Once the real Chris was untied, Zoe started typing away at one of the keyboards. After a few seconds, she placed the memory chip into a small slot on the computer. The computer beeped some, and some numbers flashed across the screen. Then it went silent.
We waited for a little while. Finally, Zoe started typing again, rather frustrated.
"It's not reading the chip," she said. "I don't understand it. The data isn't corrupted or anything, it's just blank."
She kept trying things for several minutes. I looked down at the desk and saw the scanner that the fake Chris was wanting me to use. I looked down at my right hand. Just then I noticed something on my thumb. There was a small area of skin that was shinier than then rest, like it had a film over it. I rubbed it with my other fingers, but it didn't come off. I looked again at the scanner.
"Zoe, I think I know where the information is." I said. "It's on my hand."
I showed her what I had seen. She gave a quick nod and started typing some more.
"Of course," she said. "It would be too easy to get if it was on the chip itself. They put it on a film on the outside of the chip, so when someone touched it the data would transfer onto their hand! Alright, put your hand on the scanner."
As soon as I did, the scanner lit up and more numbers flashed across the screen.
Zoe let out a sigh of relief. She put a disk into the computer and transfered the data onto it.
"Yep, that should do it," she said.


Within a few days, I was sitting in an airplane ready to head back home. Everything had happened rather quickly after that last day. I had said goodbye to Zoe and was quickly transported to a base where they kept me until they'd arranged for me to be flown back home.
It was going to be a long trip, and as soon as I got into the plane I started writing this down. This is to let everyone know where I've been the last couple weeks. Despite common belief, I was not at camp. Anybody who says they saw me there have been paid to say that. I did not just write this to win the "My Cool Summer" contest our newspaper is having, though I'll definitely enter it.
Well, I'm about to land so I guess I'll stop here. Have a great day everyone!

P.S. Yes I do know the data that was on the chip, but that knowledge could destroy the world if it got in the wrong hands, so don't ask.

"Who are you?" I asked the man.
Jade answered, "This is the real Chris."
I was very confused, but they explained it to me as we got the real Chris untied. This is what had happened:

The real Chris was an agent working for an international group of spies and soldiers called REBEL (I can't remember what it stands for). Their job is to break up rings of terrorists threatening the lives of civilians around the world. Chris has been assigned to look into some rumors about a large weapon being created somewhere in Hawaii. Before he was able to reach his destination, he was kidnapped and almost killed by enemy spies, but managed to escape with one of two almost identical memory chips that the enemy was carrying. These two chips each contained a piece of some valuable information. The information could only be retrieved once the two parts were put back together. One chip was no good without the other.
In order to escape he had to jump out of a third story window into a dumpster. He hit his head while landing, dropped the memory chip, and was knocked out. Some REBEL agents that had been following his kidnappers took him to a witness protection center. They didn't know who he was except that he was one of their agents. When he woke up, he didn't remember anything. The blow to the head had washed his memory. His fake ID said his name was Bert, so that's what they called him.
Meanwhile, the enemy agents took advantage of the fact that none of the REBEL agents in Hawaii knew what Chris looked like. They sent someone to pose as Chris to ensure that REBEL didn't learn anything else about their plan. However, they ran into unforeseen problems when a couple of their agents bailed out of action and disappeared, leaving behind something they were supposed to deliver: the second memory chip.
The enemy traced the memory chip to my house (thanks to the email I sent to them). They sent one of their agents to check it out. REBEL caught on to what was happening and took me to the same witness protection place that the real Chris was at. They were going to take me somewhere else from there, but I was intercepted by some bounty hunters. After I escaped from them, the enemy agent still posing as Chris found me. He was pretending to spy on enemy agents, when he was actually transferring information to them about REBEL agents. That's what he was going to do at the warehouse before it exploded. (I'm not sure who blew it up. Probably bounty hunters.)
Around that time, REBEL agent Zoe Nelson undercover as Jade Nikia was sent to Hawaii to investigate rumors that Chris was leaking information to the enemy. That's when she met up with "Chris" and me. The fake Chris knew that a big enemy meeting was taking place at the Halekuni resort, so he diverted attention to a different resort. While we were there, the real Chris recovered from his memory loss and REBEL instantly let Zoe AKA "Jade" know that the Chris she was working with wasn't the real Chris. The real Chris was somehow kidnapped again and taken to an enemy base.
Before Zoe could respond, the fake Chris had taken me to the same enemy base that the real Chris was at. She got help and arrived as quickly as she could.

I think I got all of that straight. It was very confusing, and I still had a lot of questions that needed answering.

I looked up. Jade was standing at the door with a gun in her hand.
"Jade, what's going on?" I asked.
She didn't answer. Two men walked in, one of whom I recognized as the man I saw in the window at the hotel. They handcuffed Chris and led him out of the room.
Jade lowered her gun. "Are you alright?" she asked.
"I'm fine, I think." I slowly stood back up. I was a little confused about what was happening. I noticed my camcorder in Jade's hand.
"Where did you get that?" I asked.
"We've had it ever since we knocked you out that first day."
"Wait a minute," I said. "You mean that you were the one that first kidnapped me?"
"No, not me personally. Our organization knew that the enemy needed you for something, and that they'd probably kill you after getting it. We needed to protect you and whatever it was you had that they wanted."
I pointed at the scrape on my face that I'd gotten in the explosion at the warehouse. "You call that protection?!"
"Sam, we didn't mean for you to ever leave the cabin. But there was some leakage of information and we had to evacuate you before the enemy got there. We were a little too late."
"I see," I said, trying to get things straight in my mind. "So what about Chris?"
Bert straightened up in his chair.
"What about me?" he asked.

It was about that time that the guy in the other chair woke up. I had almost forgotten that he was even in the room, and I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard him speak.
"Where am I?" he asked in a slightly slurred voice.
It must have scared Chris, too. He spun and pointed his gun at the man. In that moment, everything I had experienced in the past few weeks screamed at me to seize the opportunity. Before I could think, I threw my whole body forward and slammed into Chris, bringing him to the ground. The gun slipped out of his hand and slid under one of the counters. Within a couple seconds we had both gotten up again. I knew I couldn't beat him in a hand-to-hand fight, but, now that his gun was gone, he couldn't hurt me as long as I stayed away from him.
I ran across the room, near the chair that the other guy was tied up in. As soon as I saw him up close, I remembered where I'd seen him before. He was the guy called Bert from the cabin I had been taken to when I was first kidnapped! I was very confused, but I didn't have time to try to figure it out. Chris was running towards me, and he looked very angry. I dodged him and ran back to the other side of the room. I tripped halfway and fell to the ground.
My leg was hurt, and I couldn't stand back up. I looked up to see Chris still rushing towards me. He was about 2 steps away when I heard the door slam open.
A voice hollered, "Chris, don't make another move!"

I thought about the message that had flashed accross the computer screen.
If only I knew what was going on, I thought to myself. If only I knew who I can trust.
I stood there for what seemed like ages, holding my hand over the scanner. I could feel Chris watching me out of the corner of his eye. My face felt hot and I started getting dizzy. Somehow everything important seemed to depend on what I did next. For once I wished somebody would knock me unconscious.
Whether it was because of that wish or because I had decided to stall for time, I don't know. Either way, my knees gave out and I fell to the ground. I felt like I was paralyzed, but I didn't try to move anyway so I didn't know for sure. I just laid there, pretending that I wasn't aware of anything that was happening.
"Sam, get up," said Chris. I heard him walk over near where I was. "I know you can hear me. Get up. I told you, this will be much easier with your cooperation."
I stayed completely still.
Things were quiet for a few seconds. Then I heard the click of a gun being loaded.
"Sam, this is your last warning. Get up."
I figured he was bluffing, but I didn't want to take that chance. I tried moving and, surprisingly enough, was able to stand without much difficulty. Chris was standing in front of me holding a gun. I wasn't quite sure what to do, so I just said the first thing that came into my mind.
"What happened?"
Chris just stared at me. I stared back at him.
"Put your right hand on the scanner," he said.
I slowly turned around and started moving my hand towards the scanner again. I was right back where I'd started.
At least I gained some time, I thought, realizing that I didn't even know what I needed to gain time for. Hopefully it had done some good.

"Chris, what's going on? What am I doing here? What makes you think I'd run away?"
Chris didn't say anything. He just walked around the room, looking at the various screens and pressing buttons. After a couple minutes he started walking out of the room.
"Don't go away; I'll be right back," he said with a half smile.
As soon as he walked out I started looking around the room again. There was a table against the wall to my right. There was another door against the wall opposite me. Next to the door was the other sleeping guy. Against the wall to the left of me was a large counter covered with several computer screens and keyboards. While I was looking at the screens, one of them started blinking. It blinked a few times, then stopped. Then some words appeared on it. It said, "SAM STALL CHRIS AS LONG AS POSS." The words stayed there for a few seconds, then disappeared.
It was so strange that I hardly noticed when Chris walked back into the room.
"Alright, Sam," he said as he unlocked my handcuffs, "if you cooperate things will move much easier."
I didn't say anything.
He motioned for me to go over to the computer screens. I had already decided what to do as soon as I was free of the chair. I walked slowly a few steps, then quickly turned and tried to run out the door. It was locked.
"I told you," said Chris, "I need your help." He motioned again for me to walk accross the room.
I walked, very slowly and very carefully, to where he was pointing, keeping my eye on Chris the whole time.
"Now put your hand on that panel and leave it there for a few moments."
He was pointing to a small scanner on the counter. I started lifting my hand towards it, unsure of what to do...

I woke up in a very dark room. I was sitting on the floor, my feet and hands tied up. A few feet in front of me I could see the outline of a door. Other than that, I couldn't see anything. For a few minutes I tried wriggling out of the ropes around my wrists, but it was clear that whoever tied me knew what they were doing. There was nothing I could do but sit and wait.
After a few minutes the door opened and light flooded in. For a few seconds it was too bright for me to see anything.
"Awake now, I see," said an unfamiliar voice. "Just in time." I felt someone cut the ropes around my ankles. "Come on, stand up. We don't have all day."
My feet were numb from being tied, so it was difficult for me to keep my balance. Once I steadied myself I tried to get a good look at the man who was talking to me. Before I could see him he'd turned around and started walking out the door.
"Follow me," he said, grabbing my arm and pulling me along. I tried to concentrate on where we were going. I wanted to get an idea of the layout of wherever I was, but my feet were hurting too much for me to think about anything else. After walking down several hallways we turned into a room that looked like someting out of Star Trek. There were computer screens everywhere. The man shoved me into a chair and told me to stay there. After that he quickly handcuffed me to the arm of the chair and walked out. With my hands tied and my arm stuck to the chair it was clear that I wasn't going anywhere. I looked around the room, wondering what all this stuff was for and why I'd been taken here. That's when I noticed someone else sitting in a chair against the opposite wall. He was also tied up and handcuffed, and he seemed to be sleeping. He looked vaguely familiar but I couldn't remember where I'd seen him.
Just then I heard a very familiar voice
"Hey, Sam. Nice to see you awake. Sorry about the ropes, but I can't have you running off."
It was Chris.