Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library (15 page)

“We’re officially dead,” said Akimi.

“Fifty-five seconds,” said Mr. Lemoncello.

“Okay, we break it up four ways,” said Kyle. “The first and third rows are similar, I’ll do them.”

“I’ll do the last one,” said Akimi.

“I’ll take the second row,” said Miguel.

“I’m four,” said Sierra.

“Fifty seconds,” said Mr. Lemoncello.

Everyone went to work.

“Mine is some guy hitting himself in the thumb but with a ‘gr’ and an ‘o’?” muttered Akimi. “Then the male symbol where the ‘le’ equals ‘rx’? ‘Marx’? Does that make sense? Hello? Kyle? Is my second half ‘Marx’?”

Kyle didn’t answer. He was too busy deciphering his own clue lines. “ ‘Outlet,’ change the ‘let’ to ‘side,’ ” he mumbled. “ ‘Golf’ minus the ‘g’ and the ‘l.’ The letter ‘A.’ ”

“Forty seconds.”

“ ‘Dog.’ ” He dropped to the third line. He just needed the first word. “ ‘Bowling
pins
’ without the ‘p’ but add an ‘ide.’ ”

“Thirty seconds.”

Kyle glanced at Miguel. He was moving his lips, mouthing out his part of the quote. Sierra, too.

“You guys ready?” Kyle whispered.

“Hang on,” said Miguel.

“Twenty seconds.”

“Okay. Go.”

Kyle read the first line: “ ‘Outside of a dog …’ ”

Miguel picked up the thread: “ ‘… a book is man’s best friend.’ ”

Kyle continued. “ ‘Inside of a dog …’ ”

Sierra took over. “ ‘… it’s too dark to read.’ ”

Akimi brought them home: “ ‘Groucho Marx!’ ”

“Is that your final answer?” asked Mr. Lemoncello.

“Yes,” said Kyle, and then he repeated the entire quote:

“ ‘Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.’—Groucho Marx.”

Bells rang. Chaser lights flashed. The audience went wild. Akimi and Sierra actually squealed and hugged each other.

“You are correct!” shouted Mr. Lemoncello. “There’s no dead end in Norvelt, not today! Take those five library cards, Team Kyle! You won them fair and square!”

Charles and Andrew heard a commotion on the third floor. Bells ringing. An audience whooping it up. Girls squealing.

“Come on,” said Charles.

They raced up the stairs and peeked into the Electronic Learning Center. Kyle Keeley and his teammates were all hugging each other and slapping high fives. On every video screen in the game room, Charles could see a pictogram puzzle.

“What’s going on in there?” whispered Andrew.

“They might be gaining on us,” Charles whispered back. “We need to pick up our pace. Quick—where would I find a book called
Hoosier Hospitality
written by Eve Healy Aresty?”

“The nine hundreds room.”

“Let’s go.”

Charles and Andrew scurried back to the second floor and the 900s room.

Where they found Haley Daley holding
Hoosier Hospitality
by Eve Healy Aresty.

“Oh, hello, you guys,” she said, slamming the book shut.

Charles moved toward her. Slowly.

“Find anything interesting in that book, Haley?”

“Not really.” She giggled. “Just a bunch of dumb junk about Indiana.”

Charles knew she was hiding something.

“I wonder, Haley, if you and I might share a quiet word?” He turned to Andrew. “In private.”

“Does that mean I’m supposed to leave?”

“Yes, Andrew. It’s for the good of the team. Trust me.”

“Okay. But I’ll be right outside that door if you decide to double-cross me or something.”

“Thank you, Andrew. This will only take a quick minute.”

Peckleman left the room.

Smiling, Charles moved even closer to Haley. So close he could smell her bubble gum. Or shampoo. Maybe both.

“Let’s step over here,” he said, taking Haley by the elbow. “I found another fascinating book that I think you’ll just love.” He guided her to a spot behind a bookcase where their conversation couldn’t be observed by the security camera blinking up in the ceiling.

Haley went with Charles.

If he had been looking for the same book she’d just found, that meant he was playing the library escape game along a similar path. Charles Chiltington might have clues Haley could use. Clues she needed.

“Rumor has it,” Charles whispered, “that your parents wrote your library essay for you.”

Inside, Haley was grinning. Obviously, Charles would try to bully her into joining his team. Fine. She’d pretend to be frightened.

“What?” she whispered back, pretending to be terrified. “That’s a lie. My dad just helped me with some of the spelling.”

“Aha! So you admit it. All the spelling in your essay wasn’t your own?”

Okay. This was going to take more acting skill than usual. Having someone check your spelling wasn’t against anybody’s rules for anything.

She widened her eyes. Made her lips quiver. “What do you want, Charles?”

“For you to join my team.”

“Why should I do that?”

“Two reasons. One, if you’re on my side, your flagrant plagiarism remains our dirty little secret. Two, I know what to do with that silhouette card you just found in the
Hoosier Hospitality
book.”

“You do?”

“Oh, yes. If we share our clues, the pictures will create a phrase telling us how to find the alternate exit.”

Haley smiled. For real. This was working out perfectly. She’d get all their clues, and even if they all won together, Mr. Lemoncello would definitely make her the real star of his TV commercials. She had “zazz.” Charles and Andrew did not.

“Okay,” she said. “Deal. I’m on your team.”

Then she handed Charles the clue she had found in the
Hoosier
book:

“Of course!” said Charles. “After all, Indiana is the Hoosier State.”

“Oh, man,” said Kyle, leading his team around the balcony, back to the Young Adult Room. “Nine library cards. This is fantastic!”

They gathered around a table.

“Okay, guys. Time for everybody to put their cards on the table. Literally.”

The teammates set down their cards. Kyle spread out the five from the discard bowl. Akimi pulled out a pad and wrote all the information on one master list:

“Wow,” said Sierra. “That’s a lot of good books. But what do all those authors and titles mean?”

“It means we need Charles’s, Andrew’s, and Haley’s cards,” said Kyle.

“Really?” said Akimi. “Because if you ask me, we already have way too much information.”

“Well,” said Kyle, “maybe later we’ll find a clue that’ll tell us how to read
this
clue.”

“And how are we going to do that?” asked Miguel.

“Have you ever played this?” Kyle pointed to the Bibliomania box.

“Nope. Always wanted to.”

“We were just about to get up a game.”

“Does this have anything to do with finding our way out of the library?”

“We sure hope so,” said Akimi.

“Awesome.”

“By the way,” Kyle said to Miguel, “what’d you find in the Art and Artifacts Room?”

“Yeah,” said Akimi. “All those papers you kept trying to hide from us.”

Miguel grinned. “The original blueprints for the Gold Leaf Bank building.”

“Clever,” said Kyle. “That way you could look for old exits that might still exist behind new walls.”

“Exactly.”

“Find any extra exits?” asked Akimi.

“Nope. No hidden windows, either.”

“Yeah, what’s up with that? How come they built this place with so few windows?”

“To discourage bank robbers, I guess,” said Kyle.

“Yep,” said Miguel. “The only way in was through the front door. The fire exits could only be opened from the inside, like at a movie theater. The vault itself was all the way down in the basement.”

“Mr. Lemoncello kept all that security,” said Kyle, “and added his own.”

“So it would seem.”

“Well, hopefully Bibliomania will lead us to some kind of alternate exit.”

“And fast,” said Akimi. “Don’t forget, we’re not the only ones playing this game. One of those other guys is probably halfway out the door already.”

“Okay,” said Kyle, “game play is pretty simple. You spin the spinner and advance your piece the number of
spaces the needle points to. You move around the library and go into each of the ten Dewey decimal rooms, where you can pick up a book by answering a clue card. If you guess wrong, you get a new clue card in the same room on your next turn. The first person to fill the ten slots in their ‘bookshelf’ and spin their way out of the library wins.”

“It’s sort of like Trivial Pursuit,” said Sierra. “And the questions aren’t all that hard because they’re mostly multiple-choice.”

“Let’s hear one!” said Miguel eagerly.

The cards were separated into ten multicolored mini-stacks, one for each room. Kyle grabbed a green card.

“Okay, this is for the eight hundreds room. Literature. ‘Deathly ill and pursued by the Ringwraiths, Frodo Baggins was carried safely across the River Bruinen on the gleaming white elf-horse of Glorfindel named: A) Asphodel, B) Asfaloth, C) Almarian, D) Anglachel.’ ”

Akimi shook her head like she was having a brain freeze. “Wha-huh?”

“I think the answer might be ‘A,’ ” said Miguel.

“They’re all ‘A’s,’ ” said Kyle. “Asphodel, Asfaloth, Al—”

“It’s ‘B) Asfaloth,’ ” said Sierra. “It’s from J. R. R. Tolkien’s
Lord of the Rings
.”

Kyle flipped the card over and read the answer. “ ‘You are correct. You get a copy of
Lord of the Rings
to put in your bookshelf.’ ”

“So, Kyle,” said Akimi, “how exactly is knowing the name of an elf-horse going to help us get out of the library?”

“Maybe it’s like a secret code,” suggested Miguel. “And the ten book titles will form a sentence telling us how to get out.”

“Possibly,” said Kyle. “But I see one problem.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s too random. Mr. Lemoncello would have no idea which ten cards we might pick.”

“Well,” said Sierra, “maybe there are only
ten
questions. One for each room.”

Akimi grabbed the card stacks, fanned them out. “Nope. They’re all different.”

“Hang on,” said Kyle.

He was remembering something about another game: Mr. Lemoncello’s Indoor-Outdoor Scavenger Hunt.

How his mother had been able to write to the company and request a fresh set of cards.

He turned to the video camera mounted in a corner. “I’d like my Librarian Consultation, please.”

“What’s up, Kyle?” asked Miguel.

“I’m playing a hunch.”

The holographic Mrs. Tobin appeared behind the young adult librarian’s desk.

“How may I help you, KYLE?”

“My friends and I want to play Bibliomania but we were wondering: Is there a new set of cards?”

“Yes, KYLE. There is.”

And a fresh deck of cards popped up through a slot in the desk.