فصل چهل و هفتم

chapter-47

Eager to find out all he could in the final minutes before the Dewey decimal doors reopened on the second floor, Kyle listened as Haley Daley detailed everything she had learned on Team Charles.

Meanwhile, Akimi added Andrew’s and Haley’s library cards to the list on the whiteboards in Community Meeting Room B.

“We were piecing together a picture puzzle,” said Haley. “It was like a memory match game, or that old TV show Concentration.” “We played one of those, too,” said Miguel. “A rebus.” “Right. So far, I’m pretty sure it says something like ‘You walk out the way bandits crawled in.’ ” “ ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ ” said Kyle, tapping the Bible verse they had found in the 200s room. “That points to bandits, too.” “And the blackbird,” said Sierra. “It wailed like a police siren.” “Chasing bandits!”

“Hang on,” said Miguel. “What about Willy Wonka? Were there criminals in the chocolate factory?” “No,” said Sierra.

“And what about all this?” said Akimi, pointing at the list of library cards. “I added the new cards but it still doesn’t make much sense.” BOOKS/AUTHORS ON THE BACKS OF LIBRARY CARDS 1 Miguel Fernandez

Incident at Hawk’s Hill by Allan W. Eckert/ No, David! by David Shannon 2 Akimi Hughes

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss/Nine Stories by J. D. Salinger 3 Andrew Peckleman

Six Days of the Condor by James Grady/ Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott 4 Bridgette Wadge

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume/

Harry Potter and the

Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling 5 Sierra Russell

The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder/ The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin 6 Yasmeen Smith-Snyder Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne/The Yak Who Yelled Yuck by Carol Pugliano-Martin 7 Sean Keegan

Olivia by Ian Falconer/Unreal! by Paul Jennings 8 Haley Daley

Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm/ A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle 9 Rose Vermette

All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor/ Scat by Carl Hiaasen

10 Kayla Corson

Anna to the Infinite Power by Mildred Ames/Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein 11 UNKNOWN/CHARLES CHILTINGTON 12 Kyle Keeley

I Love You, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt/ The Napping House by Audrey Wood “Wow,” said Haley. “What a mess.” “Tell me about it,” said Akimi.

“I don’t think it’s another author-title game,” said Sierra, “like up on the Wonder Dome.” “Huh?” said Haley.

“Long story,” said Miguel. “We’ll save it for later.” “What we need,” said Kyle, “is some kind of clue to show us how to unscramble this list. Remember what Dr. Zinchenko said when the game started: ‘Your library cards are the keys to everything you will need.’ This clue is the big one, guys. We need to crack it.” That’s when Mr. Lemoncello popped his head in the door.

“Hello, hope I’m not interrupting. We have twenty minutes till the doors open upstairs. Anybody up for an Extreme Challenge?”