Museum Mystery

Joe

We had just gotten back from one of our top secret missions for ATAC (American Teens Against Crime) which our dad had founded. It is top secret, no one in our family knows about it except us, and of course, our dad. So when we get back from our missions, it's sometimes hard to come up with explanations as to why we had a scratch here, or why we had a cut there to our mom and Aunt Trudy. That's what we were trying to do now...

"We are fine mom! I just tripped when I was getting off of my bike," Frank said.

"Wait, I thought you said Joe got mad at you and he pushed you and you cut your leg..."

Leave it up to mom to find the slightest mishap in our cover story. But luckily, dad comes to the rescue.

"Does it really matter? Boys will be boys. They're fine, let them be," dad said with a wink at us. "Oh, a package came for you boys, it's sitting on your bed Joe."

Yes, a package for us usually means a new ATAC mission for us. They come disguised as a video game but it's really our mission. Frank had already torn open the package and was pulling out the contents. First he put the CD in our DVD player so that we could watch it.

"In the very large city of New York," an announcers voice said. "a sudden crime spree has hit the New York museums. This normally wouldn't be a ATAC mission, but there have been killings of the security guards at all of the break-ins. We need you to figure out who's staging these robberies, and stop more innocent lives from being taken. Good luck, this tape will, as always, be turned back into a regular CD in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1"

Then the newest Green Day CD started blaring through the speakers.

Frank

Almost immediately after the song was over our parrot, Playback, started repeating the chorus of the song over, and over, and over. See why we named him Playback? About that time, Joe had pulled something else out of the box. It looked like a pen, but upon further inspection, it was a pen that doubled as a lazer that could cut through rope or thin wire. WAY COOL! That was one of the benefits of being an ATAC agent, you get all of these cool gadgets. There were also a set of watches with walkie -talkies built into them.

"I guess we should go tell everyone else that we have to go to New York for a few days!" Joe said.

The next day, after much pleading and a little help from dad, mom finally agreed to let Joe and me ride our supped-up motorcycles to New York (another little "benefit" from ATAC) as long as we stayed out of trouble and promised not to get into any trouble. She still acts like we're five, it gets annoying sometimes. But we were off, on our way to New York.

We had decided the night before that the best way to go about the investigation was to first go to the other museums in the city that haven't been robbed yet and check them out and figure out which would most likely be the one to be struck next.

We first went to the art center, since that seemed to be the biggest museum that hadn't been robbed, first. When we got in, we met one of the security guards.

"Hello, we were wondering what kind of security you guys have on this place, seeing that there have been many break-ins in this area lately. We are wondering if y'all are prepared, encase they strike here next," my brother said.

"Get out of here kids, we dont need nosy kids around here getting in our way," the security guard said in a rough voice.

"Sir, we really only wish to ask you a few questions," I said. "We're detectives, and are investigating the recent break-ins."

"Get out of here! I don't have time to answer your stupid questions," he said, but before he turned away I saw a flash of fear in his eyes. Definitely something to think about...

"Okay, fine, let's go get something to eat, I saw that diner right down the road, it looked good. Let's go there."

"Fine with me, I'm starving!"

After we had stuffed ourselves we decided to take a walk to sort things out. Like why had the security guard looked scared, and what our next move should be. But just then, we rounded a corner, and three burly guys carrying baseball bats pushed us into a nearby alley way.

"What are you nosy little brats doing around here?" One of them asked while slowly advancing on us. It was evident that they were trouble, so Joe and I stood back-to-back to cover each other's blind spot. We weren't going down without a fight! We started fighting, but it wasn't really fair, and I soon got hit hard in the jaw, and fell to the ground. The last thing I saw before blacking out, was Joe, getting hit in the Jaw too, and falling to the ground.

Joe

When I woke up I was bound hand and foot and was lying down in the back of a pickup truck going down a bumpy dirt road. Immediately after we hit a bump my head started throbbing, then I remembered what had happened, and turned around to see if Frank was here and okay. He was bound the same way as me, and was still unconscious. I nudged him to wake him up so that we could think of a way to get out of this mess!

He slowly started to come through, as we started to slow down.

"Act like you are still unconscious." I told Frank, knowing that he would do as I said. Then I had to do the same!

By opening my eyes a slit I was able to see who our captors were, the three men that had attacked us. They Grabbed us and carried us into a shack that was in the woods. Once we were inside, they threw us down on the floor and went over to the kitchen to get a snack, apparently, since I couldn't see what they were doing, but I could hear them talking.

"It's too bad those kids had to start snooping around," said a familiar voice, but I couldn't place it just yet. "Now we have to take care of them."

"Ya, our operation's perfect, we out Bill here as a fake security guard at a museum, then after a few days, he lets us in and we rob the place. This is the best operation I've ever done! Just one more museum to go, then we're off to some tropical island until the heat cools down."

During all this time, I was trying to reach into my pants pocket, where I had the pen that ATAC had given us, which they hadn't taken along with out knifes.

"Alright, let's go deal with these two." I heard one of them say. GOT IT! Now all Frank and i had to do was sit back-to-back and I could cut his binds, but we didn't have time since they showed up at the door.

"Oh, you're awake, more fun for us, since you'll be awake when we kill you," he said with an evil grin. Now I knew where I had heard that voice! It was the security guard from the museum. I knew it had to be an inside job, but I didn't have time to think it through, I had to think of a way to save us! By this time they had carried us back out to the truck and were taking us somewhere...I guess a river to throw us in, but it didn't matter.

"Frank, come over here, I have the pen in my hands, let me cut your bonds."

"Ok, just be careful not to cut me!"

After about 5 minutes of working, I managed to finally cut his hands loose. Then Frank undid his feet then reached over and started on my hands and feet. When we were completely loose, we put the ropes back over our hands and feet to make it look like we were still tied up.

"Let's act like we're still unconscious and when they come for us, jump up, so that we get the surprise attack in," Frank said.

After about 15 more minutes of driving, we finally stopped. I tensed up as I heard the truck door slam, and the sound of one of them spitting. Then the truck bed door opened, and Frank shouted "NOW!" and we sprang up, catching them completely off guard. I took on the largest of the three guys, leaving Frank with the smaller of the two guys. I rushed my opponent and hit him hard in the stomach. He doubled over in pain. Then I brought my hand down in a karate chop that would send most assailants down and out, but he just shook it off like I hadn't even touched him! That's when I saw the crow-bar sitting in the truck bed. I raced for it, turned around a swung, cracking him right in the jaw. He fell over like ton of bricks. Then I turned to help Frank out, to find him hitting one in the jaw, sending him to the ground, ducking under the other's fist, then knocking him out in a similar fashion!

"Let's tie them up and call the police," I said. We tied them up using the ropes that they had us tied with earlier, and our belts, since there were three of them, and called the police. They booked them on an account of kidnapping, and robbery, since our pens also had a tape recorder in them and i recorded their whole conversation to use as evidence, told you ATAC was cool! After the questioning from the police, we left New York and went back to our home.

When we got there, we, again, had to explain our injuries to our aunt and mom. You'd think we would get better at it, but it's really hard to get anything past our Aunt Trudy! Of course it doesn't help to have playback in the background screeching:

"Liars! Liars!"