Free Enemy Spy by Wendelin Van Draanen

identity! I could see them now, under a hot, bare bulb, being grilled by the FBI! Being tortured with questions the wouldn't answer because of me! All because I'd been so stubborn about fighting for truth and justice.
    Well, what kind of truth and justice was
this
?
    They were going to go to
jail
because of me!
    “You're wrong!”I shouted. I ducked under the yellow CAUTION tape and cried, “You're com-pletely wrong!”
    Chief Yardland said something about removing me from the area, but Sarge stepped in and said, “It's okay, Chief. This is the Byrds' son. He's just upset.”
    “I am
not
just upset!”I shouted.
    Boy, did I ever sound upset!
    But I kept right on shouting. “They're not spies! They don't have an axe to grind! They didn't have anything to do with
any
of this!”
    The chief was looking at me like he felt so,
so
sorry for me. Like I was just a poor little kid who didn't understand how the real world worked.
    I looked around at the crowd.
    Everyone was thinking the same thing as Chief Yardland: Poor kid… his parents are spies.
    “They're not spies, and they're not Shredder-man!”I looked at the crowd. At all the cameras aimed my way. At all the people staring at me. At the kids from my school and the teachers and my principal.
    Sarge put his arm around my shoulders and tried to pull me aside, saying, “Now, Nolan…”
    I twisted away from him and shouted, “I know for a
fact
they're not spies! And I know for a
fact
they're not Shredderman! I know because…”
    The crowd fell quiet.
    I could hear the breeze sweep through tree branches.
    Pine needles seemed to fall in slow motion.
    Everything seemed a little fuzzy.
    Soft.
    “Because… ?”Sarge prompted.
    I took a deep breath, and slowly everything came into focus.
    So I turned to face the crowd and said it loud.
    Said it strong!
    “I know, because
I'm
Shredderman!”

Chapter 20
Shred-der-man!
    The crowd didn't gasp.
    There wasn't even a moment of stunned silence.
    No, people
giggled.
    And
groaned.
    And said, “Oh, poor kid.”
    “But I
am,”
I shouted. I swung my backpack off. “And I can prove it!”
    People were rolling their eyes.
    Tisking their tongues!
    The chief was trying to get Sarge to drag me away, but I whipped out my digital camera and scanned back through the pictures I'd taken of the spies and the phony boulder.
    “Look!”I said to Sarge. “This is proof! Who else would have these shots?”
    Sarge's jaw dropped as I thumbed through the pictures. “Scott!”he said to the chief. “Look at these!”
    When Chief Yardland was hanging over my shoulder, too, I said, “The FBI traced Shred-derman to my house, but they took the wrong

    computer. Everything's on
my
computer. It's in my bedroom.”
    People were starting to whisper.
    “My parents and Mr. Green are trying to pro-tect me, that's all. They don't have anything to do with this! Actually, they're pretty
mad
about it! And if you still don't believe me, I can tell you what's in those classified documents! Not what they
mean
or anything, but they're twelve pages of calculations and diagrams of—”
    “Enough!”Chief Yardland said. “I believe you!”
    Now everyone was talking a hundred miles an hour! The crowd sounded like a giant computer, buzzing for an Internet connection.
    Dr. Voss had moved to the front of the crowd. She yelled, “And Mr. Green's the Bouncer, isn't he? I knew it all along!”
    I froze. Dr. Voss would fire him!
    But before I could figure out what to say, Bubba Bixby came tripping over the CAUTION tape,yelling, “Mr. Green's not the Bouncer! I am!”
    “You?”
Dr. Voss looked from Bubba to me, and back again.
    I practically laughed out loud.
    I didn't have to explain anything!
    Or lie!
    It was the truth!
    And boy, did it seem just.
    “But that doesn't make any
sense,”
Dr. Voss cried. “You
hate
each other!”
    “Well,” I said, putting my hand on my new sidekick's shoulder. “The truth is that Bubba here
is
the Bouncer.”
    Bubba squared his