X-plosion Read online

  “Sorry, sorry—oh, man, I’m so sorry.” I heard a woman’s voice and felt the hands of the assembled crowd helping me to my feet. By the time I got up, whoever it was who had run in to me was gone. And so was my cell phone.

  It was a classic move—knocking someone over and then robbing them while you pretend to help them up. I couldn’t believe it had happened to me. I searched my bag over and over again, but there was no question. I had been pickpocketed! Thankfully, I still had my wallet, but our cell phones were specially made for us by ATAC and could do a ton of things that a normal phone couldn’t. I had no doubt that they cost a fortune to replace. Joe and I already had a reputation in ATAC for having our gear lost, stolen, or destroyed during our investigations. Mostly it was because we took on the toughest cases…but it didn’t stop other agents from giving us a hard time about it.

  Since I’d already come this far and there was pretty much nothing I could do about my phone, I got fries anyway. Then I headed back to find Joe.

  “Bummer,” he said, when I told him about the robbery. “You’ll be able to get a new one soon, though, since it looks like we’re headed home today anyway.”

  Joe pulled a fry from my basket and started chowing down. Then he paused.

  “Mmmph!” he said.

  “What?”

  “MMMPH!”

  This time he pointed behind me. I turned and saw a commotion over by the competition ramp. Someone was doing some pretty good skating, which was strange, since the competition hadn’t restarted yet and no one had been announced. People had gathered around and were applauding as the skater did flips and stalls and even leaped off the board and moonwalked at one point, only to hop back on as the board came hurtling by.

  The skater flew up toward the top of the ramp and stopped in a handstand position, his board on his feet, his hands clinging to the top edge of the ramp. Slowly he moved his point of balance until he was standing on one hand! With the other, he reached inside his pocket and pulled something out. For a second, he held it up in the air.

  “That’s my phone!” I yelled.

  Quick as a flash, the skater tossed the phone as high as he could. He let go of the edge of the ramp and skated back down to the bottom, just in time to pluck the phone out of the air before it hit the ground. By this point, everyone was watching—including the security guards, who’d caught on that something wasn’t quite going as scheduled.

  The skater pulled off his helmet and did a little bow. When he straightened up, I saw a telltale flash of blue hair in the sun.

  Lenni!

  She seemed to be looking right at me. She stuck her tongue out and waggled the phone. Then she hopped back on her board, skating her way through the crowd. Bystanders, still applauding, parted to let her through.

  “Come on!” I yelled at Joe. “Now’s our chance to catch her.”

  We took off running after her—and so did Tyrone’s new security guards. They must have been briefed about her. Every single one of them was battling their way through the crowd. They looked like an army of linebackers, shoving people out of the way in their haste to catch up with Lenni.

  Within seconds, the competition had turned into a stampede!

  JOE

  14

  Over the River and Through the Woods

  As soon as Lenni started off through the crowd, the entire skate park became a mad scene. Most people thought her little display was a halftime act for the Skate or Die Competition, or maybe even some sort of commercial stunt for a new brand of cell phone. But Tyrone must have alerted all his new security guards to be on the lookout for Lenni, and though they were slow, they weren’t that stupid. There weren’t that many amazing skater girls out there with short spiky blue hair.

  The guards charged straight through the crowd, trying to get to Lenni. She must have ducked down low on her board, because I couldn’t see her anywhere. The only sign of her was the motion of the crowd parting in front of her. But the guards made it impossible to follow that trail. They were like bulls running through the streets of Spain, and the crowd started running and dodging to get out of their way. People were pushing and shoving, being knocked to the ground.

  A little kid, maybe ten or twelve, with short brown hair and a T-shirt with a picture of Cody Zane on it, was shoved to the ground directly in front of us. It looked like he was about to get trampled. He was so small, no one even noticed he was there. His screams could barely be heard over the noise of the crowd. Frank and I dived in. I pushed the crowd back while Frank lifted the kid up on his shoulders.

  “Hey man, it’s okay. I’ve got you,” Frank said. “You here with someone?”

  The kid was crying and nearly incoherent.

  “We need to get him somewhere safe,” I said. “Besides, there’s no way we’ll catch up with Lenni now. I can’t see her through the crowd.” The competition had become a wild mess, and the security guards Tyrone had been so excited about were making it worse by the second. I looked around for someplace safe, but everywhere was chaos. Then an idea came to me.

  “Up here!” I yelled to Frank, pointing to the top of the ramp on which Lenni had been skating. The kid would be safe there from the crowd, and he would be visible, so anyone looking for him would have an easy time finding him.

  I clambered up the side of the ramp and reached down to take the kid from Frank’s hands.

  “What’s your name?” I asked him.

  “Jamie,” he said. He’d stopped crying now.

  “Okay, Jamie, listen up. I need you to stay here until everything calms down. Got it?”

  Jamie nodded, but he still looked scared.

  “I’m a personal friend of Cody,” I told him. “If you stay up here, I’ll make sure you get to meet him later. Cool?”

  “Yeah!” he shouted. “Cody’s my hero!”

  “Good deal,” I said. I held up my hand, and Jamie slapped it five. Then he sat down, ready to wait out the mini-riot below for a chance to meet his idol.

  “Are you here with anyone?” I asked Jamie.

  “My mom,” he said. “But we got separated when everyone started running.”

  “Do you have a cell phone?” Jamie nodded, and together we called his mom. She was nearly hysterical with worry, but we let her know where to find her son once the mayhem was under control.

  I was about to hop back down when I realized something.

  “Hey, Frank! Get up here.”

  Frank leaped up and grabbed the edge of the ramp. With one hand, I helped pull him up. From the top of the ramp, we could see the entire skating area. Maybe we hadn’t lost our chance at catching Lenni yet.

  “We might be able to spot Lenni, if she hasn’t completely disappeared already.”

  For a long moment, Frank and I were silent, searching the edges of the crowd with our eyes.

  “Whatcha doing?” Jamie asked.

  “We’re looking for someone,” said Frank. “Want to help?”

  “Sure!” Jamie said. “Who is it?”

  “Well, did you see the girl who was skating here before? The one with blue hair?”

  Jamie nodded.

  “You mean her?” he asked, and pointed right beneath us.

  Somehow Lenni had doubled back through the crowd and was standing on her board, right next to the ramp!

  “You want this?” she yelled up, and flashed Frank’s phone at him again. Then she kicked off and started making her way back through the crowd.

  “Remember, stay here until your mom comes!” I yelled at Jamie. Then Frank and I jumped off the edge of the ramp and went after Lenni. Most of the crowd had cleared out of the area by this point, but we still had to dodge occasional passersby. Lenni used them as barriers. Every time we got close, she would put a person between us and her, making Frank and me slow down or stumble. Somehow she managed to stay just out of our reach. Like she was teasing us.

  Most of the guards had already spread out to other parts of the park, looking for Lenni. But a few—either the slow
est or the smartest—had stuck around. Soon there was a line of us: Lenni out in front on her skateboard, Frank and I right after her, and a bunch of security gorillas trailing behind us.

  Lenni led us out of the skating area and away from the populated parts of the park. Some of the sections of Galaxy X weren’t open to the public yet, and it was in this direction that Lenni headed.

  “What’s over this way?” I asked Frank as we ran along behind her.

  “I think it’s the Jungle!”

  The Jungle, I remembered from looking at the Galaxy X brochure, was a giant wilderness obstacle course area. It would be tough to follow her in there, but she wouldn’t be able to skate as easily, so we had a shot.

  One by one, the security guards behind us dropped off, until only a dozen or so were still following. At the edge of the Jungle was a giant chasm, like a smaller version of the Grand Canyon, which separated it from the rest of the park. The only way across was by zip line. When this part of the park was up and functional, there would be attendants waiting to clip people into special harnesses, to make sure no one fell while crossing. Now there were just the long metal wires stretching out across the empty space. There were handles you could hold on to, but without the harnesses, one slip and you would fall all the way to the bottom of the chasm.

  I thought we had her then, but Lenni didn’t even slow down. When she reached the lip of the canyon, she leaped. One hand held her skateboard, the other grabbed one of the zip lines.

  SSSSZZZZP!

  She was all the way across before we even made it to the edge. There were only ten lines, total. Frank and I hopped on two of the remaining ones and sped after Lenni. Far behind, a few of the remaining guards took zip lines as well, but most had given up.

  Finally we were officially in the Jungle. Tyrone had had the entire area landscaped to look like a tropical jungle. There were giant ferns all around, with small dirt paths running through them. It looked like something out of Jurassic Park. Lenni had a lead on us, but not much of one. We just had to figure out which way she’d gone.

  “Do you hear anything?” I whispered to Frank.

  He shook his head. Then he paused, put one finger to his lips, and pointed into the woods to our right. I cocked my head and listened. There was something moving quietly our way.

  Quickly we worked our way over to the sides of the path. I crouched in the bushes on one side, while Frank did the same on the other. As soon as she walked out of the forest, we had her. The sound came closer and closer. I held up one hand and counted down.

  Five…four…three…two…one…

  We leaped—straight into the path of an oncoming tiger!

  My heart jumped out of my chest and I froze. A scream rang out behind me. I looked back to see the first two guards to make it across the zip line fleeing in terror. The tiger stalked slowly toward us. Its head came up to my chest, and when it opened its muzzle, its teeth were as long as my fingers. Frank started laughing.

  “Frank!” I hissed. “Be quiet.” Our only chance was to stand as still as possible and hope it left us alone. No wonder this part of the park wasn’t open to the public yet!

  “Someone didn’t read the Galaxy X brochure,” said Frank as he reached out to pet the tiger. “They’re robots. Animatronics. Totally harmless.”

  The tiger rubbed its head against Frank’s hand, for all the world like a giant kitten. It purred deep in its chest. I could just make out the little blinking transmitter below its left ear.

  I heard laughter coming from farther down the path.

  “That’s no robot,” I said. Through the underbrush, I could see blue hair and a human form, rushing away.

  We ran after her, but somehow Lenni was always just too far ahead for us to catch up. It almost seemed like she was toying with us. A suspicion began to grow in my mind, but just then we reached another obstacle—a long, flowing river. The only way to cross was a set of monkey bars that rose over the water. Again I thought we had her, but Lenni pulled herself up on top of the bars. She placed the wheels of her board on either side of one of the long beams and pushed off. She barely seemed to notice that she was skating on a thin bar, barely the width of her wheels, over a rushing river. She was that good.

  Hand over hand, Frank and I hauled ourselves across the bars. Behind us, we heard a splashing sound and some cursing. I looked down in time to see the last two of the guards pulling themselves out of the river. Soaked and sullen, they sat on the bank. Clearly they were done chasing Lenni.

  “So much for our replacements,” said Frank, and laughed. Once we’d collared Lenni, I wondered how eager Tyrone would be to get rid of us.

  On the other side of the river was a field of hurdles. Lenni was leaping over some and ducking under others. At one point, she even lay down on her board to get through some of them. The things she could do on a skateboard were amazing! I never stood a chance against her in the competition. Even Cody Zane himself would have a hard time keeping up with her.

  Thankfully, ATAC had us run courses like this all the time. It was actually kind of fun. If we weren’t chasing an incredibly athletic murderer through an empty jungle, I would have been having a great time.

  “She can’t go…much farther,” Frank puffed between hurdles.

  “I don’t know…. Seems like…she could go all day,” I panted. Lenni didn’t seem to be tired at all.

  “No. The park ends…up ahead. We’ve got her.”

  Frank was right. At the end of the obstacle course, the path turned sharply to the left. We ran for about another fifty feet before we burst out into a clearing. There was no other way in or out of the area aside from the trail we’d been running on.

  There was also no sign of Lenni.

  I felt a buzzing in my pocket, and then the first notes of “(No More) Mr. Nice Guyz” started playing.

  “You have that as your ring tone?” Frank said in disbelief.

  “It’s catchy!” I protested as I pulled the phone out of my pocket. Then I saw who was calling and froze.

  “Frank Hardy,” the screen read.

  FRANK

  15

  Can You Hear Me Now?

  I took the phone out of Joe’s hand. I looked around, but Lenni was nowhere in sight. After a moment, I answered it.

  “Hello?”

  “You’re surrounded,” Lenni’s voice crackled through the receiver. “Put your hands up and I’ll let you live.”

  The forest was silent around us. I tried to peer into the deep undergrowth, but I couldn’t see anything. There might not have been a single other person in the Jungle. But then again, it was dark and overgrown enough that there could be a dozen people hiding out there. I strained my ears, hoping that even one or two of Tyrone’s hired thugs had been able to catch up with us, but we were alone.

  “Joe, put up your hands.” I didn’t want to get us killed, and for the moment, it seemed we had no choice but to play along with Lenni.

  “What?”

  I put my hands above my head, and after a second, Joe followed my example.

  A laugh rang out over our heads. It had to be Lenni. Her laugh was instantly recognizable. It was low and gruff, like her voice, but joyful. It was the kind of laugh that made you want to laugh along with her. She was the most likable murderer I’d ever met. A skateboard fell out of a tree fifteen feet behind us. Joe nearly jumped out of his skin. A second later Lenni leaped down out of the tree and was standing on the board she had dropped, one foot poised to kick off and send her hurtling away.

  I lowered my arms and looked at the distance between us. There was no way we could reach her before she skated off.

  “You know, it’s really hard to get the two of you alone. You make a girl work for it.” Lenni smiled.

  She was trying to get us alone? What the…? Didn’t she realize we’d been trying to arrest her? I took a step toward her, and she rolled back a few feet.

  “Uh-uh,” she said. “Not so fast. You’re not getting anywhere near me. No
t just yet. I’ve got a few things to say first.”

  “Why did you bring us out here?” Joe asked, confused and impatient as to what was going on.

  “I bet you’re wondering why I brought you out here,” said Lenni. Then she paused and laughed again. “Sorry, I’ve just always wanted to say that. Anyway. I know you think I killed Bret Johnston, but that’s totally whack—I would never do anything like that. I mean, sure, his singing made me want to die, but that’s no reason to kill him. Or at least, not enough reason.”

  “Sure,” I said. “And all the protesting, the banner drop, and the flyers—those weren’t you either, right?” Did she think we were stupid?

  “No, yeah, that stuff totally was me.” Lenni seemed almost proud of herself. “And Tyrone McKenzie deserved all of it, because this park is fake and so is he. All he cares about is money. But everything I did was peaceful—nobody got hurt. All that dangerous stuff, that wasn’t me or any of my friends. The worst we did was some graffiti and broken windows, that kind of stuff.”

  “And you expect us to believe you…why?” Joe asked.

  “I did go to a lot of effort to get you out here, you realize. I didn’t need to do any of this. I grew up on this island! If I wanted to hide, the two of you—and Tyrone’s army of idiots—would never have been able to find me.”

  She had a point. But I still didn’t think she was innocent. This was some sort of elaborate setup.

  “Then what were you doing in the rafters when Bret was murdered? Skating practice?” I asked.

  Lenni stuck her tongue out at me.

  “As if. I don’t need practice. I could win this competition with one leg tied behind my back. These so-called skaters are a pretty sad lot. No offense.” She gestured to Joe, who shrugged his shoulders and tried not to look hurt.

  “I was up there that night arranging another banner drop. I was going to throw it down right as the concert began, to let all these kids know what a jerk Tyrone is. Then you two found me and I didn’t get a chance to do it. When the lights went out and everything went crazy, I just ran. If you guys don’t believe me, you can go up there and look. The banner is still there, above the stage.”