The Maze of Bones (The 39 Clues #1)(35)

"Some kind of message..."

Amy desperately wished she could read French. If she ever got back to the hotel, she promised herself she would make Nellie give her lessons.

"Inside, right?" Dan said. "No, it's a trap!"

But he stepped forward and the ground collapsed. The marble slab dropped into nothingness, taking Dan with it.

"Dan!"

She ran to the edge of the hole, but the ground hadn't finished crumbling. Stone and dirt gave way like cloth under her feet and Amy tumbled into darkness.

For a second, she was too dazed to think. She coughed, her lungs filling with dust. She was sitting on something soft and warm....

"Dan!" In a panic, she scrambled off him and shook his arms, but it was too dark to see. "Dan, please, be alive!"

"Ugh," he grunted.

"Are you okay?"

"My sister just sat on me with her bony butt. Of course I'm not okay."

Amy breathed a sigh of relief. If he was being annoying, he must be fine. She got up unsteadily, dirt and stones shifting beneath her feet. Looking up, she could see the mouth of the ragged pit they'd fallen into. They were in some kind of a sinkhole.

"The ground was hollowed out," she muttered. "The earth here is limestone. Lots of caves and tunnels under Paris. I guess we fell into one accidentally."

"Accidentally?" Dan said. "Irina lured us here on purpose!"

Amy knew he was probably right, but she didn't want to think about it... or what might happen next. They had to get out. She swept her arms around the edges of their pit, but it was just that -- a pit. No side tunnels, no exits except for straight up, and they'd fallen over ten feet. It was a miracle they hadn't broken any bones.

Suddenly, a light blinded her from above. "Well, well," said a man's voice.

"Arf! " a dog yapped.

When Amy's eyes adjusted, she saw five figures in purple warm-up suits smiling down at them, and one very excited pit bull.

"The Holts!" Dan said. "It figures. You helped Irina set us up!"

"Oh, get over it, runt," Madison called down. "We didn't set up anybody."

"Yeah," Reagan said. "You fell in all by yourselves."

She and Madison gave each other high fives and started laughing.

Amy's hands started to tremble. This was just like her nightmares ... stuck in a pit, a crowd of people laughing at her. But this was real.

"So." Eisenhower Holt called down. "Is this what you brats were looking for? Is this the Maze of Bones?"

Her heart fluttered. "What -- what do you mean?"

"Oh, come on, missy! We know all about the Maze of Bones. We read the Almanack."

"You have the book? But, Irina -- "

"Stole it from us," Eisenhower growled. "After we stole it from the Korean dude. So we staked out her headquarters, but you got inside before we could launch an assault. Now you've got the book, and you came here, which means you know something."

"But we don't have the book!" Amy said. "We didn't even get a chance to -- "

"Oh, come on," Hamilton said. His greased blond hair gleamed in the night. "It was right there on page fifty-two --

BF: Maze of Bones, coordinates in the box.

It was your mom's handwriting. Dad recognized it."

Amy's whole body was trembling. She hated it, but she couldn't stop. The Holts had read farther in the book than she had. They'd found another message from her mother:

Maze of Bones, coordinates in the box.

She understood the Maze of Bones part, at least she feared that she did ... but coordinates in a box?

"I -- I don't know what it means," she said. "We don't have the book. But if you let us out of here, maybe I could -- "

"Yeah, right!" Madison sneered. "Like we'd help you!"

They started laughing again -- the entire Holt clan, making fun of her.

"Please, stop," she whispered. "Don't..."

"Aw, she's gonna cry." Hamilton grinned. "Man, you two are pathetic. I can't believe you got past the fire and the bomb."

"What?"

Dan yelled.

"You burned Grace's mansion? You set off that bomb in the museum?"

"To slow you down," Eisenhower admitted. "We should've beaten you up in person. Sorry about that."

Dan threw a rock, but it sailed harmlessly between Reagan's legs. "You morons! Get us OUT of here!"

Reagan frowned, but Madison and Hamilton started yelling back at Dan. Arnold barked.

Amy knew this was getting them nowhere. They had to convince the Holts to let them out, but she couldn't make her voice work. She wanted to curl into a ball and hide.

Then the ground shook. There was a rumbling sound like a large engine. The Holts turned toward the street and looked astonished by whatever they saw.

"You -- little -- tricksters!" Eisenhower glared down at them. "This was an ambush, wasn't it?"

"What are you talking about?" Dan asked.

"A truck is blocking the gates!" Mary-Todd said. "A cement truck."

"Dad, look," Reagan said nervously. "They've got shovels."