The Maze of Bones (The 39 Clues #1)(50)

"I found it online," Amy said.

"How?" Dan said.

"I did a search for Benjamin Franklin plus music. It came up right away. That's an adagio for armonica."

"Ben Franklin's instrument," Dan remembered. "The water on the glass rims thing."

"Yeah, but I have a feeling this is more than a musical score." Amy sat forward. Her eyes were bright, like she knew a secret. "We found the song and downloaded it. Listen."

Nellie handed over her iPod. "Not my kind of music. But whatever."

Dan listened. He felt like he was being filled with helium. The music was so familiar and beautiful it made him want to float across Paris, but it also confused him. Usually he had no trouble remembering things, but he could not recall where he'd heard this music before. "I know this song ..."

"Dad used to play it," Amy said. "In his study, when he was working. He played it all the time."

Dan wanted to remember what Amy was talking about. He wanted to listen to the song over and over until he could see their dad in his study. But Nellie took back the iPod. "Sorry, kiddo. You've still got, like, mud in your ears."

"The notes are a code," Amy said. "The whole piece of music is some kind of message."

"And our parents knew about it," Dan said in amazement. "But what does it mean?"

"I don't know," Amy admitted. "But, Dan, you remember how Mr. McIntyre said the thirty-nine clues are pieces of a puzzle?"

"Yeah."

"I started thinking about that last night, after you decoded that message on the vial.

I started wondering ... why wasn't the first clue like that?"

She brought out the crème paper they'd paid two million dollars for. Dan's scrawled notes filled the back side. On the front side was their first clue:

RESOLUTION:

The fine print to guess,

Seek out Richard S___

Nellie frowned. "That led you to Franklin, right? Wasn't that the answer?"

"Only partly," Amy said. "It's also the first piece of the puzzle. It's a clue to an actual thing.

That clicked for me last night when you mentioned anagrams, Dan."

He shook his head. "I don't get it."

She took out a pen and wrote RESOLUTION. "You asked me why this word was part of the clue. I didn't understand until now. We're supposed to guess the fine print." She passed the paper and pen to Dan. "Solve the anagram."

Dan stared at the letters. Suddenly, he felt like he'd been zapped by a Frankin battery.

The letters rearranged themselves in his mind.

He picked up the pen and wrote: IRON SOLUTE

"I don't believe it," Nellie said. "This whole thing was about iron solute?"

"It's the first piece of the puzzle," Amy said. "It's an ingredient, or a component, or something like that."

"For what?" Dan asked.

Amy pursed her lips. "Iron solute could be used for chemistry, or metalworking, or even printing. There's no way to tell, yet. And we don't know how much we're supposed to use. Every time Franklin mentioned iron solute, he just wrote '1 quantity.'"

"We've got to find out!"

"We will," Amy promised. "And the sheet music..."

She spread her hands over the adagio score.

"It's an ingredient, too," Nellie guessed.

"I think so," Amy said. "That's how you can tell the big clues. They give you an actual ingredient. We just don't know how to read this one yet."

"But how do we find out?" Dan protested.

"The same way we did with Franklin. We find out about the person who wrote it. The composer was -- " Amy stopped abruptly.

Coming down the street was a familiar figure -- a thin balding man in a gray suit, carrying a cloth suitcase. "Mr. McIntyre!" Dan cried.

"Ah, there you are, children!" The old lawyer smiled. "May I?"

Amy quickly folded the first and second clues and put them away. Mr. McIntyre sat with them and ordered a coffee. He insisted on paying for their breakfast, which was okay by Dan, but Mr. McIntyre seemed nervous. His eyes were bloodshot. He kept glancing across the Champs-élysées as if he was afraid he was being watched.

"I heard about last night," he said. "I'm so sorry."

"It's no big deal," Dan said.

"Indeed. I'm sure you'll be able to backtrack. But is it true? Did the Kabras really steal the second clue from under your noses?"

Dan got annoyed all over again. He wanted to brag about the sheet music they'd found and the iron solute thing, but Amy cut in.

"It's true," she said. "We have no idea where to go next."

"Alas." Mr. McIntyre sighed. "I fear you can't go home. Social Services are still on alert.

Your aunt has hired a private detective to find you. And you cannot stay here. Paris is such an expensive city."

His eyes fixed on Amy's necklace. "My dear, I do have friends in the city. I know this would be a desperate measure, but I could possibly arrange a sale for your grandmother's -- "

"No, thank you," Amy said. "We'll get by just fine."