The radio was turning to static, and the calls for updates were garbled at best.
"Hurry, Dan!" said Amy.
Hamilton swung along the steel support rod, his feet dangling over a hundred and fifty feet of open air. It didn't take long for him to reach the catwalk and swing his massive frame up and over. The first thing he did when he got there was turn off the two-way radio.Dan knew he had to hustle. He raced to the end of the final beam, where the cable ran straight into a ladder leading into the head of The Motherland Calls.
“I’m heading into the brain!" yelled Dan. "Wish me luck!"At the top of the ladder, Dan found a platform big enough for several people to stand on.
Two thick streams of light poured into the head from outside. It was eerie, as if Dan really were inside someone's head, digging around in the dust for a hidden memory."There!" whispered Dan.
A small cylinder wrapped in paper and tied with twine was tucked into the corner of one of the eyes. On quick examination, Dan saw that the top of the rough paper was stenciled with three letters: ST. P.St. Petersburg!
Dan jammed the object into his pocket for safekeeping."I'm coming up," said Amy, reaching the bottom of the ladder."How far back is he?" asked Dan, pulling his gasping sister onto the platform.
Amy looked down at the catwalks below. "He's moving pretty slowly. I'd say three or four minutes." "Perfect. I've got an idea."* * *It was a full five minutes later before Hamilton arrived in the head of The Motherland Calls and flopped down in the center of the platform. His chest heaved in and out, and a giant ring of sweat surrounded his neck."Dude, you look like a fish out of water," said Dan.
"Speaking of which ..."Dan dug around in the backpack. Among the smashed candy bars and bags of chips were a few cans of Coke.
He pulled one out, popped the top, and fizz shot all over Hamilton."Oops," said Dan, but Hamilton didn't seem to care. He sat up and guzzled the whole can, then tossed the empty over the edge. They all listened as the can pinged and echoed all the way to the bottom.
"We're way, way up here," said Amy, her face draining of color as it seemed to dawn on her for the first time that they'd have to get back down.
"I found a lead," said Dan, putting his plan into action. "And not only that, I solved it."Hamilton perked up."Lemme see," he said, wiping the sweat from his brow with a swipe of his arm.
Dan pulled out the piece of parchment they'd gotten from the locker, the one with the scrambled words of all the places they were to visit. Dan had figured out, all on his own, that thirty-six hours wouldn't be anywhere near enough time to visit all the places on the list, and they only had twenty-nine hours left.
He didn't want to admit it, but they needed help.Amy seemed to get what he was doing. "It's a list of places, see," said Amy to Hamilton, taking the parchment from Dan. She was careful not to turn it over and reveal the picture of her parents or the note from NRR. "And Dan already unscrambled the letters.
"Hamilton looked at the parchment suspiciously."Here's the thing," said Amy. "We can't visit all these places alone, and neither can you. What if we were to split them up? You go one way, we'll go the other, and we'll share what we find?"Hamilton Holt's gelled slick of blond hair seemed to quiver as the gears in his brain started turning. He propped himself up on his elbow, and the look he gave Amy was almost imploring."And you can trust us," said Amy.
"We're giving you the next place we're supposed to go. See that right there?" asked Amy, holding the parchment closer to Hamilton's face. "That's where we'll pick up the
trail. In Omsk, Siberia."Right beside the words Dan had added: "Next, at the crossroads of Y and Z." It made absolutely no sense whatsoever, but it sounded good, and Hamilton fell for it without hesitation.
Dan figured he could give Hamilton the real instructions later, after he'd had more time to examine the treasure in his pocket."Here's what we're going to do," said Amy.Amy told Hamilton to visit both Siberian outposts while she and Dan focused on the closer places.
That left Moscow, Yekaterinburg, and St. Petersburg for Dan and Amy. They exchanged cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses."We'll swap information as we go and beat the pants off everyone else!" Dan hooted."That's if we don't kill ourselves getting down from here first," said Amy.
CHAPTER 5
Ian Kabra had been in the back of a limousine hundreds of times but never when covered in meat pies.
"The Holts are barbarians," he said disgustedly. He was sitting in the backseat, wiping beef stains off his five-thousand-dollar Armani suit.
"Here comes Hamilton!" said Natalie. She had fared better in the parking lot fight, retreating into the car at the first sign of flying food.
She was never one to risk her Gucci."Driver, follow that piece of junk," said Ian. He pointed to the beat-up white van that Hamilton Holt had just dove into. The van rumbled to life and tore out of the lot.
Ian dialed his cell phone. The mere mention of the competition heading into Russia at such a sensitive juncture had sent his father into a panic.
Now was not the time to take chances."What do you want?" The voice on the other end of the line belonged to Irina Spasky, the only Russian43citizen on any of the teams.
She, like Ian, was part of the Lucian branch.
One rung under Ian and Natalie's parents, a fact that had long infuriated her."I don't know how you managed to let everyone into your country," said Ian. "But it's making my father nervous.
And when he's nervous, I'm nervous. My father will have both our heads if we let another team capture one of our clues.""They will not get anything!" snapped Irina. "It will be for them a wild geese chase."Ian smirked.
He could picture her eye twitching, as it always did when she was angry."I don't like all this activity so close to some very important secrets.
It's your country. Deal with it.""I suggest you hold your tongue. The line is not secure," said Irina.
"You follow Dan and Amy Cahill. I think they're on to something," Ian ordered. "We'll stay with the Holts.""Agreed. You babysit the idiots.
I will get the real work done."* * *Irina clicked off her cell phone and brooded in the backseat of a dingy Volkswagen van, the very one Dan and Amy had ridden from the airport. The bearded Russian was on the Lucian payroll, like hundreds of other informants spread across the homeland.
Who's helping Dan and Amy Cahill? she wondered.
Could there be a double agent within the ranks of the Lucians? The idea had crossed her mind before, but with the death of Grace Cahill, her suspicions had grown. There were secrets in Russia -- secrets that had to be protected at all cost.
Dan and Amy had stumbled into a hornet's nest."They're on the move," said the bearded Russian in the front seat."Follow them," ordered Irina.The driver merged into traffic and tracked a blinking dot on his screen.
"He's pretty good on that bike," said the driver, laughing despite the ultra-serious agent sitting in the backseat of his van."I do not pay you for small talk," Irina fired back.
The bearded driver clammed up, and not another word was spoken during the drive through Volgograd. Irina felt the twitch in her eye return, soft at first but growing more violent. Twenty minutes passed before the driver spoke
again."They've stopped. We're near the train station.""Let me out," said Irina. A wad of bills rolled past the driver and landed at his feet."I may need you again," said Irina as she opened the door. "Keep your phone on and don't leave the city."The driver nodded. He leaned down and picked the roll of bills off the floor. When he turned around again, Irina Spasky was gone.* * *