CODE NAME: MOONLESS

The Scavenger Hunt

Charlie, still wearing his slippers, pajamas, and night robe, got into his car right after he left Frank's house. As Charlie started the engine, he thought about what was waiting for him under the garden gnome at Lance Boyston's Georgetown home. Charlie started driving slowly, but as he got closer to Georgetown, he picked up speed hoping he was not too late to locate his scavenger hunt prize.

When a street sign for 33rd Street NW appeared to Charlie, he turned the vehicle in a reckless manner and continued driving hastily down this quiet Georgetown street. He saw a row of federal style red brick houses from the turn of the 20th Century and started to slow down. Charlie saw the house number 1865 and slamed on the brakes.

In his slippers Charlie ran over to the house and noticed a red brick flower box attached to the house and sidewalk with green vegetation growing in it with a garden gnome sitting in the middle. He reached the multicolored and around eighteen inches high gnome statue and picked it up, however he couldn't pick it up due to its great weight. The gnome was made of heavy stone, so Charlie had to put all his strength into it and lifted up the statue and moved it off to the side. Charlie looked at the spot where the statue once stood and it was empty. Nothing!

Charlie said,"What the hell? Nothing, great!"

Charlie was highly disappointed and was sweating. He was not known for physical labor and running about town in his pajamas.

Then it came to Charlie to start digging into the empty spot with his bare hands. He got his hands dirty as he put them into the wet and muddy soil. He kept digging and he kept digging, but then he stared at the small piles of mud of either side of the little hole he had dug. It was pointless. There was nothing down there. With his hands plastered in mud, Charlie gave up and threw both his hands down in exhaustion into the bottom of the hole. As his hands hit the bottom of the hole, Charlie heard the clang of metal. He looked back into the hole and began digging again. As he dug a little bit more, he could see something red colored, then he saw some white painted on the red object. His hands discovered it was a tin container and soon he was able to free it form the earth. Charlie held up the metal tin and it turned out to be a Coca-Cola container. He pried off the lid and it fell to the ground. Inside the tin was a brass key and a paper receipt. 

There he was at 9:37am on a peaceful Sunday morning in the heart of Georgetown with mud stuck all over his hands as he kneeled down into the wet soil of the flower box with his pajama bottoms dirty and stained. What a sight. Charlie put the tin down and got up trying to wipe off as much mud and dirt as possible from his filthy hands and dirty clothes. He picked the tin back up and walked back to the car.

In the car, Charlie studied the paper receipt and it was from a storage facility in MCLean, Virginia. He looked at the key, put it back in the tin, started the engine, and drove off.

About forty minutes later, Charlie pulled up to the storage facility. He had a tough time finding it and was now searching for storage Unit# 22. He didn't see any other people going through their storage units, the whole facility area was tranquil. Charlie spotted Unit# 22 and put the car in park. He ran over to the storage unit with the brass key and tried it on the padlock. The key did  fit the lock and unlocked the padlock. Charlie held his breath, thinking this may be another dead end with an empty garage sized storage unit, big enough to store a car. He pushed up on the unit door and it slid up to reveal a storage unit loaded with stacks & stacks of cardboard banker boxes. Hundreds and hundreds of boxes. Bingo!

Now it was time for Charlie to do his magic, research. He ripped into the boxes. Box after box, document after document, paperwork after paperwork, revealed to Charlie why Lance had been so cloak & dagger about his files. Charlie could not believe what he was reading. It just seemed impossible, simply impossible. He spent the next nine hours pouring through the millions of papers stored away. When Charlie decided to put down the Boyston Papers, it was now dark and his head was twirling, plus his stomach was also growling. Charlie had not eaten any food all day and was starving, but it was his head that really hurt. He still could not believe what he had found. The Boyston Papers went against everything he believed about Washington DC, the US Federal Government, American History, and even World History. Everything he knew about America and the World was wrong!

Charlie staggered out of the storage unit and began to stretch out his body. His whole body ached, he felt tired and dirty and needed a long shower. It was time to go home, but first he needed to bring the most important documents with him, in case the bad guys discover this secret location of the Boyston Papers. Now he had to spend more time in selecting the most vital files and bring them with him to his home and eventually to the office at the Washington Post. As he stood there pondering on what papers to bring with him, two people from behind Charlie grabbed him tightly on either side and then a black gloved hand with a white cloth began to cover his mouth and nose. Charlie began to feel sleepy and blacked out.