by Jean Fischer
“Run and get help,” Sydney told Elizabeth. “Hurry! Go!”
“You come too!” Elizabeth said.
“Just go!” Sydney commanded.
Elizabeth raced out of the short hallway, around the corner, and past the jailer’s desk. She bolted out the door and into the darkness. She was almost to the parade grounds when she felt one strong arm wrap around her waist. Then a hand covered her mouth, and someone was dragging her away from the fort and toward the water. The kidnapper pulled her onto a pier and into a small boat. Only then did she get a look at him. It was her uncle’s friend Al.
The Rockets’ Red Glare
Elizabeth struggled with her kidnapper until she saw Uncle Dan sitting in the boat. Al let her go, and she ran into her uncle’s arms.
“I can’t believe you’re involved in this!” she sobbed. “I always thought you were a good man who loves the Lord.”
Uncle Dan hugged her. “I am, and I do,” he said. “Now listen to me.”
A stranger appeared from the darkness in the back of the boat. He was dressed in black and carried a gun!
“We think there’s a plot to assassinate President Meade right here, tonight—and very soon. This is Agent Phillips from the FBI. If you know anything, Elizabeth, tell him right now! It’s a matter of life and death. Why were you running, and where is Sydney?”
Elizabeth’s heart pounded.
“Sydney has Moose and Rusty locked in a jail cell in the guardhouse.” She pointed in the direction from which she’d run. “They have a bomb and it’s set to go off when the fireworks start. Sydney told me to run for help. She insisted on staying there to guard them.”
Al stood behind Elizabeth and put his hands gently on her shoulders. “See, I knew there was a bomb,” he said. “I could sense it from our combat days in Vietnam.”
“Tell me exactly what the bomb looks like,” Agent Phillips said. “And who are Rusty and Moose?”
“Rusty and Moose work for the boss and The Professor,” said Elizabeth. “They’re the bad guys. The bomb is in a small metal box that they dug up yesterday afternoon over there.” She pointed to the area. “I don’t know what’s inside the box, but it’s ticking, and Moose is nervous. He said if they don’t get out of that jail cell, everyone is going to die.”
Agent Phillips jumped from the boat onto the dock. He ran as fast as he could toward the guardhouse.
“I’m going too,” Elizabeth demanded. “I have to save Sydney!”
She started to move, but Al and Uncle Dan held her back.
“Let Agent Phillips handle this, Elizabeth,” Uncle Dan said. “He knows what he’s doing. Sydney will be all right.”
Al had one big, strong arm around her shoulder now. This time, instead of it making her feel terrified, she felt safe.
“I’m sorry, Elizabeth,” he said. “I didn’t mean to scare you back there. We knew that something was going on, but we weren’t sure what it was. If you had screamed, who knows what might have happened. I had to get you to the boat so you’d be safe. I don’t know what your uncle would do if he lost you.”
Uncle Dan took something from the pocket of his Levi’s and held it in his closed fist. “And speaking of losing things,” he said, “did you lose this?” He opened his hand and revealed Elizabeth’s pendant.
“Oh,” Elizabeth gasped. “You found it.”
“After you and your friend climbed out the window yesterday,” he said. Uncle Dan read the inscription out loud: “‘Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go’. Joshua 1:9. I gave you this pendant for times like this, Beth. The Lord is with us. He’ll save President Meade and your friend. Just you wait and see.”
Uncle Dan fastened the chain around Elizabeth’s neck. “And by the way,” he said. “What were you and Sydney doing in the wardrobe room?”
Elizabeth explained how they had dressed in costume and followed Rusty and Moose. She also told her uncle about the package Moose was carrying, and she showed them Kate’s website and the green blip that was inside the jail cell.
Meanwhile, Agent Phillips rushed into the guardhouse. He passed the old jailer’s desk and turned the corner into the shallow hallway. Sydney was standing guard over the prisoners, and Rusty was pleading, “Kid, just go and get the key!”
The FBI agent flashed his badge. “Phillips, FBI!” he said. “Sydney, get out of here. I’ll handle this.”
Sydney stood straight and tall. “No,” she said. “Where’s Elizabeth?”
“She’s safe,” said Agent Phillips. “Get out!”
Sydney didn’t move.
“Unlock this door!” Rusty thundered. “We have less than a half hour before this thing blows.”
Moose stood next to Rusty, hanging on to the bars. His eyes were glazed, and his face was an odd gray color. “I think I’m going to throw up,” he said.
“Sydney, where’s the key?” the agent asked calmly.
Sydney felt like she was in an old spy movie, the kind that Alexis was always talking about. “I don’t know,” she answered.
Agent Phillips stayed calm when he spoke. “We have to find the key. The only thing that might stop that bomb from going off is to drown it in water. We need to get it out of this jail cell and into the harbor. Now!”
Agent Phillips began searching the guardhouse. Sydney helped. They dumped the contents of all the jailer’s desk drawers and found nothing. They looked in cabinets, under a pile of books, and beneath the mattress of the jailer’s cot in the corner. Then Phillips got on his radio and called for help. Within seconds five men wearing black suits burst through the door.
“Oh!” Sydney gasped.
One was the short, dark man she and Elizabeth had seen at the Lincoln Memorial—the boss.
“Arrest that guy!” Sydney cried. “He’s the boss!”
The man looked at her as if she were crazy. “Peter Daniels, Secret Service,” he said to Agent Phillips.
“Daniels, get President Meade out of here right now!” The FBI agent commanded. “He’s in danger.”
The Secret Service agent bolted out of the room.
“But you can’t let him get away!” Sydney said. “He’s the boss!”
Everything was so mixed up. Sydney had no time to tell Agent Phillips the whole story, and he had no idea what she meant. Meanwhile, she watched the boss get away.
“Elizabeth and I were spying on Moose and Rusty,” she blurted out. “At the Lincoln Memorial. That guy is the one who was giving them the orders. He’s part of the plan to get President Meade!”
Agent Phillips looked at her with disbelief.
“Oh, please, just trust me,” said Sydney.
Phillips nodded toward the other men, and two of them ran into the darkness.
“Sydney, I need your help,” said Agent Phillips. “Run as fast as you can to the Visitor Center, and see if you can find where they keep the key. Radio the information back to me.” He handed her a small walkie-talkie. “Whatever you do, don’t come back here. Get as far away from Fort McHenry as you can.”
Sydney Lincoln took the walkie-talkie in one hand and started to run. She ran faster than she ever had. Everything was at stake now: the president’s life and the lives of everyone in the fort, including her own.
In the Visitor Center, Aunt Dee sat at a desk watching the fort entrance on a security monitor. The entrance was deserted. All of the visitors were in the bleachers waiting for President Meade. Dee looked at a wall clock. It was a few minutes past nine o’clock, and the president was late getting to the podium. The loudspeaker played patriotic music as the visitors waited for him to appear.
Aunt Dee glanced back at the monitor just in time to see Sydney dash through the entrance from the fort. It didn’t seem at all odd that she was running. After all, Dee had told her and Elizabeth to be back at the Visitor Center by nine. And they were late.
Sydney ran through the front door.
“Aunt
Dee! Aunt Dee! Help!”
Dee jumped up from her desk and hurried to Sydney. “What’s the matter?” she demanded. “Did something happen to Elizabeth?”
“Aunt Dee, an FBI agent sent me. There’s a bomb in the guardhouse, and we need the key to the jail cell!”
“What?” Aunt Dee asked doubtfully.
Sydney held the walkie-talkie up to her mouth and pushed a button. “Agent Phillips? Please tell my aunt what’s going on. I don’t think she believes me.”
The walkie-talkie crackled. “This is Agent Phillips from the FBI,” the voice said. “We have a code red situation in the guardhouse, and we need the key to the jail cell right away!”
“There’s a plot to kill the president,” Sydney added.
Sydney’s aunt rushed into a back room and returned with a big, black skeleton key hanging on a bigger metal ring. “Tell him I’ve got it,” she said.
Sydney tore the key from her aunt’s hand and took off.
“Sydney, no!” Aunt Dee shouted. But it was too late. Sydney charged through the darkness grasping the key. As she ran, she remembered the scripture verse on the bracelet Elizabeth had given her: Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
By now, fifteen minutes had passed. A quarter of an hour was all that was left to drown the bomb and get to safety. As the loudspeaker played “Stars and Stripes Forever,” Sydney cut across the parade grounds, past the barracks, and into the night. Several Secret Service agents, not knowing who she was or what she was up to, chased her. Sydney was faster than they were. She didn’t dare slow down by looking over her shoulder to see if any of them was the boss. Instead, she ran with all her might to the guardhouse.
Sydney slammed through the door. “Here!” she gasped, pushing the key to Agent Phillips.
“Leave her alone!” Phillips ordered the agents who were about to tackle Sydney. Phillips ran to the jail cell with Sydney behind him. “Get out of here!” he told her.
“No!” Sydney exclaimed. “I can help.”
Moose was lying on the floor. He had passed out from fear. Rusty clung to the cell bars, his face ashen. He was no longer the gruff character who talked down to Moose and made demands. Instead, he looked like a frightened boy.
“You’d better say your prayers,” Sydney told him as Phillips put the key into the lock.
“I don’t know any prayers,” Rusty answered.
As Agent Phillips tried to unlock the door, Sydney prayed out loud: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”
“Amen,” Rusty echoed.
The cell door creaked open, and a team of FBI agents tackled Rusty. Another agent snapped handcuffs onto Moose as he lay unconscious on the cold brick floor. A third agent reached for the metal box with the bomb, but Sydney was faster. She grabbed the box and ran.
“Sydney!” Agent Phillips shouted.
“Let her go,” another agent said. “She’s faster than any of us. We can’t do anything about it now.”
On the boat, Elizabeth waited with her uncle and his friend. In the distance, they could hear “Stars and Stripes Forever” playing on the parade grounds’ loudspeakers.
“It’s almost time for the fireworks to start,” Elizabeth said. “I suppose that by now Agent Phillips has canceled them and they’ve dismantled the bomb. Where in the world is Sydney?”
Uncle Dan smiled weakly. “They’ll probably have the fireworks anyway,” he said. “It’s all done by computer these days.”
The two-way radio on the boat started to crackle. Agent Phillips’s anxious voice came through: “Dan, Sydney has the bomb, and she’s running toward the harbor. As soon as she drops it in the water, get her into the boat and get as far out in the harbor as you can—as fast as you can. Good luck!”
Elizabeth had a sick, sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Al started the engine and untied the boat from the dock. Then a shadowy figure appeared on the crest of the hill near the harbor. It almost flew toward the boat docks.
“There she is!” Elizabeth cried. “She’s running to that dock!” She pointed to a boat dock south from where they were. Immediately Al backed the boat out and sped in that direction.
“Run, Sydney! Run!” Elizabeth cried. “We’re coming to get you!”
As Sydney ran, clutching the metal box, she prayed that the bomb wouldn’t go off. Her heart was pounding when her feet hit the wooden dock. Although it was at most thirty feet long, to Sydney it seemed like a mile. Finally she reached the end of the dock. She dropped the box into the water.
“Swim to us!” Uncle Dan shouted.
Sydney dove in and swam to the boat. Elizabeth helped pull her inside. Then, with Al at the controls, the powerboat sped out into the Baltimore Harbor.
Sydney lay on her back on the boat’s floor, wet and gasping for air. “W–we … d–did it,” she said. “We s–saved P–President Meade.”
Elizabeth held her friend’s hand. “No, Sydney,” she said. “You did it.”
As the boat sailed a safe distance into the harbor, Elizabeth sent Kate a text message: WE’RE ALL RIGHT. TELL THE OTHER CAMP CLUB GIRLS THAT WE’LL HAVE A LONG STORY TO TELL AROUND OUR CYBER CAMPFIRE.
Kate texted: MOOSE IS ON THE MOVE AGAIN. HE’S HEADING TOWARD THE FORT’S ENTRANCE NOW, REALLY SLOW.
Elizabeth typed back, I KNOW. HE’S IN HANDCUFFS AND SHACKLES.
Kaboom! Pow! Bang! Several explosions thundered across the water making the boat rock.
“Oh no,” Sydney said, still lying on the floor. “Did it go off?”
In the following seconds, Elizabeth only saw the stars and the crescent moon in the black sky. Then several bright dots shot into the air over the fort, leaving smoke trails behind them. One exploded into a silver fountain, another into long golden spider legs, and a third showered the fort with sparks of red, white, and blue. “It’s only the fireworks starting,” she said.
The radio crackled again. “All suspects are in custody,” said Agent Phillips. “Percival Malone, Rusty Gates, and also the Secret Service guy Peter Daniels. A fourth suspect is in Washington, DC, and our agents have him surrounded. Good work, Sydney and Elizabeth. But if you ever do anything this dangerous again, I might have to arrest you!”
Uncle Dan looked at the girls and nodded in agreement. Then they all laughed, happy that the whole thing was behind them.
“Do you think that Agent Phillips will tell us the whole story?” Sydney wondered as she accepted a blanket Uncle Dan found in a seat. “I mean, we still don’t know why those guys wanted to kill the president or who The Professor is.”
Al settled back in his captain’s chair and watched as fireworks spilled over the fort. “I’m sure he’ll tell us what he can,” he said. “Your uncle and I would like to know the whole story too.”
Sydney sat looking toward the fort. The exploding fireworks cast a strange flickering light on the huge American flag flying near the barracks. Sydney couldn’t help but imagine what it was like for Francis Scott Key as he stood on the deck of an enemy ship in the Baltimore Harbor, watching bombs explode over Fort McHenry. She thanked God that tonight’s rockets’ red glare came from the fireworks.
According to His Plan
The next morning, Elizabeth and Sydney went to the police station to provide information on Moose, Rusty, and the plot to kill the President. Uncle Dan and Al went too, and Agent Phillips was there to help.
Meanwhile, Alexis, Bailey, McKenzie, and Kate were all in the chat room waiting for them to return. The only information they had came from an email that Sydney sent after she and Elizabeth got back from the tattoo. It told everything that had happened at the fort,
but there were still lots of missing pieces.
Finally Sydney and Elizabeth logged in.
Bailey: So tell us what you found out at the police station. And don’t leave anything out.
Alexis: Yeah. I’m dying to know what happened. I’ve had “The Star Spangled Banner” playing in my head ever since I read your email. Sometimes I hate it that my brain is so musical.
McKenzie: I didn’t see anything about it on the news this morning. Why not?
Sydney and Elizabeth sat at Sydney’s desk. In front of them was an open box of chocolates, a gift from Agent Phillips. Two pieces of candy were missing from the box, and Sydney reached for another. On the shelf near Elizabeth sat a big glass vase filled with two dozen red roses. A white card with gold lettering hung from it, reading: WITH SINCERE GRATITUDE—PRESIDENT WILSON MEADE.
Sydney: They’re keeping the assassination plot quiet. The visitors to the tattoo had no idea that anything was going on, because the FBI didn’t want them to panic. It was quicker to get the bomb away from the crowd than to get the crowd away from the bomb. When it was all over, President Meade made his speech as if nothing had happened, and then the tattoo ended with the fireworks.
Alexis: So you’re not going to be on the news?
Sydney: Not unless someone leaks it to the media. The FBI hopes it won’t happen. They don’t want other bad guys to get ideas.
Elizabeth borrowed the keyboard from Sydney.
Elizabeth: You can’t say a word to anyone about what we’re going to tell you. This is a Camp Club Girls’ secret. Let’s do a cyber pinkie-promise that we’ll take it to our graves.
Bailey: I promise.
Alexis: And me.
McKenzie: I’m in.
Kate: Me too. Biscuit promises too.
Sydney and Elizabeth linked their pinkie fingers and promised to keep the secret forever.
McKenzie: So who was The Professor?
Kate: And what was up with the Secret Service guy, the boss?
