فصل بیست و چهارم

chapter-24

“Hey,” said Miguel, hiding the tiny square of paper behind his back. “Yo.” “Yo,” said Kyle. “Whazzup?”

“Nothin’. Just, you know, workin’ the puzzle.” “Yeah. Us too.”

“Okay. Later.”

“Later.”

Both boys thumped their fists on their chests like baseball players do. Miguel turned and ran for a staircase winding up to the second floor.

“Come on, you guys,” said Kyle as he took off running for a different set of steps.

When Kyle, Akimi, and Sierra made it up to the balcony, they watched Miguel run up to the third floor. As soon as he disappeared into a room up there, Kyle unrolled the game sketch.

“Look at the drawing, then look down at the floor,” said Kyle.

“They’re the same!” said Sierra.

“Exactly. A circular room with a round desk at the center of that circle.” “Awesome,” said Akimi. “And there are ten doors ringed around the balcony up here on the second floor, just like on the game board.” Kyle tapped the rendering of the spinner in the right-hand corner of the game plans. “See how the spinner is divided into ten different-colored sections numbered zero to nine?” “It looks like the Wonder Dome,” said Akimi, “when it’s not doing its kaleidoscope thing or running a video that makes you think the building is hang gliding across Alaska, which totally made me airsick.” “Well, in the game, you have to go into all ten Dewey decimal book rooms and answer a trivia question about a book. If you answer correctly, you slip a book into your bookshelf and move on to another part of the library. When you have ten books, one from each room, it’s basically a race to see who can exit the library first.” “Okay,” said Akimi, sounding pumped. “This is good. This is major.” “Except one thing’s missing,” said Kyle.

“What?” asked Sierra.

“Mr. Lemoncello always works a clever back-door shortcut into his games. For instance, in Family Frenzy …” “You can use the coal chute to slide into the millionaire’s mansion at the end,” said Akimi.

“Exactly. And in that castle game, Charles snuck out through the sewers. Anyway, when my brother Curtis beat me at Bibliomania …” “You lost?” Akimi acted surprised.

“It happens. Occasionally. But only because Curtis used this shortcut.” Kyle tapped a black square on the game diagram. “It took him straight out to the street. He beat me by one spin of the spinner.” “I don’t see any black squares in the floor of our rotunda,” said Akimi.

“Maybe,” said Sierra, “for this new game, Mr. Lemoncello put the secret square someplace besides the main room.” Kyle nodded. “And maybe to win this new game we need to play the old one.” “You’re a genius!” said Akimi.

“No. My brother Curtis is the genius. I just like to play games. So, do libraries even have board games?” “Sure,” said Sierra. “I think. I mean, the library in my dad’s town has them.” “Which department?” asked Akimi, pulling out her floor plan.

“Young adult.”

Akimi tapped her map. “Third floor. Stairs over there.” “Let’s go!” said Kyle.

But before they could take off, they heard Mr. Lemoncello’s voice echoing in the rotunda.

“Are you ready for your Extreme Challenge, Bridgette?” Kyle and his teammates peered over the ledge of the balcony. Bridgette Wadge was alone in front of the librarian’s desk, staring up at the ceiling.

“Yes, sir,” she said.

“Are you sure?” Mr. Lemoncello’s voice boomed out of hidden speakers. “You still have twenty-two hours to find the exit.” “I want to go for it now, sir. Get a jump on everybody else.” “Very well. Dr. Zinchenko? Reset the statues.” The ten holographic statues in their recessed nooks flickered off, leaving black and empty spaces.

“This Extreme Challenge is based on the classic Game of Authors card game,” said Mr. Lemoncello. “Here are the authors in your deck.” Magically, new holographic statues appeared as Mr. Lemoncello rattled off the authors’ names. “Charles Dickens, Raymond Chandler, Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, Patricia Highsmith, Mario Puzo, Frederick Forsyth, John Le Carré, Dashiell Hammett, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.” “He wrote Crime and Punishment,” said Bridgette excitedly.

“Indeed he did.”

“In fact,” said Bridgette, “all those authors wrote crime novels.” “Correct again. However, that’s the easy part. Dr. Z? How do we make this authors game ridiculously difficult enough to qualify as an Extreme Challenge?” “Simple,” the librarian’s voice echoed under the dome. “You will have two minutes, Bridgette, to name four books written by each of our authors.” Kyle gulped. “That’s impossible,” he whispered.

“Not really,” said Sierra. She was about to start rattling off titles when Mr. Lemoncello said, “Go!” The sound of a ticking clock reverberated around the room.

“Um, okay,” said Bridgette down on the main floor. “Agatha Christie. Murder on the Orient Express, Ten Little Indians, Death on the Nile, The Mousetrap.” Somewhere, a bell dinged, and the British lady in the sensible shoes disappeared.

“Poe. The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Masque of the Red Death, The Purloined Letter, The Cask of Amontillado.” Another ding. Another statue vanished.

Bridgette kept going.

“Man,” whispered Kyle, “what grade is she in? College?” “Seventh,” said Akimi, “just like us.”

Bridgette Wadge kept tearing through the authors. The bell kept dinging.

But the clock kept ticking, too.

“Ten seconds,” said Mr. Lemoncello.

Bridgette had saved the worst for last.

“Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Crime and Punishment. Um, Crime and Punishment … The one about the brothers … The Brothers …” And then she stalled.

She’d run out of gas.

A buzzer sounded.

“I’m sorry, Bridgette,” said Dr. Zinchenko. “But, as we advised you, the Extreme Challenges are extremely difficult. You will be going home with lovely parting gifts. Kindly hand your library card to Clarence and thank you for playing Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library.” “That settles it,” muttered Kyle. “I am never, ever asking for one of those Extreme Challenge dealios.” “Me neither,” said Akimi.

“I might,” said Sierra. “Maybe.”

And then she showed Kyle and Akimi the rumpled sheet of paper where she had written down five book titles for all ten authors.