As soon as Jake spoke, the man on the left twisted his rifle and jammed it into the face of the soldier beside him. He collapsed, causing enough of a distraction that Alex was able to lunge forward and wrestle the last man's gun away. Jake dropped him with a punch, and as suddenly as the action had started, everything was still.

Their savior removed his helmet to reveal a face identical to Jake's. "Thought you were supposed to be good at fighting," Eliot said.

"Why get bruised when I knew you'd be here?" Jake said.

Cassie grabbed his arm so suddenly that he startled. "Triplets?" she squeaked. "Jake, are you a triplet?"

"Yeah," he said, pulling free of her grip. "Thought I said that."

"You most certainly did not say that." Her voice had taken on that high-pitched quality she got just before she started bouncing and/or screaming, and Jake sent a pleading look toward Baird to save him.

But he found no sympathy there. "You didn't," she said. "I would have remembered that. One of you's a genius, the other's a DEA legend, and this one infiltrates the enemy and takes them out without breaking a sweat. What do your other siblings do, Stone? Is one a nuclear physicist? President of a small country?"

"One teaches kindergarten," Alex said, shrugging.

Jake chuckled. "Eliot, meet my team. This is Baird, our Guardian, and the other Librarians, Cassandra, Ezekiel, and Flynn. And you already—"

"Harry?" Eliot interrupted. His eyes were focused on Flynn, his expression a mixture of surprise and confusion.

Flynn blinked at him. "Uh... no, Flynn. Flynn Carsen. Not Harry. Unless you're using that as an adjective, in which case I'm offended."

Eliot frowned. "But... you look..."

"More identical siblings we don't know about?" Eve said.

Flynn shook his head. "I'm an only child. If I have a twin out there, I don't know about him."

"I love a good mystery as much as anyone," Cassie said. "But we're running out of time. Shouldn't we get to the auction?"

Eliot's eyes stayed on Flynn a moment longer, and Jake resolved to find out more about this Harry later. But first things first—the auction started in less than 30 minutes. Auction first, weird identical strangers later.

"Do you know where to get in?" Jake asked.

Eliot blinked at Jake. "The Welcome Center. These guys showed up a little while ago, but I didn't see anyone who looked like they were in charge. I got ahold of a uniform and a helmet—"

"How'd you do that, exactly?" Baird asked.

"—and was going to try to find the Curator," Eliot went on. "But I was ordered to patrol the perimeter with them. Good thing for you guys, huh?"

Baird looked like she was going to repeat her question, so Jake started forward and hoped the others would follow. "How does this work? Do we each need an invitation or can we get in as a group?"

"As far as I can tell, it's one invitation per person," Eliot answered. "I haven't seen any other groups. There's a dozen other guests already inside, but it seems pretty exclusive. Who's going in?"

"We all are," Jake said, gesturing toward Ezekiel. He held up the forged invitations and started passing them out.

Eliot held his up and inspected it closely. "Not bad," he said.

"Not bad?" Ezekiel repeated incredulously. "It's perfect!"

"The paper feels a little thin. But you didn't have a lot of time to do this, did you?" Eliot spoke without turning around, but Jake could imagine the look on his face. The one that wasn't quite smug, but clearly said I know you hate me and I think it's funny. Jake had been on the receiving end of that look often enough in his childhood, and he found it immensely more amusing when it was aimed at someone else.

But Ezekiel wasn't one to let an accusation like that slide. "The paper is fine," he insisted, jogging to hold his invitation up in front of Eliot's face. "You clearly don't have the kind of delicate touch required for this kind of work. Why don't you go off and punch some more bad guys and leave the forgery to the experts."

"I know experts," Eliot said in a flat voice. "I've worked with experts. You ain't it."

"What would you—?" Ezekiel started, but Baird pulled him back and sent an admonishing look toward Jake, as if he was supposed to control Eliot's comments.

"Argue later," she said. "We've got work to do."

They approached the front door, which was guarded by another pair of soldiers in uniforms identical to Eliot's. He gestured back at the Librarians and Alex as they approached and grunted, "More for the auction."

"Invitations," one of the soldiers said.

Eliot tapped his stolen gun. "Already checked 'em."

"Still. Everyone has to show one before they go in."

Eliot shrugged and waved back to Jake and the others. "Invitations."

Baird held hers up, locking eyes with each of the guards as if daring them to challenge her. They glanced at the paper and nodded for her to pass, looking away. They recognized authority when they saw it, even when it wasn't connected to them. She had that effect on people.

The rest of them trailed through, offering their invitations and passing into the building behind Eliot. Once inside, the security was much more sparse; a few cameras blinked at them from the ceiling, but there were no more soldiers. "There are a few guards inside the auction room," Eliot said, as if reading Jake's mind. "I'll follow you in and watch the doors."

"Pretty handy," Flynn muttered.

"Handy," Baird echoed. Something in her voice made Jake pause. She sounded... worried. He gave her a curious look, but she wasn't facing him. He'd have to ask her about it later. She could be a little overcautious, but it wasn't like Eliot was some stranger who'd randomly showed up to help them. Well... he supposed to the rest of them, he kind of was. But the fact that he was Jake's brother had to give him some kind of leeway. After all, Baird seemed willing enough to let Alex in once she figured out who he was.

Though as far as that went, telling her about Eliot's past was probably not a good idea.

Eliot led them into a cold, low-ceilinged room filled with rows of chairs, all set up to face a platform against the far wall. It wasn't what Jake had expected; when he thought of an auction run by a figure as grand and mysterious as the Curator, he'd imagined something more elegant, with chandeliers and art and artifacts displayed to showcase the Curator's wealth and influence. Instead, the room was bare but for the rows of folding chairs and a few informational posters about Fort Washita's history. It looked more like a last minute presentation than an exclusive auction.

But with little else to focus on, everyone's attention would be on whatever the Curator was selling. Maybe that was the point.

"Problem," Flynn said.

Baird sighed. "Already? Can't we go ten minutes without encountering a new problem? Five minutes? Three?"

"What's the problem?" Alex asked.

"I count three empty chairs," Flynn said. "And seven of us."

"Eliot will be by the door," Jake pointed out.

Cassie eyed the remaining chairs at the back of the room. "Okay, so six. The rest of us can just stand."

"That'll call too much attention to us," Baird said. "And the Curator might have only invited the number of people that there are seats for."

"Then we split up," Jones said.

"Especially you three," Flynn said, pointing at Jake and his brothers. "The point is not to attract attention. Identical triplets does the opposite."

Jake frowned. "Fine. I'll stay here to check out the artifact, Eliot can watch the door from the hall, and Alex can patrol the perimeter or something."

"Already did that," Eliot said.

"Then explore the building," Jake said.

"Already—"

"I'll see what I can find out about the Curator," Alex interrupted.

"I'll go with you," Cassie offered.

"And I'll go with Eliot," Baird said. She sent a long look at Jake as if expecting him to argue, but he just nodded. Between Eliot and Baird, there was no way anyone would sneak up on them in the auction room.

"Great," Cassie said. She slid her arm through Alex's and smiled at him. "Then let's go see what we can find out."