Down to the Wire by Shannon Greenland Read Free Book Online

the event that led TL to recruit Wirenut.
    “You’ve heard of him,” she whispered, “haven’t you? The Ghost?”
    Wirenut and I exchanged a quick glance.
    Yeah, we’ve heard of him. He’s sitting right beside you.
    “No,” he responded.
    She sucked in a surprised breath. “Well, he’s only the most notorious criminal of this century. Some even say he’s the most notorious ever.”
    Wirenut rubbed a hand down his face, hiding his smile. Apparently, his reputation amused him.
    “But as I was saying, something really juicy just came across my desk. He just broke into a museum in China and stole another artifact. Apparently this museum in China was supposed to be burglar proof.” Nancy glanced around as if the Ghost was going to jump out at her or something. “He’s the first to have gotten in.”
    Wirenut stiffened a little. “How do you know it was the Ghost?”
    She wiggled back on the bench, getting comfortable, obviously wallowing in the fact that she was delivering hot-off-the-press news. “His signature.”
    Wirenut lifted his brows, all nonchalant. “Signature?”
    Nancy leaned in. “A yellow ribbon.”
    Wirenut’s jaw tightened.
    So, the burglar guy who screwed Wirenut was now impersonating him. Interesting. I wondered if TL knew this. “And how did you get all this information?”
    “I told you.” She fluffed her hair again. “It came across my desk.”
    I just looked at her.
    “Oh, all right.” Nancy waved her hand. “It’s in the papers.”
    “Weeell,” drawled Beaker, “isn’t this sweet.”
    Nancy jerked to her side of the bench, straightening her clothes, like she and Wirenut had been messing around or something.
    Get a life.
    Beaker hitched her chin. “Whaz up?”
    Behind her purple-tinted lenses, Nancy narrowed her eyes.
    Mystic, Parrot, and Bruiser came out the gym door. Everyone present and accounted for.
    I stood and fished the ranch’s van keys from my jeans pocket. “Let’s go.”
    “Oh,” Nancy extended her hand, “I forgot.”
    Groan.
    She smiled at Wirenut. “Have a good trip.”
    He frowned. “Trip?”
    “Yeah. I’m an assistant in the admin office. I saw your excusenote come over the fax. I figured since you were going to be out of school for a while you were going on a trip.” She blinked. “Where are you going?”
    Wirenut’s face went blank. “Nowhere.” He spun and charged off across the parking lot.
    We all rushed after him.
    “What’s going on?” Bruiser asked.
    I shook my head. I had the sick feeling TL was sending him to Rissala anyway.
    In silence, I drove everyone home. My teammates sat, staring out the windows. I suspected they all knew something major was up. I glanced at Wirenut in the rearview mirror. He hadn’t moved from his hard-jawed, arms-crossed, angry position.
    I pulled up in front of the ranch’s gate. A wooden plaque engraved with SAN BELDEN RANCH FOR BOYS AND GIRLS hung from the entrance.
    Keying in my access code, I drove through. A standard privacy fence lined the hundred-acre ranch. Invisible static sensors wound through it, detecting the smallest of movements. No human, animal, or plant could touch it without Chapling knowing. If the electricity went out, generators and solar panels kept the whole ranch active.
    To any ordinary visitor the place resembled a nice homey environment for us system kids. Little did anyone know a top-secret, intricate series of sublevels zigzagged the earth below us.
    I drove up the driveway and parked in front. Wirenut slungopen the door and jumped out. He stormed across the gravel and into the house.
    “Wirenut, stop.” I raced to catch up. He ignored me and charged down the hall straight toward TL’s office.
    “Stop.” I cringed, following him. “You’re going to get in trouble.”
    Wirenut slammed through TL’s door without knocking. “ What is going on?”
    TL motioned me in, and, silently, I stepped into his office. David stood in the corner, a map in his hands. It’d been only