(Author's Note: Yay, I updated! ;D Please read & review! Quotes from the 1st book in this chapter, which I did not make up and belong to Mr. Rick Riordan. I hope he doesn't mind me borrowing them for my story. I give all credit to him. Some spoilers for book 10, sort of. Disclaimer: I do not own the 39 Clues.)
Chapter 12
Can't Be An Ekat
"They're in that museum, aren't they?" Hamilton asked his father as the Holt clan jogged through the streets of Boston.
"Yep," Eisenhower Holt huffed.
"We'll get the lead, right, Dad?" Reagan asked.
"Of course. Why wouldn't we? We're Holts!" her father patted her back affectionately. Reagan winced. More like smacked her back. Madison was quite, which was unusual.
"Look, there! There's the museum!" Mary-Todd gasped as they rounded a corner.
"Race ya, Mad?" Hamilton challenged his little sister. No response.
"Mad?" Reagan wheeled around. Madison Holt was nowhere in sight.
"Take it," the dark-haired girl urged. She peered around the alley, to make sure no one was listening.
"Why?" the other put her hands on her hips.
"Do it!" the first insisted. The second girl removed one hand from her hip to receive the remote.
"What does it do?" she asked the dark-haired girl.
"What do you think it does?" the teenager responded tightly.
"Well, it sure doesn't look friendly," the second girl commented.
"It's not," the dark-haired teen agreed.
"What do I do with it?" the eleven-year-old asked.
"You give to someone as a birthday present. What do you think you do with it?" the teen muttered.
"Oh." the younger girl was skeptical.
"Please, from one Tomas to another. Remember, I had nothing to do with this. This was all your idea," the other pleaded.
"I don't know, Berkelley." The tween bit her lip.
"No names here!" the other girl, Aryavare, hissed. The younger girl shrugged. She held out a hand, expecting something for her services. Aryavare rolled her eyes and began rummaging in her bag. From it, she pulled out an expensive-looking pair of sneakers. The younger girl's eyes lit up. Aryavare planted the shoes unceremoniously in the other girl's hands.
"Good?" Aryavare asked.
"Very good," the other smiled.
"Thank you, Madison," Aryavare said, grinning.
"I thought you said no names, Berkelley," Madison's eyebrows pulled together.
"That I did," Aryavare smiled, displaying a set of pearly white teeth as she ran out of the alley.
"Madison?"
"Mad?"
"Maddy!"
"Thing Number One?"
"Daaad, I'm Thing Number One, remember?"
"Oh, uh, right, sweetie."
Madison Holt's family were in a state of utmost worry.
"Dad, I'm fine, what's with the yelling?" Madison appeared as if she had been there the whole time.
"Madison!" Eisenhower and Mary-Todd Holt embraced their daughter. Reagan and Hamilton were not nearly as warm.
"What's with the new sneaks?" Hamilton asked, with a resounding "Yeah," from Reagan.
"Oh, these old things?" Madison took no time in showing off her new footwear.
"Where'd you get those eyesores, hun?" her father grinned.
"I...I stole them," Madison tried to look proud.
"Good for you, sweetie!" Eisenhower clapped her on the back approvingly. Mary-Todd kissed her daughter on the forehead affectionately. Once again, Hamilton and Reagan did not have the same reaction as their parents.
"What's in your hand, Mad?" Reagan asked her twin.
Madison looked down at the remote and smiled broadly. "Oh! Right! Look, guys, I have a plan..."
Sinead Starling could see what resembled two snakes coiled around a sword through the lens.
The Lucian crest! Sinead might have squealed, if she wasn't so busy trying to stay silent. She beckoned her brothers to follow her, and to be quiet about it. Sinead heard the girl gasp and whisper something to her brother.
"So this is the second clue?" the boy asked, loud enough for the Starling triplets to hear. "Or a clue to the clue?" Sinead snapped a picture of the Lucian crest with her cell phone.
"Either way," she said." Nice job."
The Cahill siblings turned towards Sinead and her brothers. Sinead frowned at their clothing. Amy was wearing plain old jeans and a green t-shirt. Her grandmother's jade necklace looked ridiculously out of place. Dan wore dark blue shorts and a white and yellow striped polo.
The nerve of poor people! Sinead thought darkly.
"You lost us pretty well on the highway," she admitted. "Fortunately, there were only so many Franklin sites you could've been heading to. Thanks for the clue." She grabbed the black light reader Amy and Dan had used to find a secret message from Benjamin Franklin away from Dan.
"Now, listen close. You brats are going to stay in the museum for a half hour. Give us a head start or we'll be forced to tie you up. If you leave early, I promise Ted and Ned will find out about it. And they won't be happy," Sinead threatened. Her brothers grinned; they would enjoy having to deal with the Cahill brats.
The Starling Triplets turned to leave. Amy stared at them with wide eyes.
"W-w-wait!" She blurted. Sinead raised a brow.
"Th-there's a man…" Amy began. Her self-consciousness stopped her from continuing.
"What man?" Sinead one of her hands on her hips, as the other was holding her cell phone. Dan intervened.
"He's been watching us!" He said. "Following us! It isn't safe to go out the main entrance."
Though Sinead was amused, she and her brother did a quick scan of the museum. There was some old man in a dark suit in the balcony above, but he didn't look threatening. In fact, he seemed too busy to be threatening; he was consumed in arguing with a girl at about Sinead's age, with dark brown hair. Sinead quickly turned to Dan. "You're concerned about our safety? That's very cute, Dan, but the thing is"- Sinead stepped forward and jabbed him in the stomach for every next word-"I DON'T BELIEVE YOU."
The Starling triplets chuckled, and then ran toward the main entrance. A deep rumbling shook the floor.
BOOM!
Ned and Ted screamed, but no scream was louder than Sinead's. A rock crashed down to her left. Another to her right. Soon, she and her brothers were surrounded by a pile of rocks. Sinead shrieked frantically, as she could not see her brothers. She could, however, hear their cries of pain.
"Where am I? I can't see anything!" Sinead heard Ted shout out.
"My head. . ." Ned mumbled, barely loud enough for Sinead to hear. She was barely aware that a sharp rock was shutting her stomach.
As her brother's cries of anguish began to fade, and as the sound of ambulance alarms blared, Sinead registered the pain.
A searing pain.
An unbelievably searing pain.
Sinead screamed. And screamed. And screams. Tears fell from her face all the way down to the cuts, making Sinead feel like alcohol had been poured over her.
Only about a minute after Sinead had started screaming, someone hurriedly removed rocks from around her. Blood stained Sinead's clothes and body.
"Oh, my God," the young paramedic whispered. He called to his fellow EMT's to help get the Starlings away from the rocks. The paramedic who found Sinead began to test her consciousness.
"Can you hear me? What is your name?" he asked her urgently.
She was barely capable of whispering. "We lost the lead," Sinead's body slumped, and she fell into unconsciousness.
"How do you feel, dear?" the nurse asked the patient as she walked into the room, clipboard in hand.
"Alright, I guess. Could you pass me my glass of water?" he replied.
"Of course. I'm coming in on your right," the nurse informed Ted Starling. The nurse handed him the glass carefully. When Ted felt the cool cup in his hand, he smiled.
"Thank you," he said.
"You're welcome. Now, is there anything else I can get you?" the nurse's voice was patient.
"Ned and Sinead. Where are they?" Ted asked curiously.
"Sinead is having her operation. The stitches might take awhile, hun," the nurse explained. Ted took this information in quietly, biting his lip.
"And Ned?" Ted prompted. The nurse took a deep breath.
"Ned? Well, dear, he might be with the surgeons for awhile," she informed him.
"Surgeons?" Ted repeated the word as if it was foreign.
"Yes. Your brother Ned has been suffering severe headaches lately." She nurse turned to leave, not being able to bear the pained expression on Ted's face.
"Severe headaches?" he whimpered.
"Yes. It makes it hard for him to think," the nurse fumbled with her identification card nervously.
"He can't think?" Ted almost yelped.
"Well, of course he can. It just can be painful." The nurse gazed at her I.D. card. Boy, that picture was unflattering.
"He can't think straight." Ted whispered. The nurse was quiet.
"He can't think straight," his whisper transformed into a normal talking volume. The nurse looked worried.
"He can't think straight!" Ted yelled. The nurse had to intervene.
"Mr. Starling, it'll be fine! You'll be fine!" she tried to comfort Ted.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Ted slapped his hands over his ears.
"Mr. Starling! It is not so bad!" the nurse cried out.
"It is so bad!" Ted whimpered. The nurse gazed sadly at the heartbroken boy.
"If he can't think…," he mumbled. The nurse leaned forward, straining her ears to hear him. His next outburst quite nearly broke her eardrums.
"HE CAN'T BE AN EKAT!" Ted yelled at the top of his lungs. He threw his glass of water blindly at the wall.
The nurse ran out of the room, clutching her clipboard like a shield. What the heck was an Ekat? Was mingled in her thought process as she whipped a pen out of her pocket. On her clipboard, under the 'Condition of Patient' section of her form on Ted Starling, she wrote:
Hallucinations.
(Thanks for reading, hope you liked! Please review! Remember: I love you! ;D -WIB)