The Maze of Bones (The 39 Clues #1)(33)

"Excellent. Did the brats take the book?"

Madison shifted uncomfortably. "I don't know, sir. But they're going to 23 Rue des Jardins, ?le St-Louis."

"If you got the number right this time," Hamilton griped.

Madison's face turned bright red. "That wasn't my fault!"

"We drove the rental car into the Seine!"

"Oh, and you have all the great ideas, Hammy. Like that stupid explosion that hit the wrong team in the museum! Or burning down Grace's mansion!"

"Stop yelling!" Mary-Todd yelled. "Children, we can't keep arguing with each other. It hurts team morale."

"Your mother is right," Eisenhower said. "The fire at the mansion and the museum bomb were both bad ideas. We should've pulverized the Cahill brats in person!"

Arnold barked excitedly and tried to bite Eisenhower's nose.

Reagan knit her eyebrows. She shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. "But, um, Dad..."

"Problem, Reagan?"

"Well, the explosion ... I mean, it could've killed them, right?"

Madison rolled her eyes. "Oh, here we go again! You're going soft, Reagan!"

Reagan's face turned bright red. "Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Quiet!" Eisenhower bellowed. "Now look, everybody. We're going to have to use some drastic measures to win this contest. I can't have anybody going soft! Understood?"

He glared at Reagan, who stared glumly at the floor. "Yessir."

"We know Dan and Amy were Grace's favorites," Eisenhower continued. "Old McIntyre is probably giving them inside information. Now they've beat us inside the Lucian stronghold while we were trying to do surveillance, which was also a bad idea! Are we going to tolerate any more bad ideas?"

"No, sir!" the kids shouted.

"They think we're not clever," Eisenhower said. "They think all we can do is flex our muscles. Well, they're about to find out we can do more than that!" Eisenhower flexed his muscles.

"Teamwork!" Mary-Todd cried. "Right, children?"

"Yessir! Teamwork!"

"Arff!" Arnold said.

"Now," Eisenhower said. "We have to get that book. We've got to assume those brats have it, or they know what's in it. We need to get to the ?le St-Louis, without driving the ice cream van into the river! Who's with me?"

The kids and Mary-Todd cheered. Then they remembered the ice cream, and the kids went back to strangling each other.

Eisenhower grunted. He decided he'd let them wrestle for a while. Maybe it would build character.

All his life, people had laughed behind Eisenhower's back. They'd laughed when he flunked out of West Point. They'd laughed when he failed the entrance exam for the FBI. They'd even laughed the time he was working as a security guard, when he'd chased a shoplifter and accidentally Tasered himself in the rear end. A simple mistake.

Anyone could've made it.

Once he won this contest, he would become the most powerful Cahill of all time. No one would ever laugh at him again.

He pounded his fist into the van's cash register. Those Cahill kids were starting to get on his nerves. They were too much like their parents, Arthur and Hope.

Eisenhower had known them all too well. He had an old score to settle with the Cahills.

Soon, Amy and Dan Cahill would pay.

CHAPTER 14

Amy was all in favor of rushing to the ?le St-Louis, but her stomach had other ideas.

They passed a boulangerie, which must've meant bakery judging by the yummy smells, and Dan and she exchanged looks.

"Just one stop," they said together.

A few minutes later they were sitting on the quay of the river, sharing the best meal they'd ever had. It was only a loaf of bread, but Amy had never tasted anything so good.

"See that?" Amy pointed to the top of a nearby church, where a black iron spike rose from the bell tower. "Lightning rod."

"Umm," Dan said with his mouth full.

"The French were the first ones to test Franklin's theories about lightning rods. A lot of the old buildings still have original Franklin models."

"Mmm!" Dan said enthusiastically, but Amy wasn't sure whether he liked the story or the bread.

The sun was going down behind a bulkhead of black clouds. Thunder rumbled in the distance, but the

Parisians didn't seem too concerned. Joggers and skaters crowded the riverside. A sightseeing boat loaded with tourists hummed along on the Seine.

Amy tried to use the Starlings' cell phone to call Nellie, but the phone was dead.

Apparently, it wasn't set up to get a signal in France.

Her nerves were still buzzing from their raid on the Lucian stronghold. Despite all the security, it still seemed like they'd gotten in and out pretty easily, and she wasn't sure why. She also didn't like the stuff Dan had taken -- the Franklin battery and that weird metal sphere. She knew better than to argue with him about it, though. Once he got his hands on something, he hardly ever let it go.

She wondered how Irina Spasky had gotten the book from Uncle Alistair, and why she would be interested in the ?le St-Louis. It felt like a trap, but it was Amy's only lead -- or at least, the only lead she wanted to think about. Her mother's note in the Poor Richard's Almanack -- the Maze of Bones -- still gave her chills.