For the people who asked about Jonah sort of switching personalities from book 8, I want to point out three things: 1, that he is now under direct pressure from his mother, 2, he was friendly to Dan, not Amy, and 3, now he knows that Amy's a Madrigal, and therefore totally creepy.

As footsteps echoed down the hallway, Amy tensed up. Isabel only visited when something big, usually bad, had happened. Cora seemed to mimic Isabel, and Amy was worried that something really, really bad had happened.

When Cora reached the bars, to Amy's surprise, she pressed a small button on what looked like a remote control and the bars slid open.

Amy's voice was surprisingly strong when she spoke. "I-i-isabel always m-made sure th-that I was n-nicely ch-chained up before sh-she slid the b-bars up."

Cora snorted. "Isabel overdid things. There are at least two cameras other than the ones you mentioned earlier," she paused seeing Amy stiffen up, "And you can't get anywhere quickly with that on," she finished, gesturing to the hoop that bound Amy's feet.

"S-s-so why are you h-here?" Amy mumbled, bracing herself for bad news.

"Well, I have two questions. One, why are you stuttering?" Cora's face was genuinely curious.

Amy was taken aback. "Wh-wh-what?"

"Why are you stuttering? You weren't when you were talking about The Odyssey."

Amy's eyes widened. "Y-y-you could a-actually h-hear that?"

Cora nodded. Her suspicions were confirmed. Amy hadn't thought that anyone could actually hear her, so she was more confident. Now she was talking face-to-face with Cora, the branch leader who was reputed to be almost as terrifying as Isabel. To top it all off, Cora knew that she was a Madrigal. "Do you know what the Ekats are all worked up about?" Cora asked, abruptly switching subjects.

"N-no," Amy stammered. "O-only w-what I-i-isabel told me."

Cora noticed that Amy stuttered more when she mentioned Isabel's name. She didn't blame her. Despite mimicking her, even Cora was shaking in her boots when Isabel was in the same room as her. Especially if Isabel had matches. The only people who weren't terrified of her were the Dolt, sorry, Holts. "What did Isabel tell you?" Cora's voice was gentle.

"Sh-she told m-me th-that the E-ekats had f-f-figured someth-thing o-out about me." Amy paused. "S-sh-she didn't kn-know what i-it was, th-though."

Cora sighed. So the girl didn't know anything. Still using her gentle voice, she said, "One of our top spies stole this poem from them." She pushed a small scrap of paper towards Amy. "We can't understand what it means, but maybe you can."

As Amy read the poem, her face went pale. She looked like she might faint. "Wh-wh-who h-hid th-the l-l-last c-clue?"

Cora raised an eyebrow. Amy's stutter was worse than ever. She would have made a good Janus. "Grace."

"A-a-and th-the E-e-ekaterinas f-found s-something to co-co-connect it to m-me?"

"Yes. Do you know what it means?"

"N-n-n-no…" Amy lied. It was so obvious the Holts could have noticed it.

Cora rolled her eyes. "Amy…" she began. Her voice was soft, but had some steel in the core. Amy could sense that the atmosphere had changed, and stiffened. "I know you're lying. If you continue to do so, there might be consequences." All traces of soft and warmth left. "Disastrous consequences."

KkKkKkKkKkKkKkKkKkKkKkKk

"Hello, Daniel."

Dan jumped. There was only one person who called him that. And she was…

…not right in front of him. Instead, there was a girl with auburn hair and two twin boys who looked a lot like her. They were Amy's age. He blinked. "Whuh?"

The girl sighed. "Surely we haven't been out of the competition that long?"

A memory was coming back to Dan. "…Sinead?" He looked at the two boys, "Ted? Ned?"

"Actually," one of them said. "It would be Ned," indicating himself. "Ted." He finished, indicating his twin.

"Okay, I've got it straight now. Ned, Ted." he decided, purposefully pointing at the wrong one.

"To business." Sinead interrupted. "Where's Amy?"

Dan blinked again. "Um, you haven't heard? The Janus –"

"We know about the Janus, dolt. We also know about the clue." she smirked. "Alistair's files are sooooo easy to hack into." The smirk vanished. "Amy. Donde Esta?"

"Uh, I, uh, don't –"

Sinead rolled her eyes. "We know you know. So just tell us. God, with brains that slow, you could almost be a Holt."

"Ahem."

Ted, Ned, and Sinead turned.

"I take offense to that." There stood Hamilton and Reagan, along with Alistair and Nellie. "What do you three want?"

"They want to know where Amy is." Dan spoke up quickly. "They didn't believe that we didn't know where she was. And I have to get going now," He addressed the Starlings.

"Please begin boarding for flight 26D, to Los Angeles."

"We really have to get going now, that's our…" Dan stopped in horror, remembering that he was right in front of the people who wanted to know where he was going.

Ted and Ned locked eyes. "LA. There's only…

"…one Janus stronghold there, and…"

"…it's one of the ones with…"

"…cell blocks. It's in…"

"Venice Beach," Sinead calmly interrupted the two. "Now, let's get going."

And with that, they turned and flounced off.

Dan looked at the others. "Oh, no! This is just the Holt's ice cream truck all over again!"

Hamilton nodded and groaned. "Paris. But, we need to get to our flight."

"Let's go."

On the plane:

Reagan sighed. Since they had bought their plane tickets late, there weren't any seats near each other available, and she had to sit away from everyone else. She was in the window seat, next to an English girl and her mother. The girl was quiet up until about five minutes after sitting down, when she started fidgeting. As they were taxiing down the runway, the girl turned to her mother and complained in an English accent, "It itches! Why couldn't we have gotten one custom-made?" The girl pouted, scratching at her sandy blonde hairline. Her voice seemed familiar.

Reagan glanced up at the place where the girl was scratching. A dark, silky lock had fallen out of the thing that Reagan now recognized as a wig. A dark, silky, familiar lock. Reagan glanced at the girl's feet. Prada shoes.

Reagan swore.