by
Grant
ullets flew through the warehouse. Young secret agent, Daring Dan fought his way through FBI men, trying to get a look at the villain. Boom! Something exploded. Dan felt a cold wave pass over his face. Then he heard a ringing. The noise got louder and louder. He heard a voice," Daniel, Daniel." It got louder," Get up Daniel, your going to be late for school!"Back to reality. Daniel Simmons, 7th grade, 12 year old normal kid.
At school Daniel was your average kid, A's, B's, and that occasional C. Yes siree, Daniel is as normal as they get. He's not very athletic. Just good enough to make a normal baseball team in his small normal town (Not to mention his normal sister with her abnormal brain.) But today was different. Today, Daniel broke his arm when the bus driver closed the bus door on Daniel's arm. This was a big deal, after all, in Daniel's town about one person breaks their arm a year. Another thing that was different was that a store was robbed that day. That hasn't happened since the butcher's dog stole a ham sometime around when the Declaration of Independence was signed by Benjamin Franklin. This was for sure a different day.
Daniel's dad was the town sheriff. He usually was chasing shadows or helping cats out of trees since there were no firemen. So naturally, Daniel was interested in the law, he enjoyed spying on people who looked suspicious. In doing so he always found himself in a heap of trouble. Except this time, this time he spied on a man that was suspicious for a really good reason, this man just happened to be the man who robbed the bank!
When Daniel realized who he had spied on he got a feeling of importance and decided not to tell the police. He decided to be a single handed spy. Now you may think this a bad idea, but as far as Daniel knew it was just another yarn. He silently followed the fellow down the alley between the candy store and the bank. As the goon ran around the corner, he tripped over a crack in the cement and went sprawling across the sidewalk into the road. Immediately the donut shop's door burst open and a policeman ran out to the aid of the burglary get-awayís. When Daniel blurted out the man's true identity the policeman chuckled and let the man go. Then the burglar turned around and gave a really nasty scowl. This made Daniel run home as fast as his feet could carry him.
The next day on his way to school, Daniel's bus passed a strange brown van on the side of the road. As soon as Daniel's bus passed, the brown van began to follow them. When he got to school, two police officers hopped out and ran over to Daniel's bus. "Is there a Daniel Simmons here?", said the scowling cop. "Yes he's right there.", said Daniel's best friend Zack. Then the other cop raised his head. Daniel gasped. It was the perpetrator he had met after a nice chase down an alley. The bogus cop grabbed Daniel and dragged him to the van despite the bus driver's inquiring. Then Daniel popped awake, sweating like crazy. He snuck downstairs, got a drink of water and headed back to bed.
The next morning was a beautiful Spring morning. It was a Saturday and Daniel had it all planned out. He rode to Zack's house on his eighteen speed bike, he went quite slowly especially compared to his normal car-passing speed . He looked carefully every time he passed a bush or went around a corner. He finally got there and hopped off to tell Zack of his experience the other day. Zack stared on with awe. He finally responded with, "Wow, a real mystery!"
After much arguing the boys finally decided to get their other friend, Jimmy, to help with the investigation. They road a few blocks down and told Jimmy the story. He was just as surprised as Zack. After all, how often do you see a mystery around a town like this? The boys decided to start at the scene of the crime. This happened to be the bank. ( How many other places would a thief want to rob?) They asked the clerk if there was anything strange about the culprit, like an accent. The clerk said, "Yes, he did have a bit of an accent." This of course, was no big clue. Living in south Florida made the boys used to accented-speaking people. They settled on going home for the day to play a game of horse, or maybe a few video games.
After shooting a few hoops, they headed inside to take a break and watch a little TV. Almost immediately a commercial came on with a big-mouthed man yelling, "You have a chance to win a trip to ALL of the Gulf of Mexico islands! Your two month trip will include food, entertainment, and $10,000 dollars to do anything you want on the islands, just call 1-800-269-4323! Be the seventeenth caller after this commercial and you're an instant winner!!!!" All three boys rushed to the phone. Daniel snatched it from Zack, dove past Jimmy, and headed for his room where he immediately locked the door. He dialed the number the man had said to call. It was busy. He pressed redial. "RING! RING!" "Hello.", said a voice, "I hate to tell you this, but you are caller number seventeen! Just tell me address and you will receive your tickets and $10,000 in the mail in exactly three weeks. The cruise ship leaves July 1st. So what is your address?"
"Let me go ask my mom." Of course, you wouldn't remember your address if you had won that much. He asked his mom and returned to say, "3162 Benton Blvd. Smalltown, FL." The man replied, "Okay, I'll see you soon!"For the next three weeks everything went smooth. School got out, and there was still no sign of the criminal. Then the glorious day came. When Daniel got back from Zackís house he checked the mail liked he always did, and today he found the tickets and the $10,000. He almost fainted. As he sprinted inside he yelled, "It's here! It's finally here!" He ran inside and showed his mom the 100 100 dollar bills. She did faint. His dad just fell over. Since today was June 29th, they would have to leave in three days! But the best was yet to come. When he read his letter he found out that it was a trip for four! He picked up the phone to call Zack immediately.
Naturally, Zack's parents didn't oppose, so the boys began to plan what to do on the cruise. Of course, they had their bags packed about seventy hours early. They tossed in the normal, amateur sleuthing tools (something they took everywhere), their Beach Boys Cd's, a whole lot of candy bars, and of course, binoculars.
The next day they woke up, went to church, and then they ran to Jimmy's to tease him. The rest of the day they just sat around day-dreaming. The next day was the big day. They grabbed their belongings and rode off to the harbor. The boat was huge. Daniel opened up the brochure he had received in the mail. It had the first floor, which consisted of the first-class dining hall and the fitness room; the second floor, which held the first class bedrooms (Where Daniel is staying); the third floor, that held the second-class rooms, and another dining room; and the boiler room. On deck there was a pool, an ice cream parlor, a hair salon, and a concession stand. Daniel knew he would love this trip.
As the family and Zack headed toward their room Daniel began to take mental notes of all the surroundings. He noted where all the main things were. The pool, the parlor, etc. After settling down for a few minutes, everyone went their separate ways. Daniel headed for the pool, Zack went straight to the concession stand, Mr. Simmons jogged towards the gym (Heës an athletic type of guy.) , and Mrs. Simmons sauntered over to the deck to suntan.
As Daniel made laps to warm up, he began to keep track of the people on the cruise and their personalities. He noticed a little boy who kept splashing his mom, and she looked like she was about to scream. He noticed a boy about his age that was just standing there in his orange and green board shorts never even looking up once from the rail he was limped over. As Daniel turned his head he saw a exceptionally tanned man standing over on the starboard side of the rail. Daniel thought he had seen him before. But only a few moments into his contemplating he heard Zack yell, "Hey Daniel, come check out these dolphins!" He grudgingly got out of the pool and headed over to stand next to his chum by the rail. He had to admit, the dolphins were quite extravagant.
A few hours later, after trying the parlor and relaxing in the pool, they headed off to the dining room to eat and watch a magic show. At the show, Daniel was surprised to see that the magician was the same man he had noticed at the pool. Then it hit Daniel. He realized that the man was the convict! Daniel's first night on the ship was not pleasant. He had the thief to think about and even without that problem the ocean was content with making Daniel's stomach do loops. Daniel eventually just fell asleep in his bed after three trips to the deck.
The following morning Daniel told Zack of his finding. Zack couldn't believe it. "Well let's try to forget about it.", Zack said in a laid-back manner. Daniel reluctantly agreed, with his fingers crossed.
They headed off to the gym, settled on not letting themselves gain too much weight. They were only permitted to use specific equipment, but it was enough for them. After they got tired they rambled over to the parlor, relieved to have some frozen delights. After their relief they went down to the floor above the boiler room, where there was a periscope-like object to observe sea life. After an hour of that it was time for supper, and then a nice magic show and a long sleep.
BRING! BRING! Daniel awoke up to the sound of what he thought was a phone. He looked around. There were flashing red lights and the captains voice came over the intercom, ìWe have a slight problem, two of our power boxes exploded at about 5:00 AM causing a ship-wide power short...î, that was all Daniel heard. The lights went out. Daniel peeked out his door. People were running around trying to find out a more detailed version of what happened. Deep inside Daniel knew what had really happened. He didnít like it either.
Daniel woke Zack up, told him what happened, and what he was sure had caused it. Then they went to all the workers on the boat, seeing if they had seen the man they had described. They had no luck.
Just after arriving at their room to rest, Daniel looked out the porthole. He saw a petite, gorgeous island just about a mile away. He saw dolphins playfully leaping out of the water within fifty feet of the boat. It made him forget all about the man. But he soon took the matter back into account when he noticed a sleek little speedboat begin to head away from the ship and towards the island. Daniel whipped out his binoculars and focused in on the watercraft. He immediately recognized the skipper. He couldnít tell who the other man was, but he was big and scared Daniel quite easily.
Daniel knew exactly what he had to do. He may not have wanted to, but he knew he had to do. He grabbed Zack by the arm and dragged him downstairs to the boat launch. Daniel jumped in, followed by Zack with an angry steward right on his tail. As soon as Zack was in, the boys sped off leaving the man in the path of their wake.
As the island gained it's proximity to them, Daniel's fear began to grow. "What will we do when we reach the island?", asked Zack. "That's exactly what I'm thinking.", Daniel replied. "Maybe we could use the onboard radio to call up the Coast Guard.", Zack suggested. "Try it!", was Daniel's quick and only response.
Right as the boys alighted on the island, the Coast Guard helicopters were coming into view. Daniel suggested that they go find the bandits so that they would be ready to get on the helicopters when they landed.
When they entered the jungle an orchestra of bird song erupted into the air making it hard to hear anything but that. They trekked on until they came to large clearing with a cabin in the middle. They stealthily crawled from bush to bush before arriving at the right side of the small bungalow. Daniel peaked in the window and immediately regretted it. Two dark piercing eyes glared right back at him. He had been seen! As if on cue, a door to Daniel's left opened and a man stepped out to grab him. Daniel turned around, but Zack wasn't there.
Daniel's mind was clouded with thoughts of anger, and the thought of how sad his parents must be. It was too much. The thieves had gone too far this time. Daniel stood up hunched over with the light weight chair still tied to his back. The man who had dragged him in stood up and lunged at him. Daniel quickly spun around and hit the man to the ground with the chair legs. He did the same to the other goon and tried to walk towards the door.
Daniel's moves were stopped when he felt the cold touch of a weapon on his neck. He turned around to see the thief he had been chasing the whole time."I have stolen a million dollars and no boy is going to stop me.", the man said.
Daniel closed his eyes but reopened them when he heard a loud voice. "This is the Coast Guard! Drop your weapon!", the voice demanded. The startled burglar dropped the gun right as his parents, Zack, and the man from TV came into the hut. "Oh honey!", his mom yelled right before giving him a monstrous hug. Then the man from the television sweepstakes walked up and said, "We at the Sweepstakes Giveaway would like to offer you a free trip to London for your heroic actions!" "Oh brother", was all Daniel could say.
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