Chapter 4: A Startling Revelation

The Coca-Cola truck had left, of course, but there were plenty of taxis available.  Sarah wanted to just get in the nearest one—she was tired of lugging her carry-on around—but Tracy insisted on going all the way to the end of the line.  The girls wound up hopping into a battered heap from the “Northeast Philadelphia Taxi Company” which had just pulled in.

“I’ve seen this cab here before,” Tracy explained.  “If it’s from the Northeast Taxi Company, they ought to know where the northeast airport is.”

“Guess you’re right,” Sarah admitted.  “Phew!  I thought piccolo camp was tiring, but it was nothing compared to all this!”

“Well, don’t worry,” said Tracy.  “My plane will get you where you need to go.”

“It was nice of your dad to let us use it!” said Sarah.  “Speaking of which, I don’t think I’ve ever met him—”

“You haven’t,” said Tracy.  “He’s out of town for work a lot, but he knows who you are!  I’ve told him all about you!”

“Good stuff, I hope,” said Sarah.  “I can’t even remember where I met you right now.”

“You’ve already forgotten?” Tracy looked shocked.  “It was at the airport yesterday—”

“No, I mean the first time, ever!”

“Oh!” Tracy laughed.  “That makes more sense.  I remember, though.  It was at that park, remember?  Back when we were five?  When that bully pushed you off the swing—”

“Oh, now I remember!” said Sarah.  “He said that was his swing, and for me to stay away.  I was just picking myself off the ground when you turned up.  You…what did you do again?”

Tracy smiled.  “I don’t want to brag…”

“You flipped him over your shoulder, didn’t you?  Made him land on his head?”

Tracy shook her head.  “Actually, I barely touched him.  He flipped himself.  I just…er, encouraged him a little.”

“Well, that sucked the fight out of him!” Sarah remembered it like it was yesterday.  “He stayed far away from us the rest of the day.  You really saved my neck that time.”

Tracy laughed.  “Aw, come on!  You make it sound like he was trying to kill you!  All I did was keep your spot on the swing.”

“Well, thanks,” said Sarah.  “I won’t forget this time.”

Though it was early in the morning, traffic was moving well through Philadelphia.  It also helped that the cabbie knew the main roads.  He navigated his way skillfully over some interstates before pulling off at a much smaller airport in the northeastern section of the city.

“Come on!” said Tracy, hopping out.  “I’ve been to this airport before; I know right where Dad keeps his plane.”

Grabbing their luggage, the girls headed for the private plane section of the airport.  They were stopped by a guard, but Tracy’s ID got them in.  Before long, they’d entered a hangar and found a sleek, good-sized private jet waiting for them.

“Hello!” Tracy greeted the pilot, who was lounging against the side of the aircraft.  “You’re Austin, right?”

“That’d be me,” Austin replied.  “You’re Tracy?”

“You got it!” Tracy smiled.  “Did you check the airports in Minnesota?”

“Yes,” said Austin.  “I know exactly where to take her once I drop you off.”

“Exactly?”

“Exactly.”

“Splendid.  Come on, Sarah, let’s get in!  This pilot’s a keeper—I’ve heard great things about him from Dad!”

Sarah laughed.  “Nice to meet you,” she said.

Climbing in, she was surprised at what she found.  “Whoa, this is a big plane!  I thought it’d be one of those Cessna four-seaters.  It’s got its own cabin with sofas!  A TV, a refrigerator, a kitchen—this is fancy!”

“Dad’s job’s been pretty good to him,” Tracy nodded.  “Stow your bag wherever you want.  Austin’s a good pilot; we shouldn’t have to worry about turbulence.”  She wandered over to the fridge and looked inside.  “Can I get you anything to drink?  Blue cherry soda, for instance?”

“Blue cherry?” said Sarah.  “That’s my favorite!”

“Mine too,” agreed Tracy, “as I’m sure you remember.  Jumping Joe Mauer, you’re easy to please!”

The plane didn’t start right away (Austin apparently had some business to take care of first), but within five minutes, the aircraft was in motion.  It taxied out to the runway, waited its turn, and took off in less than ten.  Sarah watched interestedly as the city of Philadelphia spread out below them.

“Look at that,” she said, pointing at the metropolis.  “Those buildings look so small from up here.  It really gives you a different sense of perspective, doesn’t it—Tracy?  Is something the matter?  You look upset!”

Her friend did look different.  Gone was the cheerful grin Tracy always sported.  She sat rigid in her seat, arms crossed, head down like she was thinking.  Her foot tapped the floor slowly, measuredly, as if she was planning out some sort of speech.

“Upset?” Tracy jerked her head up, then stared intently at Sarah.  “No, not upset, but…well, I do have something to tell you.  A few things, actually?”

“Things?” Sarah asked.  “What sort of things?”

“You wouldn’t believe me unless I told you,” Tracy replied.  “And even then, you might not believe me.  But you must—you must!  Your life depends on it!”

“My life?” Sarah smiled wanly.  “Tracy—is this another one of your jokes?”

“This is no laughing matter, Sarah, and you’d better listen to me carefully.  You see, I have a confession to make.  The airline didn’t cancel that flight you were supposed to take this morning.  I did.”

Sarah stared at her friend.  Then, she laughed.  “Oh, Tracy!” she said.  “You must be having an off day with your jokes!  Usually, your stories are believable, but that one—wait, what’s this?”

Tracy handed Sarah her phone.  Sarah glanced at it, then looked up in surprise.  “ON TIME—DELAYED—CANCELLED?  What does this mean?”

“It means, Sarah, that I’ve got access to airline schedules that the average person doesn’t have.  Also, that business last night about sharing the hotel rooms—that wasn’t just for fun.”  Tracy grabbed her phone back, tapped the screen a few times, and handed it back to Sarah.  “This is what your room looked like, after last night.”

“My room—you mean the one I had booked at the Embassy Suites—oh, my goodness!”  Sarah stared at the phone in surprise.  “What happened to it?”

“You slept through it, Sarah, but your room was bombed—”

“BOMBED???  By whom?”

“I’ll get to that.  Then, this morning, that business with the laundry carts and the Coca-Cola vendor…that wasn’t just for fun, either.  There were certain people in the lobby we wanted to avoid…certain people who are looking for you.”

Sarah stared in shock at her friend.  “Tracy, I think you’re serious—”

“I’m very serious, Sarah.”  Tracy stood up and walked over to the window on the left side of the plane.  She stared out it for a second, then turned back to Sarah.  “You see, there’s something that I’ve never told you.  Something I never would’ve told you, if this hadn’t come up.  Something I never tell anyone, unless I have to.”  She paused, then blurted out—“I’m a secret agent.”

“You’re a WHAT?”

“A secret agent—here, take a look at my credentials.”  Unzipping her purse, Tracy reached in.  She rummaged around a bit, then pulled out a plastic-encased badge which she handed to Sarah.  Her friend studied it a minute, then gave it back to her with earnest eyes.

“You’re not kidding!” she said.

“I never joke when business is concerned.”

“But Tracy!  You’re only 12—”

“So what?  What age do you think secret agents are?  Not 12, I’ll bet!  You see, Sarah, the best kind of secret agent is the kind no one suspects of being a secret agent.  No one suspects a twelve-year-old girl of being one.  Even if they do figure it out, they automatically underrate me.  I have the advantage of surprise and confusion when I have to confront anyone…but that’s beside the point!  Right now, you’re in danger Sarah—big danger.”

“Danger?  Me? What are you talking about, Tracy?”

“When was the last time you talked to your father?” Tracy asked.

“The last time I talked to Dad?  Why, that was—I called him yesterday—”

“And got his voicemail, didn’t you?”

“Why, yes—how did you know that?  Were you listening to my phone conversation?”

Tracy shook her head.  “I wish I was.  You see, Sarah, your father went missing yesterday morning—”

“Went missing??!!”  Sarah’s face went white, and she gripped the chair as hard as she could.  “Tracy, tell me this is some sort of joke!”

“Wish it was,” Tracy looked grim as she continued.  “You don’t know what your father does for work, do you?”

“Don’t know—of course I know what he does!  He works for…he works for the government…”

“But you don’t know what he does for them.  He’s a secret agent too, Sarah.  Works in my same agency.”  Tracy began to pace back in forth in front of her friend as she continued.

“I’d better start at the beginning.  Over the last six months, the Department of Defense has been losing a number of secret plans.  Foreign powers hostile to the U.S. have produced weapons technology so similar to ours, they could have only have developed it through our own plans.  Someone’s been leaking them, and the person’s gradually moving on to more and more dangerous material.

“Of course, my agency’s been working on the case ever since it developed.  We should have stopped the leaks months ago, but we’ve had a number of setbacks.  One of our agents, for instance, went to the Middle East and posed as a diplomat interested in purchasing this material.  Through him, we found out that Menace is involved—”

“Menace?” asked Sarah.

“One of the most powerful, most dangerous criminal organizations in the world.  Their ruthless scheming is matched only by their strict discipline and careful attention to secrecy, making them one of the greatest forces for evil the world has ever known.  They have operatives in every corner of the globe, including a number right here in the U.S.  If they’re involved, you know you’re in for trouble.

“Anyway, our agent figured out that Menace was selling the information, and he made a bid for it.  Next thing we knew, he was dead.  Other agents investigated.  Several of them came close to buying secrets, and one even found out the name of someone who knew who the leak was.  They were all killed before they could succeed.”

Sarah shivered.  “By Menace?”

“Yes, but these were all trained agents.  They knew how to take care of themselves.  One or two might have made a mistake that led to their cover being blown, but not as many as we’d had on the case.  We realized that the only way Menace could be finding out their secrets was if the leak was from our own agency.  At that point, we ordered several of our domestic agents to work on the case themselves.”

“Your father was one of those.  Recently, he got a break that threatened to blow this whole case wide open.  He was contacted by an informant we’ve worked with in the past, a man in Yemen by the name of Akbar.  He’s—well, he dabbles in just about every awful criminal organization he can get involved with in that part of the world, but he was always willing to talk when money was involved, and his information was reliable when he sold it.  He contacted your father and said that he was selling a DVD on which the person responsible for the leaks gives away the plans for a new type of weapon the U.S. has just developed.  He gave enough details that we had to take him seriously.

“Because we don’t know who’s responsible for the leaks, your father only told four other agents about the transaction—two that needed to authorize any transactions he had with Akbar, and two he knew he could trust.  Each one only knew part of the plan—your father’s the only one who knows the extent of it.  Basically, he was going to send Akbar a special box, about the size of a computer disk drive, made of a special, virtually indestructible material.  Once Akbar put the disk in it, he’d push a button, and the opening would seal itself up.  When sealed, the only way anyone else could get it open without destroying the disk would be to enter a password.

“Last Thursday morning, your father mailed the box—express delivery.  It was received by Akbar sometime on Friday, and he sent your dad a coded message later that day saying he’d sent the disk.  Saturday morning, Sanaa police officers found Akbar’s body in an alley.  I won’t show you the photos—it wasn’t pretty.  The rest of that day and Sunday passed without the disk arriving, and we began to get worried.  Then, Monday morning, your father went missing—”

“What happened to him?” Sarah asked, horror-stricken.

“We don’t know,” Tracy said.  “Your mom said he left for work at the usual time; he never showed up at work.  We can guess as much as we want, but at this point, we don’t know where he is, or who’s responsible.  We do know this, though.  You’re in great danger.”

“ME???” Sarah couldn’t have been any more confused if she’d been upside down in a hall of mirrors.  “What have I got to do with any of this?  I had no idea this was happening until you told me.”

“I know,” said Tracy, “but you might know the password.”

“The password?  Password to what?”

“To the box,” said Tracy.  “All conversations concerning this plan were recorded, as part of standard procedure.  In one of them, your father told one of the other agents involved that he was the only one who knew the password.  ‘Although,’ he quipped, ‘my daughter could probably figure it out.  She’s certainly heard me say it enough.’”

“Heard him say it enough?” Sarah was flabbergasted.  “But he never told me about a password—”

“Oh, he wouldn’t have told you the password—at least, he wouldn’t have told you that it was a password.  That’s against regulations.  It must be some word or phrase he used enough that you might remember it, but uncommon enough that no one else would guess it.”

“But what could that be?” Sarah asked.

Tracy shrugged.  “You’re the only one who can figure that out,” she said.  “That’s how you fit in to this, though.”  She walked back over to her seat, sat down, and stared intently at her friend.

“We don’t know where your father is,” she said, “but he must have been kidnapped by Menace.  I don’t think they’ve killed him.  They need him alive so if they recover the box, they can get it open and make sure it’s the right one.”  Lowering her voice to a whisper, Tracy hissed, “We do have decoys floating around, you know.”  Back to her normal speaking voice—“That puts you in a very dangerous position.  Either they’ll think you know the password, and they’ll try to kidnap you too, or they’ll try to kill you in an attempt to get your father to talk.  The bombing at the hotel last night indicates it’s probably the latter.”

Sarah was visibly trembling.  “That means—”

“You’re in grave danger, Sarah, but don’t worry!  We have a plan!”  Tracy leaned in close to her friend and whispered to her.  “We have the box.  Akbar sent it not to your father, but to another agent working on the case.  We’ll take you to where it is, and if you can get it open, we can find out who the leak is.  Then, we can find out where your dad is and rescue him.”

“But I don’t know any password!”

“You must.”

The door to the cockpit swung open at that moment, and a man stepped out.  With his heavily-bearded face, his sharply-defined cheekbones, and his slightly crooked nose that looked like it might have been broken in a fight, this man looked nothing like Austin, but that wasn’t the worst of it.  The worst of it was the gun he had trained on the two girls.

“We meet again, Miss Turner!”

This was just too much for Sarah, and she screamed.  Tracy, on the other hand, rolled her eyes.  “Oh, it’s you again, Ponson.”

The man laughed.  “Not only that, Miss Turner, but you’ll notice that this time I didn’t make the mistake of standing by the door!”

“Yes, but you still wear braces.”

“Huh?  What’s that got anything to do with—mmph!”

As Ponson was still speaking, Tracy’s left hand hit a secret button on her chair.  All at once, Ponson’s head jerked up, and he rose into the air, not stopping until his teeth hit the ceiling!  Before Sarah’s eyes he hung, suspended in midair.  He tried to form words, but it was a little difficult for him to speak in that position—

Then, slowly, he began to slide towards the right side of the plane.  Even as he did so, the door slid open.  It was completely ajar by the time Ponson reached the right side of the plane.  Then—

“Aaaaahhhhhh!”

—he was falling to the ground below.

Sarah gasped.  As the door closed, she stood up and rushed to the window.  “He’ll be killed!”

“Don’t worry,” spoke Tracy.  “He’s got more lives than a pack of alley cats.”

Hardly had she finished her sentence when a white parachute popped out several thousand feet below.

“See what I mean?” said Tracy.  “Ponson’s just a mercenary.  He can be dangerous, but only if you don’t know how to deal with him.  Not all of them are that easy, and I daresay, you’ll probably meet some of the harder ones before this thing is over.”

“That’s reassuring!” Sarah said, sarcastically.  She stared down at the parachute, rapidly fading out of sight as the plane continued its course…its course…

“Say, Tracy?  If Ponson was in the cockpit, then what happened to Austin?”

“I don’t know,” said Tracy.  “Most likely, Ponson knocked him out at the airport, then snuck inside.  He has a pilot’s license.”

“If he did that, though…”  Sarah made a dead run for the cockpit door.  As she peeked inside, her worst fears were confirmed.

“Tracy!  The cockpit’s empty!  We’re going to crash!”