The Hunt for the Missing Spy (13 page)

A
s the kids reached the entrance to the Sculpture Garden, they paused to look around for any sign of the guy in the trench coat. There were lots of tourists walking around in the area, but the stranger seemed to have vanished.

“We've lost him!” M.E. cried out.

“Dude, he could be anywhere!” Luke exclaimed.

“Now what?” Quinn asked, crinkling up his nose.

Cody's eyes lingered on one of the sculptures near a fountain. It looked like a giant rabbit sitting
on top of a rock. The rabbit's head was on his fist, as if he were thinking.

She thought she'd seen someone duck behind it.

“I think I spotted him,” Cody whispered to the others.

“Where?” Quinn asked, searching the area.

“See that rabbit-looking thing on that big rock?”

“Yeah,” Quinn said, squinting at it.

“Don't stare at it!” Cody warned. “Act casual. I think he might be hiding behind it.”

“Should we call the police?” M.E. asked.

“Not yet,” Cody answered. “We need to get a good look at him first. Then we'll call them.”

“What about Matt?” Quinn asked. “We still have to try to find him.”

“We will, as soon as we check this guy out,” Cody said. “And after we call the police, we'll head for the next waypoint—the Air and Space Museum—and see if Matt's there.”

The others nodded. Quinn got out his cell phone, ready to call 911, while Luke looked around for someone in charge, like a security guard or a docent.
M.E. trailed behind the group as they headed for the rabbit sculpture.

“Act normal,” Cody reminded the Code Busters. They began pointing out the other sculptures nearby—a giant spider, a running stick man, a bunch of stacked chairs.

But as soon as they got close to the rabbit statue, the stranger in the trench coat shot out from behind it and started running through the grounds.

“There he goes!” Quinn said.

“After him!” Luke yelled. “Don't let him get away!”

The boys took off running. The girls were right behind them. The stranger led them through the winding pathways, past a bunch of weird pieces of art: red arches, an old-fashioned eraser, a robot. Cody wondered what the Code Busters would do with the guy if they actually caught him, but she figured she'd worry about that if and when they did.

“He's heading out of the garden!” Luke called, pointing to the figure dashing for the exit.

“Now where's he going?” M.E. asked, panting from all the running.

“I don't know,” Luke answered, “but we can't lose him now. We're right behind him.”

As soon as they got to the street, the man seemed to vanish into the crowd. The Code Busters stood on the corner, checking all directions, hoping to catch sight of the stranger again.

“Great. We lost him,” Quinn said, shoving his hands into his pockets. “We'll never get this guy, even though he keeps showing up everywhere we go. What does he want?”

Cody shrugged. “We might as well go to the next waypoint and see if we can find Matt.”

Cody checked her phone for a return text from Mr. Littlefield, but there was nothing. The Code Busters headed for the Air and Space Museum, hoping they'd find Matt when they got there—or at least another clue as to where he might be. By the time they reached the super modern-looking building, Cody felt discouraged. There was no sign of Matt or the stranger who'd been following them.

“I wish we could go inside,” Quinn said, looking up at the needle sculpture in the front of the building.

“Ms. Stad said we're going there tomorrow,” Cody answered.

M.E. shook her head. “That's if we find Matt. If we don't, the whole trip will be ruined. We'll probably have to go home.”

“Dude, we'll find him,” Luke said. “Come on, let's see where the clue is. We're running out of time.”

While the others searched for the yellow sign with the clue, Cody texted Mr. Littlefield to let him know where they were. She thought it was odd that he hadn't responded yet. Hadn't he figured out her code? Maybe he was just too busy to respond.

Code Busters' Key and Solution found on pp. 152, 157.

She waited for a moment, but got no reply. Cody thought about texting Ms. Stad, but she didn't want to upset her teacher. She saw Luke waving at her
frantically. It looked like he had found the next message. Cody ran up to meet the others.

“What does it say?” she asked, hoping they had already deciphered the code.

“See for yourself,” Luke said, pointing to the list of words on the sign. The message was written in Washington Code. Quinn got out his Code Busters notebook and together the kids translated the symbols into letters and words.

Code Busters' Key and Solution found on pp. 149, 157.

Cody read the completed message aloud, then frowned. “What's it supposed to mean?”

“Good question,” M.E. said, shrugging.

Although Cody knew what the words themselves
meant, she wasn't sure why these three words were grouped together. She got out her cell phone and keyed in each word to find its definition. Maybe that would offer a clue.

“The first word means being loyal or faithful,” Cody told the others. “The next word means having courage. And the last word means being moral
and ethical
,
like doing the right thing.”

“That's supposed to be the clue?” M.E. said, shaking her head. “I still don't get it. And without the waypoint coordinates, how are we going to find the next place?”

“Wait a minute,” Luke said. “Maybe the clue isn't the words, but what's
in
the words.”

“You mean like a hidden code within a code?” Quinn asked.

“Yeah, like, the
i
s could be dots and the
t
s could be dashes for Morse code,” Luke said. “Like
i i t i t i t
could be
dot dot dash dot dash dot dash
.”

They tried several combinations on paper using Morse code, trying to make letters and words out of dots and dashes, but nothing worked. Luke
shrugged. “It still makes no sense.”

“Maybe it's simpler than that,” Cody suggested. “Look how the first letters in each of the words is a little larger than the others.”

“Like they're capitalized?” M.E. asked.

“Maybe,” Cody said. She studied the words and letters a few more seconds. Suddenly the answer jumped out at her. “I've got it! Look at the first letters of each word!”

“Dude!” Luke said. “It's so obvious now!”

“Let me check the address,” Quinn said. He used his cell phone to find the information. “It's 935 Pennsylvania Avenue. That's pretty close to the Spy Museum,” he said, checking his map app.

“Well, if we don't find Matt there, we'll have run out of waypoints. Game over,” M.E. said.

“Then we just have to make sure we do find him!” Cody answered.

A
s they neared the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building, Cody hoped they'd get a chance to go inside sometime. She remembered reading about the place. It sounded like a whole city rather than just an office building. Inside, there was supposed to be a car repair shop, a basketball court, a cafeteria, a roof garden, a cryptographic vault, a photo lab, an exercise room, a firing range, a medical clinic, and even a morgue. The morgue sounded kind of creepy. There were also supposed to be glass windows so people could see the FBI agents actually working.
How cool would that be?

The building was massive, made out of concrete, with lots of opaque windows. Cody thought it looked more like a prison than a federal agency. She wondered what it would be like to be a special agent and work there. It would be fun hunting criminals, spying on bad guys, and doing all that forensic work like she'd seen on that CSI show her mom sometimes watched.

The Code Busters began exploring the front of the building, searching for the next coded sign. The corner entrance looked more like a movie theater, but with an American flag where the name of the movie would normally be. Not spotting anything there, they headed down the right side of the building and searched some more. Again, they found nothing.

“You guys!” said M.E. “I just thought of something. Remember when we were trying on disguises in the Spy Museum store?” The others nodded.

“I saw Matt trying on a bunch of different things. He kept looking at me, and I thought that was strange.”

“Can you remember what he bought?” Cody asked.

“I think he got sunglasses—the kind where you can see behind you. And he was looking at fake mustaches, but I don't know if he got them or not.

Cody frowned. “Wait a minute. The guy who's been following us had sunglasses and a mustache.”

“Exactly,” said M.E. “I think the stranger is Matt.”

The Code Busters stared at each other. Was that possible?

“But he also had on a baseball hat and a khaki coat, so it couldn't have been Matt,” said Quinn.

“Why not?” Luke asked. “Maybe he brought along the hat and coat in his backpack.”

“Because he wears those dirty white athletic shoes without laces every day,” said Cody. “The stranger I saw following us had on black shoes.”

“Maybe he went to a shoe store and bought black shoes,” M.E. suggested.

Quinn shook his head. “I don't think so. Too expensive,” Quinn said. “And where would he even buy shoes around here?”

Cody had a thought and pulled out the mysterious pen she'd found in the alcove. She opened it up
and withdrew the note. “Look at this.” She unrolled the small piece of paper, revealing the coded message, which was written in black ink.

“Yeah?” Quinn said. “What about it?”

“It's written with a black marker!” she said, excited.

“So?” M.E. shrugged.

“So, do you remember Matt's fingers?” Cody asked.

“Dude, there were black marks on them . . .” Luke said slowly.

“ . . . which he probably got . . .” Quinn continued.

“ . . . when he used a black marker . . .” M.E. added.

“ . . . to color his white shoes!” Cody finished.

“Matt really has gone rogue,” said Quinn. “We have to find him!”

“He has to be around here somewhere,” said Cody.

“Let's try the other side of the building,” Luke said, leading the group back to the front entrance. When they turned the corner, Luke pointed. “Dude, I see it!” As he ran toward the sign, Cody saw someone kneeling nearby.

It was a big kid with messy brown hair, wearing a white T-shirt and baggy jeans. A black Oakland Raiders backpack lay next to him.

Cody recognized him instantly. “Oh my gosh, it's Matt!” she called to the others and ran to catch up with Luke.

Matt the Brat was holding a black marker in his hand. He looked up to see Luke standing over him. He pushed himself up, tried to grab his backpack and missed, then started to run without it. But Luke was too fast and grabbed him by the arm. “Oh, no, you don't!” he said to Matt.