Peter Lerangis

“The boy smiled -- mostly at Amy."Sorry, her heart belongs to Ian Kabra," Dan said, except that something in her expression made him realize her heart didn't belong at all to Ianright now.”

“When the guy turned around, Amy began stuttering. Silently. It was a feat only Amy could manage, and only Dan could notice.And it only happened in front of boys who looked like this one. He had brown hair and caramel-colored eyes, like Dan's friend Nick Santos, whomade all the sixth-grade girls turn into blithering idiots when he looked their way--in fact, would even say Watch, lean make them turn into blitheringidiots, and then he'd do it. Only older."He. Is. Hot," Nellie said under her breath."You too?" Dan hissed.”

“It's a token for the arcade games at Laser Sport Time!" Dan hissed."Uncle Alistair doesn't think so," Amy murmured. "He's a numismatist.""He takes his clothes off in public?" Dan said.”

“You'll be boarding the nine twenty-one commercial flight as Shirley and Roderick Cliphorn.""Roderick Cliphorn?" Dan groaned. Only someone with a name like Sinead Starling would have considered that normal.”

“Who needs bread crumbs," Dan replied, "when you have GPS?”

“Dan was heading for the blue car in the driveway. He tossed Amy the car keys. "Don't drive like you! Make it fast!”

“When we grow up," she said, "we'll have amazing families. Our dens will be better than this. Your kids and my kids will play together in a humongous room with every kind of toy and game.""Except I won't have kids," Dan said. "I'll come over myself and play...”

“Daniello, you do not like the bread? Eat! ...per favore, have some pasticcio di gnocchi alla boscaiola!""As long as you don't ask me to repeat the name," Dan replied.Luna Amato chuckled. "Charming boy.""Handsome, too," Dan said.”

“Mrrrp?To anyone else in the Cahill universe, the high-pitched sound of the pet Egyptian Mau had a hundred different meanings: the playful mrrp, the I-want-red-snapper mrrp, the that-wasn't-enough-red-snapper mrrp, the thank-you-for-the-meager-portion-of-red-snapper mrrp. And on and on.But to Ian Kabra's ears, each was the I-hate-you-with-all-my-soul mrrp.”

“Once apon a time, Ian's dark, dreamy eyes had made her melt inside. The angle of his head, the wrinkle in the left corner of his lip—they'd obsessed her. And he'd been obsessed right back.Now all Amy wanted to do was throw her shoe at the screen.”

“Dan watched in awe. "I didn't know you talk Turkey.""I speak Turkish.”

“The roar of an engine blasted from his left—and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle with flame decals jumped the sidewalk in front of him.A small crowd of travelers scattered."How do you say, 'You jerk!' in Turkish?" Jake asked."Erasmus!" Dan cried with relief.Jake balled his fist angrily and shouted, "Erasmus!"”

“Cheyenne snatched back her phone. "Someone took her brave pills today.""And washed them down with stupid juice," Casper added, cocking his gun.”

“Did you hear that?" Casper said."Bats," Cheyenne replied.Casper gasped with horror. "You know I hate bats," he hissed."Bats bats bats bats bats," Cheyenne said."Stop it! We're not kids anymore!" Casper shouted."This way, Braveheart.”

“In a whirlwind, Reagan quickly knocked off fifty more push-ups, flipped, and did thirty crunches, then turned and landed a kick that dented the metal door. "I'm feeling sick, too, and look at me. What if Babe Ruth had said 'Time to Rest'? Or Michael Phelps? Or Neil Armstrong? Come on, guys–what are we?""Hungry," Natalie said."Sleepy," Alistair added."Grumpy," Fiske said."Sneezy," Phoenix piped up."Shot," Nellie said.”

“You guys are related to Jonah Wizard?" Jake asked, his lip curled disdainfully."And the other guy," Dan grumbled. "Vin Diesel's stunt double.”

“Trust is a fragile thing - difficult to build, easy to break. It cannot be bargained for. Only if it is freely given it can be expected in return”

“How do you know, Dan? You were so young when they died. Do you really remember them?""Not in my mind," Dan replied, gazing at the passing scenery. "But everyplace else...”

“You should climb around inside my brain, Dan. It's like this dark room surrounded by quicksand.""I know what you mean," her brother said quietly. "I hate being in my brain sometimes. I have to get out.""What do you do?" Amy asked.Dan shrugged "I go to other places. My toes. My shoulders. But mostly here." He tapped his chest and immediately reddened. "I know. It's stupid.""Not really," Amy said. "I wish I could do that, too.”

“Let's scope the place out," he suggested, heading around the side of the building, "and be careful in the bushes.""Why?" Amy asked."This is South Africa, dude," Dan replied. "Where cobras come from. And not the hot ones, like Ian.”

“I'll sue!" Ian sputtered. "I'll sue you AND the dog. And the country of South Korea. And...and...""The landscape architect?" Natalie asked."The landscape architect!" Ian shouted.”

“About f-f-ace!" she said to the horse, flailing with her boots. "Into the barn, please. It's time for some tasty hay! Haaaaaaay!”

“Ian nodded. Do not question her, he told himself. Not when she is in a state like this.Still, it was a pity to attack them with such force. Especially the girl, Amy. He'd never met anyone like her. Shy. Gentle. With an exciting edge of hostility. So unlike the girls back home, who flung themselves at him so often that his chauffeurs traveled with first-aid kits.Doesn't she know better? Isn't she smart enough to stop the hunt?It was the boy and the au pair. He was a pint-sized hothead. She was a collection of piercings and piggishness. If only Amy and Dan had stayed trapped in the cave in Seoul, at least long enough to get discouraged. Why did they antagonize Mother?They don't know what it's like to live with her."Right you are," Ian said. "They're asking for it. Heaven forbid they listen to the brains of the outfit.""And that would be–?" Isabel asked.Ian looked away. "Well, the sister, I'd say. Amy."He felt a smile inching across his face."Ian?" His mother grabbed his wrist. "If you are having the inkling of a shadow of a thought...""Mother!" Ian could feel the blood rushing to his face. "How could you suspect for a moment...?”

“Well, then, happy news! Hakuna matata and all that," Ian said cheerily. "We'll rest and have a fine dining moment while we wait." He looked around at the various airport fast-food choices. "Well, er, we'll rest...”

“Don't get me started on the little airplane name badges," Natalie grumbled.”

“Dan's skin was beginning to lose color. "Oh, har-har. A library, right? Just to make me crazy. 'Cause there's no reason we would go to a library. Right? I mean, we don't need to research Peoria, do we?"Amy began heading for the building. "Not Peoria. Something else.""Not funny, Amy!" Dan called as she pushed open the heavy brass doors. "Amy...Amy?”

“"Whoaaaaa–AARRRGGGGGGGHHHH...shove two fingers down my throat and pull out my heart...to prove that you love meeee...!" Clutching her iPod, Nellie emerged from the hatch ad lurched towards them, like creature put together from spare parts–a motion that Dan and Amy recognized as dancing. Pulling out her earbuds, she raised her face to the sky and let the rain pelt her for a few seconds. "Whoo-hoo, that is better than a facial!" she cried, running to join Dan and Amy under the overhang."Stick around," Dan said, "for a lava treatment.”

“Okay, listen up, dudes. We have to book. Yesterday, when I find you guys are, like, AWOL? I, like, freak. Yelling at everybody–where are they, why did you let them leave–the hotel people are, like, whaaaa? Anyway, I pack up all your stuff, figuring I may never see the place again, and down in the lobby I find my man Arif. I'm, like, help me, and he takes all of our stuff to this launch–and then we're halfway across the sea when Arif gets this radio message, and he's all excited, but I don't know what he's saying until he's, like, 'POLICE!' in English. And we see these cop cars and somebody's getting a big old boat, so we're, like, sayonara, only in Indonesian, and we tool out into this boat-traffic jam to try to loose them, and I'm hearing these radio reports that are half English–there's been a fire and somebody's dead, yada yada, and I'm totally wigging out–Why did you do that? Why did you and your sister leave me in a hotel without even a note?”

“Rock star do not jump!" The launch was cutting sharply, its skipper calling out a phrase that bore no relationship to the English language as Amy knew it."Rock star in a hurry!" Nellie replied, one foot on the boat's gunwale.”

“Amy Cahill didn't believe in omens. But black snow was falling, the earth was rumbling beneath her feet, her brother was meowing, and her uncle Alistair was prancing on the beach in pink pajamas.She had to admit, the signs were not promising.”

“I g-g-guess...I'm dead?" she heard her own voice call out, strangely high-pitched and thin.For a long time, she heard nothing else. And then:"Hi, Dead. I'm Dan.”

“Amy was looking around the sanctum in awe. "It's...beautiful!"The girl was modest and thoughtful. How bizarre. So rarely did Ian see these qualities in others–especially during the quest for the 39 Clues. Naturally, he had been taught to avoid these behaviors at all costs and never to consort with anyone who possessed them. They were distasteful–FLO, as Papa would say. For Losers Only. And Kabras never lost.Yet she fascinated him. Her joy in running up Alistair's tiny lawn, her awe at this piddling cubbyhole–it didn't seem possible to gain so much happiness from so little. This gave him a curious feeling he'd never quite experienced. Something like indigestion but quite a bit more pleasant.Ah well. Blame it on the ripped trousers, he thought. Humiliation softened the soul.”

“This, my children," Alistair said proudly, "was barbecue pork."Dan rapped his fingers against the latch. "Been out in the sun for a long time.”

“We meant to temporarily disable her," Ian said. "Just a drop. But Natalie slipped during air turbulence. Before we could warn your nose-ringed nanny, she drenched us. Luckily, she allowed us to retrieve the antidote from our carry-on.""That's kindness," Amy said."I made them agree to give me all their cash," Nellie explained."That's bribery," Natalie grumbled.”

“Finders keepers!" Ian shouted, scooping up the overlay and hopping onto a rock outcropping."You cheater!" Amy was furious. No way was he going to get away with that. She climbed the rock, matching him step for step until she reached the top. There he turned to her, panting for breath. "Not bad for a Cahill," he said, grinning."You --y-y-you--" The words caught in her throat, the way they always did. He was staring at her, his eyes dancing with laughter, making her so knotted up with anger and hatred that she thought she would explode. "C-c-can't--"But in that moment, something totally weird happened. Maybe it was a flip of his head, a movement in his eyebrow, she couldn't tell. But it was as if someone had suddenly held a painting at a different angle, and what appeared to be a stormy sea transformed into a bright bouquet -- a trick of the eye that proved everything was just a matter of perspective. His eyes were not mocking at all. They were inviting her, asking her to laugh along. Suddenly, her rage billowed up and blew off in wisps, like a cloud. "You're ... a Cahill, too," she replied."Touche."His eyes didn't move a millimeter from hers.This time she met his gaze. Solidly. This time she didn't feel like apologizing or attacking or running away. She wouldn't have minded if he just stared like that all day.”

“Hey, Amy, did you ever want to, like, get on the conveyor belt and see what happened? Like,'Hey don't mind me, I'm just hanging with cargo'?”

“What's this?" Dan said, pointing to a funny squiggly formation. Uh, an M," said Nellie. "Or if you look at it the other way, a W. Or sideways, kind of S-ish..."Maybe it's palm trees," Dan said. "Like in the movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. You know? No? These guys need to find hidden money, and the only clue they have is it's under a big W? And no one sees what it means-but then, near the end of the movie, there's this grove of four palm trees rising up in the shape of... you-know-what! Classic!"Amy, Alistair, Natalie, Ian and Nellie all looked at him blankly.There is no W in the Korean language," Alistair replied. "Or palm trees in Korea. I might be maple trees..."Mrrp," said Saladin, rubbing his face against Dan's knee. I'll tell you the rest of the plot later," Dan whispered to the Mau.”

“GGRRROOCCCCK...Ian's knees buckled. The rock outcropping shook the ground, sending a spew of grayish dust that quickly billowed around them.Shielding his eyes, he spotted Amy standing by the figurine, which was now moving toward her. She was in shock, her backpack on the ground by her feet. "Get back!" he shouted. Ian pulled Amy away and threw her to the ground, landing on top of her. Gravel showered over his back, embedding into his hair and landing on the ground like a burst of applause. His second though was that the shirt would be ruined. And this was the shock of it-that his first thought had not been about the shirt. Or the coin. Or himself. It had been about her.But that was not part of the plan. She existed for a purpose. She was a tactic, a stepping stone. She was..."Lovely," he said. Amy was staring up at him, petrified, her eyelashes flecked with dust. Ian took her hand, which was knotted into a fist. "Y-y-you don't have to do that," she whispered. "Do what?" Ian asked. "Be sarcastic. Say things like 'lovely.' You saved my life. Th-thank you.""My duty," he replied. He lowered his head and allowed his lips to brush hers. Just a bit.”

“Byron had to blink a dozen times, each time hoping the dream would end. But the unreal was real.”