The 39 Clues 10 - Into The Gauntlet by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Author:Margaret Peterson Haddix [Haddix, Margaret Peterson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2010-08-19T18:31:20+00:00

CHAPTER 16

For Amy, it was like seeing all her least favorite Shakespeare villains come to life. With their faces shadowed, Mary-Todd, Reagan, and Madison Holt reminded her of the three witches from Macbeth. Alistair was like mad King Lear, who punished the child who loved him best. Hamilton was like Brutus from Julius Caesar, the supposed friend who joined in the murder plot. Jonah was like the two-faced Richard III, who pretended to be a good guy but killed off one relative after another. Sinead was like ...

Amy remembered this wasn't English class. She didn't have time to come up with analogies for everyone.

Did she and Dan have time to save their own lives?

Amy threw the flashlight down on the floor, so the beam of light pointed out toward the other teams. She and Dan were in total darkness.

"Amy, Dan -- we don't want to hurt you," Alistair called.

"Of course not," Amy yelled back. "Did you want to hurt our parents seven years ago?"

Shouting that made her voice shake. And it made her ears ring, so she couldn't hear what, if anything, Alistair said in reply.

No time to think about that, Amy told herself. No time to feel, just... plan.

Amy bent down and picked up the delicate ribbon from the floor. The end of the ribbon was already coming unraveled.

"Dan!" she whispered. "Did you get a good look at this? Enough to memorize the letters?"

"I think so," he whispered back. "I'm pretty sure."

"Sure enough that it's okay if I destroy it?" Amy asked.

Dan glanced at the ribbon quickly. "Go ahead," he whispered.

Amy put one end of the ribbon under the vase holding the bouquet of flowers. She grabbed the metal pole from the coffin top and handed it to Dan.

"Swing it at them if you have to," she told him grimly.

Then she picked up the flashlight and directed the beam of light toward the end of the ribbon she still held in her hand.

"This is the next lead," she called out to her relatives. "If you get up here in time, maybe you can stop me from unraveling all of it!"

She pulled on the ribbon end that wasn't under the vase. It obligingly separated out into individual threads. She kept her end of the unraveling ribbon firmly between her fingers. Then she dropped the flashlight and grabbed Dan's hand. "Run!" she yelled at him.

* * *

Dan was halfway down the side aisle of the church before he figured out what Amy was trying to do. He knew she was unraveling the ribbon, leaving a trail of thread behind them as they ran. But why?

Oh, yeah, he thought. She's trying to get everyone to run up to the front of the church to save what's left of the ribbon, instead of chasing us. She's buying us time to get away.

Was it working?

Dan and Amy reached the door without Dan having to swing the metal pole even once.

All right, Amy! Dan thought. He almost regretted calling her pigeon-livered.

"Let's hide in the cemetery," Dan hissed to her.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.