Chapter 22
The kitchen door slammed shut behind me.
“Hey, everybody, we’re back!” I yelled.
Steve came to the doorway with my mom right behind him. “It’s about time! We’ve already got men searching for you. Is Ben with you?”
“Yep, he’s coming. I rode on ahead. I’m sorry it took so long, but we got detained!”
“Well, come on into the living room, and let’s get caught up.”
I nodded. On my way, I grabbed a can of orange soda and a handful of cheese popcorn from the kitchen.
Ben came in right behind me and plopped down into a chair. “Man, am I glad to be home! Don’t get all upset, Mom, but we just escaped from Major Davis!”
Steve said, “You’ve seen him? You’d better tell us what happened!”
Things got pretty hectic. Ben and I were both talking at once. Steve was giving out orders over the phone to different agents, all while trying to listen to us at the same time.
“Mom, you know how you keep saying that Ben and I are going to turn your hair gray? Well, you should have seen us hanging out of that window! We had at least a ten foot drop to the marble floor below, with a snarling dog looking up at us—and we nailed it!”
“I personally think the best part was how well the sheet landed on Mambo. We scored a ten out of ten with that,” Ben said complacently.
“That’s about it,” I said. “As soon as we escaped from the house, we retrieved our bikes from the row of bushes we hid them in, and rode back home as fast as we could.”
“ … And so,” Ben concluded, “here we are.”
Lillie said, “That man is so mean! He left that poor dog there with no one to care for him!”
“Poor dog,” Ben sputtered. “What about poor Ben and poor Alex?”
Dave interrupted, “Come on, boys. It’s probably fastest if you just take us to that house.”
With that, my brother and I followed him outside. We were on our way down toward one of the FBI vehicles when Steve came running out to stop us.
“Your mom just received a phone call, and we’re going to change how we do things now.”
Steve’s eyes glittered with intensity. “This may be it! I think we’ve identified a third man in the network. This mystery man that Alex heard the other men referring to must be Bill Baker, a cardiologist with an office here in the city. We investigated him a while back when we received a tipoff that he made a contribution to a charity with possible terrorist ties. Nothing ever came of our inquiry though.”
I was puzzled, “What does a phone call to my mom have to do with him? Did he call her asking for a ransom?”
“No, no, nothing like that. Here, come back into the house and she can tell you herself. I’ve got to get things coordinated—and I want everybody in the family together. Nobody leaves!” Steve looked directly at me with this last statement.
Chapter 23
Lillie was bouncing around in the living room. She said, “They’re going to find Charlie! I’ll bet that’s where our feds guys are going!”
“Settle down, Lillie!” Mom dragged Lillie over into her lap and wrapped her arms around her. “How do you think she learned to call them feds? Oh, never mind. Let me tell you about the phone call.
“My friend, Michelle, was at the medical center down on Fifth Avenue. She had an appointment this morning with her doctor. After she left, she realized she’d forgotten her coat. On her way back to get it, she saw Charlie being escorted by two men into an office across the hall from the elevator. I guess she was already on the elevator by then, and the doors closed before she could think of what to do.
“She went took the elevator back up, and went to the office where she’d seen them bringing my brother. When she tried the door, it was locked. The office was closed up. The name plate on the door was for a cardiologist named Dr. Baker. She pressed the buzzer, but there was no answer. There was a sign taped to the door stating the office was closed for the remainder of the day.
“Michelle didn’t know what to make of it. She was worried, but she didn’t want to be an alarmist. Eventually she decided that something just wasn’t right. The whole thing seemed strange. It nagged at her that Charlie most definitely had seen her, but didn’t say hello, or give her so much as a nod of recognition. So, she called me.”
“She didn’t know that my dad was missing?” Savannah asked.
“No, we hadn’t told anyone but the authorities.”
“Well, I guess that makes sense then,” said Savannah. “It’s a shame she didn’t call you right away, though— isn’t Dr. Baker who Dad went to last year when he was having chest pains?”
Mom said, “I think so. I know it was a doctor in that building.”
Minutes dragged into hours. Everyone kept stealing looks at the clock. We were all lost in our own thoughts.
Aunt Rose went into the kitchen and put on the kettle for tea. A few minutes later she came back in the room with a steaming mug for herself, and one for Mom. “It’s self-serve today guys,” she said to the rest of us. “The tea pot is on the sideboard. Help yourself if you want some.”
Outside, the rain had become a steady downpour. Lillie finally fell asleep on the couch snuggled against Cosmo.
The phone rang, breaking the silence. Savannah sprang up. “I’ll get it!”
She listened for a moment and then hung up. “Dave said they think they have the guy that was driving the van! They picked him up near the airport.”
Mom got up and was bent over in front of the fireplace, trying to get the logs to reignite. She wasn’t saying anything, just poking at the embers.
I went over and touched her on the shoulder. “Mom, this is great news. Don’t cry now!”
She impatiently pushed a tear from her cheek. “I’m sorry, Alex, it’s just been a long few days. When the phone rang, I was hoping it would be news about Charlie.”
A voice from behind us said, “Need a hankie, little sister?”
“Charlie!” Lillie squealed.
We were all around him in seconds. Everyone was hugging and laughing.
Mom was really crying then. “Tears of joy,” she explained to no one in particular. Eventually things calmed down enough for Charlie to be heard.
“I don’t know where to begin,” he said.
“Start from the beginning. Tell us what happened when you went out into the woods on Saturday night,” Savannah suggested.
“Well, it really began way before that. It started, I believe, almost a year ago when I was having chest pains.
“It turned out it was only indigestion, but during my visit with the cardiologist—that’s a big name for a doctor who is a heart specialist, Lillie—I guess I said more than I ought to about the type of work I’m in.
“Dr. Baker’s real specialty is espionage. He must have thought it was his lucky day when he found there was someone right here in his own town that developed new defense technology.”
“Coincidentally, another one of his accomplices—Davis—had just been put on special assignment with me in Washington. Those two guys have known each other for many years. After my visit, he and others in his spy ring began their plan to get to my research. The plans took months to put into place.
“I’m still piecing it together—and a lot of it is conjecture on my part. However, Dr. Baker and one of his associates are being questioned as we speak. They should be able to fill in the blanks if they can be convinced to share!”
“But why kidnap you?” Mom asked.
“Once they knew I was onto them, they weren’t sure what to do. They knew they weren’t going to be able to keep spying on my work. That part of their plan came to an end when I discovered them in the tunnel the other night.
“I think they wanted to avoid having to silence me permanently—
and they needed to get away before they were caught by the FBI.
“The men had been moving me around. Earlier this morning, they brought me out to Dr. Baker’s office, and locked me in a storage closet. But there seemed to be some sort of change of plan—and they brought me back to the house.”
Charlie glanced over at Mom, “The driver, the guy they called Serapis, must have pulled up to the house just minutes before the boys came along and saw the van in the driveway. Can you believe I was bound and gagged on the floor of it?
“After we parked in the driveway, it was only a few minutes before the major came out to the van with several suitcases. We were about to pull away when Davis decided to go back inside for something. I thought I might have heard voices outside, but I wasn’t sure. The next thing I knew, he got back into the van, and we were in traffic again. Davis had just been dropped off at the airport when the FBI caught up with our van.”
“Did you know we were there at the house?” I asked.
“No, but Steve filled me in as he was driving me home.”
Ben and I looked at each other—to think that our uncle had actually been inside the van when we came across it!
“Say, did you guys catch onto the clue about the blue belt in my message?” Charlie asked.
Lillie nodded solemnly, “I helped decode the part about Quincy.”
Savannah added, “I figured out why you used the word ‘blue’. I remembered that back when I was first learning to drive, you explained how the beltway system of roads around the city is laid out. You made me look at a map, so I would understand what a beltway was, to help me learn my way around. You told me that if I ever was lost, not to panic, because if I stayed on the same color beltway long enough, I’d come right back to where I started.”
Charlie grinned and said, “I was hoping you’d remember that and be able to make the connection.”
Savannah said, “Dad, why would those men want access to your research?”
“Yeah,” Ben asked, “Are they terrorists?”
“People are motivated by all kinds of reasons to spy,” Charlie replied. “We may learn more as to why they were doing, it when they’re interrogated.
“Some people are willing to spy because of their beliefs. Most of the famous spies in history were drawn into espionage as a way to support their cause. Others may do it because they feel that they are forced to, because threats have been made against them or their family.
“For many spies, it is just about the money they can receive in exchange for stealing or sharing information.”
I nodded my head vigorously, “Major Davis told Ben and me how he was getting rich, but not rich enough to chance getting caught.”
Charlie agreed, “Greed probably was what enticed these guys. I’m not at liberty to tell you what I’ve been working on, but you can be sure it is technology that other countries don’t have. Some countries that don’t hold our same values are willing to pay a lot of money to get their hands on our nation’s defense secrets.”
Savannah interrupted, “You still haven’t told us about Saturday. What happened after you went outside?”
“Ah … it was a dark and stormy night…” my uncle said in a melodramatically somber voice.
“Charlie!”
“Okay, okay … as everyone here knows, I walked out into the woods behind our house to have a look around. Well, I certainly found something.
“Up near the railroad tracks, I saw an opening in the ground with light coming from it.”
“It was the entrance to the tunnel!” I exclaimed.
“Exactly! Not only that—a truck was parked by the entrance. In the bed of the truck were several sections of a disassembled antenna. I went down into the tunnel, and you’ll never guess who I found at the other end!”
“Major Davis?”
“Yes, along with Serapis. I think he was the one who conked Alex on the head. So these gentlemen—and I use this term in the loosest sense—had been down in the tunnel, transmitting the data stolen from my computer. That must be why Alex would occasionally get a Wi-Fi notification on his phone when he was out by the creek. They must have chosen to only transmit at certain times, not wanting to alert anyone to their presence by leaving the antenna erected and having a constant microwave signal.”
Charlie got up and motioned for us to follow him. We filed behind him into the study. He went over to one wall and rapped on it.
“On the other side of this paneling is an elevator shaft. I saw it when I was in the tunnel. It doesn’t appear to have been used for many years. It must be how the architect of this house designed access from the house to the tunnel.”
“Anyway, that night, they overpowered me and took me to that house to hold me.”
Lillie’s eyes widened, “Ooh Charlie, did you see the big dog? Was he in the house while you were there? I’ll bet it was scary!”
Charlie picked Lillie up and gave her a quick hug. “Mamba is a very well trained guard dog. The county’s animal welfare services will try to place him in a suitable new home.”
“Speaking of dogs…” I said.
“I know, I know, we need a new dog,” Charlie said with a laugh.
“But not Mamba!” Ben exclaimed.
“No, not Mamba,” our uncle agreed. “Maybe later this week we can go to the animal shelter and see if there is a dog we’d like to adopt.”
And so our conversation with Charlie went. We talked way into the night.
Epilogue
Ben and I were the last to see Major Davis. So far he has been successful in getting away.
The following Saturday, Will, Caitlin, and Brad came over, and we gave them a grand tour of the tunnel.
“Isn’t it funny how your house doesn’t look much different from the rest on the outside, but it has so much hidden on the inside?” Caitlin said.
“People are sometimes like that too,” I said, thinking of all that had happened since Major Davis sat at our dinner table. “And who knows?” I continued, “Maybe there are more hidden passageways than just this one tunnel. Seems to me we should find out.”
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