Now You See Them, Now You Don't

by Gordon Korman

  The world tilted. Aiden felt sick.

  H.G.G.

  The name triggered the darkest memories from the darkest days of his life. The beginning of the end of everything for the Falconer family.

  H.G.G. — HORUS Global Group.

  John and Louise Falconer had used their skills as criminologists to prepare terrorist profiles to assist American agents in identifying sleeper cells. They had believed they were working for the CIA. But the Falconer profiles had ended up in the hands of HORUS Global — a front for the terrorists themselves.

  Now it appeared that the East Asian Children’s Charitable Fund was also a front — for H.G.G. Part of the same extremist organization.

  And Frank Lindenauer had their flyers in his gym locker.

  Meg’s voice was barely a whisper. “Does this mean what I think it means?”

  Aiden was numb with shock. How many thousands of hours had Mom and Dad and their lawyers spent racking their brains over what had become of Frank Lindenauer? Why hadn’t he come forward during the trial? Was he sick? Dead? Had he gone insane, or lost his memory? Was he living in a shack in Iceland, away from all communication?

  How could he let his friends John and Louise Falconer take this rap when a word from him would have cleared them?

  Now they knew. Frank Lindenauer had never worked for the CIA. He worked for the HORUS Global Group. He was on the side of the terrorists.

  Someone had indeed been guilty in the most famous treason case in the past fifty years. But it was not John and Louise Falconer.

  “Uncle Frank!” Aiden spat bitterly. “He framed them, Meg! Mom and Dad are in jail because of him!”

  His sister turned to face him. “I know it sounds crazy, but should we be calling the cops right now? I mean, doesn’t this prove Mom and Dad are innocent?”

  Aiden shook his head. “All it proves is that Lindenauer is guilty. And since he was their connection, it might even make the case against Mom and Dad stronger.”

  Meg pounded on her brother’s arm in sheer frustration. “That’s so unfair! We’ve come so far; we’ve almost gotten killed a dozen times! Only to make them look guiltier?”

  Aiden had no words of comfort. “Fair” was no longer in his vocabulary.

  Helplessness always made Meg angry. “Seriously, Aiden, are we trying to do something that can’t be done? If the truth isn’t good enough, what is?”

  And there, from the depths of their despondency, Aiden snatched the answer: We’ve never been looking for the truth. We know the truth.

  The object of their search wasn’t truth. It was Frank Lindenauer.

  A rush of purpose strengthened his will and his backbone. He almost felt exhilarated. Not better, precisely. In fact, the task ahead of them had become a lot harder.

  But somehow knowing what you have to do makes the whole thing seem less frightening.

  “Nothing’s changed,” he told his sister. “We’re still searching for Frank Lindenauer. But it’s not enough just to find him anymore — ”

  He swallowed hard, and when he spoke again, he was amazed to hear determination and even confidence in his voice.

  “Now we have to bring him in.”

  GORDON KORMAN is the author of The Hypnotists, and six books featuring Griffin Bing and his friends: Swindle, Zoobreak, Framed, Showoff, Hideout, and Jackpot. His other books include This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall (published when he was fourteen); The Toilet Paper Tigers; Radio Fifth Grade; the trilogies Island, Everest, Dive, Kidnapped, and Titanic; and the series On the Run. He lives in New York with his family and can be found on the web at www.gordonkorman.com.

  Look for more action and humor from

  GORDON KORMAN

  The Swindle series

  Swindle

  Zoobreak

  Framed

  Showoff

  Hideout

  The Titanic trilogy

  The Kidnapped trilogy

  The On the Run trilogy

  The Dive trilogy

  The Everest trilogy

  The Island trilogy

  Radio Fifth Grade

  The Toilet Paper Tigers

  The Chicken Doesn’t Skate

  This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall!

  Copyright © 2005 by Gordon Korman. All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  First printing, August 2005

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-63205-8

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.