Read Online Double Vision by F. T. Bradley - Free Book Online

big black backpack— my old backpack. With Dad’s compass still attached to the loop.
    The fabric looked cleaner. “What did you do to it?”
    â€œCheck this out.” He reached inside the pack and pulled out a device that looked like a phone, along with a small, black plastic box. He pushed the red button on the side of the device, and it lit up. “This is a tracking device.” The screen showed a map, with a bunch of red dots clustered together. Henry handed it to me.
    â€œWhat am I supposed to do with this?” I asked, looking at the red dots. They weren’t moving.
    â€œJust wait,” Henry said with a glint in his eye. He opened the small plastic box and took out a stack of—
    â€œStickers?” They had little Eiffel Towers on them and said: J’aime Paris. I guessed that means I Love Paris .
    â€œNot just any stickers.” Henry took one, and ran across the penthouse hotel room. “Is it moving?” he called from another room.
    I looked at the red dots. “Not really.” But then one of the dots slid away from the others. “Wait, is that you?”
    â€œYup.” Henry walked back, grinning big. “Cool, right? There’s a tracking mechanism in there, so thin, I was able to work it into a sticker.” He took the other stickers and put them back in the box. “I only had time to make three, so don’t go crazy out there.”
    â€œI promise to control my sticker frenzy.”
    Henry took the tracking device, turned it off, and slid it into the backpack, along with the plastic box of stickers. I wasn’t sure who I was supposed to track with those, but then it couldn’t hurt, right? Henry pulled out another device, which looked suspiciously like a simple voice recorder I’d seen Mom use for schoolwork. “Say something,” he said, pointing the thing in my face.
    â€œUhm, hello?” I pulled away and heard the recorder spit out in a fancy lady’s voice, “ Bonjour ?”
    â€œIt’s a translator,” Henry said, all excited. “It translates stuff from English to French.”
    I took the recorder, which was pretty light. “You made this?”
    Henry waved dismissively. “No need, you can buy these things off the internet. It comes with earbuds, in case you don’t want everyone else to hear what it translates.” He handed me a cheap set of buds, like the kind that came with my MP3 player. “Oh, one more thing: the battery life on this thing is terrible. So don’t keep it running unless you really need it.”
    â€œI’ll remember that.”
    Henry turned off the translator and tucked it into my backpack. “Most people in Paris speak English, so you probably won’t need it a lot.”
    Next, Henry pulled a container that looked like a tube of lip balm out of the front pocket. “Now this is really cool. I call it the Tickstick.” He put the container, which looked very ordinary, between his thumb and index finger. “See that seal?” He carefully moved the Tickstick until it was just inches away from my face. There was a sticker taped over the cap, to seal it, like when you bought one new at a store.
    â€œYeah, I see it.”
    â€œWhen you twist the cap and break the seal,” he whispered, looking right into my eyes, pausing dramatically, “BOOM!”
    I jumped.
    Henry relaxed and put the Tickstick back into the little front zipper pocket. “Well, not until ten seconds later anyway. So you have to run once you twist the cap.”
    I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants. This junior agent gear was beginning to worry me a little.
    â€œThat’s why I call it the Tickstick, see? It ticks like a bomb but looks like a lip balm.” Henry looked proud.
    â€œVery smart.”
    â€œJust don’t go blowing up the Eiffel Tower, all right?”
    â€œI’ll try not to. I mean, it’s not like I’ll actually need