Free Secret Weapons by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

then he looked at Carson.
    If the words secret weapon had freaked Ari out, something that Eddy said had an even bigger effect on Carson. As Ari watched, Carson’s whole body seemed to go stiff and his face went pale and bulgy eyed. “Terrorists?” he whispered. “The terrorists?”
    But Web was still smiling. “That’s pretty dumb,” he said. “Why would a terrorist want to steal a …”
    Web paused and Bucky’s voice broke in. “Yeah, twerp. Tell us. A what? Steal a what?”
    Web looked at Bucky for a second before he shrugged and went on. “Okay,” he said. “I guess we’d better tell. Okay, Carson?”
    Carson nodded stiffly.
    Web shrugged again and sighed. “Our experiment is to see how the width of a rubber band affects its propulsive strength. Our hypothesis was that a wider band would—”
    “Rubber bands?” Bucky yelled. “You mean, all this time all you got in there is rubber bands? Some secret weapon!” Bucky pretended to be shooting a rubber band with his thumb and forefinger. “Okay, you terrorists. Surrender or … ka-blooie! ” Then he laughed so hard he fell over backward on Lump, who jumped up and stepped all over Kate and Susie. And then everyone was either laughing or yelling and Lump was bumbling around, and Athena was yelling for everyone to sit down and shut up.
    It took several minutes for things to quiet down, but when they finally did everyone was staring at Web and Carson.
    “Rubber bands,” Bucky said again. “Gimme a break!”

Chapter 15
    W HEN ALL THE COMMOTION died down Eddy asked the first question about Web and Carson’s “rubber band” project. “I don’t get it, Web. What was the big secret then? Why wouldn’t you let anybody know what you were doing?”
    “Well, Ms. Nelson said we should keep our projects secret. And besides”—Web looked at Bucky and then looked away—“I heard that some people were planning to copy other people’s ideas. So Carson and I decided not to let anyone know what we were doing.”
    Ari looked around curiously. (All investigative reporters are very curious people.) Almost everyone was either amused or a little disappointed, like maybe they were a little bit sorry the terrorist scare had fizzled. But not Kate. Kate, who was staring at her little brother, was definitely looking worried. And when Ari checked out Carson he saw why. Poor old Carson still looked as if he’d just seen a ghost.
    “Carson,” Kate said, “did you start the terrorist rumor?” Carson just went on staring into space. “I’ll bet he did,” she said to everyone else. “He’s been going crazy worrying about terrorists lately. He’s like that. If he sees a scary TV show or comic book he goes bonkers. He doesn’t usually get to see stuff like that but I’ll bet …” She turned back to Carson. “Where did you hear about terrorists, Carson?”
    Finally Carson blinked, swallowed hard, and looked at Kate. “In that comic book.” He looked at Bucky. “In that comic book Bucky gave me.”
    “Oh yeah,” Bucky said. “I remember that. I was throwing some old comics away and Carson came out in the yard and saw me and …”
    Kate glared at Bucky. “Thanks a lot, Brockhurst.”
    They all just sat there after that not saying anything. Just letting it all sink in. Just letting it sink in that an old comic book of Bucky’s had made Carson freak out, and that had started the whole terrorist rumor.
    But who started the “secret weapon” rumor? No one had asked yet, and Ari was beginning to hope that maybe no one would.
    “Well,” Carlos said suddenly, “but how about the …”
    Ari cringed, thinking, Uh-oh, here it comes. Here come the questions about who started the rumor about Web’s secret weapon.
    But it turned out that wasn’t what was on Carlos’s mind. He went on to say, “How about those two guys in the black van? I mean, they weren’t just a rumor. We all saw them. Right?”
    “Yeah,” Bucky broke in. “How about those