Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library (24 page)

Meanwhile, Akimi added Andrew’s and Haley’s library cards to the list on the whiteboards in Community Meeting Room B.

“We were piecing together a picture puzzle,” said Haley. “It was like a memory match game, or that old TV show
Concentration
.”

“We played one of those, too,” said Miguel. “A rebus.”

“Right. So far, I’m pretty sure it says something like ‘You walk out the way bandits crawled in.’ ”

“ ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ ” said Kyle, tapping the Bible verse they had found in the 200s room. “That points to bandits, too.”

“And the blackbird,” said Sierra. “It wailed like a police siren.”

“Chasing bandits!”

“Hang on,” said Miguel. “What about Willy Wonka? Were there criminals in the chocolate factory?”

“No,” said Sierra.

“And what about all this?” said Akimi, pointing at the list of library cards. “I added the new cards but it still doesn’t make much sense.”

“Wow,” said Haley. “What a mess.”

“Tell me about it,” said Akimi.

“I don’t think it’s another author-title game,” said Sierra, “like up on the Wonder Dome.”

“Huh?” said Haley.

“Long story,” said Miguel. “We’ll save it for later.”

“What we need,” said Kyle, “is some kind of clue to show us how to unscramble this list. Remember what Dr. Zinchenko said when the game started: ‘Your library cards are the keys to everything you will need.’ This clue is the big one, guys. We need to crack it.”

That’s when Mr. Lemoncello popped his head in the door.

“Hello, hope I’m not interrupting. We have twenty minutes till the doors open upstairs. Anybody up for an Extreme Challenge?”

“In case you forgot,” said Mr. Lemoncello, “Extreme Challenges are extremely challenging and sometimes extremely dangerous.”

“Is Charles doing one?” asked Akimi.

“He might. I’m going to ask him if he’d like to next.”

Mr. Lemoncello had changed out of his judge’s costume into some kind of cat burglar outfit—black pants, ribbed black turtleneck, and sporty black beret.

“Is that costume a clue?” asked Haley. “Because it goes with the whole bandit theme.”

“Don’t know. But Dr. Zinchenko told me to wear it for the big finale. Is there going to be a finale?”

“Maybe with Charles,” mumbled Kyle. “We’re sort of stuck.”

“At least till eleven,” added Sierra. “That’s when the most important clue will appear on the ceiling.”

“Really?” said Mr. Lemoncello. “That Dr. Zinchenko. The woman knows how to build suspense.”

“So let’s do the Extreme Challenge,” said Haley. “What do we have to lose?”

“Um, the whole game,” said Akimi.

“Not for all of us,” said Kyle. “I’ll do the challenge. After all, I’m the team captain.”

“You are?” said Haley.

“We had an election,” said Akimi. “Yesterday.”

“Oh. Cool.”

“But, Kyle,” said Miguel, “if you blow the Extreme Challenge, you lose, bro.”

“Not if my team wins.”

“No,” said Mr. Lemoncello. “If you lose, Kyle, you
lose
. You will not be allowed to share in the big prize.”

“Fine.”

“I’m going with you,” said Haley.

“No, you’re not,” said Mr. Lemoncello.

“I have to. Look, we both know I’d be a
fabulous
spokesmodel for your games and stuff, but I can’t just glom on to everything Kyle and his team have already dug up. I have to earn my place on this team.”

“Sorry, Haley. Extreme Challenges are, and always will be, solo efforts.”

“But …”

Mr. Lemoncello held up his hand. “No buts. Kyle must face this challenge alone. However …”

“Yes?”

“The rest of you can watch his progress on the video screens and cheer him on over the intercom system. You are a cheerleader, aren’t you, Haley?”

“Yep,” said Kyle. “But she’s never cheered for me.”

“Well, I will this time. I promise.”

“Excellent,” said Mr. Lemoncello. “By the way, Kyle, there is no backing out once you commit to the challenge.”

“Fine,” said Kyle. “Let’s do it.”

“Go, Kyle, gooooo!” shouted Haley.

Akimi flinched. “Um, a warning next time … please?”

“Sorry.”

Mr. Lemoncello touched his ear again. “Here is your Extreme Challenge. Dr. Zinchenko tells me:

He paused to listen.

“What?”

Mr. Lemoncello shrugged. “Sorry. I don’t write ’em. I only recite ’em. Wait. There’s more:

The room was silent.

Mr. Lemoncello touched his ear once more and continued, “ ‘And now, it’s time for the addendum.’ ”

“Huh?”

“A last-minute addition:

Mr. Lemoncello stood there grinning. For several seconds.

“Is that it?” said Kyle.

“Yes. Find what you’re looking for before the second-floor doors open, and it is yours. Fail, and you, Kyle, will be eliminated from the game, and your team, due to that series of unfortunate events, will be forced to struggle on without you. Good luck. You have fifteen minutes.”

And Mr. Lemoncello left the room.

“Dude,” said Miguel, shaking his head. “You are so dead.”

“Wait a second,” said Haley. “I think I know how to find what Mr. Lemoncello was talking about!”

“You do?” said Kyle.

“I better. I’m the one who moved it from ‘here’ to ‘there’!”

“Now then, Charles,” said Mr. Lemoncello, “would you like to utilize any of your remaining lifelines? Perhaps an Extreme Challenge? An Ask an Expert?”

“Yes, sir,” said Charles. “And may I just say, it’s kind of you to come in here and ask me that question.”

“Well, it’s cloudy with a chance of meatballs and I had nothing better to do.”

“Pardon?”

“Nothing. Just a brief flight of fancy, my mind sailing off past the phantom tollbooth. So, which lifeline would you like to use?”

“My Ask an Expert, sir.”

“Fine. See Mrs. Tobin at the main desk. I must go to my office to monitor Kyle’s Extreme Challenge.”

“What’s he doing?”

“Trying to beat you. Tootles!”

Mr. Lemoncello raised his beret by its stem, turned on his heel, and headed for one of the bookcases on the far side of the rotunda.

Charles watched him tilt back the head on a bust and press a red button in the middle of what would have been the man’s neck. A door-sized section of the bookcase swung open. Mr. Lemoncello stepped into the darkness. The bookcase swung shut.

Charles hurried to the librarian’s desk at the center of the Rotunda Reading Room.

“Mrs. Tobin?” He clapped his hands. “Mrs. Tobin? Chop-chop. I’m in a bit of a rush. The doors upstairs will be open in thirteen minutes. Mrs. Tobin?”

The holographic librarian finally appeared.

“Good morning, CHARLES. How may I help you?”

“I need to use my Ask an Expert.”

“Very well. Whom do you wish to consult with?”

“Someone who knows his way around a library.”

“If that is all you require, CHARLES, perhaps I can be of assistance.”

“I need to talk to my uncle Jimmy.”

“Your uncle Jimmy? Could you please be more specific?”

“Yes. Of course. James F. Willoughby the third.”

“
The
James F. Willoughby the third?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“The
head librarian
of the
Library of Congress
in
Washington, D.C
., is your uncle?”

“That’s right. If my mother’s brother, Uncle Jimmy, the top librarian in all of America, can’t help me find the one book I’m looking for, nobody can!”

“The memory box is down in the Stacks,” Haley told Kyle.

So he raced down to the basement. The very long, very wide cellar was just as he remembered it: filled with tidy rows of floor-to-ceiling shelving units.

Kyle looked up at the closest security camera.

“Where to next?”

“I hid it way over on the far side,” said Haley through the ceiling speakers. “On a shelf near that horrible book-sorting machine.”

Kyle hurried up the center aisle.

Suddenly, a heavy metal bookcase thundered in from the right, sliding like it was on roller skates.

“Watch it!” shouted Haley.

The bookcase skidded to a screeching halt, blocking Kyle’s path forward.

“Go left,” suggested Miguel.

The whole team was watching and cheering him on.

Kyle went left.

And another steel shelving unit shuffled in from the side.

“Jump back!” shouted Akimi.

The shelf slammed to a stop two inches in front of Kyle’s feet.

“Kyle? You okay?”

“Yeah.”

“This is like the hedge maze in the Triwizard Tournament,” said Sierra.

“Huh?”

“Harry Potter. Book four.
Goblet of Fire
.”

“Right. Need to read that one, too.”

Kyle, of course, realized he’d just discovered the most “extreme” part of his Extreme Challenge. Each one of the sliding floor-to-ceiling bookcases was loaded down with heavy cardboard cartons, books, or metal storage bins. They probably weighed several tons each. If Kyle was in the wrong place when a shelving unit came shooting in from the side, he’d be flattened like a pancake under a steamroller.