The Made-For-TV Robbery (part 9)

They called the police and untied Joe. Joe didn't say anything. He just sat behind the counter and shook his head.

"Where's Ben?" asked John suddenly.

Everyone blinked. They had all forgotten about Ben. Sally ran to the curtain and pulled it open. Ben was still sitting there behind his camera. His face was white and his hands were shaking, but he was smiling a huge smile.

"I got it! I got the whole thing!" he said triumphantly, pointing to the videotape recorder. The reels were still spinning and the red light on the camera was still lit.

"You guys were great," he continued. "It's going to be the best TV show ever. It's going to be a smash hit!"

It certainly was. They got an A+ on their homework assignment and the whole school got to see it. The police had a special showing at the station and asked for a copy so they could use it at the trial. The TV stations showed parts of it on the news that night and the local cable company ran the whole thing a week later as a special.

The Kids from B.A.D. were heroes once more, but when they each thought about it there wasn't a single one of them who wanted to be heroes like that again. Not ever. Not even by mistake.

"That gun could have been real," said John, and he shuddered.

"Never again, even if you paid me," said Ben. "Next time we do a TV show let's just use Bentley, even if he is only a dumb dog."