“Where'd you get that lighter?" she demanded."Frida," Dan said, closing it. "She left it behind. Remember how she was always talking about outdoorsy stuff? She said she kept a water-resistant lighter on her at all times, in case she needed emergency fire."There was a short beat of silence in the dumpster."Huh," said Dan. "Except probably now.”

“I'm going to hang up now," she said quietly."Fine.""Good-bye, Ian," she said.He paused again. She thought she heard something like a sniff or a choke, but it was probably the sound of him tearing up his plane ticket. "Good-bye, Amy."She hung up the phone: Dan and Nellie were quiet."Well, think about it," said Dan. "Did you really want Natalie Kabra as a sister-in-law?”

“Come on," she said, smiling for the first time since she'd stepped on the plane. "We need to get to the bus before Ian plugs his iPod into the speakers."Dan shuddered. "I'd rather face a thousand Vespers than listen to Beethoven.”

“Ouch!" Amy yelped, causing Hamilton to release her. "Sorry," she said, smiling as she rubbed her shoulder. "I'm just a little sore."Madison nodded gravely. "Smart peole books are pretty heavy.”

“Grace has way weirder people than me coming in and out all the time," Dan said. "You, on the other hand, are as boring as it gets. If Grace is worried about anyone cramping her style, I'd point to the gloomy nerd reading about Chucklesky.""Tchaikovsky. He composed the score for the ballet The Nutcracker."Dan thre his hands up. "How am I supposed to get any better at making you sound like a loser if you just do all the work for me?”

“Hi!" she said, a bit louder than she meant to. Ian raised one eyebrow and Amy felt the beginnings of a blush. She started to give Ian a hug, but he had already bent forward to kiss her on the cheek. Her sudden movement three him off, and they ended up bumping foreheads. "Sorry," Amy said, turning away so Ian wouldn't see that her face had turned bright red."Quite all right. I had forgotten you do things differently across the pond." He took a step back to look at Amy. "I take it jeans are the latest in evening wear here in the wild west?" He made an exaggerated show of narrowing her eyes. "Is that a juice stain on your blouse? How fetching.”

“Dan opened the Zippo and lit the fuse.It hissed for half a seconds, then the rocket shot screaming away.Crack!"Over there!" One of the kidnappers shouted.Amy started to rise. "Let's go!""Wait," Dan said, aiming the second rocket. "It's a two-part plan." He lit the fuse and the rocket shot off in the direction of the would-be kidnappers."Auuuurrrrgghh!""Run now!" Dan said.Amy and Dan burst from the dumpster and scrambled for the entrance of the lot. Looking behind him, Dan saw that one of the kidnappers was frantically fanning his butt, which was smoking slightly."Part two was completely unnecessary, wasn't it?" Amy yelled as they ran."Yup!”