The footsteps got closer and closer.
Dylan started to wriggle and twitch, eyes bulging.
‘Stop it!’ mouthed Andy.
Dylan grabbed the centipede that had tumbled into his shirt and flung it away.
Crunch.
The sound of a foot on the gravel right near where they were concealed made both boys tense. They held their breath, and balled themselves tight in the blackest shadows against the bottom of the grave wall.
Crunch. Crunch.
There was the flapping sound of tape being lifted.
Crunch. Crunch.
‘You’d have to be out of your mind to hide in there,’ said one of the men.
Then the moonlight was blotted out, plunging the grave into total darkness, as the men stood right above them. Andy and Dylan didn’t dare look up.
‘Can’t see a thing,’ the other guy said. ‘Yeah, they must have gone the other way.’
With a kick, he sent a spray of earth and grass down into the grave. Andy and Dylan gritted their teeth but stayed still and silent as they were showered with dirt and worms.
‘We should get out of here,’ the first guy replied.
The footsteps moved away.
‘I’m gonna phone this in. Just in case someone saw us.’
The men’s voices sounded farther away. The boys let themselves breathe. They brushed dirt and worms out of their hair and off their clothes and stood slowly. Andy motioned for Dylan to give him a boost. Standing on his friend’s cupped hands, he peeked above the edge of the grave.
At the end of the row of headstones, Beard Dude was looking at his phone. ‘We’ve got one more place to be,’ he said to Baldie. ‘Let’s go. We can make that call on the way.’
Andy dropped back into the grave beside Dylan.
‘We’re safe for now,’ he said. ‘But if they’re calling their boss about us, we mightn’t be for long.’
Dylan shook, barely able to believe that they hadn’t been discovered. ‘Reckon we’ve got enough evidence for your dad? And to help your mate Ethan?’
Andy nodded. ‘We definitely don’t want to keep following them. The sooner they’re behind bars the better.’
Once they were sure the men were gone, the boys climbed out of the grave that had saved them and ran as fast as they could to the nearest AutoTaxi.
Back at Andy’s place, the boys calmed their nerves with some pizza and built up a theory about what was going on.
The men had completed seven pick-ups just that day. That could mean that dozens or even hundreds of kids were being blackmailed. The fact that they seemed to be getting directions to each location via phone pointed to them being minions of some unseen criminal mastermind.
‘Are you sure you want to run the story?’ asked Dylan. ‘These guys might have some heavy connections.’
‘We’ve gotta stop them,’ said Andy. ‘My mum always said you have to go after the truth, no matter what. And that’s what I’m going to do.’
‘OK then. Let’s get this story up on Scoop!’ Dylan said.
With a few verbal commands, the boys uploaded the video of Ethan and the footage from the observatory to the HoloSpace to edit and add a voice-over.
‘In just one day, these two criminals could’ve ripped off up to seven thousand dollars from terrified schoolkids,’ Andy narrated. ‘That could add up to millions of dollars every year. This Scoop exclusive is the first step to stopping them. All the evidence you’ve seen is being forwarded to the Los Angeles Police Department.’
‘Mate, this story’s a cracker,’ Dylan said when Andy had finished. ‘I’d hate to be those two now.’
‘Let’s hope Dad can make them give up the mastermind,’ Andy said. ‘So, as co-Scooper, you wanna do the honours?’
Dylan nodded, instinctively wiping pizza grease off his fingers before he pressed the virtual ‘Publish’ tile floating in front of his face.
‘It’s live,’ he grinned.
‘Compose email to the Old Man,’ Andy said. The HoloSpace showed a picture of the big cop who’d been so proud of his son at the DARE Awards. ‘Upload all files from folder “Grade Scam”.’ In a flash, the video they’d recorded of Ethan, Bald Guy and Beard Dude attached to the email. ‘Send,’ Andy said. He looked at Dylan and grinned. ‘Let’s call Ethan and give him the good news.’
Andy selected Ethan’s number. He frowned as his call connected to an automated message. ‘The number you have dialled is not in service. Please check the number before calling again.’ He was sure it wasn’t the wrong number.
‘I don’t think it’s connected,’ Andy said, eyes serious. ‘I hope he’s OK.’
‘Maybe he got a new phone?’ Dylan said. ‘You know, as a precaution?’
Andy let out a whistle. All thoughts of Ethan disappeared as he looked at a graph of Scoop traffic on his HoloSpace. It was skyrocketing.
‘Wow,’ Andy said. ‘Look what’s boosted traffic to the site.’ He pulled a tweet over into the centre of the display.
‘Thank you very much @RealFelixScott,’ Andy grinned. ‘He posted that to his fifty million followers. It’s already been re-tweeted heaps of times.’
The boys high-fived.