Enemy Spy Read Online Free PDF Page A

do better than that. Help your father find your bike while I make us all some breakfast.”
    So I sat up and looked at the map. “Where?”
    “Well, here's where Mr. Green lives,”Dad said, pointing. “And if you follow the river this way, the first road you come across is this one— Blackstone Way.”
    I studied the map, trying to figure out where I'd gone and where I'd gone wrong. But then Dad said, “If you'd stuck to the road, you'd have been home free, Nolan.”He pointed. “A quarter mile, max, and you'd have been on Leeward, then
vroom,
straight out to Old Town.”He shook his head. “I still don't understand why you left the road. Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? How could we have ever found you? What were you
thinking
?”
    I shrugged and looked away. It did seem really, really stupid, but that's because I couldn't tell him the truth.

    “Well,”Dad sighed. Then he stood up and said, “I'll go out there and see if I can find your bike.”
    “Can I go with you?”
    He looked at his watch. “You won't have time before school.”
    “So? I'll just—”
    “No. You will go to school like you're supposed to.”He said it real sternly, then took a deep breath and said, “If I can't find it on my own, I'll take you back out there after school.”
    “But—”
    “No ifs, ands, or buts, Nolan. Just tell me which side of the road, and how far from the bridge you think it is.”
    I could tell I wasn't going to get him to change his mind, so I started calculating out loud. “If you're walking toward the bridge, it's on the right side of the road. And I walked for… forty-five minutes?”
    “How fast?”
    “As fast as I could.”I thought for a minute. The fastest I'd run a mile at school was nine minutes. Call it ten. If I was going even half that speed, I'd be going one mile in twenty minutes.
    That made three miles in sixty minutes.
    Three miles an hour?
    Sheez.
Some kind of superhero.
    Finally I said, “It's probably about two miles from the bridge.”
    “Good enough,”Dad said, folding the map. “I'll do my best.”He slapped my leg. “Now hustle up!”
    “Uh…,”I said when he'd reached the door, “thanks, Dad.”
    He turned to face me. “Thank me by not pulling a stunt like that again.”
    “It wasn't a stunt, Dad!”
    “Well, whatever you call it, don't do anything like it again.”
    I looked down. “I'm sorry.”
    “We'll talk more when I get home tonight,okay? I know you're mad about Shredderman, and I do understand that. For now, try to see more than just your side of it, okay? We'll figure some way to work this out.”
    I nodded, but I didn't believe him. “Working it out”meant lying low. Boy! If they knew what was going on, I'd be in some boiling hot water!
    I did lie low at school, though. Even lower than usual. I didn't even play four-square or go to the computer lab at recess. I just went down to the swings and sat on the edge of the sand, looking at birds peck around the lower field.
    Then out of nowhere, my dad showed up in the cafeteria at lunch. He sat right across the table from me. It was strange to have him suddenly appear in the cafeteria, but I could tell something big was on his mind.
    “You couldn't find my bike?”I asked him.
    “Oh, I found your bike, all right,”he said. “It took me nearly two hours, but I found it. And Igot the flat fixed, too. It's back in the garage, good as new.”
    “Wow, Dad. Thanks!”I really was happy. From the way he was acting, I thought for sure he was going to say my bike was ruined. But it was fine. Fixed! Ready to ride!
    So why was he frowning?
    “Dad?”I asked him. “What's wrong?”
    He was looking around. “Why are you here all by yourself?”
    “Huh? Oh.”I shrugged. “This is where I eat.”
    “Every day?”
    I nodded.
    “Always by yourself?”
    I shrugged and nodded some more.
    “Why aren't you eating with… with some friends?”
    “Dad,
shhhh.
It's okay. I'm used to it.”
    “But—”He was