Chapter Thirteen

The Tycoon's Scam

To celebrate Lionel and Alexis making up, the gang went to eat at a Macaroni Grill in New York City. Everybody enjoyed being able to make their own meals, and they had a lot of fun getting to know Gertrude. They found out that she had decided to study pediatrics because when she used to go to her pediatrician, she was fascinated by all the devices used to do checkups--stethoscopes, thermometers, tongue depressors, you name it. She also couldn't believe it when she heard that the syringes, those painful needles that make your arms bleed and hard to move for a time, were actually good things when it came to preventing diseases. "I just want to do something that contributes to other people," she said.

"I totally agree with you," Stephanie told her. "I really want to be a kindergarten teacher. I want to help kids learn and prepare for the world. Plus, I just have a big heart for little kids. I have a 4.0 grade point average, and I really have my heart set on Stanford."

Gertrude smiled. "What a noble endeavor, Steph," she said. "And what about you, Ben?"

"To be honest, I want to follow in my old man's footsteps as a pilot," Ben said. "I'm already getting some practice in by flying our private plane."

"Yes, I noticed your plane when I was flying in mine to come to New York," Gertrude said. "Where exactly are you trying to get to?"

"We're going on a year-long tour to find all seven cities of gold," said Alexis. "We already found one in the Andes, and--"

"Did you say cities of gold?" Gertrude asked. "I don't know if you've heard, but Philippe DeCoup, a very wealthy French tycoon in Paris who owns DeCoup Enterprises, is planning to rob the cities so that he can be rich."

Lionel's eyes narrowed. "That is so dishonest, and besides he's going to have a real riot on his hands. Those cities of gold are actually inhabited by people!"

"Yeah," Matthew said. "All Stephanie and Ben wanted to do when the opened the doors to that one building is get inside so we could explore it. They wear identical bracelets that have the power to open up the doors to the golden buildings."

"And the inhabitants thought we were after their gold and arrested us," Elizabeth added. "Fortunately, with the power of their bracelets, Ben and Stephanie saved all our butts!"

Gertrude sighed a huge sigh. "I don't know if those people will be able to arrest Philippe," she said. "He is a very violent man known to kill anybody who stands in his way. He only gets away with it because he is rich."

Ben leapt to his feet. "We need to stop him!" he exclaimed. "We must let justice prevail!"

"Are you absolutely out of your mind?" Matthew asked. "We're talking about a cold-blooded killer here!"

Stephanie clung onto Ben's arm. "I, for one, think we should try to stop him before he hurts anybody," she said. "The people in the cities of gold are in real trouble, and the Bible tells us that we are not to ignore the needy."

Everyone decided it was worth a shot. Gertrude informed them that in two nights Philippe would be announcing his plan to all his colleagues at DeCoup Enterprises and that they would all travel around the world and steal the money right then and there. Suddenly Matthew had an idea. "We can sneak over there and eavesdrop on their conversation," he said, "and report what we hear to the U.S. President so he can send someone over to arrest Philippe for his crimes, if the French government isn't doing anything about it. Then we'd save the lives of all of the people in the seven cities of gold."

The rest of the gang decided that was a great plan. They all scrambled into Ben's plane and flew to France. They circled Paris until they found a large building with the words DeCoup Enterprises written on it. Then they checked into a hotel and stayed there until the day of the meeting. Being as conspicuous as possible, they hid as they listened to Philippe's plan:

"First, my colleagues, when the time comes for us to attack the seven cities of gold, we will go in masks like this." Philippe held up a mask that somewhat resembled a clown face. "If any inhabitants give us any trouble, we'll just shoot them dead. Any questions?"