He pushed them into a room and closed the door. Then he sat them down in chairs. Over the intercom, he announced, “Stein, come and retrieve your children in room 6G. Room 6G.”
Petra’s heart was pounding. What was going on?
She heard the door open, and then Professor’s voice spoke.
“What did you want me for?”
The other man’s voice spoke. “Here are your two children. Or… are these your children?”
Petra could imagine Professor peering at her and Collier. She was afraid of what he may say. His answer surprised her.
“Yes. Yes, they are my kids. But I could hardly recognize them with their blindfolds on. Kids, you can take them off now.”
Slowly, as if waiting for some sort of second cue, Petra lifted her blindfold. She looked over at Collier, who was looking back at her. Then she lifted her head up to see Professor standing over them.
“Come on, kids,” he said. “Let’s go somewhere.”
“Not the office, sir,” the man said, stepping in.
“Of course not,” Professor replied. “And would you close the door?”
The door swung closed, and Professor took a seat across from the twins.
“So what brings you two here?” he asked.
Collier and Petra glanced nervously at each other.
Collier started.
“Um, well… we were both curious as of what you have been doing when you left class so quickly.”
“And was that really your business?”
“It wasn’t ours, but it wasn’t yours, either.”
Professor laughed.
“And why, Collier, is it not my business?”
“Because you work at the boarding school, right? That’s your business. You get money from teaching.”
Professor laughed again.
“Yes, I do. That is true. But there is something else.”
“Wait, wait, wait…” Petra cut in. “I’m sorry for interrupting, but… you aren’t mad?”
“No, why would I be? I did expect one of my students to track me down at some point. I didn’t expect two, though!”
“So what are you doing here?” Collier questioned. “We didn’t come just to find nothing.”
“Oh, you’ll find something,” Professor said. “Something that you won’t believe. Okay, here it is—I need your help.”
“That’s the news?”
“No. The news is that I am a secret agent. Kind of. Well, what I’m doing is stopping one of my former students from doing something that we don’t want to happen.
“This person’s name is Asher Alexander. He used to attend the boarding school. And you know how it’s been really dry lately?”
The twins nodded.
“Well, he’s always considered himself ‘eco-friendly,’ so he made a way for all the plants to get enough water.”
“Wait, how’s this bad?” Petra asked.
“I haven’t told you yet. His plan is to explode all the water towers in the area.”
“Wow,” Petra said.
“Wow,” Collier repeated.
Professor nodded.
“So our plan is to stop him. But I need your help to do that.”
“How would we help? We’re just kids.”
“Exactly. You’re just what Stein’s looking for.”
“Kids?”
“Yes. He wants a young kid to train, because he isn’t quite sure that he will be alive when his plan is carried out. So he needs someone to train.”
“You’re not making us do this.”
“Do you want to help or not?” Professor leaned forward. “You have a choice—you can take me up on this offer or you can go right back with me to the boarding school.”
Collier and Petra exchanged nervous glances. They already knew they were thinking the same thing.
Collier spoke for them.
“We’ll do it.”
“Are you sure? It’s not going to be easy.”
Petra looked at Collier, but his gaze was evenly meeting Professor’s.
“Yes. We’re ready.”
Professor leaned back in his chair.
“Now here’s the catch—he only wants one kid.”
“So which one of us gets to go?”
“Both.”
“But didn’t you just say that he only wanted one?”
“Yes. But you’re twins, remember? He won’t be able to tell the difference.”
Petra and Collier looked at each other, relieved. But then their smiles dropped. They looked at Professor.
“Petra, Collier, you will have to look identical. Do you realize that?”
“Yes,” the twins answered together.
“Now how are you going to do that?”
Petra looked at Collier. She realized that for them to look alike, Petra would have to change her appearance.
“It’s okay,” Collier whispered.
Petra looked back at Professor, who looked guilty for putting the kids through such a hard decision.
“I’ll do it.”
“Do what?”
“I’ll cut my hair.”
“What else?”
“Uh… wear boy clothes?”
Professor nodded.
“We need to get started as soon as possible. We need to get clothes for you quickly. This means that we are going on a shopping trip.”
Normally, Petra would be excited about this, because she rarely had a chance to go to a store. But instead, she was nervous.
The twins followed Professor through the doors of a clothing store. They headed directly to the boy’s section. They stopped at a pile of polo shirts that were on sale.
Professor held a macaroni-orange shirt against Petra and nodded.
“What do you think, Collier?”
Collier licked his lips and frowned. Petra sent him a questioning look. He shook his head slightly.
Professor put down the shirt.
“Okay, you two find what you want. Sorry, Petra, you probably won’t want anything in here.”
Professor walked to the men’s section.
Petra immediately turned to Collier.
“This is crazy!”
“I know, but we’re going to have to do it. Just choose something.”
“I don’t want to!”
“Come on, Petra, you wear polos every day at school. It’s not that different.”
“Yeah, but I’ll be looking like a boy!”
“Don’t think of it as looking like a boy. You’ll just be looking like me. And you’ve always looked like me. Except now it’s just a little different.”
“A little different, huh?”
Collier sighed.
“Petra, you don’t have a choice.”
“Yes, I do.”
“But you know what you want to do.”
Petra thought for a moment.
“Yeah, I guess I do.”
“Then how about try on this green shirt?”
Collier held up a forest green polo. Petra took it.
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