فصل چهاردهم

chapter-14

“How about we work together?” said Akimi when she sat down at Kyle’s table.

“Hmmm?”

Kyle couldn’t take his eyes off Sierra Russell. She had drifted up about twenty-five feet and was leaning against the railings of her floating platform, completely lost in a new book.

“Hello? Earth to Kyle? Do you want somebody else to get first dibs on the Electronic Learning Center?” “No.”

“Then focus.”

“Okay. So how do we use our wits and the library to find dessert?” Akimi nodded toward Miguel, whose fingers were dancing across the screen of his desktop’s tablet computer.

“I think he’s doing a search in the card catalog,” whispered Akimi.

“Why?”

“It’s how you find stuff in a library, Kyle.” “I know that. But we’re not looking for books about dessert. We need to find actual food.” Andrew Peckleman stood up from his desk and sprinted up a wrought-iron spiral staircase leading to the second floor. Two seconds later, Charles Chiltington was sprinting up the staircase behind him.

All the other players soon followed. Everybody was headed to the second floor and the Dewey decimal rooms. Miguel finally popped up from his desk and made a mad dash for the nearest staircase.

“It’s got to be up in the six hundreds, you guys,” he called out to Kyle and Akimi.

“Thanks,” said Kyle. But he still didn’t budge from his seat.

“I guess the six hundreds is the Dewey decimal category where you find books about desserts,” said Akimi. “Maybe we should …” “Wait a second,” said Kyle.

“Um, Kyle, in case you haven’t noticed, you, me, and glider girl Sierra are the only ones still on this floor, and Sierra isn’t really on the floor because she’s floating.” “Hang on, Akimi. I have an idea.” Kyle pulled out his floor plan. “Dessert is probably hiding in plain sight. Just like the bonus codes in Squirrel Squad. Follow me.” “Where to?”

“The Book Nook Café. The one room in the library where, according to what Dr. Zinchenko told us back at the hotel, food and drinks are actually allowed.” They strolled into the cozy café.

“Whoo-hoo!” shouted Akimi.

The walls were decorated with shelves of cookbooks but several tables were loaded down with trays of cookies, cakes, ice cream, and fruit!

“That’s why the curtains were closed behind the windows into the rotunda,” said Akimi. “So we couldn’t see all this food. Way to go, Kyle.” Kyle did his best imitation of Charles Chiltington: “I’m a Keeley, Akimi. We never lose. Except, of course, when we don’t win.” After everyone had dessert, Kyle and Akimi were the first ones allowed to enter the Electronic Learning Center.

Kyle flew the space shuttle, making an excellent landing on Mars before crashing into one of Saturn’s moons. Akimi rode a horse with Paul Revere. Then Kyle learned how to drive a stick-shift stock car on the Talladega racetrack while Akimi climbed into a tiny submarine to swim with sharks, dolphins, and sea turtles—all of which were projected on the glass walls of her undersea simulator.

All the educational video games had 3-D visuals, digital surround sound, and something new that Mr. Lemoncello was developing for his video games: smell-a-vision. When you sacked Rome with the Visigoths, you could smell the smoky scent of the burning city as well as the barbarians’ b.o.

After an hour, Dr. Zinchenko ushered everybody else into the Electronic Learning Center. They’d been watching George Washington debate George W. Bush (both were audio-animatronic dummies) in the “town square” at the center of the 900s room.

At ten p.m. they all tromped into the IMAX theater, also on the third floor, to see a jukebox concert. 3-D images of the world’s best musicians (living and dead) performed their hits “live.” The best part was Mozart jamming with Metallica.

Finally, around three in the morning, Clarence and his twin brother, Clement, came to escort the kids to their sleeping quarters. The boys would roll out their sleeping bags in the Children’s Room, just off the rotunda; the girls would be upstairs on the third floor in the Board Room. Charles Chiltington would be luxuriating all alone in Mr. Lemoncello’s private suite.

Exhausted from the excitement of the day—and crashing after eating way too much sugar—Kyle slept like a baby.

He only woke up because he heard music.

Loud, blaring music.

The theme song from that boxing movie Rocky, his brother Mike’s favorite.

“Whazzat?” he mumbled, crawling out of his sleeping bag.

Kyle glanced at his watch. It was eleven a.m. He figured the library lock-in was officially over and this was the group’s wake-up call.

The music kept blaring.

“This is how they wake up astronauts,” groaned Miguel.

“Turn it off!” moaned Andrew Peckleman.

Kyle slipped on his jeans and sneakers and staggered out into the giant reading room.

“Dr. Zinchenko?”

His voice echoed off the dome. No answer.

“Clarence? Clement?”

Nothing.

The Rocky music got louder.

Akimi leaned in from the third-floor balcony.

“What’s going on down there?”

“I think they’re trying to wake up astronauts,” said Kyle. “On the moon.” He made his way to the front door and reached for the handle.

It wouldn’t budge.

He jiggled it.

Nothing.

He jiggled harder.

Still nothing.

Kyle realized that the library lock-in might be over but they were still locked in the library.