Hi! I'm sorry for the wait, I am a MAJOR procrastinator and I had Science Fair this week. Either way, I own nothing except the plot, it all belongs to the various authors of the 39 clues, of whom I am so envious.
Either way, here's the third chapter!
Amy came to with a groan. What? The last thing that she remembered was… um… dinner! Yes, that was it. And then… nothingness? Blackness? Why was she coming to? Why not just waking up?
"So. You're Awake!" Oh, god. There was only one person in the Kabra family who could be that awake and chipper, and still be deadly.
"Hi, Natalie." Amy groaned. "Get to the point. What happened?"
"Well, if you're going to be such a grouch." She wrinkled her nose. "The Ekats were smarter than we thought. It must be some kind of a record. Your first kidnap attempt in twenty-four hours."
"Don't you mean 're-kidnap?'" Amy muttered. "Who was it? Uncle Alistair? Bae Oh? Someone completely different?"
"It was Bae Oh. Something about keeping you drugged and then ransoming you to the highest bidder." Natalie grinned wolfishly. " Sorry about the thing with the sharks, by the way. Mother really likes sharks."
"No k-kidding," Amy muttered under her breath. The stutter was back. Amy sat up and blinked. The bars were gone. Amy swung her legs down to the floor and stood up, surreptitiously reaching for her necklace knife and mentally groaned. The necklace was gone, probably to Isabel. She instead got one of her makeshift plasticware knives and prepared to throw it and run.
"The Ekats have figured something out about the next clue and something about you, and we think that they're linked. Unfortunately, we haven't figured anything out yet."
Amy threw the knife and ran. Hopefully, Natalie would be distracted by the sharpened spoon racing towards her and forget all about Amy. As Amy raced to the exit, suddenly, out of nowhere, she tripped over something. An invisible trip wire!
"I told Mother that the wire was a good idea." Natalie's face appeared over Amy, smirking… and carrying a dart gun. Amy groaned.
The last thing Amy heard was Natalie's evil snicker.
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"So."
Dan, Hamilton, and Reagan fidgeted while Nellie inspected them.
"You two will be tagging along?" Nellie raised an eyebrow. "How do we know that they're not just here to steal the clues?"
"I dunno about Reagan, but Hammer's okay." Dan spoke up. "You remember the times he worked with us?" Nellie glared at him. "Oh, yeah. That was when we, ah, 'forgot' to tell you. Sorry about that." Nellie's glare tripled in its intensity while Hamilton and Reagan tried to stifle their giggles.
"Fine." Nellie sighed. "I know DC is a Lucian stronghold, though everyone else also has a small building. Do you two know where the stronghold is located?"
Reagan and Hamilton shook their heads. "Sorry, nope." Hammer replied.
"Actually," Reagan interrupted. "I don't know, but I have a pretty good guess."
"What?" Dan demanded.
"Lucians value power, right?" Reagan asked.
"We all knew that," Nellie mumbled.
"I think I see where you're going with that!" Dan exclaimed.
"Enlighten us then, kiddo."
"So, Lucians value power. Who was one of the most powerful people in America?"
Reagan jumped in. "Who held power? Who was one of the people who fought against extreme odds – and won?"
"Who had the power, strength, and cunning to make a nation out of thirteen small colonies?" Hamilton asked, finally understanding.
"Okay, kids, perfect." Nellie replied. "Let's head on over to the Washington Monument."
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Amy was dreaming. She was dreaming about something that had actually happened in the past, about a conversation with Nellie.
They are in New Zealand, near the Madrigal base. They had gone there directly after Mount Everest, and Amy has immediately fallen in love with the scenery. They are sitting at the edge of a small cliff, with the wind blowing the hair back from their faces. After a few moments of quiet, Nellie speaks. "I wasn't always a Madrigal." She remarks, staring up at the clouds racing across the sky.
Amy sits up. "Really? What branch did you belong to?" This is new information. Some people are born Madrigals, descendants of Madeline, the fifth Cahill. Some join the Madrigals out of disgust at the killing that goes on in the branches.
"I was Janus, like our freaky cousin Jonah." She sits up too. "After I finished training as a weapons master and martial artist, I stole a few things for the Janus. My first 'real' job, of course, was an assassination. The Janus didn't like the current Dalai Lama." She says, her tone flat. "I refused to kill someone who was sworn to peace. I ran away." She says. "After about a year of wandering, I ended up here. The Madrigals picked me up and explained their cause, to promote peace. I joined, but I didn't really trust them. You know the stories that the branches spread about Madrigals." Nellie pauses for a moment, reminiscing. "That all changed when I saw them surrender a fight and lose a clue because they didn't want any innocent passerby to get hurt or die. Because you see, while all the other four had fairly loud or exciting talents, Madeline and her descendents have two great and silent gifts: the ability to convince people to work together, and a good heart. The only people Madrigals will kill are those who deserve it. It's so deeply engraved into their DNA, even people like you, who had no clue what being a Madrigal meant, were willing to save other people who have not done much wrong, like Ian on Mount Everest."
"But Ian did lots of evil," Amy protests. "What made me save the double-crosser?" She falls silent, thinking about the many times Alistair had double-crossed her and Dan, though never leaving them to die, and even twice willing to die or get gravely injured for them.
Nellie nods, almost reading Amy's thoughts. "Alistair has a little Madrigal blood in him. It's done the man tons of good." They fall silent again, watching the patterns of the ocean waves. "Ian… is misguided. You know Isabel. You know she pushes him to do all sorts of things. I think that the whole 'fall-in-love-with-me' was Isabel's idea, but then Ian found a small glitch."
"What was that glitch?" Amy asks. She thinks she knows what Nellie will say, but she doesn't want to admit it.
"He fell for you," was Nellie's reply. "I know you don't want to admit it. I know how badly he hurt you. And I know that he's sincere. Our tail on the Kabras said that after the shark incident, Ian went to his room and cried."
"Cried?" Amy lays down incredulously. "Ian doesn't cry. Or wail, or sob."
"But he did. And however much you try to deny it, I think he well and truly cares for you."
Amy woke up. She knew he was sincere. And she knew what she had to do.
Sorry, I like cliffhangers.
Review!