Fool's Gold (16 page)

“The house is clear,” Little Bill called out.

“I'm coming out!” Dom yelled. “And don't try anything or she's dead!”

The door opened and light spilled into the hall. Mom emerged from the room. Dom was right behind her, one arm around her neck holding her close, his other hand holding a gun to her head.

“I'm coming out too.” It was Little Bill. He stepped out of the shadows at the far end of the hall. “I do not have a weapon,” he said. His hands were up in the air.

“You the guy running this operation?” Dom asked.

Little Bill nodded.

“I should just shoot you.”

“You might as well just shoot yourself too. How about if you leave the woman and take me instead? I'm a far more valuable hostage than she is. She's just somebody's mother, a secretary. Let me go with you.”

“I don't know
who
you are, but I sure know
what
you are,” Dom said. “You're one of those spies—you know how to kill people. You just stay right where you are and don't come any closer.”

“As you wish,” Little Bill said.

Dom was probably smart not to let Little Bill get closer. He started backing away from where Little Bill was standing, my mother between them as a shield, being dragged along. They were backing up toward me. I had the urge to sink deeper into the shadows but that wouldn't help her. I had to do something. In just a few seconds he'd be right outside the doorway where I was hidden, and in a few seconds after that he'd be past and gone. He kept backing up. He was there, just opposite the door, but what could I do? What would Jack do? Instantly I knew.

I flung myself against the door with all my weight and power. The door flew out and smashed against the side of his head with a sickening crash. He crumpled to the ground and his gun hit the floor and then bounced down the stairs!

I stood there, stunned, staring down at Dom. I looked up at my mother. She looked as stunned as I felt.

Out of nowhere Bill materialized, and then one of the agents and Little Bill, and they were all standing around us.

“George!” my mother yelled, and she wrapped her arms around me. She started to cry.

“It's all over,” I said as I held on to her. “It's all over now.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

DOM WAS CARRIED OUT
of the house. He was still unconscious, but he was alive.

“What's going to happen to him now?” Jack asked.

“He'll be interrogated,” Little Bill told us. “We're going to get the information we need from him confirming the identity of the informant.”

“Confirming?” I asked.

“Yes. We know who it is. Dom's response that I asked you to remember when you said there were twenty-one bars of gold?”

“Yeah—he said there were twenty-three.”

“We decided on five people who might be the informant,” Bill explained. “Little Bill had us tell each of them, privately, that some gold bars had been stolen, only we told each of them a different number. The man who was told that twenty-three were stolen was obviously the man who contacted Dom. That man is the informant.”

“That was great thinking,” I said.

“And after Dom is interrogated he will be put someplace where he will never bother anybody again
for the rest of his life,” Little Bill said.

“Were you really going to let him walk out of here with our mother?” I asked.

Little Bill shook his head. “He was going to be shot, one bullet to the head, instant death, so instant that he couldn't have pulled the trigger.”

“I guess I should have just let things happen,” I said.

“Better than letting things happen is making things happen. What you did was right.” He turned to my mother. “You must be exhausted.”

“I think I could sleep for a week,” she said.

“Come, sit.” Little Bill offered her a comfortable armchair and she practically collapsed into it. She looked as limp as a rag doll. Jack and I sat down on chairs beside hers.

“You will have sufficient time to recover. You won't be returning to work for at least three or four days,” Little Bill said.

“I'm sure I'll be fine by tomorrow,” our mother said. “I really should get back to work.”

“That isn't possible. As far as the people at Camp 30 know, you have the measles and you are staying with your mother, so we have to stick with that story. If you return too soon there will be too many questions.”

“Does that mean we don't go to school either?”

“You do not. In fact, you will not even be going home for the next three days.”

“Where will we stay?” I asked.

“You will be staying at one of our safe houses for a while. That will allow your cover story to remain intact. As well, we have to debrief you.”

“What does that mean?” our mother asked.

“We have to ask you questions about everything that happened,” Bill explained. “Standard practice. And of course, you realize that, other than talking to us, you will not be allowed to tell anybody about anything that happened.”

“I hardly
know
what happened,” Mom said.

Little Bill turned to her with a sympathetic look. “Of course. You must have a thousand questions.”

“A thousand? More like a million. I don't even know what to ask or where to begin,” she said.

“That is most understandable. This has certainly been an unbelievable series of events.”

“I just can't imagine that my boys have been involved in any of this.”

“I think that's why it is so hard for you. You're their mother and you see them as your boys. I don't see them that way.” He paused. “I see them as two remarkable young men … men who are as capable and resourceful and brave as almost any men I have ever known. You should be very proud of them.”

“I am proud … I've always been proud … I just don't understand. Those things that that mobster said, about the boys being involved in events at Camp X … at least some of it must be true.”

“I am not sure what exactly he told you, but they were indeed involved in many important activities.”

She turned to face Jack and me. “How did this all happen?”

“Um … um … I don't think we can't talk about it,” I said.

“You can't tell your own mother?”

“We can't tell
anybody,
” Jack explained. “If we did, we'd get in big—”

“Boys, I think in this case the Official Secrets Act is overruled by the Official Mothers Act. You can tell her what she needs to know.”

“We can?”

Little Bill nodded.

“Everything?” I asked.

“Everything,” Little Bill said.

“Yes, I want to hear
everything
.”

I looked at Jack, and he looked at me and then down at the floor. Funny, he was always telling me to shut up and he'd do the talking. He didn't look like he wanted to do the talking now. I knew what he was thinking, though, because I was thinking the same thing. After all that we'd gone through, all the ways we'd been threatened and almost killed, after everything that had happened, telling Mom was going to be harder than any of it.

I took a deep breath. “Mom … honestly … we were really just minding our own business when …”

AUTHOR'S NOTE

MY THANKS, AGAIN
, to Lynn Philip Hodgson, the world expert on Camp X, for all his assistance in researching this novel. For further information about the real Camp X, including a full photo gallery and teacher and student resource, go to his website at
www.camp-x.com
.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful

committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it

is the only thing that ever has.

—
MARGARET MEAD

FIND OUT HOW THE ADVENTURE BEGINS!

Every kid dreams of being a secret agent who must sneak behind enemy lines to retrieve valuable information. But what if you discovered a secret military base in your own town? And you couldn't tell anyone about it, not even your mother?

www.ericwalters.net

In this action-packed sequel to
Camp X,
Jack and George have barely recovered from their ordeal when their lives are disrupted once again. Informed that they may still be in danger, they are relocated to Bowmanville, where their mother has been offered a clerking job in a prison of war camp holding the highest ranking German officers.

www.ericwalters.net