by David Cole
When everyone was in position, Justin went into the building. We waited anxiously until he reappeared several minutes later.
“Well? Did you get a look inside?” I asked.
“No luck,” he answered. “I knocked a couple times, but no one answered.”
“Maybe we didn’t get the right apartment,” Stephanie said in discouragement, one hand reaching up to take a nervous tug on her ponytail.
“No, I think we’ve got the right place. I’m pretty sure I heard someone inside,” Justin said. “The door has one of those peephole things, so the people inside can see into the hallway.”
“What do we do next?” Stephanie asked.
“Well, if they won’t let us in, I guess we’ll have to get them to come out,” Justin said. “It’s time for Operation Robbie!”
Stephanie looked confused, but Catherine and I had been in school last year when Robbie had pulled the fire alarm right before our geography test. We explained to Stephanie that the entire school had been evacuated and we weren’t allowed back in until the firefighters had examined the building to make sure there wasn’t a fire. Mrs. Marks had postponed the geography test until the next day. Robbie had gotten away with it since no one could prove he had done it, but I heard him bragging about it weeks later to the other bullies.
“Everyone knows the plan, right?” Justin asked. “When the fire alarm goes off, the kidnappers will come into the hall to see what’s going on. Jordan and I will use our cell phones to take video of their faces. We’ll send the video to the FBI and they can use their facial recognition software to identify the kidnappers.”
“They’re going to be pretty mad if they catch us,” I said worriedly.
“Then let’s not get caught,” said Justin. “Keep out of sight and take the video through the little window in the door at the end of the hall. I’ve got rope to tie the door shut so they can’t follow us.”
He looked down at his phone. “It’s 2:11,” he said. “Everybody get ready. Stephanie, pull the alarm at exactly 2:15.”
Justin and I positioned ourselves at either end of the second-floor hallway. I double-checked the knot on the rope I had used to tie the doorknob to the metal railing on the staircase. My cell phone was out, ready to record the kidnappers bursting out of the apartment.
Catherine was once again watching the back of the building. Stephanie was in the first-floor hallway, ready to pull the fire alarm. I watched anxiously as the time ticked down.
2:12
2:13
2:14
At 2:15 on the dot, Stephanie pulled the alarm!
Nothing happened.
No ear-shattering alarm went off. No sprinkler heads began to spray water from the ceilings. Operation Robbie failed without a sound.
At 2:30, we were all back on the side of the apartment building. Catherine looked very discouraged.
“What now?” she asked.
“We’re not done yet,” Justin said with determination. “It’s time for Operation Sniffy!”
Stephanie looked confused again, but once again Catherine and I knew just what he was talking about. We explained that last year, Sniffy had received ten days of after-school detention when he set off a string of firecrackers in the hallway.
Justin reached into the backpack and pulled out a book of matches and a package of firecrackers. They were strung together so that you could light one fuse and all fifty firecrackers would explode one after the other, making a noise that sounded like a machine gun.
“They’ll have to open the door when they hear these,” Justin said.
“But what about the door? You won’t be able to tie it closed,” I said.
“If they head my way, I guess I’ll have to run then, won’t I?” he said in a voice that sounded a little shaky.
He was heading toward the front of the building when Stephanie called him back. “Let me do it,” she said. “I’m a lot faster than you, so it will be easier for me to get away.”
Stephanie had a good point. Justin wasn’t exactly the fastest runner. Stephanie had been playing soccer since she was three years old and was the fastest kid in our class. She was even faster than Robbie, who was a pretty good athlete himself.
“Okay, you light the firecrackers and I’ll record video from the end of the hallway. That will give me more time to run if they come my way,” Justin said.
He reached into his backpack and pulled out a roll of duct tape. He tore off a strip about four inches long and handed it to Stephanie.
“What’s this for?” she asked.
“Before you light the fuse, cover up the peephole so they can’t look outside,” Justin answered. “The only way they’ll be able to find out what’s going on is to open the door.”
“That’s brilliant!” she said in admiration.
“Okay, wait five minutes for everyone else get in place,” Justin said. “I’ll give you the signal.”
Justin and I positioned ourselves at each end of the second-floor hallway again with our cell phones ready to go. I checked my knot for what seemed like the tenth time. It felt secure. I stood in front of the window with my cell phone ready to record.
Justin was at the other end of the hall, his phone out and ready. When he gave the signal, Stephanie placed the duct tape over the peephole and lit the fuse.
Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! The firecrackers began to blast, faster and faster. Stephanie ran for the stairway, racing past Justin on the way down the stairs. The door to apartment C burst open, and a large man in a sweatshirt stumbled into the hallway. I clicked record on my phone but had only recorded a few seconds of video when the man turned toward me. I took off down the stairs. I heard footsteps pounding down the hall and the hallway door slam against the wall. My rope hadn’t even slowed him down.
I took the stairs two at a time. I had a moment of panic when I couldn’t get the outside door open, then realized I was trying to pull when I needed to push. I could hear heavy footsteps coming quickly down the stairs behind me when I pushed the door open and stumbled out onto the walkway in front of the building. Without looking back, I ran as fast as I could.
Justin emerged from the other end of the apartment building, followed closely by a short, stocky man who gained on him with every step. I had my own problems. The large man was only twenty feet behind me now. I could hear his heavy steps getting closer. He would catch me before I got to the street. I zigged to the left to try to put one of the large elm trees between me and the kidnapper. I felt his hand brush over the back of my shirt and put on an extra burst of speed. Just then, Stephanie stepped out from behind the tree and shot something from a spray can into the kidnapper’s face. Temporarily blinded, he tripped over a large tree root and fell heavily to the ground.
“What was that?” I shouted to Stephanie.
“Super String!” she shouted back. “Now run!”
She pulled away from me as I looked back at the man behind me. He had staggered to his feet and was peeling the gooey string from his face. We only had a few more steps to run before we would hit the relative safety of the street, when I heard Justin cry out. The stocky man had him by one arm and had lifted him off the ground. Justin’s legs were still running, but he wasn’t going anywhere.
I came to a stop.
“Run, Jordan!” Stephanie called back to me, but I just couldn’t leave my best friend behind. I marched over to the man who was holding Justin.
“Leave him alone!” I shouted, my voice sounding much braver than I felt.
“What are you little punks playing at?” said the stocky man as the one who had been chasing me came up behind me and pulled my arms roughly behind my back.
“We were just fooling around,” Justin said.
“Yeah? Well, I don’t like kids, so you better stay away from my apartment!” the taller man said.
“Yes, sir,” Justin said meekly.
The two men released us and the larger one pushed me toward the street.
“I don’t want to see yo
u around here again!” he said menacingly.
As Justin turned to walk away, his cell phone fell out of his hand, landing with a thump on the grass.
“What’s that?” the shorter man asked.
“It’s just my phone,” said Justin, picking it up from the ground.
“Let me see it,” the man said. He grabbed the phone from Justin’s hand and noticed it was still recording video. “Taking video of us, huh?”
He dropped the phone to the sidewalk and brought a large booted foot down on it, smashing the phone’s screen. Two stomps later, the phone was shattered beyond repair.
“Check that kid, too,” he said.
The taller man grabbed the phone from my hand and threw it to the ground. Within seconds, it was also destroyed.
“Now, get out of here!” he shouted. “If I see you kids again, I’ll break your heads.”
Justin and I did not need a second warning. We took off running as fast as we could. For the first time in his life, Justin actually ran faster than me.
We ran all the way to the park at the end of the street. We were glad to see Stephanie sitting safely on one of the park benches, but our hearts fell when we saw a man in a rumpled gray suit holding Catherine with a tight grip!
CHAPTER 14
Let her go!” I yelled, advancing toward the man holding Catherine.
To my surprise, Catherine laughed.
“Jordan, this is my dad,” she said, putting an arm around him.
“Your dad? But I thought—”
Catherine and Stephanie both laughed at the look on my face.
Catherine said, “I’ll explain everything later, but right now I suggest we get on the phone to the FBI and let them know my dad is safe.”
“And that they’ve got some kidnappers to pick up,” Justin added.
Mr. Duchesne borrowed Stephanie’s phone and made the call. After a short while, sirens blared in the distance, and we watched from the safety of the park as several police cars and a SWAT team van pulled up in front of the apartment building. The smaller kidnapper tried to escape out the front door but ran right into the arms of two police officers. A short time later, the second kidnapper was led from the building with his wrists handcuffed behind his back. Both men were put into the back of one of the police cars, which sped away with its lights flashing and siren screaming.
A black car pulled up to the curb in front of the park and Agent Carlson stepped out. He looked happy to see Mr. Duchesne was safe but frowned when he saw Catherine and Justin.
“You know that we were keeping you in the house for your own safety, don’t you?” he said sternly to Catherine.
“Yes, sir,” she replied with her eyes lowered to the ground.
“And you, young man,” he said to Justin. “Do you know it’s a crime to interfere with an FBI investigation?”
Justin’s eyes widened.
“But in this case, I guess I can let you both off the hook,” he said with a smile. “You did, after all, find the clue that Mr. Duchesne left and then came up with a plan to get him out safely.”
“And just how did that happen?” I asked, still confused about what had gone on after the firecrackers started to explode.
“Well, I know it wasn’t part of the plan, but I thought back to how Justin had gotten me out of my house,” said Catherine. “When the agent opened the front door, I went out the back. Only in this case, while the kidnappers chased you and Justin out the front door, I snuck into the building from the back. The apartment was unlocked, so I went in and found my dad tied to a chair.”
“Are you crazy?” Stephanie asked. “What if there had been another kidnapper?”
“I guess the plan wouldn’t have worked then, would it?” Catherine laughed.
“Catherine cut me free and we made it out the back door before the kidnappers got back,” said Mr. Duchesne. “It probably took them a few minutes to find out I was gone because Catherine locked the apartment door behind us.”
“That was brilliant,” I told Catherine.
“And brave,” added Stephanie.
“Those kidnappers are really going to be mad when they realize they were beaten by a bunch of kids,” Justin said. “And it’s all thanks to you, Catherine.”
“I couldn’t have done it without all of you, though,” Catherine said. “You figured out my dad’s note, Justin.”
“But it was Jordan who figured out which words in the note we needed to use,” Justin pointed out.
“Which I couldn’t have done without you letting us know that we needed to use Fibonacci sequence, Catherine,” I added.
“And Stephanie lit the firecrackers that got the kidnappers out of the apartment,” Catherine said.
“But it was Justin’s great idea to bring them,” Stephanie said.
“And Jordan came back to rescue me when the kidnapper grabbed me,” Justin said.
We all looked at each other and laughed.
“You all make a great team,” said Mr. Duchesne.
“Speaking of teams, did you know Catherine joined our math team for the fourth-grade competition tomorrow?” Stephanie asked Mr. Duchesne.
“I didn’t know that.” Mr. Duchesne looked thoughtfully at Catherine. “But if you kids can do math as well as you solve mysteries, I’d say you have a pretty good team,” he said as he gave his daughter another hug.
“So, I can go?” Catherine asked.
“Only under one condition,” he said.
We all looked at him in anticipation.
“You’d better win!”
CHAPTER 15
I was so excited about the math competition that I could barely finish my breakfast. The competition was at eleven o’clock, but Catherine and Stephanie were already at the school when Justin and I arrived at half past nine.
“We were getting worried about you guys,” Stephanie said, teasing.
“It’s not my fault. My alarm didn’t go off this morning,” Justin said, pulling his smashed cell phone out of his pocket.
We all laughed.
“Why are you keeping that thing?” I asked.
“It’s my good luck charm,” Justin replied. “It helped us to scare away the burglars from Stephanie’s house and now it has helped us rescue Catherine’s dad from the kidnappers.”
“I guess that’s true,” I said, wondering if it was too late to retrieve my own broken phone from the trash can. My parents had promised to get me a new one when we explained what had happened.
There wasn’t anything more we could do to prepare for the competition, so we spent the next hour just being kids: seeing who could jump the farthest from the swing set, playing a spirited game of tag, and climbing on the monkey bars.
At half past ten, Stephanie said, “So, are we ready to do this?”
“Before we go in,” Catherine said softly, “I want you to know how much—” but she couldn’t go on as her words were replaced by quiet sobs.
No one said anything for a few long moments while Catherine composed herself.
“I guess I just don’t know how to thank you,” she said.
“You come up with some answers today and we’ll call it even,” I said. “Deal?”
“It’s a deal,” she said with a laugh.
“Hands together,” I said. We put our hands together. “Math Kids on three.”
“One, two, three, Math Kids!” we shouted in unison.
As we walked into the school, I realized that it really didn’t matter if we won the competition. All four of us were already winners just knowing that we had such great friends.
That thought faded as soon as we found Joe Christian waiting for us.
“I’m surprised you even bothered to show up,” he said sarcastically. “I’m going to wipe the floor with you guys today.”
“Yeah? Where’s your team?” Stephanie responded.
“Who cares? I don’t need ’em,” Joe said in a conceited tone.
“Where’s that Super String when I really need it
?” Stephanie whispered to me. I laughed.
“Go ahead and laugh all you want,” Joe said. “We’ll see who’s laughing when I’m holding the trophy!” With that, he stamped away.
“I guess he’s never heard there’s no I in team,” Justin said as he watched Joe walk away down the hallway.
“Let’s go win this thing, Math Kids,” I said with determination.
The math competition had three rounds. The first was individual problem-solving. We figured Joe would do very well in that round. The second round was the team problem-solving round. The top two teams would then compete against each other in the lightning round.
We were in second place coming out of the individual problem-solving round of the competition. We had had thirty minutes to solve as many short problems as we could. The Math Kids got thirty correct. We fist-bumped each other because we knew that would be tough to beat. Joe’s teammates only got sixteen right, but Joe got an amazing twenty-four, giving them a total of forty correct answers.
Joe had a wide smile on his face when the first-round scores were announced.
“I told you so,” he said to me as he walked past. “Your team is going down.”
In the team problem-solving round, we would have another thirty minutes to solve five problems. These problems were much tougher, so each one was worth ten points. A sheet of problems was placed face down in front of each team. At the signal from Coach Harder, the moderator, we all turned our sheets over quickly. The clock was ticking.
We quickly read through the five problems:
1. In a 500-page book, the page number is printed at the bottom of each page. How many times does the number 1 appear?
2. The product of two numbers is 10,000. If neither of the numbers contains a 0, what are the two numbers?
3. When the order of the digits of 2,552 is reversed, the number is the same. How many counting numbers between 100 and 1000 are the same when the order of their digits is reversed?