Warrior Atticus the Great
-1Warrior Atticus the Great
Books 6 through 10
D. K. Graham
Copyright 2012 by D. K. Graham
Smashwords Edition
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Warrior Atticus the Great
Book 6 - Changing Shapes
Warrior Atticus the Great had just gotten over the excitement from capturing bank robbers who were using UFO’s to trick people. Now his specially encrypted cell phone was ringing again. He knew without looking that it would be his government friend, whom he knew by the code name Mr. XYZ, with a new assignment for him. “Hello? Yes, Mr. XYZ, I will be there as soon as I can. The bus should be along in a few minutes.” He closed his smart phone and left a note for his parents, telling them where he was going and that he would be in touch. Then he checked to make sure he had his specially laminated bus pass, headed out the door and down the street to the bus stop.
In just a few minutes he was seated on the bus and headed downtown. He got off the bus about a block from the government building where Mr. XYZ worked, went inside and took the elevator to the floor where he knew Mr. XYZ had his office.
“Hello, Warrior Atticus! It’s great to see you again!” Mr. XYZ said to Atticus as he walked through the doorway. “Have a seat.”
Warrior Atticus the Great smiled as he shook his friend’s hand, then walked over to take a seat in the group of chairs by the windows. “What do you have in store for me this time?” he asked.
Mr. XYZ handed Warrior Atticus a manila folder, much like the one that he’d been given before the last assignment. On the front of the folder was written “Carnival”.
Warrior Atticus looked at his friend with a quizzical look on his face. “Carnival? Am I headed to the county fair?”
Mr. XYZ smiled as he shook his head. “No, Warrior Atticus, not exactly. There is a group of people who go from town to town and city to city setting up a small carnival in empty lots. The carnival attracts large numbers of people, and are only in one place for a couple of days at a time. On the last day, during the last hour before they close and take everything down, they run scams in all of their carnival games and bilk people out of their money; and it appears that they have people who go around and pick pockets stealing men’s wallets, and grabbing ladies’ purses. Then they disappear before anyone even knows what’s happening. The last town they were in, a couple of teenaged boys came up missing the same time as the carnival left town.
The carnival has always been taken down and left town before anyone was ever arrested. They don’t make plans ahead, so no one is ever alerted to where they will show up next. There are so many carnival groups out there that it’s hard to figure out which one they are ahead of time.”
“Interesting. But what do you want me to do, and why is it affecting the government?” Warrior Atticus asked.
“We have been tracking where the carnival group has been, but we still can’t figure out where they are headed next. We only know that it looks like they have been to several different states lately, and we need to find those two teenaged boys, and find out if they went willingly or if they were kidnapped. We need you to use your computer skills to figure out where they will be next, and then go to that town before they leave, find those two teenagers, and help stop the criminals before they have a chance to escape again. What do you say? Are you up for it?”
“Uh, yeah, I guess so. Of course, I will need to get Super Dad and Miracle Mom, or Grandma Bonnie and Papa Barry to help because I can’t just go to other cities without transportation! I’m a kid and I don’t drive yet, remember?” Atticus exclaimed.
“Yes, of course you are right. You do such a wonderful job whenever we send you after criminals, that we sometimes forget you are just a kid. Sure, go ahead and get your parents or your grandparents to help you.”
Warrior Atticus stood up and shook Mr. XZY’s hand. “Thanks for trusting in me. I will do my best.”
“I know you will. You always do.” Mr. XYZ walked him to the elevator and waved goodbye as the doors closed.
Warrior Atticus caught the bus and went home. Once there, he went to his room where he opened the folder and read everything that was known about the gang. There was an envelope in it that included a microchip, so he slipped it into the slot on his printer and watched as it downloaded to his computer monitor.
There was a video of a carnival midway, with lots of people wandering around. It was from a television news show, and the reporter was talking about how wonderful it was that their town had a surprise visit from a carnival! It seemed that this didn’t happen in their area, except for county fairs, so everyone was happy for the diversion. It was always nice to have something different to do in their spare time. She also said that it was a nice way for the local teenagers to find short-term jobs to give them some extra pocket money.
Warrior Atticus then zoomed the video in closer so he could study the faces of the workers behind the counters at the different games and snack places. A lot of the workers appeared to be young people, probably local teenagers. But not all of the workers were teenagers. As he looked at the faces behind the booths farther away from the announcer, he noticed several older workers, probably in their 30’s or 40’s. He figured these were the regular workers, and he knew that these were the people he would have to find out more about.
Using a special program on his computer, he copied and pasted the faces of the older workers into a special search engine that he used a lot. After a few minutes, a lot of information popped up on the screen.
The first man was called Zero Chakalat. He was 28 years old, and had an arrest record going back several years, all for petty theft.
The next person was a woman, Parkie Lotta, who was 32 years old. She was one of the owners of the carnival, and worked the main snack bar, which was a trailer with a side that dropped down allowing her to sell refreshments to the carnival goers.
Another man was identified as Jomo Benchmark. He was a part-owner of the carnival, and he worked as a strong man and also ran some of the rides.
Everyone else on that video appeared to be either temporarily hired teenagers or the carnival goers.
He advanced the video to one of another town, with another announcer, and pretty much the same story. Again, he zoomed in on the workers. There were several different teenagers, but the same two men and one woman as in the other video, along with another man who was walking around talking with Zero, Parkie and Jomo at their various stations. He decided this man was probably acquainted with each of the other workers, so he copied and pasted his picture into the special search engine.
“Bingo!” Warrior Atticus said out loud. This man was Junior Mossquat. He was 40 years old, had a very long criminal record, and was known to be the major owner of the carnival. This was the man on whom Warrior Atticus needed to focus his search. He knew this was not going to be an easy task. The carnival didn’t seem to travel in any special pattern. They just packed up and moved wherever they felt led at the time. They went to the east coast. They went to the southern states. They went to the northern states. They went to the west coast and the Midwest. He needed to find out where they were right now, and then figure out where they would be headed next. He thought long and hard about it.
He decided to contact a major news network and see if they had any reporters who were doing stories on carnivals at that moment. He sent a quick email off to the producer of the most major news show. Within a few minutes his computer went “ping” to announce to him that there was an email message waiting for him. It was from the producer.
Yes, they did, in fact, have a reporter who had been following some carnivals to report on how they could set up and take down their equipment so quickly. Right now he was in Maineville, Texas, a small town a few miles from Austin.
Warrior Atticus went to find Super Dad, who was working in his office. “Super Dad, I have a new assignment, but I think I really need your help, and maybe Grandma Bonnie & Papa Barry’s, too.” He proceeded to tell his father about the carnival people, and asked for a ride to Maineville right away so they could be there before the carnival left town.
Super Dad said he thought he could do it, but he wanted to check with Warrior Atticus’ grandparents to see if they would like to get out of town for a drive.
A few minutes later they had briefed Warrior Atticus’ grandparents and his mother, and they were on their way to pick up Grandma Bonnie and Papa Barry. They knew it would take a little under three hours to make the trip, so they all settled back to enjoy the ride.
When they arrived at the lot where the carnival was set up, they went around the block a few times before they finally found a parking place. They all made a mental note where they were leaving the car so they could find it later. This would be the last day of the carnival, and it could be rather hard to find it in a strange town with so many cars parked within the blocks near the carnival.
They had decided the best thing to do would be to just act like regular carnival goers and get some supper at one of the food carts, then go around the midway and play a few games, just so no one would get suspicious. They immediately saw the food cart where Parkie Lotta was serving hot dogs, hot pretzels, and funnel cakes. Super Dad ordered hot dogs and funnel cakes with strawberries and whipped cream for all four of them. They found a large tree stump to sit on while they ate, and where they could see pretty much everything that was going on.
On the trip to Maineville, Warrior Atticus had shared pictures of the four criminals that he had printed off. He wanted everyone to be able to recognize the criminals. Each one of them decided which one they would keep their eyes on, there being five of them and four criminals.
Grandma Bonnie thought it would be easier to keep her eyes on Parkie, because she was a woman, and Miracle Mom agreed to accompany her. Super Dad would watch Zero, Papa Barry was to watch Jomo, and Warrior Atticus would try to find and keep his eyes on Junior. They already knew where Parkie was because she had just served them their supper. Zero was working at a booth set up to have people throw darts at balloons, and Jomo was running the Ferris wheel.
After looking around for a few minutes, Warrior Atticus noticed Junior talking to some teenagers between two of the game booths. He decided it would be a good idea to mosey on over there and pretend to play some of the games, just so he could hear what was being said.
“No, I told you before, you can not have your cell phones back until we are through with you. One more town then we will have enough money to let you go, and then you can have your precious phones back.” Junior was talking to the two teenaged boys whose pictures Atticus recognized as being the ones who had disappeared from the last town where the carnival was. This was exciting! He knew he had to help them escape. Junior continued talking to the two young men, “Tell you what, if you can bring me at least $1,000 in cash tonight from wallets and purses, I’ll think about giving you back your cell phones, and maybe letting you go.”
Warrior Atticus knew he must go tell his parents and grandparents about this latest news. They would decide then how to best capture the bad people from the carnival and set the teenagers free. He set out to find the others in his party.
Atticus didn’t have to search very far; Grandma Bonnie and Miracle Mom were still standing by Parkie’s food cart, eating funnel cakes. Super Dad was throwing darts at balloons at Zero’s booth, and Papa Barry was in line to ride the ferris wheel. Warrior Atticus interrupted Super Dad’s dart game, and together they went to the ferris wheel to get Papa Barry. The three guys then went to collect Grandma Bonnie and Miracle Mom from the area outside the food cart.
“Okay, here’s what I need you to do,” Atticus told his parents and grandparents. “I saw the two missing teenagers over there,” and he motioned to the area where he had seen Junior talking with them. “Junior is using them to steal wallets and purses, and with only an hour left before they close and leave town, they should be working about now.”
Warrior Atticus then gave each of the three adults three baggies of powders, and explained the use of each one. “This one will allow you to fly; this one will make you invisible; and this last one is the one that will change your shape. A little bit will make you really, really skinny. A lot will make you really big, like a balloon. If you are caught following any of the criminals, use whichever powder or combination of powders you feel will give you an advantage over them. Now, let’s go see if we can figure out how to trick them into meeting in one place, preferably near a place with a big wall so I can use the holograms to fool them and capture them.
Just then, Grandma Bonnie noticed that her purse had been snatched from her arm! A teenaged boy was seen walking quickly in the opposite direction from where they were facing. He didn’t know, of course, that there was only cut up paper in the purse; it was a decoy. Grandma Bonnie, acting like she had really lost her purse, shouted, “My purse! My purse! Someone has stolen my purse! Help! Help me, please! Help!” She sounded pretty convincing. Papa Barry and Super Dad both sprinkled some shape changing powder on themselves while everyone was watching Grandma Bonnie. This changed their appearances a lot, especially since they both got a little carried away and put way too much on themselves! Immediately they both looked like balloons in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! They waddled over to the food cart, which Parkie Lotta had just closed up. “Hey, lady! What happened?” they asked Grandma Bonnie. She didn’t even recognize her husband and son because they had changed their appearances so much!
“My purse! Someone stole my purse!” she told them. Warrior Atticus the Great decided it was time to round up all four members of the crime ring. He ducked behind a game booth and sprinkled some invisibility powder on himself. While the commotion was happening outside the food cart, he went in search of Zero, Jomo and Junior. They were actually in the same place, talking about the lady whose purse had just been stolen. Atticus decided to move them over to a fence behind the food cart. He would try to get to Papa Barry and Super Dad before their shapes changed back and get them to help move the men over to the fence.
He went up behind Grandma Bonnie and told her to meet everyone in the back of the food cart, by the fence. He also told her to use just a tiny bit of shape-changing powder, because he wanted her to be really, really skinny when she knocked on the door to the food cart and Parkie opened the door to see who was outside. She had to be able to get inside the door before it was closed on her. Of course, Parkie wouldn’t recognize her as her last customer of the day. Grandma Bonnie was to tell her that a man named Junior had asked her to get Parkie to meet him by the fence.
Then he went over to Super Dad and Papa Barry and asked them to tell the men that Parkie wanted them to meet her over by the fence. Meanwhile, the two teenaged boys were robbing people all over the park, taking purses and wallets. The boys saw Parkie and the three other criminals heading toward the fence, and decided to sneak over and see what was going on.
Just as they got there, a strange thing happened! It looked like a whole bunch of martial artists were karate chopping and tae kwon do kicking by the high fence. They turned to each other and then looked wildly around them. The fence was in a rounded area like an area, and it looked like the fighters had surrounded them. Just then, Warrior Atticus’ invisible powder wore off, and so did Super Dad and Papa Barry’s powders. They all looked normal again. Grandma Bonnie was still pretty skinny, and looked like a breeze would knock her over!
Warrior Atticus had armed Super Dad and Papa Barry with light sabers, very much like his own. He gave the signal for all of the light sabers to be turned on at the same time. He pushed the button alerting the authorities to close in, just as he turned and faced Junior, who was running toward him! He pointed his light saber toward Junior and sent him flying toward the fence. Junior didn’t know what had just happened, but he knew he was flying, and then he hit the ground hard, knocking him out. Spinning around, Warrior Atticus joined Super Dad and Papa Barry in fighting off the other two men with their light sabers. In no time at all they had joined Junior in a heap by the fence. Parkie just stood there screaming, tears running down her cheeks. She was very scared that the same thing would happen to her. Grandma Bonnie was standing in front of her, and really scared her as her powder wore off and she was back to her normal self, right before Parkie’s eyes. Parkie had never seen anything like this before in her life! She fainted right where she stood.
The authorities showed up right about that time and took over. Warrior Atticus the Great told them that the two missing teenaged boys were still on the grounds somewhere … in fact, that was them right over there! He pointed to the edge of the crowd. Two police officers went over and took them into custody. The boys were really scared because they knew they had been robbing people, but they knew they didn’t have any choice because Junior had kidnapped them and threatened them and their families if they didn’t do as they were told and tried to get away.
Warrior Atticus the Great explained the situation to the authorities, and the two boys were released. He loaned the boys his regular cell phone to call their parents and assure them that they were okay. The boys showed the police officers where they had stashed the purses and wallets, and after taking pictures of everything and taking their statements, the officers told the boys to wait by the police vehicles, and told everyone in attendance that the spectacle was over, they could claim their property later at the police station, and they could all just go on home now.