Archie’s cabin—the twelve-year-old boys were known as the Walleyes, which was only marginally better than being called the Rainbow Smelts—was at the other end of the row from Vivian and the rest of the twelve-year-old girls. Once he’d allowed himself a moment of satisfaction about neutralizing her as a threat, he hadn’t given Vivian any thought whatsoever. He had, as the old expression went, bigger fish to fry.
“This place isn’t very large,” he said quietly to one of the boys near him as their counselor—a peppy guy named Mick who was, like most of the staff, new this summer—led them into their new home.
“I guess your room at home must be twice the size of this place,” the boy said back. “You’re Archie Drake, right?”
Archie looked from side to side. “How do you know my name?”
The boy laughed. “Let’s just say, word gets around. I’m Tyler. I’m from Trenton, New Jersey.”
Archie started at the sound of his hometown, but quickly regained his composure. “Trenton? Where’s that?”
“South Jersey,” the boy said. “Actually, we really live right outside—but nobody’s ever heard of my town, so I just usually say Trenton.”
“I see,” Archie said, and relaxed. Trenton was pretty big, anyway. And if this boy lived in the suburbs, he went to a completely different school district. There was no point in worrying. If someone figured out who he was, well, he’d find a way to make that work for him. He was the king of camp cons, after all. “I’m from North Jersey,” he said. “Alpine.”
Truthfully, he’d never been to Alpine, but according to the Internet it was one of the most prosperous towns in the state. To Archie even the word “Alpine” sounded like a place rich people lived, the kind of people who went skiing in Switzerland just for fun and said words like “chalet” instead of “cabin.” Maybe he should work that one into his vocabulary this summer, if the opportunity arose.
“Nice!” Tyler said. He hoisted his bag up onto a top bunk near the middle of the cabin. “Wanna share? I don’t really know anyone here yet.”
“That would be great,” Archie said, smiling and laying his chocolate-brown leather suitcase on the lower bunk. He’d acquired it last year, thanks to one of his better cons, from one of the many kids who didn’t appreciate nice things the way Archie did. With a few well-placed comments, Archie had managed to convince an especially gullible camper that the inexpensive backpack he’d brought from home was a rare, one-of-kind item, made from materials designed by NASA, and that it could turn invisible under certain conditions. It was a long-shot gambit—the kind of con he would only try late into the summer, when he wasn’t worried his reputation would be tarnished by a scam gone wrong—but amazingly, it worked, even though the kid he’d conned had to be at least twelve and claimed to go to a magnet school for gifted children in Westchester. A quick trade, and then all Archie had to do was swipe the bag back and then insist, with a hefty amount of fake outrage, it must have turned invisible and been lost somewhere. He ended up with both his old bag and a new, beautiful suitcase. The experience of watching his victim spend the rest of the week feeling around the ground for an invisible backpack was really just a bonus.
Making sure Tyler was still looking, he carefully opened the suitcase, looked inside a few pockets, and then, more frantically, opened each of the pockets a second time, then a third.
He checked his watch—a fake Rolex he’d bought for ten dollars from a guy selling them on a street corner while his class was on a field trip to New York. Then he frowned. “Do you think they’d let me make a phone call?” he asked Tyler nervously. The boy hadn’t started unpacking his own stuff, but was just watching Archie go through his little pantomime with the luggage.
The boy scrunched up his shoulders. “Beats me,” he said. “They seem pretty strict about stuff like that, but I don’t know. Did you forget something at home? Maybe you should tell them it’s an emergency?”
Archie frowned again. “Well, I don’t want to lie,” he said. “But it is a little bit of an emergency.” He drummed his fingers on the top of his suitcase, a move he’d picked up from a movie he’d seen on TV last year. “I’m afraid I’ve forgotten to bring my wallet. I’ll have no spending money at all for the whole summer!”
Tyler’s eyes lit up. “The famous Archie Drake? With no cash?” He laughed, and gave Archie a small, friendly punch on the arm.
Archie smiled sweetly back at the boy. Already everything was going exactly according to plan.