"Ok, you two. Time to put this whole plan into action," Clayton said sternly, his face 100% serious as he looked across his desk at Taylor & Simon.
They had received the short briefing of the project, as prepared by Elaina, first thing that morning. During breakfast, they had resisted the temptation to look through the folder file of documents. This was BIG. This was major stuff. This would probably be something they were not expecting in the least. They wanted to be by themselves when they first read through the material, so as to be free of the monitoring, intense glares of Clayton, Rod, & Elaina.
"You want me to look at it first?" Simon asked nervously the instant he & Taylor were escorted to their room & the door had been closed. He prayed silently that Taylor would volunteer to read it aloud, as he didn't exactly have access to school living on the street. The closest thing he had come to a reading class in years was brash graffitti covering the back walls of many downtown buildings...
Taylor took a deep breath,"Uh.. Why-why don't we just go over together? I mean, it's not like we're little wussies or anything... We're not gonna cry just 'cause this may be some life-altering plan that could keep us stowed away here 'til we're 85..."
"Yeah, we're tough boys... No, we're men!" Simon exclaimed. As he said this, his hands were shaking ever so slightly & he could feel his pulse racing. There was no denying it, he was just as nervous as Taylor. The folder he held didn't just contain a bunch of papers with random words... It was a full-scale scheme. That HE was a major part of...
"So, uh, gonna read it?" Taylor spoke up. A feeling of curiousity crept over him, slowly overtaking his anxiety, as the two sat on the edge of the bed and Simon opened the folder slowly. He was careful to make the cover crease perfectly straight and sharp, going over it a few times with his thumb & index finger.
"Quit stalling, would ya?" Taylor said, a slight tone of annoyance in his voice. Simon shot him a quick but harsh look, but said nothing. He simply picked up the pile of loose papers, flipped over the blank title page, and began to read the first main page. Taylor leaned in so he, too, could look at it. A couple of minutes later, he motioned to Simon that he was finished that section and to turn the page.
"Uh, just a sec, ok? I'm not quite done..." Simon said, trying to make it sound like no big deal that he was so slow... He had yet to read a quarter of the page, though he had skipped over many words that he couldn't understand.
"Done yet?" Taylor asked a minute later, wringing his hands in an anxious manner. Simon looked up, shook his head, and focused once again on the page. Involved officers... chief he paused to sound this out in his head "chief organizer: Clayton Behr... Local- localized something or other... Simon thought, unable to make out a series of words, Cynthia Cross. Hey... The chick from the office... Member assoc- assockiates? That can't be right... Simon thought, misinterpreting yet another word. He sighed, and struggled on, Rodney Whatever-That-Weird-Last-Name-Is... Brandy Hilton... Wesley Feldman... The information seemed to go on forever... Dates & names, nothing else.
"Done?" Taylor repeated several minutes later, a look of uncertainty on his face. Is this guy reading this stuff or memorizing it to be engraved on a plaque??? he thought, confused.
Simon lifted his head,"Oh yeah.. Uh, sorry. Just kinda got distracted..."
"Hey, it's no problem," Taylor said, shrugging. Simon turned to the next page, which Taylor eagerly read. The first page had been extremely boring & gave no real idea of what was going on. Nothing but names, places, & dates with no explanations.
As he continued to pretend-read, Simon noticed Taylor's eyes grow slightly larger & his mouth open. He frantically scanned the words to see what had caught Taylor's attention, but for all he could understand, it may as well have been a foreign language. Simon grew frustrated. He wanted to know what the papers said, and Taylor hadn't said a word but concentrated fully on the page.
"Ugh... My eyes are screwing up," Simon said, rubbing his eyes as though he couldn't focus properly,"The font's pretty small & my eyes are that great..."
Simon glanced at Taylor, who had paused reading. Take the hint... Take the hint... he silently pleaded.
"Oh... Want me to read it aloud?"
Bingo! Simon thought, relieved.
"Could ya?"
Taylor nodded,"Sure, no problem. Start from this page?"
"Uh, yeah. I almost finished, but the words started going all fuzzy & out of focus..." Simon lied, hoping he sounded sincere.
Taylor cleared his throat and began to read aloud...
"Project objective as observed by chief organizer Clayton Behr: To attain large profits in the form of money and/or other goods through various well-planned criminal acts. Acts will be committed by an outside member, undetermined as of the time this report was written, who will be given intense instructions which must be followed or a penalty will be placed upon him. Another outside member will be used as a decoy if police detainment should become a problem, thus leaving the original outside member free of charges & a silent part of the scheme..."
"Okaaay," Simon said unsurely when Taylor paused,,"Just a wild guess, but I'm thinking us two are the 'outside members'..."
"Wouldn't doubt it," Taylor said, biting his lip,"What do they mean by criminal activities? Are we gonna be felony buddies?"
Simon shook his head,"I'm not too clear about all of their technical, big-word stuff but it sounds like one of us is going to become a criminal..."
"And if that one of us is in danger of getting caught, their role will be exchanged with the other..." Taylor continued, trying to piece it together.
"Which means one of us will be thrown in the slammer, while the one who committed all of the crimes can just disappear and go on like they weren't a part of anything..." Simon finished.
Taylor narrowed his eyebrows, deep in thought,"Can you make any sense of that? Why wouldn't they just send one of their own men?"
"Think about it: If one of them goes out and gets caught, chances are he'll rat out the entire project. Why not drag the rest of 'em down with him? "Simon rationalized,"But if they use one of us and we get caught, they'll be home free... As long as they erase anything tracing back to the project..."
"Yeah, but why would they need two of us?" Taylor questioned.
Simon sighed,"My guess is so that they could get someone like me to agree to the whole scam... whatever it is exactly. I mean, if they had told me I risked jail, I never would've come here."
"But I didn't have a choice about coming here..." Taylor thought outloud,"So what, they don't give a damn if I spend a few years in prison??"
Simon was silent, trying to figure this out... Work brain, work... Figure it out. Hmmm, what if- Yeah! That's got to be it...
"Taylor, I think I've got it..."
Taylor looked at Simon,"Then please enlighten me... If I can't figure out the second page, I won't have a clue what to make of the rest of 'em..."
"Ok, so let's assume I get sent out to, like, rob a bank or something... Word gets out to the cops & they start hunting for me..." Simon said,"Some old lady cashing her pension cheque gives them a description of me... '5'10ish, semi-long blonde hair, blue eyes-"
"Looked like that MMMBop kid, the middle one..." Taylor jumped in.
Simon frowned,"MMMBop kid? What the hell's that?"
Taylor quickly remembered Simon knew nothing of his fame,"Me and two of my brothers, we have a music group Hanson... We're, well, we're pretty famous... Right up there in the entertainment business. Back in '97, it was like everytime we turned on the tv, there we were- not that I'm bragging or anything-"
Simon interrupted,"So you're a celebrity and shit?"
Taylor nodded, hoping Simon wouldn't change his attitude towards him.
"And the plot thickens..." Simon said in a low voice,"So like 99% of the American population could recognize you if they saw you in a shopping mall?"
"I guess so," Taylor nodded,"At least 99% of females aged 10 & up..."
Simon ran his fingers through his hair,"So they see me, who looks almost exactly like you... and might I comment on how I am still thoroughly freaked out about that, and they think it's Taylor Hanson, Celeb Heartthrob."
Taylor's eyes widened,"'Middle Hanson Brother Suspected of Robbery'... On the cover of every paper the next day..."
"And that's when Clayton and his pool of idiots plunk you down at the next hit spot instead of me. Security's on alert, and before you can get out of there, you're in cuffs & being led to the precinct..."
This realization made Taylor's heart drop in to his stomach. It might just work... No, it would work... What could he say? 'Aw gee, sorry. That guy just looked exactly like me. But he wasn't me.' That'll hold up really well in court... For the first time in his entire life, Taylor almost despised his fame. If he was just a regular teenager, they wouldn't have had any reason to kidnap him & place him in the midst of their scheme...
"Tay? You ok?" Simon asked, alarmed at how pale Taylor's face had suddenly become.
Taylor snapped out of his daze,"Huh? Oh... Yeah. Fine. Should I read the next page?"
"Yeah, maybe the information will be more detailed," Simon said,"We should know what's going on."
Taylor nodded as he turned the page,"Yeah, we should." The question is he thought Do I want to know???
~Chapter 30~
~Chapter 28~
~Chapter Index~
~Home~
