*Happy dance* I updated, I updated, uh-huh, oh yeah...
The five minute drive from the Dhine's house to the apartment was spent in an awkward silence, in which both Fiske and Hamilton tried to break about three times each, failing epically every time.
They finally reached the apartment, and the kids all tumbled gratefully out of the car and ran into the house.
A few minutes later, the two Starlings and Nellie arrived, and they followed.
Inside, the Cahill kids were greeted by Mr. McIntyre. "We're having a meeting in fifteen minutes," he said. "Be in the den by then."
There was a mad dash to the bathroom, but Natalie beat them all. Amy went to her room to take off her wig and change clothes, and the rest of the kids waited for Natalie to finish.
Eight minutes later, Natalie emerged. "It's all yours," she said airily, breezing past them.
There was another battle to get into the bathroom, and amidst the commotion, Dan snuck in and locked the door.
After the fifteen minutes were up, the nine Cahills and Nellie were gathered in the den, dressed down in sweatpants and T-shirts. They were quickly joined by Ned, Ted, Mr. McIntyre, and Fiske.
Mr. McIntyre clapped his hands together enthusiastically. "Okay," he said. "Give me your reports."
Everyone started talking at once.
"Well, the food was terrible..."
"Dan knocked out this guard in the forest..."
"There was this huge maze, and..."
"...so we went down this sewer, and..."
"...lasers, so Amy..."
"...they wouldn't give me time to breathe, and I..."
Fiske banged his hand on the coffee table for silence. "One at a time, please," he said.
The kids all looked at each other.
"I'll start," Amy said. She told the others about David, conveniently leaving out the part about him getting drunk and trying to kiss her.
"He gave me this before I left," she said, handing the piece of paper with the cafe's address on it.
"He asked you on a date?" Natalie squealed.
Amy felt Ian tense next to her.
"No!" Amy exclaimed. "He just...wanted to get together."
"A daaaate," Nellie sang, high-fiving Natalie.
Mr. McIntyre studied the paper. "You may want to meet him tomorrow," he said to Amy.
"What?" Ian exclaimed.
Mr. McIntyre looked at the Kabra boy. "She may be able to get more valuable information," he said.
Ian sat back and started mumbling to himself.
"Ew," Dan said, "my sister's going on a date."
"It's not a date!"
"Mr. M," Hamilton said, "do you think it'll be safe for her? I mean, what if it's a trap?"
Mr. McIntyre nodded thoughtfully. "We could have some of you shadow her..."
Ian, Hamilton, and Dan all sat up at once. "I'll go," they said in unison.
"I feel so safe now," Amy said drily.
Mr. McIntyre rubbed his hands together. "Great," he said. "It's settled."
He turned to the others. "Any other reports?"
Hamilton told them about the meeting in the maze, and Jonah took up the narration when Dan came to their rescue.
Mr. McIntyre looked sternly at Dan. "And what were you doing out of the forest?"
Reagan spoke up before Dan could respond. She told Mr. McIntyre about finding the guard in the forest (Natalie smugly pointing out that it was her dart gun that knocked him out), and then about Dan stealing the guard's uniform.
Then she told him about the three girls going down the sewer grate. Just before she was going to tell Mr. McIntyre about the portrait hole, Ian interrupted.
"Let me tell what happened to us first," he said.
Mr. McIntyre gave him a curious look, but nodded. "Go on."
Ian told the lawyer about him and Amy finding the hidden study, and finding the coded message on the computer. "Amy decoded it," he said. "It read..."
"Football game Sat.," Amy said. "Under bleachers, eight."
Dan snapped his fingers. "There's a football game at the high school tomorrow," he said.
"Wait a minute..." Jonah said slowly. He turned to Hamilton. "Didn't Mr. Dhine say something about meeting a 'friend'? Could this be the meeting?"
Mr. McIntyre nodded. "We certainly will look into this," he said.
Ian continued his narration, telling the others about the lasers and safe in the Dhines' room. When he got to the portrait hole, he stopped, and gestured to Reagan to finish what she had been saying before.
"It turns out," Reagan said, "that the tunnel led to the Dhines' room. We pushed on the wall, and it opened one of the large portraits on the wall."
"And that was how we got the money out," Ian finished. "The girls and I went down the tunnel, and Amy left through the front door."
"...where David Dhine asked Amy out," Natalie finished, and was rewarded by seeing her brother's face turn red.
"Yes," Ian said through gritted teeth.
Amy rolled her eyes.
"Well, I'm sure no one's interested in what happened to ME," Nellie said, putting her feet up on he coffee table.
"Did you find out anything?" Dan asked her.
Nellie sighed dramatically. "Well, I found out the themes of every party Mrs. Dhine has ever thrown, all the foods that make Mr. Dhine puke..."
"Shakespeare word," Dan murmured, grinning at Amy.
"...and other useless facts like that. Absolutely nothing about Vespers or anything juicy."
"You tried your best, Nellie," Amy said gently.
"And," Mr. McIntyre said, "if she was satisfied with your work, she may call you again for a future party."
Nellie's face lit up. "Oh, she was VERY satisfied," she said smugly. "Everyone loved the food."
"Almost everyone," Amy murmured.
Nellie ignored her. "It's very likely she'll call me again."
"Excellent," Mr. McIntyre said, standing up. "Everything is going smoothly. As long as the location of the apartment stays a secret, we can continue this work."
Jonah and Hamilton glanced at each other.
"Actually..."
"Yeah, about that..."
Mr. McIntyre looked at them. "What is it?" he asked.
Hamilton winced. "Apparently, they've been following Amy and Dan. According to Mr. Dhine, they don't know where we are, yet."
"But," Jonah added, "he said they would know in a few days."
The room was deadly silent. Nellie was the first to speak.
"We have to get out of here," she said.
"Agreed." Fiske stood up. "And I know just where to go. Everyone, back your bags and meet me by the front door in twenty minutes."
He left the room, with Mr. McIntyre close behind.
The others looked at each other. Then they all jumped up and dashed down the hall to their rooms.
In five minutes, Ian and Hamilton had packed all of their belongings into their bags. Dan was still staring into his closet, trying to decide what would go and what would stay.
Fiske entered the room and saw his nephew's dilemma.
"Just pack what you need for the next few nights," he said. "I'll have some men come and pick up the rest of your, Amy's and Nellie's belongings."
Dan let out a sigh of relief. He quickly stuffed some T-shirts and pants into a knapsack. Then he looked around at the room.
"Uncle Fiske," he said, "are we ever coming back here?"
Fiske's face was drawn and dark. "I don't know, kiddo," he said, "But I think you will be fairly satisfied with where we will be staying."
Twenty minutes after the sudden end to the meeting in the den, everyone was gathered by the front door, ready to go.
Fiske came back inside. "We have the SUV and limo outside. I'm driving the SUV, Nellie's driving the limo."
"Sweet!" Nellie exclaimed.
"Mr. McIntyre," Fiske added, "will be staying here to tie up some loose ends."
He opened the door. "Okay, everybody out!"
There was a mad dash for the limo. In the end, Natalie, Reagan, Sinead, Dan, and Ted got the limo. Amy, Hamilton, Ian, Madison, Ned, and Jonah piled into the SUV.
Nellie followed Fiske down the highway. It was just past midnight, and there were hardly any other cars on the road.
They finally turned down a long driveway that was familiar to all of the Cahills. In their separate vehicles, Amy and Dan gasped.
The familiar mansion came into view as they drove down the driveway. It looked the same as it had every weekend of their life until three years ago.
The Holts winced as they saw Grace Cahill's mansion. It had been their family who had burned it down in the first place.
The SUV and limo pulled up to the front doors. Amy and Dan were the first ones out, and they ran up to the huge wooden doors.
"It's..." Amy breathed.
"...not burned," Dan finished. He turned to his great-uncle, who was getting out of the SUV. "How...?"
Fiske smiled. "The mansion still technically belongs to you two. I took the liberty of having it rebuilt a while back."
Dan looked at his sister, who looked like she was tearing up.
Behind them, Jonah whistled. "Dang," he said. "That's hot."
Fiske handed Amy a set of keys. "This one is for the front door," he said, holding up a small silver one. Amy took he key in trembling hands, and put it in the lock. Dan pushed open the door, and they stepped inside.
It was as if they had never been on the hunt. Any second, Grace would come striding into the front hall with Saladin in her arms. Everything was the same as always, from the wallpaper to the floor tiles to the pictures hanging on the wall.
Amy turned in a slow circle, taking it all in. "How did you do it?" she asked in awe.
Fiske smiled. "I had lived in this house all my life," he said. "I spent most of my time wandering around these halls. It wasn't hard to duplicate the original."
Dan was speechless, for once. He just stood still, gaping at his surroundings.
"Okay," Fiske said. "Amy, Dan, why don't you two show everyone to the guest bedrooms?" He smiled. "I'm sure you two will want to stay in your old rooms."
At that, the two Cahills dashed down the hall, not bothering to see if the others were following. They ran up the familiar set of stairs, and down another hallway.
The siblings reached the end of the hall, and they each pulled open doors across the hall from each other.
Amy stepped into her old room and gasped. The old oak bookcase was in the corner. Of course, she knew it wasn't the same bookcase, but it looked so the same that she couldn't help but think it was.
Only a few books were on the shelves—Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie, and a few others. She didn't expect Fiske to remember every book that she kept on those shelves, but she loved him for remembering those few.
Amy realized that Fiske must have visited Grace many times during the week, while Amy and Dan were at the apartment. He must have looked into their rooms before. Amy vaguely remembered discovering a new book on her shelf every once in awhile. She had always assumed it was Grace. Could it have been Fiske?
Her bed was tucked into the opposite corner, with the same light green sheets and pillows. Stars twinkled from the window next to the bed, and the deep purple cushions sat on the window seat, same as always. Amy curled up on the window seat and stared out into the night.
Dan burst into his old room and whooped. His ninja pictures and posters were tacked onto the wall over his bed. In his closet, two empty cardboard boxes sat on the floor—for storing his card collection, just like he used too.
He collapsed onto his bed with a contented sigh, and was amazed to see that Fiske had even remembered the glow-in-the-dark stars pasted into the ceiling.
The remaining Cahills stood awkwardly in the hallway.
Nellie was the first to speak. "I guess," she said slowly, "we can just pick out our own rooms?"
There was a murmuring of agreement, and the kids found places to sleep, in hopes of a good night's rest.
Okay, semi-short chapter. Sorry about that. This is more like a "review and bridge" chapter than anything else. I'm pretty sure there will be more going on in the next chapter.
Response to Reviews:
-AngelLilies: Well, what can I do? She's paying the dollar. Plus, I don't have any chocolate cake XD
-ashleybett: I fixed it, thank you. It was just a typo.
-I'mDifferent-GetOverIt: Thanks for understanding!
-booklover1209: Wow, that good? XD Thanks! Yeah...sorry. Not really a Datalie fan. I was planning on a little Deagan, but idk how much.
-The Booknerds: It's called The Love of Three Oranges, and I play a clown. It's pretty funny. Break a leg in your play!
-Hello: Fine, it's your choice XD Sorry...Natalie and Jonah got a 42%. Not good odds. And I just updated SYB! But it's kind of lame...*sigh*
-SlytherinGurrl: See above.
-Hiker Writer:
Me: DAN! YOU FORGOT TO USE CODE NAMES!
Dan: Hey, I was concentrating on not getting caught, okay? EXCUSE ME!
Dan apologizes for his fail.
-AUniqueGirl: YES! TAKE THAT, EVAN TOLLIVER!
-Melissa White: Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out. And about the duck...well, you see, Mrs. Dhine wanted to serve beet soup, but beet soup is one of the few foods in this world that Nellie does not like. *GASP* Anyway, since she was pretending to be the party planner, she took out the soup and skipped right to the main course. Luckily, Mrs. Dhine failed to notice this. And there was dessert, it was just not important enough to be mentioned in the narrative. Sorry if that wasn't clear XD
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED! YOU PEOPLE MAKE MY DAY!
I'm hoping to update soon, but no promises. Our show is next week, and there's so much work to be done. So please enjoy, review, and patiently await...
CHAPTER 22
-KT
P.S. Hope everyone had a happy Halloween! I was Annabeth, and I made a CHB t-shirt and wore a Yankees hat. ((I didn't turn invisible though...*sad*))