• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Several dozen heads turned back and forth between Winston and Brendan. They were all aimed at Brendan now.

Dmitri Simon interrupted this long-range conversation. “Excuse me, my friend,” he called back to Winston, “I think this can wait, don’t you?”

“I’m afraid it can’t,” said Mr. Garvey, getting to his feet as well. “If you’ll just give my student the benefit of the doubt for a moment, I think you’ll see this question is very important.”

Throughout this, Winston kept his eyes on Brendan, who loved puzzles as much as him and maybe more. He thought Brendan was on the brink of solving one more puzzle . . . one he didn’t necessarily want to solve. Looking very small on the stage, Brendan turned to look at his teacher, who was watching him warily. Brendan then peered back up at Winston, disappointment and maybe even grief on his boyish, round face.

Yes, Brendan had figured it out. People from other teams were complaining about a cheater . . . but Brendan’s team hadn’t been affected in the least. And now here was Winston asking this very unusual question.

“Yes,” Brendan said. “My teacher asked us to find out who would be on other teams. That’s why I called you.”

One of Brendan’s teammates said, “Shut up!”

There was an explosion of muttering from the others in the room. Carl Lester, smiling, put a hand on Brendan’s shoulder as if to lead him offstage.

Winston called out again, “Mr. Lester! Do you know why I asked Brendan that question?”

Dmitri Simon was no longer trying to hush Winston. In fact, he looked pretty interested in what Winston was saying.

Mr. Lester didn’t know where to go or what to do. He looked up at Winston. “I’m not really sure what you’re talking about, young man,” he said.

“Well, we recovered some stuff from the man in the green jacket. That’s the cheater everyone’s so upset about. He had a list of license plate numbers, and he also had a bunch of our names. I was on that list, for instance. So how did the cheater know I was going to be here?”

“How . . . how would I know that?” Mr. Lester said.

“You told your students to ask around. You told them to find out who was going to be here. You and your friend made up a list of people to watch out for. Kids you had to knock out of the way if you were going to win.”

“I did no such thing!” Mr. Lester said. “How dare you!”

“Yes, you did,” said a new voice. It wasn’t Brendan. It was one of his teammates. One of the two brothers. The other brother turned and gasped at this betrayal, but the boy continued. “It’s just like he said. You told us to guess who might be at this event. I told you her name.” The boy was pointing at Bethany. “I remembered her from the science fair this year.”

“I was on that list, too,” said Bethany. “Bethany Seymour.”

“Who else was on this list?” Dmitri Simon asked.

Brendan’s teammate, continuing despite his brother’s outrage, said, “My brother learned that a kid named Michael Scott was going to be here. And my teacher told us he thought a particular teacher, Mr. Denham, would be here.”

“I am here,” said Rod Denham, looking somehow affronted that he wasn’t recognized.

“Where is this list now?” Simon asked.

Winston and his teammates looked at each other. Then Winston fished the memo pad out of the plastic bag. All eyes turned to him as the bag crinkled and crackled. Carl Lester’s eyes were filled with a growing panic; everyone else watched with fascination. Winston walked down the aisle to the stage and handed the memo pad to Dmitri Simon. “The last couple of pages,” Winston said.

Simon flipped to the right spot and stared. After a moment he said, “Breen. Seymour. Scott. Denham. It’s all right here.” He looked up and said to his men, “Escort this man to the small conference room and keep an eye on him. And call the police.”

“Wait!” said Carl Lester, putting up his hands to keep grasping arms away from him. “Wait! This is crazy! Get away from me!” Simon’s men were not security guards; they didn’t know how to restrain someone who didn’t want to be restrained. Carl Lester didn’t get