Double Vision (15 page)

“Our plane leaves tomorrow afternoon at two. We have less than a day, or our mission is considered a failure. Try not to get arrested anymore, please?” Agent Stark walked to her own door. “Get some sleep, Linc.”

“Ben, you're supposed to say Ben,” I mumbled, but she was already gone. Someone had left my backpack by the door. Françoise? It had to be. I looked up and down the hall, wondering if she was still here, but no dice. This was weird.

I checked the time on my Ben phone—ten o'clock. It was nine hours earlier in California, which put the time right around one in the afternoon back home. To feel better, I picked up the phone and dialed.

“Lincoln?” The line crackled.

“Hey, Dad. How are things in Lompoc?”

“They're great. Yeah.” That was Dad-speak for not so great.

“Mom told me you had to get a job at Meineke. I'm sorry, Dad. It's all my fault.”

“Linc, it's fine. It's just temporary, I'm sure of it.” He didn't sound very sure. “And the other guys at the shop are all right. So, how's boot camp?” Way to change the subject, Dad.

“Boot camp, right.” I looked around my hotel room in Paris, wishing I could just tell him where I was. “It's great. I'm having fun.”

“Fun, at boot camp?”

“Well, I'm learning things, so it's that school kind of fun,” I said, trying to recover. Of course boot camp wasn't supposed to be fun. “I'm running a lot, so that's good. Getting in shape and all that. How's everyone at home?”

“Let's see: Grandpa lost his hearing aid. I think he likes it, because he can't hear your mother.”

I laughed.

“He's supposed to get an appointment to replace it on Friday. Your mom is trying to get him in sooner.”

“How's Mom holding up?”

“You know, working lots. She's setting up some taxi service to get Grandpa to his appointment since I picked up extra hours at the shop. We need some help.”

“Sorry, Dad.”

“Don't be. Not like you could drive him anyway, champ. Oh, I'm supposed to ask you if you're eating well.”

I thought of the Mégère pastries, and the Moulin de la Galette stew. “The food is outstanding, Dad. Tell Mom not to worry.”

“I will. How are the other kids there at boot camp?”

That would be Henry, Françoise, and Benjamin Green. “They're okay. There's this one guy who seems determined to get me.”

“Just stay out of his way,” Dad said. Easier said than done.

“What if I can't?”

Dad was a silent for a good few seconds. “Then you beat him at his own game.” That was a very un-Dad-like thing to say, so I wasn't sure what to do with it. “I know life's tough for you there at boot camp,” Dad said, “but I have faith in you, Linc. Just … don't try to be someone you're not, okay?”

That was exactly what I was doing. Not that I could tell Dad. “Okay.”

“All right, I should go,” Dad said. “I'm just home on a lunch break. You were lucky to catch me.”

“Have a good afternoon at work,” I said, feeling a brick inside my stomach. “I miss you guys.”

“And we miss you. Hang tough, Linc.”

I stared at the phone for a minute after I hung up. Talking to Dad, it felt like I'd been away from home forever. As cool as Paris was, I was ready to crawl back to the Lompoc fog. Looking for the evil
Mona Lisa
, there seemed to be roadblocks everywhere I turned.

Maybe Dad was right. I had to get back at Benjamin Green. Take care of him before he framed me again. The trouble was, I didn't even know where he was. So how could I flush him out?

I stretched out on my bed, staring at the white plaster ceiling. It was all I could think about now: how to beat Benjamin Green. I had to find him and get him busted like he'd done to me.

So how could I find him?

TIME: WEDNESDAY, 8:15 A.M.

STATUS: HUNTING FOR BENJAMIN GREEN

I BARELY SLEPT, AND BY THE TIME I GOT
up early Wednesday morning, I still didn't have a clue where Benjamin Green could be. Did Drake have some kind of headquarters where all the bad dudes hung out? Where did Benjamin Green go when he wasn't making my life miserable? He had to sleep at some point. Or maybe Ben didn't need sleep like normal kids. Maybe he was a robot.

I had to get inside Ben's head. Think like him. And there was one person who knew Ben better than anyone else.

My pal Henry.

So I decided to stop by the Princesse Penthouse, hoping I wouldn't run into any of the agents or the boss. I didn't need them to remind me that I was running out of time to complete this mission. Otherwise, it was back home to deal with my expulsion and this lawsuit.

The minute the elevator doors opened, I caught a whiff of burning plastic.

“Hey, Linc!” Henry waved to me from the table, where he was holding a fire extinguisher. “Don't come too close! I have a little malfunction going on.”

“I can smell that.” I got closer anyway and saw a plastic box the size of a paperback. Inside were scorched wires, foam from the fire extinguisher dripping off them. “Are you building another bomb?”

Henry shook his head and put the fire extinguisher under the table. “It's supposed to be an evil detector.”

I laughed, but Henry obviously wasn't kidding. “What for?”

Henry rolled his eyes. “So you can detect the evil
Mona Lisa
, of course. In its dormant state, it has a heat signature of exactly twenty point two degrees Celsius. When the painting is exposed to light, it goes to thirty-two point seven degrees.”

“How do you know?”

“It was written in one of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks.” Henry pointed at a pile of books on the floor behind him.

“You read all those?”

Henry shrugged, like it was no big deal. “Most of them.” He took off his glasses and rubbed the lenses on his blue T-shirt. “So how are the other gadgets working out?”

“The Tickstick was great.” I told him about my Montmartre fountain explosion.

“Nice.” Henry smiled, looking proud. “I'll get you this detector as soon as I can get it to stop overheating.”

“Actually, I came here to pick your brain.” I told Henry about Benjamin Green, and how he'd gone rogue. How Ben pulled the stunt with the purses.

“That's the Twenty-Five Gee Point Three maneuver!” Henry exclaimed, smiling.

“The what?”

“Didn't you read the
Junior Agent Manual
?” He didn't wait for my answer. “Never mind. The Twenty-Five Gee Point Three teaches you how to lose your enemy by pinning a minor theft on him or her.”

“So that's what Ben did—follow a junior agent procedure? I should've known that setup was too creative for the guy.”

“The book lays out the move step-by-step, with pictures and everything.”

I told Henry I wanted to bust Benjamin Green once and for all. “Where could he be?”

“It's a big city.” Henry bit his lip. “Agent Green lives for the job. He's a secret agent every minute of the day. It sounds like he's using his training to beat you, so that's your best bet to catch him: think like an agent.”

“I was hoping maybe you had a Find-Ben device.”

“Sorry. Unless you put a tracker on him.” Henry frowned. “Are you sure he joined the bad guys?”

“Positive.”

“Then I don't know. The Benjamin Green I know would never go to the dark side.”

Okay, so this visit with Henry wasn't all that helpful. It was nine o'clock by the time I left the hotel, and I was beginning to hear the seconds tick by inside my head. Pandora had practically given up on me, but I wasn't ready to just yet. You've been hanging around me long enough to know that I'm sort of stubborn that way.

I had to find Ben. Then hopefully I could actually get to the evil
Mona Lisa
.

I decided to go with Henry's advice: Benjamin Green would think like a secret agent. So I had to think like one, too. On my way out, I grabbed a free tourist map in the hotel lobby. I planted myself on a bench near a park and began to study it.

If I were Ben, where would I be?

I thought of our training and those classroom videos I'd only paid half attention to. I remembered one part: always find an exit, and always keep an eye on your enemy.

Keep an eye on your enemy
. I was Benjamin Green's enemy.

Okay, so it was a little weird to think of myself as the bad guy. But to Ben, I was, right? I'd taken his place for the exchange. Now, Françoise and I were following the clues to get to the evil
Mona Lisa
. I'd stopped his buddy the Hoodie Guy, and ditched the tracking device. Ben had to hate my guts at this point.

So if he was keeping an eye on me, where would he be? Somewhere near my hotel, I figured. I did a terrible job at folding my map, and then I went back to the Princesse, glancing over my shoulder to make sure I wasn't someone's rabbit.

I stood in front of the hotel, and looked around—
really
looked, like a secret agent would. There was a major road just off to my right, so there was your quick exit strategy. Straight ahead, an alleyway, some restaurants, and another bakery. The French were very serious about their baked goods.

But I realized: there wasn't any other hotel nearby. And I felt a chill go down my spine, like someone dropped an ice cube right where I carried my backpack.

Benjamin Green was staying at the Princesse
.

It would be the best way to keep an eye on me. And who would know the difference—if he ran into anyone at the hotel, they'd just think he was me. Benjamin Green was doubling as Linc Baker. I laughed—you have to admit that was pretty smart, right?

And I felt really, really stupid as I stood in front of my hotel. I should have known: the strange looks from the hotel receptionist, how she already knew me as Ben when we checked in—
it was because he was already there
. The receptionist saw me
and
Ben. Ben was still staying at the Princesse. He was keeping an eye on me.

So now I had to be smarter than Benjamin Green. I had to flush him out, so he wouldn't be able to set me up again.

Like Dad said: I had to beat Benjamin at his own game.

I walked into the lobby, straightened my shoulders, and walked up to the lobby desk. “Hi, I'm Benjamin Green.”

The lady behind the desk smiled. “Of course, Mr. Green. How can I help you?”

I crossed my arms, just like Ben would. Frowned, all serious like. “I would like to check out of my room, please.”

FOR MY PLAN TO WORK, I NEEDED HELP
.
So I knocked on Agent Stark's door, explained that I had found their rogue agent Benjamin Green, and that he would be in the lobby, looking ticked off. I figured he'd gone out, looking for the next code somewhere around Montmartre, and he would be back right around then.

I was right. Agent Stark caught Benjamin Green in the lobby, arguing with the receptionist. And I swear he gave me a little smile of recognition, right before she escorted him to the Penthouse in handcuffs.

I was on my way up on the hotel elevator, feeling pretty smug, thinking about getting some naptime in. But when the doors opened on my floor, I was blocked from exiting. By the big guy, wearing a green Hawaiian shirt this time. The boss.

“Lincoln Baker,” he said as he got on the elevator. “I'm Albert Black. You're with me.” Then he laughed as the elevator doors closed in front of us. He had one of those laughs that sounded a lot like a heavy truck rumbling down a street. “Nice, that whole checking-Ben-out-of-the-hotel shenanigans. Couldn't have played it better myself, kid.”

“Thanks, I think.”

Albert Black used his key and punched the Penthouse button, and then he crossed his arms for the ride up. “How are you liking Paris?”