Read Brooks Berry In The Case Of The Stolen Season Page 7

  Chapter 7 Trapped!

  Brooks started school that Monday. School was enjoyable for him. He was a good student and learned quickly. He frequently got bored when the subjects weren't challenging for him, and during that first week while classes were getting ramped up his mind was quick to ponder the terrible start of Tosa East's football season. He thought about how at the end of last season it seemed almost written in stone that Tosa East was going to have a great season this year, and that Jeff Kopish was a star in the making - a sure thing to get the starting role and scholarship for next year at the University. Now 2 games into the season it seemed as though Jeff would be lucky to be a starting quarterback at a community college, and instead Marc Ille, the Tosa West quarterback would be the star of the season and might even have the inside track at that scholarship and the starting QB job.

  How did Marc make such tremendous strides over the past year? It just didn't make sense to Brooks. Why did it seem like the other team had an answer for everything Tosa East threw at it, yet Marc Ille and Tosa West were putting on a clinic of how to run over teams.

  "Maybe this week we should ride over to Tosa West and see them in action." thought Brooks. He told Brad his plan and he was all for it. "At least we'll get to see some good football, even if it is for that lousy school!"

  The week flew by as Brooks met his new teachers and heard them outline what the plan was for the semester ahead.

  On Wednesday after school, Brooks was at home playing a video game and his cell phone rang. He didn't use his cell phone too much, it was mainly for emergencies and letting his parents know where he was and where he was going if he was out.

  It was his sister Ally. Ally went to Tosa East already. She had forgotten to bring her "Acting Bag." That’s what she called her gym bag with a bunch of stuff she had in it for her theater activities.

  She was in the school play this year and they had rehearsals a few times a week. The play wasn't scheduled until the spring semester, but they were already in heavy rehearsal mode. She asked Brooks to bring her bag to the high school for her. He said sure, grabbed the bag and hopped on his bike.

  After he parked his bike he walked up the front steps of the school and headed to the auditorium to deliver the bag to his sister. He opened the heavy auditorium door and walked down the steep aisle.

  "Thanks, Brooks!" Ally said, meeting him halfway. "No problem" said Brooks. "What's up with that?" Brooks asked pointing to a guy running cable in the rafters. "Oh, we are getting our theater wired for streaming our plays live on the internet." Brooks figured it was part of the same renovation that was being done on the entire school system computer network.

  On his way back out to his bike, Brooks saw Coach Vitrano who was headed towards his office. "Hey buddy!" yelled the coach. "Hey Coach V." said Brooks.

  Coach knew that Brooks loved computers almost as much as sports. He asked Brooks if he wanted to see his new computer software for designing plays. "Of course!" he said. They entered his office and Brooks pulled a chair behind the coach's desk.

  Coach flipped on his computer and walked Brooks though the software program. It played videos of old plays and then diagrammed new ones. It also allowed you to view statistics on opposing teams. He could tell what plays they usually did on certain downs and with certain yards to go. Brooks was really impressed by its capabilities.

  "Holy cow, this is like what the NFL uses!" exclaimed Brooks. "You aren't kidding!" agreed Coach Vitrano. "I sure am glad that I stopped by to deliver that acting bag for Ally," said Brooks. He said goodbye to the coach and headed out to get his bike.

  On his way home he had to drive by the playing field. A man in a blue jacked was standing in front of the scoreboard. He threw down a cigarette, opened the side of the scoreboard and started climbing up into it. Brooks waited a while to see what was up. To kill some time and act inconspicuous, he acted like he was practicing some jumps on his bike in the parking lot while the man remained inside the scoreboard.

  After about 15 minutes he came out, closed the door and headed for the parking lot. He threw an empty pack of cigarettes into the trashcan and opened the door of an SUV. The SUV was white and relatively clean on the outside.

  From a distance Brooks could see the man was about 6 feet tall and had a shaved head. The SUV took off and headed out towards the main road. Brooks went to the trashcan and looked at the cigarette pack that the man had thrown into it. Turkish Supremes was the name on the pack – imported from Turkey. He rode over to the scoreboard and saw more of the same strange cigarette butts he had seen earlier with the strange markings. "Well now I know that these strange cigarettes are called Turkish Supremes," thought Brooks.

  The door to the scoreboard leg was slightly ajar. Brooks opened the door and walked in to take a look. It was dimly lit with just some outside light illuminating the area. The area inside the leg was just a small cylinder that housed the ladder to get to the first level of the scoreboard. He remembered seeing a light switch outside the leg, so he stuck his head back out to find it and flipped it on. He turned it on and from above fluorescent lights lit the area up brightly.

  Brooks climbed up the metal steps of the ladder. When he reached the main level, there was cabling everywhere and a lot of different computers and servers. Cigarette butts still littered the floor and the room smelled of smoke from a freshly smoked cigarette.

  He walked down the narrow hallway inside the scoreboard and climbed up a metal ladder next to the far wall that took him up to the scaffolding that served as the second floor with more video equipment on it.

  From outside he faintly heard a vehicle's tires crunching on the gravel path that led up to the scoreboard from the parking lot. Brooks ducked down. He wasn't really sure he was supposed to be in here. Coach Vitrano had let him in that one time, but now he might get in trouble if got caught up here again.

  Suddenly the room went dark and the only light was the daylight from the outside. A loud voice screamed into the scoreboard. "STAY OUT OF WHERE YOU DON’T BELONG AND MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!" a man’s voice roared and the door slammed shut below Brooks.

  Brooks was startled but not scared. He figured it was probably a maintenance man who had a bad day.

  He made his way back to the ladder to get down to the door. When he got to the ground, he was dismayed to find the door was locked from the outside. He was trapped inside the scoreboard!