Operation Sherlock by Bruce Coville

Author:Bruce Coville
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781497668478
Publisher: Open Road Media

The Mad Messenger

With barely a word to Dr. Remov, the gang went barrelling out of his house and down the road.

Despite their speed, when they arrived at the house to which their new friend had directed them, they found that whoever had been using its terminal had already fled.

Even so, it wasn’t long before Dr. Remov was proven correct in his belief that the mysterious messenger had been in action again. When Trip Davis arrived home that night, he found the message light blinking on the terminal in his bedroom. Nervously he punched in the code to call up the message. The words Someone knows what you did! flickered onto his screen.

He was not surprised when they disappeared before he could get his parents to come in and see them.

“A stakeout,” said Trip the next morning as he paced back and forth in the Phillipses’ living room. “That’s what we need. A stakeout.”

“I’d love a steak,” said Paracelsus. “If I could eat.”

“I’d settle for a burger,” said Wendy. “But what are you really suggesting, Trip?”

“A constant watch on that house, to see who comes and goes.”

“Sounds tiring,” said Rachel. “Why don’t you come here for a minute?”

Leading the others into the computer room (with Trip carrying Paracelsus, who begged not to be left behind), Rachel ran her fingers over the keyboard. A few seconds later the map Dr. Remov had shown them appeared on the screen.

“You’ve got to teach me how to do that,” said Wendy.

“It’s a simple code.”

“I don’t mean how to call up the map. I mean how to remember things that way.”

“That’s a simple code, too. It’s a tag system. Anyone can do it with a little training. It has more to do with practice than with intelligence.”

“I’m intelligent,” said Paracelsus. “Alas, it’s all a fraud.”

“Which one of you programs that thing?” demanded Ray.

“Why?” asked Roger.

“Because one of you has a sick sense of humor, and I want to know who it is!”

“It’s a secret,” said Rachel. “Now listen. As I see it, we have two choices. We can set up a stakeout at the house, which would be boring and time consuming. Or we can set up something right here so that as soon as the light for that house begins to blink, we’ll hear an alarm. Then we can shoot over and try to catch our mysterious messenger in action. I figure if two of us go sign out a pair of dune buggies, we could get from here to that abandoned house in just a couple of minutes when we need to.” She frowned. “That’s another mystery we need to figure out.”

“What?” asked Ray.

“Why we can still sign those things out after what happened yesterday,” said Wendy, remembering the conversation she had had with Mr. Swenson the night before.

“Exactly,” agreed Rachel. She turned back to the terminal. “Of course, there’s a chance this might not work. But it seems more productive than a stakeout. And if it doesn’t do the trick, we can always go to Plan B.

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