it my … Sound Catcher.” Catching the mystified looks of the other girls, she added, “I’m great at making things, bad at naming them.”
“Nice work,” McKeyla said. “I’m McKeyla McAlister.”
Bry started thinking about M’s name … really thinking about it. “Whoa, whoa … McKeyla McAlister. That’s M-c … M-c-squared! No way. I’m squared, too—B-squared. Cam is C-squared and Adri is A-squared.”
“We’re, like, a supercute, live version of the Pythagorean theorem,” Cam grinned.
M tilted her head to the side, considering it. “Well, I can honestly say I’ve never met a human equation before.”
“Listen, M,” Cam said, peering around her at the open window. “We promise not to say a word … if you let us check out that awesome stuff you have in there. I’ve got total lab envy.”
Bry took a step forward, inching toward the window. M moved aside to block her. “Okay, look, I can see you guys are pretty into gadgets and high-tech stuff, but unfortunately I can’t let you—”
Seeing her chance, Cam slipped around the other side of M and jumped up to climb through the window. Bry and Adri followed close behind.
“Wait! Stop!” M called out, knowing it was too late.
The girls were already inside the house. When they got a full look at the lab, it was even more impressive than at first glance. It was like a superspy science playground! There were half-constructed experiments, holographic maps, and state-of-the-art computer equipment. A long desk had a massive flat-screen TV above it. On a worktable filled with circuit boards, tools, and wires, Cam discovered a small recycled robot M had been working on. M tried to stop her from touching it, but Cam inserted a soda can into the base, which made the robot start walking.
“It works?” M exclaimed. She had been having trouble figuring out how to complete the mechanism.
Cam shrugged matter-of-factly. “All it needed was a cylindrical base.”
Meanwhile, Bry was poking at a holographic projector showing the planets in the solar system, and Adri was having a blast creating smoke screens by combining different chemicals from a bunch of beakers and an amazing chemistry kit that folded up into its own red case.
Finally, M couldn’t take everyone messing with her experiments anymore.
“Okay, that’s it. Time to go!” she c
ried while attempting to usher the over-excited and definitely over-interested girls out of her private space. She’d always worked alone. She’d spent afternoons investigating—alone. And eating lunch—alone. And watching television—alone. She’d never needed any company before, and she wasn’t about to change that now.
She pointed to the door, but the girls didn’t seem to notice her. Adri was already mixing another batch of chemicals in a smoking test tube, and Bry was leaning over M’s keyboard, feverishly typing. A.D.I.S.N. started repeating “Incoming transmission!” and, suddenly, the large TV monitor over the desk turned on. A striking, sophisticated older woman with sleek black hair and serious eyes stared down at them.
“Agent McAlister. You have friends in your private lab?” the woman asked in an accusatory tone. She looked a bit like M, with high cheekbones and fair skin.
McKeyla stood up straight, obviously intimidated. “Yes, ma’am. I mean, no, ma’am. Somehow, these girls followed me home, and then they jumped through the window before I could—”
“I see,” the woman said, cutting her off. “Well, then I should say hello to Adrienne, Bryden, and Camryn.”
The girls’ mouths dropped. She. Knows. Us. Too?
“I’m the Quail,” the woman said, introducing herself. “And a member of NOV8—that’s ‘innovate’—an elite organization of women operatives from all over the globe. Yes, it’s true—women do run the world. We make it a point to be aware of exceptionally intelligent females. Top students, like you girls, are always on our radar.”
Bry turned to her friends. “So we’re on the radar of a real, live top secret organization with a crazy-cool code name? Hashtag amazeblogs!”
“I can’t believe this!” Cam said, euphoric. She was usually the calmest of the group, but even she was bouncing on her toes, mimicking her friend Bry.
“So … is M here ’cause of the threats made on the prince’s mission?” Bry asked, talking so fast she could barely keep up with herself. “And if so, is that why she was hacking Mr. Coyle’s laptop? And who do you think wants to stop the launch? And why? And when? And how? And you should know that once I start asking questions it’s hard for me to stop unless someone answers me.”
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