The Winning Element (19 page)
Beaker and I nodded.
“Okay. Enough said.” His cell phone buzzed, and, unclipping it from his waistband, he checked the display and answered his phone, “One second.” He reached inside his pocket and pulled out two sugar packets. “It’s the crystallized siumcy Beaker created. Nalani slipped me a couple packs. Make sure each of your roommates ingests this. The Tricsurv it goes with is in your equipment supplies. You’ll know where your roommates are at all times.”
Beaker turned to me. “What’s a Tricsurv?”
I took a second to simplify the explanation in my brain. “The Tricsurv is a tracker. It looks like a computer chip and is usually inserted into a specialized watch. But since we’re not allowed to wear watches, Chapling and I rigged everyone’s cell phone to accept it. It’ll give us our roommates coordinates at all times.”
“When did you create that?” Beaker asked.
I shook my head. “I didn’t. The Specialists already had it. When you told David and me about your powdered GPS compound, I knew it would work perfect with the Tricsurv. Tricsurv’s been used for years in GPS situations. By the way, does the siumcy taste like anything?”
“Nothing,” Beaker answered. “The twins won’t even know.”
I pocketed the sugar packets, excited to use them.
“Okay. I don’t want either of you skipping meals on this trip. Keep your energy up.” TL strode off down the hall, and we headed back the way we came.
“Let me give David a quick update.” I got out my cell and punched UNEXPECTED ROOMATES. LOCATED EQUIPMENT . . . SAW EDUARDO.
He responded within seconds. FOCUS ON DNA DUST NEXT . . . YOU OKAY?
I knew he was referring to the “saw Eduardo” part. I WILL BE. BYE.
BYE.
Beaker untied the ribbon from around her neck and crammed it in her pocket. “This thing’s choking me.”
“Sorry about the gum,” I apologized.
She shrugged. “Whatever.”
“That back handspring was pretty impressive.”
She smiled a little.
We crossed through the hotel’s lobby and walked into the large meeting area that would serve as America’s Cheer’s meal room for the week.
A buffet stretched along the side wall. Tables and chairs had been set up cafeteria style, already occupied by bubbly cheerleaders eating their food.
Lessy and Jessy sat right in the center. They waved to us. “We saved you seats,” they yelled over the chattering noise.
We waved back.
The buffet line had died down to nothing. We grabbed plates and loaded up. Turkey sandwiches, potato salad, chips, apple wedges, ginger cookies, carrots with ranch dressing, and cheese cubes.
I took some of everything and extras of the cookies. I didn’t realize how
hungry
I was.
hungry
I was.
Beaker and I wove around the tables, heading toward Lessy and Jessy. Whispers followed us.
“What cows.”
“Oh my God. Did you see all their food?”
“And they think they’re going to make the team?” Snort. “Not on that diet.”
I glanced around at the other girls’ plates. Carrot sticks on one. A piece of turkey on another. One lousy scoop of potato salad on another.
No wonder they were all so skinny.
Beside me, Beaker grabbed a cookie and shoved it in her mouth. “Mmm-mmm, good.”
I rolled my lips in so I wouldn’t laugh.
We sat our plates down at Lessy and Jessy’s table.
“Hi!” I greeted them cheerily, then realized I didn’t need to. This was Lessy and Jessy, aspiring country singers. They were acting a role just like us.
In fact—I glanced around—I’d bet there were more people who didn’t want to be here either.
“Lord.” Jessy blinked a few times. “You’re really going to eat all that?”
“Yep, and I’ll probably go back for seconds,” I bragged.
Lessy put her hand over her heart. “My hero.”
“Dangit.” I got back up. “I forgot to get sweet tea. Ya’ll want some?”
They looked unexcitedly at their water, then across the room to the drinks table.
“Oh, come on,” I teased. “Live a little. I dare you to have
extra
sugar in it.” Nobody could refuse a dare.
extra
sugar in it.” Nobody could refuse a dare.
They both narrowed their eyes. “Bring it on.”
I put my hand over my heart. “My heroes.”
They giggled.
Beaker and I crossed the room to the drinks table. She grabbed two teas and I did, too, dumping in real sugar combined with my tracking “sugar.”
“That was almost
too
easy,” Beaker mumbled as we made our way back to Lessy and Jessy.
too
easy,” Beaker mumbled as we made our way back to Lessy and Jessy.
Eagerly, they gulped down half of their tea. Jeez, these girls needed to live a little.
Jessy wiped her mouth. “Nice gum chanting, Tiffany.”
Beaker playfully smirked.
The pink-and-green team out of Portland strolled past, slanting us a haughty look. What the heck? They’d been so friendly earlier.
Jessy leaned close to me. “Don’t you hate that? To your face everyone’s all smiley and friendly. But they’re all a bunch of back stabbers. Especially if they think you’re better than them.”
Better than them? I almost snorted. I could barely do a back handspring.
“Don’t look.” Lessy surreptitiously pointed her carrot across the room. “But I heard the red-haired girl on the black-and-yellow team is a genius. She’s got an IQ higher than like Einstein or something.”
A genius?
I turned and looked.
I turned and looked.
Jessy yanked me back around. “She said don’t look.”
“Sorry.”
A genius? Wow. For some reason I hadn’t thought of cheerleaders as geniuses.
Lessy gulped down the rest of her tea. “We’re going to walk down to the beach. Wanna come?”
I shook my head. “Nah. I’m going to watch some TV.” Perfect time to check out the equipment and possibly rig Eduardo Villanueva’s room for surveillance.
Beaker swallowed her turkey bite. “Me, too.” She checked her watch. “There’s only thirty minutes before our first practice.”
Jessy grabbed all of her and Lessy’s garbage. “Suit yourselves. Later, ya’ll.”
We waved as they strolled off, quickly shoved in a mouthful of food, and hightailed it out of there.
Up the elevator, down the hall, and into our room we went. Beaker texted TL to let him know where we were while I texted Nalani.
EV LOCATION? I typed.
ROOM. Nalani responded.
Perfect. “He’s in his room. We can do the DNA dust.”
Quickly, I showed Beaker how to open the bed’s secret panel.
I took two Tricsurv chips and plugged them into my phone and into hers. A satellite image of our hotel and surrounding area flicked onto the display. Two red dots popped up.
“That’d be Lessy and Jessy.” I tapped the dots. “And they’re on the beach just like they said. The Tricsurv will beep when they get within twenty feet of us.”
“That’s barely enough time to put all this back together.”
“I know.” I put the phone on the nightstand. “We need to work quickly.”
Beaker lifted a tray full of all sorts of powders, liquids, and chemistry stuff from the secret panel.
She grabbed a bag of clear crystals.
While she began mixing the DNA dust, I pulled the mini-laptop from my luggage, powered up, and connected to our satellite. I slipped on my glasses and keyed in the scrambler code and the coordinates to Eduardo Villanueva’s room. The satellite zeroed in on the hotel and X-rayed through the roof and straight into the presidential suite.
Indeed, Eduardo was there along with all his men. And an easy chair sat right on top of where I needed to drill.
Good. No one would see a thing. “I’ll use the silencer so they won’t hear. It’s a one-sixteenths bit for your syringe, right?”
“Yes.”
From one of the hidden trays, I retrieved the drill, inserted a one-sixteenths bit, and screwed on the silencer.
I replaced my glasses with protective goggles and climbed onto our bed and over to the far edge, where it sat only a few inches from the room’s corner. Standing on the edge, I silently drilled through the ceiling straight up into Eduardo’s suite.
Plaster sprinkled me as I pulled the drill back out. “Ready?” “Yeah.” Beaker poured a fine red dust into a syringe and handed it to me. “Remember to go slow to give time for the dust to dissipate, turn invisible, and absorb into Eduardo and his men’s skin.”
Over the next few days, anywhere they went, we’d be able to see their DNA trailing behind them. Whatever they got into, we’d have proof.
I inserted the syringe into the hole and slowly admitted the dust. “Ya know,” I whispered, “this DNA dust you created is incredibly brilliant.”
Beaker shrugged. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”
Whatever? There was no way I could’ve come up with something like this. But then, I was the computer specialist, not the chemist.
Finishing off with the dust, I handed Beaker the syringe and she gave me a tube of spackle.
I squeezed it into the hole, and the ceiling looked normal again. “Now all we gotta do is figure out how to track him electronically. ”
“Somehow I doubt we’ll get close enough to put crystallized siumcy in his ice tea.”
Suddenly, the Tricsurv in my cell phone beeped, and Beaker and I jolted into action.
We quickly tossed everything back in the trays, slammed the shark’s fin, threw the covers and pillows back in place, cut the light, and jumped into bed.
Our door opened and in tiptoed Jessy and Lessy. Beneath the covers, my heart raced.
“You asleep?” One of them whispered. “Thought you said you were going to be watching TV.”
Beaker yawned. “It’s all right.”
Lessy ripped open the curtains. “We met the
hottest
guy.”
hottest
guy.”
I squinted against the afternoon sunlight. “Yeah?”
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