make out what it was. Matt nodded, swallowed, and said, “Wyatt,
please
, don’t
tell the police. Promise, okay? They’re listening.”
“Okay,” I said. “I promise we won’t tell the police.”
And then Cameron’s face was gone.
I said, “Cameron? Hello?”
But the call was over.
I looked at Suzana. “Now what?”
“I don’t know,” she said, for the second time. “For now I guess we should go back to the hotel, before they figure out we’re missing.”
“We’re just gonna leave Cameron?” said Matt.
“We’re going to figure out how to get him out,” said Suzana. “But we’re not going to do something stupid now and get him hurt.”
“I still think we should call the police,” said Matt.
“You just heard me promise I wouldn’t,” I said. “We made the same deal when they had you, and we got you out, didn’t we?”
“Yeah,” said Matt. But he didn’t sound convinced.
The truth was, I wasn’t convinced either. But I’d made a promise.
“Okay, then,” said Suzana. “Back to the hotel.”
W e made it back to the hotel and snuck up to the room without any trouble. Victor was still awake, looking worried. We told him what happened with
Matt and Cameron at the weird guys’ house, which made him look more worried.
“So now they have Cameron,” he said.
“Yeah,” I said.
“This is bad,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“My dad called me,” he said. “Really late. He had a lot more questions about the picture of the jammer I sent him. He wanted to know where exactly on the Internet I saw it. I
made up a story about how I didn’t actually see it on the Internet myself, but somebody sent it to me and I didn’t know where they got it but I would try to find out.”
“Why’s he so interested?” said Suzana.
“The picture I sent him. He showed it to some people where he works, military intelligence people. They blew it up and enhanced it and they could read the serial number. There aren’t
many of those things. And they knew exactly which one this one was. It was stolen off a helicopter in Afghanistan, and they’ve been trying to track it down because they really,
really
don’t want this technology to get out. So according to their informants it was sold to a guy who sold it to another guy who sold it to another guy in Miami. And that’s where they lost
the trail.”
“So that’s why the weird guys were in Miami,” I said. “They were getting the box.”
“Yeah,” said Victor. “And speaking of them, I’ve been doing some more research about Gadakistan, and—”
“About whatistan?” said Matt.
“Gadakistan,” said Suzana. “That’s where those guys are from.”
“So anyway,” said Victor, “remember I told you the leader of Gadakistan is a guy named Gorban Brevalov?”
Suzana and I nodded.
“Well, guess who’s going to be visiting the White House?”
“Seriously?” said Suzana.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow. Actually, now it’s today. This afternoon.”
“So that’s why they’re here,” I said.
“Looks like it,” said Victor.
“Waitwaitwait,” said Matt. “What are we talking about?”
“Okay,” I said. “You missed some stuff. The box you stole from the little guy’s backpack is a jammer. It jams laser-guided missiles, so they miss their targets. We think
these two guys plan to use it to jam the missiles that protect the White House, so they can attack it.”
“Attack it with what?”
“We don’t know that,” said Suzana. “But now we know when. The leader of Gadakistan is going to be at the White House this afternoon. It looks like our guys are planning
to attack it then.”
“But they’re from Gadakistan too,” said Matt. “Why would they attack when their leader is there?”
“Because they’re against him,” said Victor. “They belong to a rebel group Ranaba Umoka. It means
Dragon Head
, which must be why they were carrying one.
They—”
“Wait a minute,” I said.
Victor
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