The 39 Clues Book 7: The Viper's Nest (3 page)

"I'm with you and you're with me!

And so we are all together!

So we are all together! So we are all together!

We are marching to Peoria! Peoria! Peoria!

We are marching to Peoria!

Peoria, hoo-RARRRRRAAAGGGHHHHHHHHH!"

"Huh?" Dan scratched his head. "I'm thinking Irina was more into, like, gloomy Russian church music."

Nellie held out the iPod toward Amy. "It's the album
Amputation for Beginners,"
she said. "Third song, 'The Tracks of My Spit.' Go ahead, listen."

Amy inserted the earbuds. For a moment, her face got all lemony and puckered, which Dan found fun to watch. But soon she grinned and said, "Dan, don't you see? Our next destination is in the lyric!
That's
what Irina was trying to tell us, but she didn't have the chance to finish. It's right there at the end of the verse --the place they're marching to in the song!"

Dan pumped his fist in the air. "Woo-HOO! Bye-bye, Jakarta, hello ..." His voice trailed off, his expression suddenly slack. "Peoria? As in
Illinois?"

"Well, no one said all Cahill ancestors had to live in exotic places," Amy said. "I'll bet Peoria is nice."

Behind them the hatch smacked open, and Uncle

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Alistair staggered up into the rain. He was hunched and sleepy, and he carried an umbrella along with his cane. "My goodness, what a storm," he said, rushing to the overhang. "I confess I slept through most of it, until I heard this dreadful screaming --"

"That was
singing,
Al," Nellie shot back.

"Yes, well, I'm not exactly hep to the new styles," Alistair continued. "But, erm, those lyrics--There is a song I remember from the Harvard Glee Club. The song was brought to us, interestingly, by a bright young grad student from--"

Another bolt of lightning washed the eerily darkened sky in bluish white. As if on cue, the sea began to rise to the starboard side. Inside the cabin, Arif was shouting, his voice muffled by the sound of pelting rain.

"What's he saying?" Dan shouted.

Alistair was staring out into the fog. "Perhaps it is Indonesian for
we have company!"

A red light was pulsing toward them.

"The police ..." Dan said.

"Why would they suspect this boat?" Amy asked. "They're looking for the launch Nellie took!"

The boat's motor, which had been roaring against the force of the storm, now began to power down. Arif was heading out the cabin door, his arms in the air.

"He's giving us up!" Dan shouted.

"Of course," Alistair said. "If they catch us, he's an accomplice to a getaway. If he gives us up, he's a hero."

Nellie ran through the cabin door.
"Get belowdecks,

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right away!"
she shouted over her shoulder.
"Go!"

Before they could react, Nellie was sitting at the controls. The motor revved.

The bow rose up and the boat veered to the right. Alistair grabbed a pile of life vests. "Put these on!" he shouted, throwing vests to Dan, Amy, and Nellie.

Dan quickly donned his vest and scooped Saladin into his arms. He tried to get to the hatch, but Nellie was swinging the boat too sharply. He, Amy, and Alistair stumbled toward the stern.

Nellie had managed to slam the cabin door shut. Arif was banging on it, shouting.

"Hard to port, Nellie--that's the wrong side!"
Alistair shouted through the cabin window.
"It will be too shallow!"

The side of the boat now rose to starboard, and Dan's knees buckled. He slid across the deck, holding tight to Saladin. Alistair, trying to stand, lost his balance. Windmilling his arms, he staggered toward the side of the boat. Amy grabbed his arm, but the combined weight just gave him more momentum.

The deck angled higher. Dan reached out to brace himself against the gunwale, which was slanting ever closer to the water.

Alistair and Amy slammed into his side. He let go of Saladin.

The cat's scream was the last thing Dan heard before he and Saladin plunged into the Java Sea.

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CHAPTER 4

"Saladin!"
Dan screamed as his head popped above the water's surface.

Saladin was paddling, his wet fur matted to his face. He was all eyes, as if they'd grown twice their normal size. He seemed frightened to death.

"Dan ... swim to shore!" cried Amy. She was to his right, treading water. "I see it. We're not that far!"

"Saladin!"
Dan repeated.

"For heaven's sake, let the cat go!"
Alistair cried out. "It's only an animal!"

Lightning flashed nearby, and Dan could hear a tree branch crack.

Dan could see two shapes converging toward him, large and small. One was the boat, tacking left and right as Nellie strained to see him over the steering wheel. The other was Alistair, swimming with slow, even strokes, somehow managing to keep hold of his cane.

Dan swam faster. He did not want to be grabbed in the water by anyone. Not before reaching Saladin.

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"Gotcha!" As he grabbed the Mau and drew him close, Saladin yelped and scratched. "Easy, now ..."

A wave slapped his face. He let himself rise with it, trying not to swallow. Trying not to let go of Saladin.

Where was the shore?

On the downwash of the wave, Dan looked desperately around for some sense of direction. Through the rain he could see a small flashing light. He began swimming, holding tight to Saladin. Alistair was soon by Dan's side. "Good, Daniel!" he cried.

"Mrrrrrooooowwwwwrr!"
Saladin whined.

Amy was just ahead of him. The boat had stalled. Nellie and Arif were now by the railing, arguing in two different languages. Nellie was strapping on a life jacket and preparing to jump.

A wave broke over Dan's head and he gulped seawater. He could feel it filling up his lungs. Swimming with one hand was exhausting, even with a life jacket. The spray from the sea's surface blinded him....

And then his head bashed into Amy's knee.

"REEOOOW!"
screeched Saladin.

Dan's feet dropped -- and he felt sand beneath him.

Saladin shivered, his chest pounding fast and hard. Dan stood, cradling the Mau in his arms. He glanced behind him for the police boat but could see nothing through the fog and rain. Swimming against the rough surf, Nellie shouted, "I'm at your back!"

"Are you okay?" Amy asked Dan.

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Dan nodded. "I'm good. Thanks. Saladin, too."

As he watched Nellie stand in the shallows, a white light from the shore momentarily blinded him. Dan shielded Saladin's eyes as the light traveled to Amy, then Nellie. Finally, it settled on Alistair.

A hand came out of the mist, grabbing Dan and pulling him onto the sand. A couple of others reached out for Nellie and Amy.

"Itu dia!"
a voice called out.

Alistair's voice, muffled but agitated, came through the pattering of the rain. "I beg your pardon, officers, unhand me! This is a mistake!"

"Ikuti kami!"
the voice snapped back.

Dan turned to see one of the cops slapping a pair of handcuffs on Alistair and dragging him toward a van. Dan shook loose and ran toward them.

"Stay back, Dan!" Alistair shouted over his shoulder. "Isabel must have pinned the fire on me! I may be able to turn this to our advantage --but only if you don't make trouble! I can handle this."

"But--but they can't do this!" Dan shouted back.

One of the cops turned toward Dan.

Glorp.
Dan swallowed his next words of protest. He sheltered Saladin in his chest and shrank back.

"Dan, stand still," Nellie commanded. "Both of you, be safe!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Dan could see the boat floating just offshore. Arif was still aboard, talking quietly into his cell phone.

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The cop glowered at each of them and began pointing.
"Tetap di situ!
You, you, you, you ... stay!"

Then, barking a command, he shoved Alistair into the van and shut the door. He slid into the driver's seat, and the van slipped away into the fog.

* * *

"It's a trumped-up charge," Nellie said. "It can't stick. He'll be out in no time."

"Why would Isabel pin it on him?" Amy asked.

Dan nodded, shifting the pet carrier from his right hand to his left.
"We
were the ones she wanted to kill. It doesn't make sense."

"I guess he took the hit for you," Nellie said. "You owe him, big-time."

Amy's shoes squished loudly as they all trudged into town from the dock. The rain had stopped as suddenly as it had started, and the late morning had a crisp feeling. After Alistair had been carted away, they'd retrieved their stuff from the boat, but everything was drenched--except for Dan's computer, which he had wrapped in plastic, in true Dan style. Alistair had been on Amy's mind a lot, but she didn't want to admit what she was thinking--that it wouldn't bother her a bit if he were jailed in Indonesia for a long, long time.

Owe him?
For all Amy knew, Alistair could have staged the whole thing. To slip away again.

We gave him the due. We trusted him.

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How did he do it? And how did they end up trusting a guy...

A guy who was at our house the night of the fire and didn't do a thing to stop it.

"We don't owe him anything," Amy growled.

Dan looked at her, startled. "Hey, Alistair was ready to die for us last night."

"I think he's up to something," Amy said, "and Isabel may still be after us." The sun hit her eyes. It was peeking through trees now, dappling the water-darkened sidewalks, as if they'd already been through nighttime and fast-forwarded to another day. Just ahead, she could see taxicabs whizzing across a busy street. "Let's book a flight and get out of here."

Nellie exhaled. "Sure, no problem. My Visa's gone, but I can rack up my MasterCard. Remind me to enter the Peoria Lotto when we get there."

"Peoria ..." Dan murmured. "No dissing the place but is anyone worried that we're
wrong
about this?"

"Hey, we decoded the message," Nellie said. "Plus, there are two Cahill Cluesters who know the song. Irina wrote down the words, and Alistair sang it in the Harvard Glee Club. It's a lock, dude."

"Glee
Club ..." Dan repeated. "What do they do, sit around and tickle each other?"

"It's an old-school word for chorus." Amy smiled. "Both Dad and Mom sang in their college glee clubs. When we were growing up, their friends would come

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over and do a cappella music. You know, songs without instruments? One guy would bring this sheet music. Grace would sometimes come to hear. I used to love listening. Especially some of these amazing songs in German and French."

"Figures you'd like the boring stuff," Dan said.

In her memory, Amy could see the men and women standing in the old living room, their reading glasses at half-mast on their noses. She could picture the ornate script of the song titles on the sheet music....

And in that moment, she knew exactly what she needed to do next.

Just up the street was a stout tan-brick building with flags flying from either side of the front door. The words
Perpustakaan Umum
were carved into a marble stone above the entrance, and even though they were completely unfamiliar, she had a feeling she knew exactly what the building was. "Can we make a short stop here?"

Dan's skin was beginning to lose its color. "Oh, har-har. A library, right? Just to make me crazy. 'Cause there's no reason we would go into a library. Right? I mean, we don't need to research Peoria, do we?"

Amy began heading for the building. "Not Peoria. Something else."

"Not funny, Amy!" Dan called as she pushed open the heavy brass doors. "Amy ...
Amy?"

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CHAPTER 5

Alistair Oh had nothing against brass wristwear, but handcuffs created unsightly marks on one's skin.

As the police van jounced along a road west of Jakarta, he carefully adjusted the metal shackle so it was
over
the cuff of his Egyptian-cotton shirt. This sort of thing was a good distraction from the chaos in his brain. Nothing made sense anymore --how could
Irina Spasky
be dead? Why had she saved him and the children?

He had only been able to stare in disbelief. He had been a coward, just as he'd been seven years ago ...
Don't think of that now.

He had to keep his head clear. There were more immediate problems.

The car bounced over a pothole, and Alistair heard a grunt of complaint from the front. From the person who had framed him. The person he had stupidly assumed would be Isabel Kabra.

From the front passenger seat, a familiar gaunt old man turned stiffly. "Are you experiencing discomfort,