فصل سی و دوم

chapter-32

“Okay, Sierra,” said Kyle, “your turn.” Sierra flicked the spinner. The pointy tip ended up in the yellow 200s zone, so she went ahead and pulled a yellow card.

“It’s definitely for the two hundreds section,” she said, showing her clue to Miguel before revealing it to Kyle and Akimi.

“Weird,” said Miguel.

“What?” said Akimi before Kyle could.

“Well, the two hundreds are where they keep books on world religions.” “But there are two numbers on this card,” said Sierra.

“Maybe this time we need to find two books?” suggested Kyle.

“I don’t know,” said Sierra, studying her card. “ ‘220.5203’ is obviously a call number.” “Obviously,” said Akimi.

“But this other number isn’t in the proper format. ‘Two-twenty-fifteen.’ ” “February twentieth, 2015!” said Akimi. “Quick—what happened on that date?” “Um, nobody knows,” said Kyle. “Because it hasn’t happened yet.” “Oh. Right. Okay—how about February twentieth, 1915?” “That was the opening day of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco,” said Sierra.

Jaws dropped.

“Sorry. I’m a big world’s fair fan.” Everybody else just nodded.

Finally, Miguel spoke up. “Look, let’s just go down to the two hundreds room and find 220.5203. We can figure out the second chunk later.” The team once again trooped down to the second floor and worked their way around the circular balcony.

“You guys?” said Sierra, looking across the atrium at the statues. “Remember how they switched all the hologram authors when Bridgette Wadge did her Extreme Challenge?” “Yep,” said Kyle. “She was doing good till she got to the Russian dude.” “What Russian dude?” asked Miguel, who hadn’t witnessed Bridgette’s elimination.

“Guy who wrote five or six books Sierra could tell you about.” “But look,” said Sierra. “Now all the author statues are the same ones they were last night.” “So,” said Kyle thoughtfully, “if they can switch ‘em around …” “These must be clues for our game!” blurted Akimi. She pulled out a pen and her notepad. “I’ll write down their names.” “Start with the guy under the triple zeros wedge of the Wonder Dome,” suggested Kyle.

“Right.”

Akimi read the labeled pedestals and jotted down all the authors’ names: Thomas Wolfe, Booker T. Washington, Stephen Sondheim, George Orwell, Lewis Carroll, Dr. Seuss, Maya Angelou, Shel Silverstein, Pseudonymous Bosch, Todd Strasser.

“So,” said Akimi when she’d finished writing, “do you think this game could get any more complicated?” “Maybe,” said Kyle. “It’s possible that Mr. Lemoncello left a couple different paths to the same solution.” “Well, personally, I can only take one path at a time,” said Akimi. “So let’s go find two-twenty-point-whatever.” “Should be in the next row of bookcases,” said Miguel. “Here we go. 220.5203. The King James Bible.” “Ach der lieber! An excellent choice,” said a man with a thick German accent.

The four teammates spun around.

And were face to face with a semi-transparent guy in medieval garb with a fur-trimmed cap and a beard that looked like two raccoon tails sewn together under his nose and chin.

“I am Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg,” said the holographic image, who had ink stains all over his fingertips.

“You created the Gutenberg Bibles on your printing press!” gushed Sierra.

“Ja, ja, ja. Big bestseller. You need help with der Bible, I am at your service.” He bowed.

“Oh-kay,” said Akimi, turning to Miguel. “Take it away, Miguel.” “Herr Gutenberg, sir, we’re looking for two-twenty-fifteen.” “Das ist einfach.”

“Huh?”

“That is easy. TWO, TWENTY, FIFTEEN is EXODUS, chapter TWENTY, verse FIFTEEN.” “Of course!” said Miguel. “Exodus is the second book of the Bible. Twenty and fifteen are the chapter and verse.” He flipped through some pages. “Here we go. Exodus, chapter twenty, verse fifteen. It’s one of the Ten Commandments: ‘Thou shalt not steal.’ ”