Trapped on the D.C. Train! (5 page)

“KC, one of the conductors is coming!” Marshall hissed. He ran behind the counter and pulled open the cupboard door.

“No, they’re bound to search those!” KC said.

Then she noticed the laundry cart. The cart was tall and wide and had four wheels. It was half-filled with tablecloths and napkins that had been removed from the tables. KC doubted there were washing machines on the train. That meant the laundry cart would be wheeled off the train so the dirty stuff could be washed.

“Jump into that cart!” she whispered to Marshall. “Get under the tablecloths!”

Marshall hesitated only a second, then he leaped into the cart. He buried himself in the soiled linens.

KC started to join him, then stopped. What if they checked under the tablecloths? She looked around the snack car. Was there another, better hiding place?

The bottles of ketchup and mustard on the counter gave her an idea. She pulled a clean tablecoth from the cupboard where they’d been hiding. Unfolding the cloth, she shook globs of ketchup all over its white surface. Then she jumped into the cart and pulled the ketchup-stained cloth over her head.

Praying the kidnappers wouldn’t want to get ketchup on their hands, she tried to burrow down next to Marshall.

A moment later, she heard the whoosh of air that let her know the snack car door had been opened.

KC and Marshall were jammed next to each other in the bottom of the linen cart. KC could feel Marshall’s elbow in her side. One of his feet poked her chin.

KC could also hear the phony conductor’s footsteps. He was only a few feet away from the cart. She thought he was alone, because he wasn’t talking.

Then she heard something else. It was a cupboard door being opened. Then it slammed shut. She heard another door open and shut. He was searching the cupboards where they had been hiding!

“There you are,” a man said. “Find anything?”

“No,” another voice answered. “But these cupboards are big enough to hide in. Hey, what’s this?”

“Baseball cap,” the first voice said. “Orioles.”

KC gasped. Her cap! It must have fallen off while they were in the linen cupboard.

“Yeah, it was here in this cupboard. The last time I saw it, she was wearing it,” his pal said. “The president’s stepkid.”

“They were here?” the first voice said. “So where’d they go?”

“I don’t know,” answered the other voice. “But they can’t get away. They’re trapped on this train.”

Several other cupboards were opened, then closed. KC couldn’t tell if they were coming closer to the cart or moving farther away.

“Shove that cart out of the way,” one of the men said. “There’s another cupboard behind it.”

KC froze. She held her breath. She felt the cart being jerked out of the way. Then it stopped moving.

“Hey, come ’ere,” one of the voices said. “I think we may have just hit the jackpot.”

Suddenly the tablecloths on top of KC and Marshall were yanked away. The kids were no longer hidden. They looked up and saw two faces staring down at them. It was the two “conductors” who’d lied to them about the vice president’s car.

“Well, lookee here,” the bald one said. He dropped KC’s cap into the cart. “Did you lose this?”

KC opened her mouth, but nothing
came out. Marshall’s face appeared from under the tablecloths.

“Don’t even think of screaming,” the man with the mustache said. He glanced at his watch. “We’ll be getting to the station in a few minutes. Till then, this is probably the best place for you.”

“You won’t get away with this!” Marshall finally said. “Do you know who her stepfather is?”

“We sure do, kid,” the bald man said. “Why else do you think we’re doing all this?”

“If you let us go, the president will be grateful,” KC said. She was trying to sound calm, but inside she was terrified. “He won’t put you in jail!”

“Nice try, kid,” the bald man said. He yanked KC out of the cart and tied a cloth
napkin around her mouth. Then he used another one to bind her hands behind her back.

KC watched as the other man did the same to Marshall. Then the men dropped the kids back into the cart.

“Nighty-night,” the man with the mustache said. Tablecloths were dumped on top of them. “Pretty soon we’ll take you for a nice car ride.”

“Okay,” the other voice said. “We have to go play conductor again. We need to let the passengers know we’re coming into Lancaster station. These two will be safe till we get back.”

KC heard footsteps walking away. She could only see white tablecloths around her face. She smelled ketchup. One of Marshall’s feet was jammed against her
cheek. She felt the rough tread of his sneaker.

Then there was silence, except for her own heart beating and Marshall’s breathing.

KC lay covered with dirty tablecloths. A napkin was tied around her head, right across her mouth. Marshall’s foot was wiggling, tapping against her head. Was he trying to send her a signal?

KC bumped her head against his foot. His sneaker nudged her again. They were having a conversation!

Then KC had an idea. She scraped her napkin gag against the bottom of Marshall’s sneaker. The napkin moved slightly. She tried again, and the gag slipped even more. After a few more tries, she was able to force the napkin down over her chin. Her mouth felt dry. What she
wouldn’t give for Marshall’s grape soda!

“Marshall?” she whispered. “Are you okay?”

The foot tapped the side of her head.

KC smiled. “Don’t worry, we—”

Suddenly KC heard something strange. It sounded like a little kid whimpering. The sound was coming from just outside the laundry cart.

Then something was scratching the cart. It moved on its wheels.

“KC?” a soft voice said. “Can you hear me? This is Secret Service Agent Daniels. We’re here to help you. We know you and your friend are in this cart.”

The layer of tablecloths was removed. KC looked up into a man’s face. He seemed concerned, but he was smiling. Next to him was a large German shepherd.
Its dark eyes looked at KC. Its long tongue hung out of its mouth.

“They unhooked the vice president’s car—” KC started to say.

“We know,” Agent Daniels said. “The vice president is safe. You’ll be with her soon.”

Then there was another face looking down at KC. It was a woman with red hair. “Hi, I’m Agent Miranda.”

KC grinned.

While Agent Daniels kept watch, Agent Miranda untied both kids’ hands and removed Marshall’s gag.

“They’re coming back!” Agent Daniels said. “I see them in the next car, headed this way!”

“We have to hide!” Agent Miranda said.

“Try the linen cupboard,” KC said.

“Got it,” Agent Daniels said. He flipped
a tablecloth over KC and Marshall, then disappeared behind the snack counter.

The door whooshed open.

“Okay, let’s get this cart ready,” one of the phony conductors said.

KC heard doors crashing open. Agent Daniels yelled, “Freeze!”

“Don’t even think of moving!” Agent Miranda added. “Flat on the floor—now! Hands behind your backs—now!”

KC heard thumps and grunts. A dog growled and barked.

Then Agent Miranda’s friendly voice said, “Okay, kids, it’s all over.”

Suddenly Marshall’s head popped up out of the tablecloths. “What did I miss?” he asked.

KC, Marshall, and Mary Kincaid were eating a picnic lunch on the vice president’s back porch in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her dog, Bounder, lay at their feet. In a nearby pasture, three horses nibbled grass behind a white fence. Twenty feet away, Secret Service Agents Janet and Robert sat in the shade, eating hamburgers and drinking lemonade.

“There were six kidnappers,” the vice president said. “Mandy was the boss. She persuaded her two brothers to mess with the electricity and unhitch our car from the train. They wore gray work clothes so they’d look like part of the regular train crew.”

“We saw them!” KC said. “And two of the others were those guys pretending to be conductors?”

“That’s right,” the vice president said. “The one with the shaved head was a real conductor, but he was in on the plot. The other one wore a fake mustache to look like the other real conductor. Those two are actually cousins, Bud and Karl Fester. And the engineer was in on it, too.”

“What happened to the conductor with the real mustache?” Marshall asked. He wiped some ketchup from his mouth.

“He was tied up and left in the train car with Janet, Robert, and me,” the vice president explained. “We figure that Mandy put something in our coffees to make us sleep, before the car was unhooked. Mandy and her two brothers climbed into
the car with us, but we didn’t know that until we woke up.”

“So Bud and Karl stayed on the train to kidnap Marshall and me,” KC said. “I guess they decided not to grab us where people were watching.”

“Yes, they were supposed to bring you to some house they had rented to hide all of us,” Mary Kincaid said. “Then they’d contact the White House and demand money. But Janet and Robert were able to overpower Mandy and her brothers. Your two abductors didn’t know that, of course. They thought we were on our way to their safe house.”

“But who are Agents Miranda and Daniels?” Marshall asked.

“I think I know!” KC said. “Agent Miranda was disguised as the sleeping
woman in the train car near ours, right? And Agent Daniels was the blind man with the Seeing Eye dog.”

The vice president nodded. “Anyone want the last burger?” she asked.

“No thank you, Ms. Kincaid,” KC said.

“I’m full,” Marshall said, rubbing his stomach. “But I’ll want it in five minutes!”

“KC, you’re right about Agents Daniels and Miranda,” the vice president said. “The president put them on the train to keep an eye on you two kids while Janet and Robert stayed with me.”

“Where are Agents Miranda and Daniels now?” Marshall asked.

Mary Kincaid gazed out toward the barn that stood next to the pasture. “Not far away,” she said. “I’ll let you in on a little secret. Agents Miranda and Daniels are
never far from you two, no matter where you go.”

“They follow us?” Marshall asked. “Cool!”

“How come we’ve never noticed them before?” KC asked.

The vice president laughed. “They’re both masters at disguising themselves,” she said. “They changed their disguises on the train because they needed to stay near you. Remember the old man with white hair who had a big old overcoat?”

“Wait a minute, was he sitting next to a college kid with earphones?” KC asked.

The vice president nodded. “Agent Miranda was the old man,” she said. “Their rescue dog, Pete, was at her feet, hidden under the coat.”

“And I’ll bet the college kid was really
Agent Daniels, right?” Marshall asked.

“That’s right,” Mary Kincaid said. “The president has ordered them to stay with you whenever you leave the White House. Those two are your guardian angels.”

Just then KC heard a thudding noise over the house. It was a familiar sound. She ran off the porch and looked up. A helicopter was preparing to land next to the barn.

“Hey, Marsh!” KC yelled. “It’s the president! Don’t eat that last hamburger!”