BROOKS BERRY IN
The Case of The Stolen Season
Michael James
Published by Michael James at Smashwords
Copyright 2010 Michael James
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Chapter 1 - Practice Makes Perfect
The summer was starting to give away its secret that it was over. The nights were becoming cooler and the sun was setting a few minutes earlier each day. Brooks Berry noticed things like that. Brooks noticed a lot of things that other 12 year olds didn't.
He was tall for being only 12, had blond hair and blue eyes and was pretty skinny. He would be starting junior high this year. That could be intimidating for some kids, but he wasn't that scared; he was a pretty confident kid. Usually one of the smarter ones in his classes, but the thing that stood out about Brooks the most was his ability to solve puzzles and riddles. Ask him anything - he knew how to solve it. Or don't ask him - he'll probably already have asked himself the question and was on his way to solving it. He was always asking questions that were different from other kids his age. He was putting together adult puzzles when he was 5 or 6. Doing crossword puzzles meant for adults. And he loved mysteries. He loved reading old Sherlock Holmes books and the Hardy Boys. He frequently was able to solve the mystery before the end of the book, but he loved it when he wasn't able to. It helped him hone his skills, challenge his mind and look at things other than the obvious.
The doorbell rang and Brooks ran downstairs to meet his friend Brad Klemz. Brad was here to pick him up and they were going to head to the high school football field to throw the ball around. Brooks wasn't a big fan of playing football - it seemed like the football always hurt his fingers when he tried to catch it. Or worse, the pointy end would hit him in the chest. He hated that!
Brooks was named after Brooks Robinson - a 3rd basemen who played with the Baltimore Orioles many years ago. He'd seen him play on some stuff his dad had recorded off of TV and some clips on YouTube. He thought it was pretty cool to be named after someone like that. Baseball was really Brooks’ sport - it was almost as if his dad had known that and that's why he had been given that name. He even played 3rd base on his little league team - the same position Brooks Robinson did.
When Brooks and Brad got to the football field it was already taken by the high school guys who had a summer practice. "Whoa - check it out!" Brooks exclaimed, pointing to the giant new scoreboard. "Wow, that's massive!" Brad said, staring in awe, "I heard they were going to get a new one, but I had no idea it would be so cool.”
The scoreboard must have been about 4 stories high, was painted a bright green and even had a video screen on it. It also had several advertisements on it just like a professional one. It was the biggest and newest in the entire state and the pride of the school district. There was some rumblings from the other coaches and principals. They were jealous of the school and how this school was able to get the new scoreboard before them.
The field was abuzz with activities. The coaches were barking orders and putting the players through their drills. Lot's of whistles shrieking and loud yelling. The crash of pads being smacked together as bodies hurled into each other sounded like shotgun blasts upon each impact.
Brad was a big guy for being only 12, tall like Brooks, but a lot heavier - not fat, just a bigger guy, dark brown hair that was sort of shaggy and a bit ruffled looking - even with a rigorous combing - and brown eyes. He had high hopes of playing for the football team at this high school in a few years. He helped Brooks practice baseball and Brooks helped him practice football, even if it meant a sprained finger or a bruised chest.
The two boys walked over to the baseball field that was empty. They started by throwing the football back and forth. Then Brad started to call some plays and Brooks would run the passing route. After a while the boys walked over to the bleachers and climbed to the very top so they could see all that was going on during the practice. This year the Wauwatosa East team had a guy that had been a junior last year playing quarterback - Jeff Kopish. He was the best player to come around in a long time, 6'2, 190 pounds, and lightening fast. He had already racked up a lot of passing records in his 3 years at the school, and his senior year was predicted to be off the charts. Very accurate throws and really able to move around to avoid tackles. His brown eyes flickered around the field to pick up open receivers and avoid the defense like he was playing a video game in Easy Mode. Tosa East was going to be good. It seemed like the team knew it, they had a certain confident attitude that was hard to describe.
Brooks could tell Brad was getting excited watching the action on the field. He was talking very fast and using his hands a lot - "Man, look how Jeff threw that ball - it must have been 40 yards downfield!" The coach heard the boys talking and motioned for them to come to the sidelines. "Hey Brooks, how’s it going?" asked Coach Vitrano. "I'm good, Coach - the team looks really good." The coach was a good friend of Brooks’ dad. They had gone to high school together. Sometimes Coach Vitrano and his wife would come to their house for cookouts. "Kopish is going to tear it up this year." said the coach. "Tosa West will never know what hit them."
Wauwatosa West - or Tosa West for short - was their cross-town rival. Every year they seemed to find a way to beat Tosa East in the state championship. "Just wait until I can play!" piped in Brad. "That will be a great day - just a few years away, Brad," replied Coach. "We also have some pretty cool trick plays that I can't wait to show the world. We got all new computers and software for reviewing game tapes and designing plays. This will be our best year ever. Technology is going to change how we play this game." They boys said goodbye to the coach, gathered their bikes and headed home.
Chapter 2 - Dinner with Uncle Mike
Brooks’ Uncle Mike was a policeman with the Wauwatosa Police Department. He was one of Brooks' favorite people and Brooks' dad's brother. Uncle Mike was really funny and really smart - very tall and in great shape. He went to the gym a lot and did some MMA fighting - if you didn't know him, he could be scary looking. He shared Brooks' ability to solve puzzles and was always asking questions. The police car pulled up in front of the house and Brooks ran up to greet it. He still loved sitting in the front seat of the patrol car and pretending to be a cop even though he was getting a bit old for it! "Anything cool happen today, Uncle Mike?" Brooks asked. "Nope, another slow day," said Uncle Mike, "just the way I like it." Brooks knew Uncle Mike was lying. He knew that he loved the action part of his job - putting bad people in jail, keeping the neighborhood where he had grown up safe but also being able to outsmart criminals.
"Well, I take that back, we did have one interesting case. This kid was stealing bikes and putting them on Craig's List. But he was pretty clever about it - he'd take the bikes apart, paint them a different color and then swap parts, so it wouldn't look like the same bike when he was done." Brooks asked how he got caught. Uncle Mike said, "Well it was a real mystery for a while. Big rash of bike thefts and they weren't turning up anywhere. Most stolen bikes get found eventually because the guy stealing them has to sell them. But here, he was selling different bikes that didn't look the same.
What he forgot was that most bike frames have serial numbers on them. We looked on Craig's List and found a guy who had a bunch of bikes for sale. I had one of our cadets email him to see if he could come over to see a bike. He saw the garage full of bikes in various stages of being taken apart and rebuilt. Then he looked at 2 different bikes and pretended like he was taking a picture of them to show his mom. But he was really photographing the serial numbers with his phone. The serial numbers are a set of numbers the manufacturer engraves on the bike frame. Every bike has a different one. When he came back to the station, we ran the serial numbers against our stolen bike database. I went over and arrested him. Boy, his mom was angry! I guess she should have asked him some questions when she saw 20 bikes in the garage!"
"I know my mom would have," said Brooks. Brooks' parents were cool for the most part. But sometimes his mom was a little nosy. It wasn't that big a deal because Brooks didn't have much to hide, but you have to have some secrets from your parents - especially when you are 12!
Uncle Mike and Brooks walked up to the house together. Uncle Mike was going to have dinner with Brooks and his family. Brooks' dad liked to barbeque outside a lot. Brooks wasn't a big fan of barbeque because he was a vegetarian. He got made fun of sometimes for that but he didn't care. He had gone to a farm once and after seeing how cool and gentle the cows were and decided he could never eat one of them. When the family had barbeque Brooks' mom made sure that he had some veggie burgers for his dad to cook for him on the grill. With some cheese and ketchup on them, you'd never know the difference. Brooks' mom was pretty cool that way, she really supported his choice to eat that way - in fact, she had been trying to become a vegetarian too, but she still slipped once in a while. But she was trying!
As his mom served the burgers that his dad had cooked, Brooks sat down at the table outside. His dog Ripken sat by his side. Ripken was a white cattle dog who weighed about 35 pounds and sported a brown colored fur patch over one eye, on his ears and a couple more brown spots on his sides and back. He was named after Cal Ripken the Baltimore Orioles' Hall of Fame shortstop. He thought it was a cool name when he picked it out. It kept the baseball theme going in the family names! Ripken would do anything for a piece of food. His favorite trick was to put his paw on your leg while you were eating as if to remind you that he was hungry too, or if he was sitting on the couch next to you, to rest his head on your shoulder.
His dad had turned off the grill and was sitting with Brooks and Uncle Mike. Brooks' dad was shorter than his Uncle Mike. He was about 5'11, and was a little bit overweight. He worked a lot and didn't have too much time to do things for himself. He made sure he never missed one of Brooks' baseball games though. His hair was getting a little thin on top and a little gray on the sides. He was a good dad though - he was funny and didn't give Brooks too much of a hard time - except when he deserved it.
"So, son, it's been a while since you've had a mystery to solve! What do you have going on?" Brooks' dad was referring to what the family liked to call the Case of the Exploding Mailboxes. A bunch of mailboxes had been vandalized in Brooks' neighborhood. It started with one - the Miller Family's. Then it started happening every few days and it went on that way for about a month. Brooks didn't really notice or care until HIS family's mailbox suddenly ended up exploding one night around midnight. The next day Brooks went out and started examining it and amongst the busted up mailbox pieces were some papers with Chinese writing on it. Brooks smelled the papers and realized that they were firecrackers. Chinese firecrackers rang a bell somewhere in the back of his mind. He had thought long and hard about it. Earlier in the year he had remembered seeing a Facebook posting from one of his classmates that his dad had been to China and brought back some souvenirs including fireworks. Brooks' classmate was a good kid, but he had an older brother - Buzz - who was a bit of a troublemaker. He went back to Facebook and realized that his posting about his dad returning from China was one week before the mailbox bombing began. The timing made sense. He dug further into Buzz's Facebook postings. One simply read "BOOM" and it was the same night as one of the explosions. After doing some more investigating and an exciting late night stakeout with his Uncle Mike, the boy was arrested and charged with vandalism. Brooks was a neighborhood hero and the local paper wrote a story about him and how he had found the culprit and made the discovery. It made Brooks feel good that he was able to help out his neighborhood and from then on he decided to do everything he could to help make Wauwatosa a better place to live.
Chapter 3 - Game 1
Tosa East opened up their football season against a smaller school, Eisenhower. Brooks and Brad hopped on their bikes and headed out into the Friday night to watch the game. They had high hopes that the Tosa East Raiders would open up with a big victory against a weaker rival. The ride lasted about 10 minutes and when they got to the school, they locked up their bikes in the bike rack and walked towards the field.
The
two friends stopped at the concession stand where Brooks got some
popcorn and a soda and Brad got a pack of Red Vines and a Gatorade.
As they turned away from the concession stand a man with long hair
and a baseball hat was walking quickly towards the parking lot. He
looked like he was in a real hurry, as he walked by the boys, his
left arm accidently banged into Brooks, sending the popcorn bucket to
the ground, “Hey!” yelled Brooks.
The man kept on walking quickly out of the area and headed towards the parking lot. Brad started to chase after the man, but Brooks stopped him – “Just let him go, I wasn’t that hungry anyways.” Quick-tempered Brad was flushed red, “I’ll make him buy you a new bucket of popcorn!” “Don’t worry about it, it’s not worth it,” said Brooks. “Well you can have some of my Red Vines if you want,” offered Brad.
They walked into the field and took their seats in the bleachers with the rest of their classmates, parents and the high school kids. Brooks was excited that soon he would be one of them. A lot of the kids were dressed in red and white, Tosa East’s school colors.
Eisenhower had a losing record last season and really no great improvement to the team this year. A rout was fully expected as this was going to be Jeff Kopish's big debut as a senior quarterback. Brad said, "I wonder if we'll see any of the trick plays that Coach was talking about." Brooks shook his head, "I doubt it, they probably won't need them in this game - but I'm sure we'll see some when they play the Trojans." The Trojans were the team name of the Tosa West football team - their big rival.
The whistle blew and the game started. The Raiders had lost the coin flip and headed to their positions. Eisenhower returned the kickoff to about the 25. On the first play, the Raiders blitzed the Eisenhower Lion's Quarterback who quickly dumped the ball over the oncoming rushers for a 25-yard completion. The Raiders appeared to be a bit stunned that the Lion's had so easily read the blitz and gotten the completion.
The next play was a 15-yard run up the middle. The 3rd play of the drive was a long pass to the wide receiver lined up on the left side. When the pass left the Lion's quarterback's hand, Brooks shouted, "This will be a pick! You don't throw to Joe Lofy's side of the field!" Joe was the Senior All State cornerback. There was a lot of talk of him going to a big NCAA school next year on a scholarship. Somehow the Lion receiver had two steps on Joe and the ball glided right over his shoulder into his outstretched arms and the receiver made the gap 3 steps, then 4, then 5 - then a touchdown. "I've never seen Joe get beaten so badly," sighed Brad. Joe was dejected as he walked to the sidelines. Brooks noticed a slight limp, hardly noticeable, but noticeable to an eye for details like Brooks. The trainer ran over to Joe on the sidelines and Coach Vitrano sent Jeff Kopish into the game to start the offensive drive. They had run the kick back to the 35-yard line, so he had good field position.
Coach V and the offense had been going over the first set of plays very thoroughly all week in preparation for this game. The first 10 were all scripted, so Jeff felt very prepared as he ran onto the field and strapped on his helmet. The first play was a short pass to the tight end - Jeff called out the play "BLUE, XRAY, 17, LEFT...HUT..HUT..HIKE!" The ball was snapped into Jeff’s hands and he took a few steps backwards "Shoot" he thought, "Tight end covered by 2 guys, I can't pass there." He calmly looked for his second choice a quick dump out to the running back "What the? He's covered too!" Jeff looked downfield to see if one of his wide receivers was open...
CRUSH! Jeff didn't see the defender that was about to hit him from behind. 250 pounds of what felt like a 30 year old man was lying on top of him. "How does a high school kid weigh this much?" Jeff thought. He had been sacked for a 10-yard loss. Brooks looked at Brad and groaned. The second play was supposed to be a double reverse. Jeff would take the snap and hand it off to a player streaking to the left who would then hand it off to a player streaking to the right. He got to the line of scrimmage and called the play "RED DOG, XRAY, 3 BLACK...HUT...HIKE”
The ball was slammed into his hands; he took two steps back and handed off to the player streaking left - perfect handoff, just like in practice. The ball was handed off for the second time perfectly to the runner streaking to the right THUD. Eisenhower's defenders had read the play and didn't bite on the original direction of the play. Instead they held back and moved over to the right anticipating the reverse and easily tackled the player with the ball - loss of 2 yards.
"Whoa" sighed Brad. Coach Vitrano stood on the sidelines looking like a man who had seen a ghost. Two plays in a row that were smelled from a mile away.
The third play was supposed to be a medium pass route. "HIKE" yelled Jeff. A second later the ball was in his hands and he was stepping backwards quickly. Jeff started his receiver check off - Option 1 was covered. Quick scan to option 2 - covered. Quick scan to option 3 - covered. Jeff couldn't believe it. He ran to the left where he saw an opening and was able to get about 5 yards before being tackled. It was fourth down and Jeff headed to the sidelines as the punting crew ran onto the field. He walked over to Coach and said, "I don't know what's going on....nothing worked out there." Coach Vitrano was over his initial shock and back to his calm self. "No big deal, Jeff. It happens. Stick to the play, we'll get them next time."
The Lions made some progress downfield but then had to punt. Jeff strapped on his white helmet and headed back out. In the stands Brooks and Brad had a renewed sense of optimism. "Here we go," yelled Brad as he and Brooks bumped fists.
The first play was a run up the middle for short yardage. The next play was an incomplete pass.
In the huddle Jeff’s frustration was showing. "We need to make a big play here. Who is going to step up?" he barked. He looked over at the sidelines. Coach Vitrano signaled for one of the new trick plays - the Statue of Liberty play with a twist - the running back would have the option to throw it or run it based on what would result in more yardage.
They had worked extensively on it over the summer and they had it disguised so well that nobody ever caught on; it even fooled their own defense during practice. It always resulted in big yardage.
CLAP, the team clapped their hands in unison and broke the huddle running to their positions. "GREEN GOBLIN, BLACK LEFT, 24 GO, HIKE!" Jeff received the snap and dropped back 5 steps. The running back that had lined up wide streaked behind Jeff. Jeff raised the ball as if to throw it downfield and heard the running back's footsteps approaching behind him from his left, suddenly he heard a second set of footsteps to his right. Then he felt the impact at the precise moment the ball was being grabbed out of his hand by the running back to start the second part of the play.
A safety had broken through the line and hit not only Jeff, but also the running back. Since the ball was unprotected at the point during the handoff, the ball flew about 10 feet in the air and 10 feet backwards. Jeff and the running back lay on the ground stunned. The safety scrambled to his feet and ran the ball into the end zone to score a touchdown. Coach Vitrano threw his clipboard to the ground, "How is this happening? That play is foolproof!" Brooks and Brad were crestfallen in the stands. But also bewildered. Eisenhower just wasn't this good. Brooks looked over at the Eisenhower sideline and their Coach Johnson was standing with his arms folded on his chest, a small smile on his face.
By halftime the huge new scoreboard announced the score as 35-7 with Eisenhower firmly in control. As the teams ran off the field to the locker rooms, Brad & Brooks just stared at each other. "I don't understand this," said Brooks. "I can't either," said Brad, "It's not as if they are playing badly, they are just being beaten badly." "Let's go, I've seen enough," said Brooks.
To make matters worse, the scoreboard announced the half time score of the other games being played around the town. Brookfield East was getting demolished by Tosa West 42-10. The boys groaned in unison and headed towards their bikes.
Chapter 4 Trojan Computers
Before Brooks went to bed he flipped on his Mac computer and opened an internet browser so he could check the local paper's website. The site had the final score of the high school games: Tosa East lost 54-21 and Tosa West was able to beat Brookfield East by 62 to 17. The headline for that game was - MARC ILLE SETS SCHOOL RECORD WITH 420 YARDS OF PASSING
Brooks slumped in his chair and turned off the monitor. "What the heck?" he muttered. He went to bed in a bad mood. Ripken jumped up on the bed with him to go to sleep and the bad mood escaped Brooks. Ripken was always able to cheer him up.
Brooks woke up around 8am and headed downstairs to get breakfast. Ripken followed and Brooks let him outside into the backyard. He poured himself a glass of orange juice and sat at the table reading the paper. There was a note on the table from his parents, WENT TO THE NURSERY TO BUY SOME PLANTS, BACK SOON. His older sister Ally came into the room.
Ally was 16 and a sophomore at Wauwatosa East. She was about 5'8" and very thin with shortish brown hair and a smile that made you think she was up to something. She was dressed in a white Under Armour t-shirt and a pair of gray shorts.
"Bye Brooks, I'm off to go running," she said. She was on the track team and really quite fast. When she was younger she had been diagnosed with Diabetes. You'd never know it though, she was as active and as happy as any kid you'd ever met. She just had to check her blood sugar a few times a day.
Just after the door slammed shut, she reopened it - "Don't forget to take mom's computer into the store to get it fixed this morning!" she yelled as she headed back out. Ripken pawed at the back door and Brooks got up to let him in. He petted his head as he passed him and Ripken returned the favor by stepping on his toe in a mad dash to get to his food.
Brooks finished his breakfast, thought about taking a shower, and then decided against it. "Why shower when I have this baseball hat?" he asked himself. He put on his Red Sox hat, grabbed his mom's laptop and placed it into his backpack. He got his mountain bike from the garage and headed out.
He had to drive by the high school to get to the computer store. The football team was given the day off after the game. School started next Monday, so there was plenty of activity still going on at the school even though it was a Saturday morning. As he rode by the football field, he saw Coach Vitrano out on the field by the new scoreboard. He rode his bike out onto the track circling the football field. The coach was just walking around looking at the field with a notebook in his hand.
"Hey Brooks," he called out when he saw him approaching on his bike. "Hi Coach. What happened last night?" Coach Vitrano answered - "I wish I knew, Brooks. We looked so good in practice. We had some great plays worked out. The whole school district got these new high tech software programs that help us design and run plays online in virtual situations. Kopish and I went through them over and over at my desk for hours last week after practice. He knew the plays cold. Unfortunately, it seemed like everyone else knew exactly what play we'd be running also!"
"Sorry Coach," said Brooks. "At least its a long season - you'll have more games to show them."
Brooks looked over at the scoreboard. It was huge, probably about 50 feet high. 2 legs supported the huge screen. A door on one of the legs was ajar. Brooks walked over to it and opened it - it opened to a ladder so you could climb up inside the scoreboard. "Can I check it out, Coach?" asked Brooks. "Go for it," he answered, “just be careful, there’s a lot of expensive equipment up there.”
The door was about 6 feet high, so Brooks was just able to squeeze into the opening to enter the leg. The hollow cylindrical leg contained a ladder with about 15 rungs on it. Brooks climbed the ladder and reached the main level of the scoreboard. Once inside the scoreboard he was overwhelmed by the smell of stale cigarette smoke. "Way to ruin a nice new scoreboard," thought Brooks. He stepped out on the catwalk that ran behind the board. The space was about 6 feet wide from front to back of the scoreboard.
There were 2 more levels above this one with small ladders leading to each of them. Lots of wires and electronics snaked their way through different parts of the board to run the video screen and other panels that displayed various information during the games.
Brooks bent down on the catwalk to look out a little slit in the front of the screen for viewing so he could see the field from way up high. From up here he had a great view of the whole field as it spread out in front of him. “They should sell tickets to sit in here,” thought Brooks, “they could make these the smoking seats!” He saw there were cigarette butts thrown on the catwalk too. "This is like a giant ashtray," he thought with disgust. He got out a piece of tissue and gathered up 5 butts so he could throw them away and try to keep the place clean.
He stood back up, walked back to the entrance and headed down the ladder. He was starting to feel a little claustrophobic inside the scoreboard! After climbing down the rungs of the ladder he exited the scoreboard and threw the butts into a trashcan close by.
Before discarding them, he took a look at them. They were strange looking cigarette butts. For someone that didn't smoke, Brooks had spent some quality time with the butts because his little league team sponsored part of a local highway. They kept the roadside clear of trash people had thrown out of their cars. For some reason a lot of people don't think throwing cigarette butts out of their car windows is littering! Brooks hated that since he took pride in the highway his team worked on.
These butts had 3 rings near the part that goes in the mouth - black, metallic gold and red. Strange thought Brooks, never seen that before.
"See ya, Brooks, I have to work on the game plan for next week," yelled Coach V. "Bye, Coach,” said Brooks as he hopped back onto his bike after gathering up his backpack.
The computer store was about 2 miles away. The late August sun was pretty hot and Brooks was sweating when he pulled up. Trojan Computers was a pretty small store. Definitely not a BestBuy or one of those types of stores. There were a few computers built from parts for sale. Lots of monitors and cables.
A short man was behind the counter cleaning out a keyboard with compressed air. He was about 5'8" with thinning brown hair. He wore a black golf shirt and jeans. Brooks walked up to the counter and pulled out his computer. "Hi can I help you?" the guy at the counter asked. "My mom called about fixing her computer - Stacy Berry is her name." "Oh right, I remember. Tell her I'll call her after I've done some work on it to see what the problem is."
Brooks looked on the wall and saw a poster with the Tosa West football team's schedule on it. "Tosa West had a good game," said Brooks. "They sure did, and I'll bet they have a bunch more this season!" said the man. "We'll see about that," said Brooks with a smile.
He handed Brooks a copy of the work order to bring back when the computer was done. He looked at the name on the paper and it said Gunther Arno. There was a business card holder on the counter that said "TROJAN COMPUTERS - Gunther Arno - OWNER" "Thanks" said Brooks as he walked out the door and headed to his bike. He entered the combination, unlocked it and headed home.
Chapter 5 Morning Revelations
Brooks woke up the next day and went to the Tosa East page on Facebook. He wanted to see if anybody had anything to say about last week's game. There wasn’t much on the page. Most fans were pretty disappointed over starting the season with a loss like that. He hated to do it, but he clicked on the Tosa West page. It was full of congratulations and taunts to Tosa East. He read through the comments and one caught his attention. GREAT GAME, SON! The person who posted that was named Sue Ille-Arno. "Hmm," thought Brooks, "must be Marc’s mom,” referring to the Tosa West quarterback, Marc Ille.
"That other last name - Arno. I've heard it before. Where??" He couldn't place it. He got up from the computer and turned it to sleep mode. He headed downstairs to get breakfast. He sat down at the table, reached for the remote control and flipped on the TV. He grabbed the paper and opened the paper to the local news section. His toast and juice consumed most of his thought while he scanned the headlines. He was thinking about his day and what he'd do. He was supposed to hook up with Brad later that day to go to the batting cages.
The headline on page 2 caught Brooks' eye. TROJAN COMPUTERS COMPLETES SCHOOL DISTRICT TECHNOLOGY UPGRADE. The article went on to say that Trojan Computers had installed new computers in all of the school district offices and classrooms, redesigned the network for the district and also did the software upgrades on the new scoreboard installed at Tosa East. The story quoted the guy that Brooks had talked to yesterday - Gunther Arno. "That's where I recognized that last name from. Hm. I wonder if he's related to Marc Ille," thought Brooks.
The phone rang, Brooks answered it and it was Brad who wanted to talk about what they were going to do that afternoon. The boys made plans to meet up around 2pm. They decided they would head out to the school to play a game of Strike Out.
Strike Out is a game that you can play with 2, 3 or even 4 guys. One pitches, one hits, and then you could either rotate into the outfield if you had a 3rd or just play 2 on 2. On the school wall a red paint line in the shape of a rectangle formed the strike zone. The pitcher aimed for the strike zone - if he hit it or the batter swung and missed, it was a strike. If he missed the zone and the batter didn't swing - it was a ball. Then in the field there were different landmarks that determined singles, double, triples and over the fence it was a home run. The game was a lot of fun and really helped Brooks with both his hitting and fielding. Today it was just the 2 of them playing. They played for about 90 minutes and by the end they were both hot and tired. Brooks barely beat Brad 6-4.
As they sat on the ground drinking a soda they talked about Tosa East's football debacle. Brad said, "I read about the school district's new computer system - it sounds pretty cool. That stuff that Coach Vitrano was telling us about – the play editing software and video reviews seems really cool too. They are filming every practice and can watch plays on their computers. I guess he and the coaches and some of the players are reviewing every snap and doing simulations. Supposedly some pretty high tech stuff." "Well it didn't show last week," said Brooks. "I know it," agreed Brad. The boys headed their separate ways to go home for dinner.
Chapter 6 Game 2
On Friday morning, Brooks woke up early. He was excited about tonight's second game of the season. He was a little sad though as his summer was drawing to a close. School started the following Monday and while he enjoyed school and was eager to see his friends again, he enjoyed the carelessness of the summer. No schedule to keep, no real responsibilities. He had to take care of Ripken of course, but that was easy.
He finished his toast and juice and grabbed the receipt that the guy at Trojan Computers had given him. His mom's computer was fixed and she'd asked him to go pick it up today. He hopped on his bike and headed out towards the computer store. He reminded himself to ask the owner if he was related to Marc Ille - the Tosa West quarterback.
When he got to the store, he didn't have to ask - Marc was behind the counter watching a playback of a football game on the big screen monitor on the wall opposite the counter.
The bell on the door announced Brooks' arrival and Gunther Arno came out of the back room. The game playing in the background suddenly caught Brooks’ attention again as he heard a voice he thought he recognized - it sounded like Coach Vitrano's voice.
Gunther barked at Jeff, "I told you not to watch that!" "Sorry dad." Marc said as he unplugged his laptop and headed towards the back room.
Gunther smiled at Brooks and asked how he could help him. Brooks handed him the receipt and Gunther went to the back room to get the repaired computer.
Brooks leaned over the counter and saw about 10 CD's on the back counter labeled TOSA EAST COACHING SESSION and then with different dates on each one. Brooks didn't know what to make of that. Why would Marc be watching East Coaching Sessions when he went to Tosa West?
Gunther came back out with the computer for Brooks' mom. "Here you go - thanks for your business," he said. " Marc had a great game last week," said Brooks. Gunther looked surprised, then smiled, "He really did. I think you'll see a lot more of those. He's a lock for that Quarterback job at the University."
That surprised Brooks. It was widely speculated that Jeff Kopish would be getting a scholarship and be the starting Quarterback at the University. "We'll see," said Brooks, "Jeff Kopish will give him a run for the money." Gunther's demeanor changed and his face hardened, "We'll see."
Brooks was a little put off by the personality change of seemingly calm Gunther. "Well thanks for fixing this, my mom said she already gave you the credit card number, right?" "That's right. Come again,” said Gunther as he smiled and transformed back to his original demeanor.
Brooks walked out of the store putting the computer into his backpack and headed home. Later that day, Brad swung by on his bike and the boys headed out to the game. The bleachers on each side of the field were pretty crowded and buzzing with excitement as the boys climbed up to the top of the stadium. It was a sea of red and white as a lot of the students and parents were dressed in the school colors again to show support for their team.
The Brown Deer Falcons were a decent football team, but nothing to write home about. Tosa East was expected to be able to beat them pretty easily. Tosa East ran back the opening kickoff for a touchdown so they grabbed a quick 7-0 lead. Brad and Brooks cheered loudly. “This is more like it!” yelled Brooks.
On the opening drive for the Falcon's they drove the ball downfield relatively easily before being stopped. They settled for a field goal. 7-3.
The East Raiders threw the ball deep on their opening play. The play had started with a fake handoff that had nobody fooled - the safety drifted over into double coverage on the receiver streaking down the field. He jumped up and grabbed the ball out of the air as the Tosa East receiver went sprawling empty handed onto the turf. The Falcon safety started to run it back and got tackled.
The rest of the game progressed about the same way. Some miscues by the Falcons resulted in 2 more Tosa East touchdowns scored by the defense but they were relatively shut down on their offense. Jeff Kopish ended up throwing for only 83 yards and threw 4 interceptions and no touchdowns.
On the way down the stairs out of the stadium, Brooks and Brad were passing by the field just as Coach Vitrano and the rest of the team were jogging back into the locker room. The coach made eye contact with the boys as he jogged by and just sort of shrugged his shoulders - he didn't really have to say anything, the despair was evident on his face. The rest of the team was equally dejected, confused and some were angry. 52-21 was no way to lose a football game for this team.
The Falcon's followed the Raiders off the field. Their demeanor as was to be expected was much different. They were jubilant. Helmets held high in the air, loud whoops, and high fives.
It made Brooks and Brad a little sick to their stomachs. Their coach wasn't quite as jubilant as everyone else. He was still very happy, but he seemed to be looking around the stands searching for someone. He had his gym bag with him that held his playbooks and a game ball. His Falcon Football baseball hat was pulled down low over his face.
Brooks and Brad followed the team out of the stadium, made their way outside the gate and headed towards their bikes. They were still following the Falcon team as they shared a path to get to the visitors locker room and the parking lot.
The Falcon coach had stopped to talk to a guy with a yellow baseball hat on and very long hair. The man was wearing a blue nylon windbreaker. The coach handed the guy an envelope and a stack of CDs. The coach continued on into the locker room and the guy with the long hair headed towards the parking lot along with the rest of the fans.
Brooks got out his iPhone and looked at the local newspaper's website. He clicked on the sports section and looked at the rest of the high school scores. Tosa West won 35-3. He showed the screen to Brad. They looked at each other and groaned loudly.
Chapter 7 Trapped!
Brooks started school that Monday. School was enjoyable for him. He was a good student and learned quickly. He frequently got bored when the subjects weren't challenging for him, and during that first week while classes were getting ramped up his mind was quick to ponder the terrible start of Tosa East's football season. He thought about how at the end of last season it seemed almost written in stone that Tosa East was going to have a great season this year, and that Jeff Kopish was a star in the making - a sure thing to get the starting role and scholarship for next year at the University. Now 2 games into the season it seemed as though Jeff would be lucky to be a starting quarterback at a community college, and instead Marc Ille, the Tosa West quarterback would be the star of the season and might even have the inside track at that scholarship and the starting QB job.
How did Marc make such tremendous strides over the past year? It just didn't make sense to Brooks. Why did it seem like the other team had an answer for everything Tosa East threw at it, yet Marc Ille and Tosa West were putting on a clinic of how to run over teams.
"Maybe this week we should ride over to Tosa West and see them in action." thought Brooks. He told Brad his plan and he was all for it. "At least we'll get to see some good football, even if it is for that lousy school!"
The week flew by as Brooks met his new teachers and heard them outline what the plan was for the semester ahead.
On Wednesday after school, Brooks was at home playing a video game and his cell phone rang. He didn't use his cell phone too much, it was mainly for emergencies and letting his parents know where he was and where he was going if he was out.
It was his sister Ally. Ally went to Tosa East already. She had forgotten to bring her "Acting Bag." That’s what she called her gym bag with a bunch of stuff she had in it for her theater activities.
She was in the school play this year and they had rehearsals a few times a week. The play wasn't scheduled until the spring semester, but they were already in heavy rehearsal mode. She asked Brooks to bring her bag to the high school for her. He said sure, grabbed the bag and hopped on his bike.
After he parked his bike he walked up the front steps of the school and headed to the auditorium to deliver the bag to his sister. He opened the heavy auditorium door and walked down the steep aisle.
"Thanks, Brooks!" Ally said, meeting him halfway. "No problem" said Brooks. "What's up with that?" Brooks asked pointing to a guy running cable in the rafters. "Oh, we are getting our theater wired for streaming our plays live on the internet." Brooks figured it was part of the same renovation that was being done on the entire school system computer network.
On his way back out to his bike, Brooks saw Coach Vitrano who was headed towards his office. "Hey buddy!" yelled the coach. "Hey Coach V." said Brooks.
Coach knew that Brooks loved computers almost as much as sports. He asked Brooks if he wanted to see his new computer software for designing plays. "Of course!" he said. They entered his office and Brooks pulled a chair behind the coach's desk.
Coach flipped on his computer and walked Brooks though the software program. It played videos of old plays and then diagrammed new ones. It also allowed you to view statistics on opposing teams. He could tell what plays they usually did on certain downs and with certain yards to go. Brooks was really impressed by its capabilities.
"Holy cow, this is like what the NFL uses!" exclaimed Brooks. "You aren't kidding!" agreed Coach Vitrano. "I sure am glad that I stopped by to deliver that acting bag for Ally," said Brooks. He said goodbye to the coach and headed out to get his bike.
On his way home he had to drive by the playing field. A man in a blue jacked was standing in front of the scoreboard. He threw down a cigarette, opened the side of the scoreboard and started climbing up into it. Brooks waited a while to see what was up. To kill some time and act inconspicuous, he acted like he was practicing some jumps on his bike in the parking lot while the man remained inside the scoreboard.
After about 15 minutes he came out, closed the door and headed for the parking lot. He threw an empty pack of cigarettes into the trashcan and opened the door of an SUV. The SUV was white and relatively clean on the outside.
From a distance Brooks could see the man was about 6 feet tall and had a shaved head. The SUV took off and headed out towards the main road. Brooks went to the trashcan and looked at the cigarette pack that the man had thrown into it. Turkish Supremes was the name on the pack – imported from Turkey. He rode over to the scoreboard and saw more of the same strange cigarette butts he had seen earlier with the strange markings. "Well now I know that these strange cigarettes are called Turkish Supremes," thought Brooks.
The door to the scoreboard leg was slightly ajar. Brooks opened the door and walked in to take a look. It was dimly lit with just some outside light illuminating the area. The area inside the leg was just a small cylinder that housed the ladder to get to the first level of the scoreboard. He remembered seeing a light switch outside the leg, so he stuck his head back out to find it and flipped it on. He turned it on and from above fluorescent lights lit the area up brightly.
Brooks climbed up the metal steps of the ladder. When he reached the main level, there was cabling everywhere and a lot of different computers and servers. Cigarette butts still littered the floor and the room smelled of smoke from a freshly smoked cigarette.
He walked down the narrow hallway inside the scoreboard and climbed up a metal ladder next to the far wall that took him up to the scaffolding that served as the second floor with more video equipment on it.
From outside he faintly heard a vehicle's tires crunching on the gravel path that led up to the scoreboard from the parking lot. Brooks ducked down. He wasn't really sure he was supposed to be in here. Coach Vitrano had let him in that one time, but now he might get in trouble if got caught up here again.
Suddenly the room went dark and the only light was the daylight from the outside. A loud voice screamed into the scoreboard. "STAY OUT OF WHERE YOU DON’T BELONG AND MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!" a man’s voice roared and the door slammed shut below Brooks.
Brooks was startled but not scared. He figured it was probably a maintenance man who had a bad day.
He made his way back to the ladder to get down to the door. When he got to the ground, he was dismayed to find the door was locked from the outside. He was trapped inside the scoreboard!
Chapter 8 ESCAPE!
Now he was a little concerned. His heart fell further when he realized that his backpack containing his cell phone was outside, slung over his bike seat. How was he going to get out of here?
Inside the scoreboard it was very dim, only lit from the early evening sun creeping in through the cracks around some seams in the metal scoreboard. He remembered seeing a lighter on the ground of the first level - probably abandoned by the guy who was here earlier that was smoking. He somehow managed to find the lighter in the dark shadows and shook it. It still contained a small amount of fluid, but not much. He would have a little bit of a back up plan if things got too dark.
He needed to find a way out and quick. If he were stuck in there overnight, he'd be in trouble, both at home and probably with the school too.
In the back of the scoreboard there was a small hole where a rivet had fallen out. He looked through it and saw nothing but empty parking lot. He didn't want to have to bang on the metal scoreboard or yell and draw attention to the fact he was inside without permission, but it would have been a nice backup plan. With nobody around, that option wasn’t even available to him.
He crawled up the ladder to the 2nd story scaffold and lit the lighter to illuminate his surroundings. It was all computer wires and the backs of video screens. He reached the ladder leading to the 3rd level scaffolding and climbed up it. He was now at the top level of the scoreboard, probably 30 feet above the ground. He flicked the lighter on and walked the length of the board. It was probably 50 feet wide.
He saw a panel of the scoreboard that was attached by bolts and nuts. He tried to twist one of the nuts to see if he could unscrew it and remove the panel. If he were able to do that he'd at least have an opening to the outside. He squeezed the nut between his thumb and forefinger and twisted, but it was too tight to unscrew by hand.
He continued to walk the length of the board, and saw that there were 2 more panels of similar size further down. They were about 6 feet long and 3 feet tall. The first one had THOMPSON'S SPORTING GOODS written on the back of it. "These must be the advertising signs that I see on the scoreboard," thought Brooks. He reached out and tried to remove these nuts by hand also, but to no avail. “Whoever put these signs up must take a lot of pride in their work,” thought Brooks - they were all on way too tight for him to remove the nuts by hand.
Brooks sighed with despair. He turned around and climbed back down to the first level. He was annoyed and starting to get a bad case of claustrophobia from being trapped in this relatively small space. The stench of old cigarette smoke wasn't helping him either.
The sun was starting to sink and the light inside was decreasing rapidly. "What am I going to do?" he asked himself.
Despair started to get to him as he slumped down against the wall and sat. Brooks grabbed a tennis ball that was sitting next to him and he started to bounce it against the wall and catch the rebound. The repetitive action was helping him think. He ran through and dismissed numerous escape options.
As the light grew dimmer, it was harder to see the ball as it returned from hitting the wall. After one throw the ball bounced off Brooks' leg and careened down the narrow passage and came to rest against the far wall.
Brooks walked over to get it and noticed something tucked under the ladder leading to the 2nd floor. It looked like a fishing tackle box. He opened it up and discovered it was full of tools. He held up the lighter and saw the solution – a shiny metal wrench.
He grabbed the wrench and hopped up to the ladder. He reached the 3rd level and undid the nuts holding the advertising sign on to the scoreboard. It fell to the ground outside and exposed a hole in the front of the scoreboard that Brooks could easily fit through. The only problem was that it was about 30 feet above the ground! Way too high to jump. He looked around and saw nothing he'd be able to use to get down.
"Great," sighed Brooks, "it's like a starving man being given a bowl of wax fruit!" Then it hit him - THE COMPUTER CABLES! He'd be able to join them together and form a rope that would allow him to get to the ground! He scampered down the ladders and went to a cardboard box he's seen earlier full of computer cables. He found four 10-foot cables and quickly knotted them together, using some knots he'd learned from his Uncle Mike when they'd gone camping last year. "Forty feet should be plenty of room," thought Brooks. He took the cables up to the top landing. Just to make sure, he leaned his head out the opening in the scoreboard and threw one end of the cable down to the ground. The end hit the ground with a thud. He looked back and saw a steel beam to which he'd be able to tie the other end. He attached it using a figure 8 knot and gave it a good hard tug. It held tight and the tension only made it tighter. "Here goes nothing," thought Brooks.
Chapter 9 The CD
Brooks eased himself out of the scoreboard opening into the dusk. He was afraid of heights and this wasn't easy for him, but he knew he had no other choice except to stay up there overnight. He held on for dear life as he lowered himself slowly. "Don't look down, don't look down," he kept telling himself. He'd have loved to have just slid down but that would have resulted in a severe burn to his hands from the friction of the cable sliding between his palms. So instead he descended hand over hand, the strong computer cables easily supporting his weight. His hands and feet locked onto the cables in a death grip.
When he reached the ground he looked up and felt proud of his accomplishment. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!" he thought. As he exited the school football field he had to walk by the entrance to the scoreboard. A thick lock was on the clasp of the door. A piece of paper was stuck to the door. He walked over to it and removed it. It read MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS AND STAY OUT OF WHERE YOU DON’T BELONG. He crumpled up the paper and through it in the trash. "You've just made this my business," thought Brooks angrily. It still confused him – why would a maintenance man get so upset about this? If anything he would have just climbed up to tell him to leave the scoreboard. In fact if a school worker locked a kid in there on purpose he probably would have gotten in some real trouble. “Something strange is going on here,” thought Brooks, “I’ve stumbled on something that someone didn’t want me to see.” Brooks got on his bike and headed home for dinner.
On Friday night, he and Brad headed to Tosa West. It was probably about 15 miles away and it was dark outside too, so Brad's dad offered to drive the boys to the game. "I can't believe you are going to see the enemy," he joked with the boys on the way over. "It's advance scouting - tonight Tosa West plays Kenosha, and next week Kenosha plays East." explained Brad. "I knew there must be some good reason to go into enemy territory," said Brad's dad. He dropped them off and they arranged to meet him 1/2 hour after the game ended in the parking lot.
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