"What's the plan for these vacations?" Dave Joel asked, moving aside a lock of his wavy blonde hair from his eyes.
His friend, Alten Collins, stretched out his arms in mid-air.
"My plans are still in the air," replied the active slim boy.
"Dad has to accompany the President of Canada overseas, so we planned on moving for a week or two to Manitoba," Udan Johnson said. His father was the Coastal Guard of Malonia in the United States. The tubby boy took a bite of his pizza. "And you, Dave?" His turquoise eyes gleamed with interest as he asked, "Any mystery?"
"No-"
"Folks!" Dave's younger brother Jayden came running over to them. He held out a newspaper. The friends were returning home after attending High School.
Alten raised an eyebrow. "Uh?" he asked. Jayden passed the paper to him.
"It says, 'A traitor's threaten to steal the Computer Chip' ," Alten read the headlines.
Udan's eyes widened. "That's very serious!" he exclaimed, almost spitting out his pizza.
"Hey, slow a bit, pal," Jayden grinned.
"That Chip contains the formulas to invent an automatic hydrogen bomb, right?" the tubby boy said.
"The same," Dave replied. "If the traitor ever gets his hands on the CC, then anything disastrous is bound to happen."
Alten read further, " 'As a matter of fact, the traitor's roaming on the streets of Malonia itself'."
Dave sighed and asked his brother, "Did you bring what you'd gone for?"
Jayden rubbed his temple. "The diary? No, I forgot!"
Dave shrugged and said, "Never mind, I'll get it."
Dave and Jayden were the sons of David Joel, the famous and distinguished special agent in the FBI. Nineteen years old, Dave, was two inches taller to his brother and had brown eyes. Jayden brown haired and grey eyed and two years younger to Dave, had a strong sense of justice and tended to be a bit impulsive.
*********
When they got on the porch of their blue house, Buddy started licking them.
"Way to go, Buddy," Dave said to his pet dog going for the door.
"Mom, I'm famished!" Jayden said.
A slender woman appeared from the kitchen. "Lunch's set. Wash up and come," Rochelle Joel announced. Hazel eyed and brown haired, Mrs Joel was a dentist.
"Your father had called up," she told her sons as they ate. "Said that he won't be home until tomorrow evening. He's on another secret mission."
That evening they brothers had a visitor who needed their help.
"Let's talk about it in the hall," Dave proposed. Jayden held the door open. Brian Macpherson, the son of the inventor of the most priceless Computer Chip stepped in the hall.
Mr Macpherson, a nuclear physicist had come up with the idea of inventing an automatic hydrogen bomb. He'd installed all the instructions in a small Computer Chip which would be handed to the country's force. They lived down the street a few miles away from the Joel's.
As Brian sat down his whole body jerked as though he'd been electrified.
"Brian, you okay?" Jayden asked.
Brian Macpherson looked nervously, deciding whether to tell them or not. "Dad's gone missing!" he sputtered.
"Missing!"
Brian sighed and said, "Sorry, I'll start from the beginning. You've already heard about the threats made against the CC." The brothers nodded. "Dad had received a threat too personally last week. It was a different one; a picture of a knife and a person hanging from a tree were drawn on the paper." The Joels exchanged quick glances.
"Who was it from?" Jayden asked.
"The letter didn't bear the sender's name. Only dad's name was written on the top. But I'm betting it was sent by the traitor."
"Do you have the letter with you?" Dave asked grimly.
Brian shook his head and said sheepishly, "I was so freaked out by those stupid drawings that I burned the letter." The young lad paused for a second. "Since that threat arrived, dad has been acting so weirdly. I felt that it all happened because of the CC, so I told him to give it to the FBI for protection but he said that it wouldn't do any good."
Brian further told them that two nights before Mr Macpherson had left the house saying that he had some urgent work. And before leaving he'd given Brian the CC and had asked him not to give it to the FBI agents or any scientist before he returned.
"And till now there's no sign of dad."
"Strange!" Jayden exclaimed.
"Very much," Dave agreed. "Mr Macpherson just disappears after giving you the CC and instructing you not to give it to the FBI or physicists. Have checked in with the other physicists?"
"Yeah. None of them have seen dad after the morning, on the day he disappeared."
"And the police?" Jayden asked.
"Yup." He pulled out a yellow rolled paper from his jacket pocket.
"Well...... I want you guys to keep the CC's password," Brian blurted.
The brothers stared at him in bewilderment. "Us!"
"Ehm, I'm having a hunch that Dad's disappearance is not a coincidence but a big conspiracy for the CC. Hmm... Incase if the traitor manages to get his hands on the CC, he'll won't be able to access to it as he won't be having the password."
Dave frowned thoughtfully. "Your idea is good but it would be better if you give it to the FBI. That would be a legal procedure too."
"I would but I'm helpless... dad told me not to do so."
"And you wouldn't happen to know why he said so, would you?"
Brian shook his head. "I had no other option left but to give the password to you guys. Even the traitor wouldn't have any clue that the password is with you."
The brothers shrugged and nodded. They knew that they'd gotten a very big responsibility of protecting the password on their shoulders. One false step and the next moment the county would be destroyed!