Fantasy

4

I am currently on a bus bound for Philadelphia with fifty seven of my peers. For them, it's an innocent field trip, but for Taylor and me, it's a potentially fatal mission. It's great to be different. This being my first assignment and all, I'm extremely nervous and feel like I'm riding to my doom, which might not be that far from the truth.

"You may leave your belongings on the bus," Mrs. Jones tells us when we arrive. I set my Harry Potter book on the seat; yes I am still reading it after last night. Why stop at this point? As of now I have only one page left, but as I get off the bus I have a sinking feeling that I might not live to finish it.

In Philadelphia, my group consists of Taylor, thank goodness, Shelly, oh dear, and me with Shelly's mother as our chaperone.

"Where do you girls want to go first?" Mrs. Baker asks cheerily.

"Let's go to the mint!" I exclaim overenthusiastically.

"Okay," Mrs. Baker says slowly, "then let's see the mint!" I can tell she thinks I'm weird. So I made a bad first impression with my chaperone, right now that's the least of my worries. As we begin to walk towards our destination Taylor comes up behind me.

"Tone it down a little," she hisses in my ear, "We're undercover, remember?"

"Sorry," I answer sheepishly.

"It's fine, but who are we looking for again? I didn't get a chance to read the whole file."

"Uh," I murmur as I pull the snapshot of BOB from my pocket and briefly explain our goal as we continue to follow Shelly and her mom. Taylor takes the paper from me and studies it for a moment, then hands the picture back. I fold it up and once more stuff it in my pocket. Looking up I find we've made it to the mint. Mrs. Baker leads the way to the main doors only to discover the sign taped to the inside. It reads: not open to the public. Apparently they're not giving tours today.

"Do you think BOB's behind this?" Taylor wonders mutedly. I shrug.

"I don't see him anywhere, you?"

She hesitates before answering, "Nope. Don't you think he'd try to stay hidden though?"

"Yeah, I guess that's true."

"Well, sorry girls. Looks like the mint is closed today," Mrs. Baker announces.

"Yeah, too bad," Shelly pipes up, but she doesn't sound very sincere, "why don't we go see the Liberty Bell instead?" Since I'm too nervous to care and Taylor doesn't object it's off to the Liberty Bell we go. There is a huge line to get into the place, but we're in no hurry (according to Mrs. Baker. For me, every second that passes just makes me more of a nervous wreck). When we finally reach the building, there is a security check and then a hallway full of historical facts about the bell before we finally get to it. It's in the center of a cylindrical room in front of a huge window that takes up one fourth of the curved wall and is surrounded by a ring of railing. About ten or twelve average looking people of all ages inhabit the space, all taking pictures and video. One guy in particular standing just outside catches my attention, though. He has dark hair and is wearing a black overcoat. I recognize him immediately and my heart skips a beat.

"Taylor!" I hiss, tugging on her sleeve and pointing at the man.

"What?"

"It's BOB!"

"What? Where?"

"Right there," I motion to the man who is now answering his ringing cell phone, "The guy on the phone."