The Secret of the Hidden Briefcase

Chapter Three: The New Neighbor

The boys stood there, stunned. Ryder almost fell backwards and hit his head on the hard earth in shock. In all honesty, Ryder had been falling backwards but lucky for him, the sight of Ryder suddenly falling snapped Alex out of his initial shock and he caught Ryder just before his head touched the ground.

After he got Ryder back on his feet he stared at his dad for a long moment. Then, "You're a what?"

He practically yelled, so loud that he startled all the birds in the trees anywhere close to half a mile away from him and they flew away. He didn't feel the least bit sorry for the birds at the moment because he had other, more pressing thoughts on his mind.

"There is no way that you are a spy." The way he said spy, made it sound like it was a dirty word.

Ryder, who was Alex's best friend and neighbor, did not even believe his own ears. "Mr. B, not saying you aren't but, if you really are a spy, then prove it. I want to know if anyone else is a spy so we know who we can trust, but that is only if you're actually a spy." He drew out the words slowly, emphasizing certain words mostly for his own benefit, trying to convince himself that he heard Mr. B. correctly.

"Boys, calm down and please slow down with all the questions. One at a time please. And boys, maybe you should sit down. Both of y'all are still in initial shock and I don't want you going into real shock when y'all hear the rest of this." Responded Mr. B.

Once the boys sat down on the porch steps of the Bailey house, and were finally quieted down, except for the sounds of their hearts beating, Mr. B continued speaking.

"Ok. Alex, I am most definitely a spy. And Ryder, well, it is going against my orders to keep this a secret and my better judgment but I trust you two boys, with my whole life, should it ever have to come to that, so i'm going to tell you this. There is a new agent coming to work at my agency next week, and his family is going to move into the house to the left of this house."

He took a sharp breath then continued. He really wasn't supposed to be telling them this but if he stopped now, they would just keep bugging him until he finally surrendered and possibly tell them too much.

"They will move into their house two days from now, on Friday. He has five children, one of them, named Jayden, ..is the same age and grade as y'all. But neither of Yahll are allowed to tell anyone about what I just said, or talk about this out in the open. This cul-de-sac has a major spy history but I don't want to get into that right now. The only time you can talk about this is at our house, ok Alex?" Both boys nodded.

"Good. and that is only because my whole house is sound proof and bullet proof. So no talking about it anywhere else. And I know you won't because you are good kids. Now, I need to go inside and take a nap after this long day, but I want y'all to behave."

He got up and started to walk to the door but then he thought about something and turned back around to face them. "And don't ask me any questions tonight or the rest of the week. I'm still not sure if this was the best decision telling Yahll about all o' this."

And with that, Mr. Bailey went inside the house and shut the door behind him, leaving the boys outside to process all that they had just heard.

The boys were overly thrilled to hear this. Ryder did his weird happy dance, sticking his tongue out and he was practically prancing all around the Yard. Alex just grabbed a ball and dunked it in the hoop, but with a vibrant smile lighting up his face. They were going to have a new boy on the block their age! And their dad is a spy just like Alex's dad, so they can tell eachother about stuff like that. They didn't have many neighbors.