The Mystery in the Computer Game Read online

  Mrs. McGregor smiled. “First have firsts, Benny. Andy might get hungry in a while.”

  Jessie stared at the maple syrup pitcher without picking it up. “Doesn’t it seem strange that Andy already had a new Ringmaster II section to add, when they are still having problems with the game?” she said in a whisper. “C.D. never mentioned that yesterday afternoon.”

  Henry turned to look down the hallway. “I was thinking the same thing,” he whispered back.

  Jessie remembered something. “Didn’t you say you saw Andy unwrap the computer in the trunk and check it with a flashlight?” she asked the younger children.

  Benny and Soo Lee nodded.

  Violet put down her fork. She dabbed the corners of her mouth with her napkin. “Maybe Andy thought C.D. was going to give him the computer that he gave to us instead. After all, it’s supposed to be pretty new.”

  Henry put down his glass of milk. “Good guess, Violet,” he said in a loud whisper. “Or else Jane wanted to keep that computer for home or something. That might explain why neither of them is too friendly with us.”

  “Or else there’s something about the computer C.D. gave us that’s different from the others,” Jessie noted. “First Jane Driver seemed upset that we had it, now Andy is.”

  Violet disagreed. “I think Andy just wants to help us out.” She picked up Andy’s plate and a glass of milk. “I know we’re not supposed to eat near the computer, but may I bring these to Andy?” Violet asked Mrs. McGregor. “Maybe he forgot to eat, since he came over here to help us out.”

  Mrs. McGregor nodded. “Of course. Here’s one more waffle for him—a hot one, nice and crisp.”

  Violet walked slowly down the hallway to the den.

  “Andy?” she called as she came into the den.

  But there was no Andy to answer her or to take the food she had brought him. The den was silent except for the Ringmaster II music playing quietly from the computer speakers.

  Now that the Aldens had their computer back to themselves, they decided to finish the game of Ringmaster II they had started.

  “Did you wash your hands, you two?” Jessie asked Benny and Soo Lee after breakfast. “No sticky fingers on the keyboard.”

  “I don’t know why Andy went without saying good-bye,” Henry said. “He’s a hard one to figure out, that’s for sure.”

  Jessie pulled her chair up to the computer. “I wonder if that was Andy and his father we overheard arguing at the warehouse yesterday.”

  “I think so but I couldn’t tell for sure,” Henry answered. “They both sounded pretty upset. For such a great place, QuestMaster has a few grumpy people working there. And a mystery, too: Problems keep coming up with Ringmaster II.”

  Henry restarted Ringmaster II. The screen the children had been playing on before breakfast came up. But it looked as if there was something new in the game.

  “Are my eyes fooling me?” Henry asked the other children. “When we were on this screen before, the pictures were a little different. Maybe this is one of the bugs C.D. was talking about. I didn’t notice that sign—the one over the castle door. It says, ‘The Brass Horn.’ ”

  “That’s a funny name for a castle,” Jessie said.

  Benny didn’t think so at all. “That’s the name of our good lunch place in Greenfield, the one that’s almost like a castle inside. Maybe it’s a clue that we should go there for lunch! Remember, when we gave the troll food on the computer, Mrs. McGregor brought us food, too?”

  Jessie laughed. “I don’t think the computer can hear your stomach talking, Benny!”

  Violet stared at the on-screen castle. “What if Benny’s right? Isn’t it a little funny that the name of the castle is the same name as a restaurant in Greenfield? Look at the old wooden marker on the tree. It says, ‘Forest Lane.’ ”

  Benny leaned against Henry and glued his nose to the screen. “Hey, the Brass Horn Restaurant is on Forest Lane! And the clock on the castle tower says twelve o’clock, right, Jessie? That’s lunchtime.”

  Jessie and Henry looked at each other.

  Were Benny and Violet on to something?

  Jessie spoke first. “It would be pretty weird if a clue in a computer game was pointing to something outside of the computer game, to something in real life.”

  “Probably a coincidence,” Henry finally decided.

  Benny patted his stomach. “Being hungry isn’t a coincidence. It happens every day. If we walked all the way to the Brass Horn, I think I would be hungry by the time we got there.”

  All the other children laughed.

  “All right. I give in,” Henry said. “I’ll ask Grandfather and Mrs. McGregor if we can go there for lunch. Right now I want to explore this game some more.”

  Henry was soon lost in Ringmaster II again. He began to click his way through the new game. Then he stopped.

  “What’s the matter?” Soo Lee asked when she saw Henry staring hard at the screen. “Who’s that scary lady hiding in the castle?”

  Henry clicked on a two-headed, green-faced woman. “‘Nadje,’” Henry read on the screen when the name popped up in a little box. When Henry clicked again, another pop-up box appeared over the character’s head:

  Her two faces do you see,

  One for them and one for thee.

  Follow her footsteps wherever she goes,

  But be careful to stay in the shadows.

  “Wow, this is getting exciting!” Henry said. “I guess we’re supposed to keep an eye on Nadje while we look for the ring. She must be dangerous.”

  “I don’t remember seeing her character when we tried out Ringmaster II before. Don’t you think that’s strange?” Jessie asked Henry. “Check the character list.”

  Henry slid the computer mouse over to Jessie. She pulled down a list of characters. He moved the arrow keys up and down the screen. “There’s no Nadje listed. Maybe the designers just added her to the game but haven’t had time to put her name on the list yet. I’m going to exit the game and e-mail C.D. about Nadje.”

  When Henry tried to send his e-mail, a warning box came on. He read it aloud for the other children.

  “We are unable to send or receive e-mail at this time. Please do not use the QuestMaster network until further notice. Someone from the office will check your computer shortly. Please note that you should attend the meeting scheduled this afternoon at one o’clock in the QuestMaster studio.”

  Henry shut down the QuestMaster network. “I wonder if C.D. has two screen names. That message was signed with the name EyeSpy. I’d better do what it says. I don’t want to cause a computer crash or anything.”

  “Is there a crash?” Soo Lee asked her cousin. “Are you going to call the police?”

  Henry patted Soo Lee’s hand. “A computer crash isn’t like a car crash. It’s some kind of problem that needs to be fixed inside the program or the computer.”

  Benny looked as if someone had taken his favorite toy away. “But we didn’t really get much chance to try the new game. Is the computer really broken?”

  Jessie stood behind Henry at the keyboard. “No problem, Benny. The message just said not to use the network. We can open Ringmaster II separately. Why don’t you give it a try, Violet?”

  Violet took Henry’s place in front of the computer. Benny and Soo Lee shared the chair next to her.

  “I think I’ll follow what the two-headed lady does,” Violet said. “Don’t worry, Soo Lee. There are some special spells in the little kids’ saddlebags on their horse. Look who’s in the other saddlebag.”

  Soo Lee smiled at the screen. “Tracker!”

  When Violet clicked on a spell in the saddlebags, the horse the two children were riding stopped at the castle gate.

  “Uh-oh,” Soo Lee said. “The lady with two heads pulled up the drawbridge. How will you get the horse over the wall?”

  The children carried on with the game, Again and again they were stopped by the two-headed Nadje.

  “She keeps stopping us,�
�� Soo Lee complained.

  “If we can’t get to the end of Ringmaster II, we won’t be any help to C.D.,” added Benny.

  “Maybe we should use all of our magic spells to get rid of her,” Violet suggested.

  Jessie looked on thoughtfully as Violet moved the pointer across the screen. “It might take more than magic,” she said softly.

  CHAPTER 5

  A Lunchtime Mystery

  Grandfather’s grandfather clock chimed the half hour at eleven-thirty.

  “Can we go to lunch now?” Benny asked. “I like this new game, but now I’m hungry. Those waffles were a long time ago.”

  “Three whole hours,” Jessie said, laughing. She jiggled Watch’s red leash, which was hanging in the hallway. “All right, Watch, you can come, too.”

  Watch licked Jessie’s hand as if he understood everything she said.

  The children said good-bye to Grandfather and Mrs. McGregor, who were going out grocery shopping.

  Walking to the Brass Horn Restaurant took a long time. Watch liked to stop at every tree and bark at every squirrel that he saw. He even barked at a green car that drove down the Aldens’ street twice.

  “I wonder what the meeting at QuestMaster is about this afternoon,” Jessie said. “It came up so suddenly.”

  Henry walked ahead of the other children. He was eager to find out why C.D. wanted everyone at the studio. “I sure hope it’s to tell us about Jane’s secret idea.” Henry reached into his back pocket and stopped.

  “What’s the matter, Henry?” Soo Lee asked.

  Henry smacked his forehead. “I forgot my wallet on the front hall table. The money Grandfather gave us for our lunch is in it.”

  Soo Lee dug into her pocket. “I have seven cents.”

  Benny turned his jeans pockets inside out. “I have a quarter.”

  The older children smiled.

  “I think we’ll need Henry’s wallet,” Jessie said.

  As soon as the Aldens turned onto their street, Watch jerked ahead, with Violet at his heels. “Slow down, Watch!” she said. “What’s the matter?”

  Watch barked and pulled Violet toward the house.

  Jessie noticed a green car parked in the driveway. “There’s a man ringing the doorbell. I wonder if Grandfather was expecting someone. That’s the car that I saw going past us before.” She spoke to Watch in a soothing voice. “It’s okay, Watch.”

  But seeing a strange man on the Alden porch was not okay with Watch. He always barked when someone new came to the door.

  The man heard the barking and turned around.

  “It’s Ned Porter!” Jessie cried, waving to get his attention. “Hi, Ned. Did you come over to fix our computer?”

  Ned Porter didn’t answer. Instead he went down the porch steps quickly, got in his car, and drove away.

  “Why didn’t he wait for us?” Benny wanted to know.

  No one had the answer to that. The children let themselves inside the house. Henry found his wallet where he’d left it.

  “Is there enough for hamburgers?” Benny asked Henry.

  “As many as you want,” Henry answered.

  The Aldens were plenty hungry after their long walk to the Brass Horn Restaurant.

  “See?” Benny said to everyone. “The computer was right. It’s twelve o’clock, and we’re at the Brass Horn on Forest Lane. And ... what else?”

  “And you’re hungry!” Jessie tickled Benny’s side.

  The Brass Horn was a nice old restaurant in Greenfield where Grandfather often brought the children. He told them it was very much like restaurants he had visited in England. Inside, there was a stone fireplace, old wooden beams, and paintings of knights and castles and horses. There was even a brass hunting horn over the doorway. In the summer, customers could eat outside at the big old wooden tables. Everyone drank from pewter mugs and ate from pewter plates, just as in olden times.

  Jessie tied Watch’s leash to a big shady tree just beyond the patio. “Be a good boy, Watch. We’ll be right over there, eating outside.”

  “Hello, Aldens,” the hostess said when she saw the children. “Where’s your grandfather today?”

  “Grandfather let us come here all by ourselves,” Benny answered. “And we even brought Watch. Jessie tied his leash to your big tree.”

  The hostess smiled at the children. “I’ve got the perfect table for you, then, right next to that tree. You can watch Watch.”

  The children liked the large menus, which were written in old-fashioned letters.

  Benny already knew what he wanted, so he looked around at the other people in the restaurant over the top of his menu. That’s when he happened to notice a familiar face. “Don’t look now,” he whispered from behind his menu. “But that lady from QuestMaster, Jane Driver, is over there.”

  The other children buried their noses behind their menus. One by one they took a peek across the patio.

  “You’re right, Benny!” Henry whispered. “I wonder who those two men are, sitting with her.”

  Jessie tried not to stare. “They have papers spread out over their table. They don’t look like anybody we’ve met at QuestMaster. Should we go over there and say hi?”

  Violet turned around slowly to catch a peek, too. “One of them just got up to use the phone.”

  Just then the children heard Watch bark.

  “Oh, no,” Jessie said. “What could Watch be barking about? He’s always so quiet and polite when we take him out. He only barks near home.”

  Jessie went over to scold Watch, then returned to the table. “You’ll never guess who’s over there behind Jane’s table. Ned! That’s who Watch was barking at.”

  “This is getting interesting,” Henry said. “Ned is standing right behind Jane, as if he’s trying to hear what’s going on. Why doesn’t he just let her know he’s there?”

  After the waiter took the Aldens’ orders, he took their menus away. They couldn’t hide anymore.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Violet said. “Jane and Ned can’t see us from where they are. And the two men with Jane wouldn’t recognize us anyway.”

  “Nothing is happening over there,” Benny said a while later. “Except that Jane and Ned are in the same restaurant but not together. What could be wrong with that?”

  “Nothing,” Henry agreed, “but I have a funny feeling something is going on with Jane and Ned. I wonder what it is. Let’s see what they have to say at the meeting later.”

  CHAPTER 6

  Wrong Information

  Watch began sniffing as soon as the Aldens and Soo Lee arrived at QuestMaster. A security guard recognized them from their earlier visit and let them in. Watch could tell right away that dogs were welcome there.

  Tracker came out from hiding under C.D.’s computer desk.

  “Hi, Tracker,” Jessie said. “Meet Watch. Watch, meet Tracker.” She turned to the other children. “Well, the dogs are here, but where are the people?”

  The design studio was deserted. Not even C.D. seemed to be around. Tracker and Watch soon began chasing each other around the empty office.

  “This place is going to the dogs,” Henry joked. He checked his watch. “I wonder if we got the time wrong.”

  “Hello! Hello!” Jessie shouted, but no one answered back.

  Where was everyone? Finally the children heard footsteps.

  “Hey, Aldens,” C.D. said when he came into the studio. “What brings you here?”

  The children didn’t speak at first. They just stared at one another in confusion.

  “Isn’t there a meeting at one o’clock?” Henry asked. “We got an e-mail this morning saying to come here. Are you EyeSpy? I thought maybe you were using a funny screen name.”

  C.D. laughed. “It’s not me. I have a feeling someone was playing a prank on you. Sorry about that. Sometimes people on my staff get bored and start sending funny e-mails. There’s no meeting scheduled.”

  Jessie wondered about this. “But the message wasn’t funny. It said to
come to a meeting today. It also said not to use the network and that somebody would come to fix it.”

  C.D. looked confused now. “We haven’t had any network problem that I know of. We’re still looking for bugs in Ringmaster II. And I’ve been having problems with that new feature for Ringmaster III that Jane created. Now she’s telling me she can’t get it to work anymore. She went off to Hampstead this morning for a special computer chip she heard about that might get her idea working again.”

  “Does it have anything to do with Ringmaster II?” Benny asked. “There’s a two-headed character named Nadje.”

  “Nadje?” C.D. asked. “Are you sure of the name? I’ve never heard of any two-headed character. Sounds interesting. When did you discover this character?”

  “This morning,” Henry said. “That’s the weird thing. When we played the Ringmaster II software here the other day and then at home, we didn’t see any Nadje character.”

  “Or any sign on the castle that said ‘The Brass Horn,’ either,” Violet added. “That’s the same name as the restaurant in Greenfield where we just saw—”

  Jessie gently poked Violet. She didn’t feel right about telling C.D. that they had spied Jane Driver in the restaurant when C.D. thought she was in Hampstead.

  C.D. booted up the nearest computer, which happened to be Ned’s. “Okay, Aldens, see if you can bring up this Nadje character somewhere in this game.”

  Henry and Jessie tried to remember what keys they had hit when they discovered Nadje. But every time they got to the onscreen castle, only the evil Wumps appeared.

  “Are you sure you’re doing it right?” C.D. asked. “I don’t see this Nadje character. And there’s no sign over the castle, either.”

  “Maybe we accidentally hit some wrong keys,” Jessie said. “That might have brought up parts of the game someone left in by mistake when they were designing it,” Jessie said.

  Before they could say anything to C.D., though, he had turned off the game, for something else on Ned’s screen caught his attention. “What on earth ...” he murmured. He opened up a file marked “Head Shots,” and suddenly several rows of color photographs appeared on the screen.