Barbie Spy Squad: Discovering Dark Secrets

Finding Hope

Patricia's POV

It was a long wait until morning. I watched as those two agents continue on along Constitution Avenue, searching fruitlessly for me, until they got fed up and drove away.

Then I spent another hour on the lawn,
keeping an eye out for any other law enforcement agents. I spotted a few in the distance over the first fifteen minutes, but eventually they all seemed to give up the search.

It was surprisingly a warm day for winter so I didn't need the jacket I stole from the hotel.

I knew I could be totally wrong about the whole thing....and Barbie was truly mad at me.
But I knew that if she wasn't on my side....well I was screwed anyhow.

I headed to the nearby Starbucks to get a quick breakfast.....but just as I was about to enter I spotted my face on the TV mounted above the counter.
I was on the morning news. The crawl at the bottom of the screen read: HUNT CONTINUES FOR TEEN SUSPECT IN WHITE HOUSE BOMBING

Oh great! Go figure!

Lots of people were watching the TV—and those who weren’t were reading the newspaper.

The same photo of me was on the front page of the Washington Post and the New York Times, above the fold. So pretty much everyone in the coffee shop knew who I was and what I looked like. Given that the bombing had occurred close by, all of them seemed on the
alert for any sign of trouble.

I quickly turned away before anyone spotted me and called the authorities.

So instead of breakfast I decided to buy a cake and some juice from a supermarket.

After grabbing what I needed and paying for them, I quickly exited the store.

I wondered how my mother was.

My mom was diagnosed with leukemia around three years ago and my father had disowned me aka threw me out of my home after realizing that I was stealing from him to pay for my mom's treatments since he refused to do so.

And to be truthful, I never felt guilty for stealing from my father....after all he abused me for years and my mom was dying.

Even though my mother's treatment was completed...she still was monitored by the doctor to make sure she was recovering.

The bad thing was....I couldn't get in touch with my mom without the Secret Service tracking me down.
So I had to focus on proving my innocence for now.

I glanced down at my watch. It was 9:30.
I smiled...knowing where I was going next.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History opened at ten o’clock. By nine thirty, crowds of school kids had already amassed on the front steps.

I blended back in with them, trying to keep a low profile. Thankfully, that wasn’t hard. The kids were all too busy
goofing around with one another—and their chaperones were too busy trying to wrangle them all—to pay any attention to me.

At ten, I joined the crush as everyone piled around the museum entrance, jostling to get indoors. I let most everyone else go through first, wanting
the crowds to build inside before entering myself.

The museum was free, so there was no need to buy a ticket.

I passed through the metal detectors with ease and found myself in the great, soaring rotunda.

Most of the tourists had gone directly to the famous taxidermied elephant in the middle or, being kids, made a beeline for the dinosaurs.

I headed up the stairs to the second floor, then circled the rotunda on the mezzanine level to the gems and minerals collection.