The Stolen Chapters (22 page)

Owen paused for a moment, then walked over to the science-fiction shelf, grabbed a book, and tossed it to her. “Then it's good that we can get you things that
don't
exist.”

Moira started to say something, then stopped, staring at the cover. “Huh,” she said.

“What?” he asked, suddenly nervous.

She looked up at him, a huge grin on her face. “So Bethany can just reach in and grab stuff for us, right? Anything we might need?”

“As long as it doesn't interrupt the story somehow, she can.”

Moira smiled even wider, then started pulling book after book off the shelf. “This might actually be fun after all,” she whispered, then switched shelves.

Owen moved with her. “So you have a plan now?”

“Always!” She threw some books on the floor, and Owen winced.

“Try to not beat them up?”

“Eesh, you're right,” she said, glancing down at the books. “What if by dropping them, I'm causing earthquakes or something in all those stories?” She kicked one, then bent down and put her ear to the cover.

“I don't think that's how it works,” he told her. “It's just that the better you take care of a book, the longer you get to read it.”

She laughed. “You're
adorable
, SP. You sound like someone's mom! I love it!”

That was fair. He
did
sound exactly like his mother, he realized. “So what?”

“Sew buttons!” she said, then dropped a pile of books in his arms. “This is going to be
so much fun
!”

K
iel slid down the wall next to where Bethany had collapsed earlier and handed her a copy of
What's to Come in the Future
, a book of made-up futuristic inventions. He'd opened to the page about Recovery Pills, which claimed,
You'll feel like you've had a week of sleep with just one pill!
She reached into the page and grabbed one, trying not to look out the nearby windows at the rising sun.

There wasn't much time before Owen's mother would be showing up to open the library. If they hadn't made it back by then, they'd get caught for sure.

Right now that seemed like it wouldn't be the worst thing.

“This can wait, you know,” Kiel said. “We don't have to go back in just yet.”

“He's too dangerous,” Bethany said, not looking up. “The longer he has the books, the more damage he can do. And we need your magic back as soon as possible. Besides, I'm feeling fine.” She swallowed the Recovery Pill, then started to push herself up the wall to a standing position, but Kiel gently put his hand on her shoulder.

“Just relax,” he said. “Rest for a minute. And don't worry, we'll beat him.” He gave her a Kiel smile.

“Will we?” Bethany said, still looking at the ground. “He's a Holmes. You think he doesn't know we're coming? He's probably prepared for everything we do before we even do it.” She shivered.

“You're afraid,” Kiel said, and he wasn't asking.

She nodded slowly. “Our only real way to fix this is to make Doyle forget it all, Kiel. What happens if we can't get your spell book back? Think of what someone like him could do.”

Kiel nodded. “I have been. It's . . . unpleasant. But what made you think you had to go to him in the first place?”

She dropped her head into her arms. “I just . . .
there was no other way
. Once your spell failed, what else could I do? It was either this, or just give up completely.”

“But why hide it?” Kiel asked. “Why not tell Owen and me?”

Bethany raised her head. “And what would you have said?”

Kiel grinned. “I'm in?”

“No, you wouldn't have,” Bethany said. “You'd have said it was a bad idea. And Owen would have been even more against it. And you'd have both been
right
. But I had to try one last time. And the worst thing?” She sighed. “I think he might know where my father is.”

Kiel paused. “Then we'll get that from him.”

“He won't tell us,” Bethany said. “Don't you get it? Say we outwit him, which we won't. How do we force him to tell us anything?”

“There's magic for that.”

“Magic that he knows about,” Bethany said, then pushed to her feet. “We need to get going.”

“We still have time,” Kiel said from the floor, staring up at her. “You're not telling me something, Bethany. What are you still hiding?”

Bethany turned away, not looking at him. There was
so
much she wasn't telling him at this point. That some stranger had seen her in Argon VI and claimed it was dangerous for her to be in the fictional world. That the stranger knew her father. That she wasn't sure what she'd do if Doyle offered her the location of her father in exchange for letting him keep his memory.

That after all of this, she'd decided enough was enough, and she was done jumping into books. Which meant that she'd need to bring Kiel back into his books and say good-bye for good.

“I'm just exhausted,” she said, forcing a smile at him and giving him her hand to help him up.

Kiel took the offered hand and slowly stood. “Don't worry. We'll get my magic back, wipe Doyle's memory, and be back before breakfast.”

“Oooh, pancakes,” Bethany said, her stomach rumbling maniacally. When had she even eaten last? Dinner last night? It felt like weeks ago.

She led Kiel back to the checkout counter, where Owen was waiting with an enormous pile of books. Moira appeared a minute later from Owen's mother's office and tossed
The Baker Street School for Irregular Children
onto the counter. “
That
was poorly written!” she said, grinning.

“What were you doing in there?” Bethany asked her.

“Research,” Moira said. “I've got a plan now. An
unbeatable
plan!”

“Before we start, can I make a suggestion?” Owen said, not looking at Bethany. “Whenever people go over plans in books or movies, they always fail. It's the plans that stay secret that work. So maybe we should just let Moira fill us in as we go.”

“You're such an adorable panda, aren't you,” Moira said.

“That's just so the readers can get a twist,” Bethany said, giving Owen a tired smile. “It's not like we've got that problem here. It's just us. We're not in the fictional world.”

“Bethany,” Owen said, still not looking at her. “There's a chance that someone's writing about us.”

“
Story Thieves
, I know,” she said. “I've been trying not to think about that. Maybe fictional authors can see us like our authors can see fictional people?”

“So what if we're in a sequel?” Owen asked. “I'm just saying, we have to be careful, especially giving plans away. If someone's writing this up, then that means anyone could find out about our plan. Just think of it as not jinxing ourselves.”

“Like a baby panda holding a teddy bear!” Moira said.

Owen sighed. “Maybe if we
are
in the
Story Thieves
sequel, it'll change chapters right now and skip over the plan. If that happens, at least we'll still have a chance.”

O
kay, here's the plan,” Moira said, grabbing some paper. She quickly sketched out a box with big, intimidating lines in front of it. “This is what I like to call the Baker Street School,” she said.

Owen raised one eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“I really do call it that, yes,” Moira said, nodding at him.

He sighed. “And that's the fence?”

“You have an eye for detail, my little panda!” Moira said, and quickly started marking spots around the box. “There are cameras every five feet surrounding the courtyard, as well as inside the school. The gate is ten feet tall and electrified. The walls are
eleven
feet tall, just to be different, and topped with barbed wire, which is
also
electrified. But that's the easy stuff.”

“Which part of that is easy?” Bethany asked.

Moira laughed. “The challenging part is the computer system. It sounds like it handles security for the school
and
helps Doyle solve his cases. It's got some weird acronym that doesn't mean anything.”

“W.A.T.S.O.N.,” Owen pointed out. “Because that was the name of Sherlock Holmes's best friend and assistant, Dr. Watson.”

Bethany groaned and smiled at Owen. He forced a smile back, then looked away.

“In spite of W.A.T.S.O.N.'s adorable lineage,” Moira continued, “it sounds like the computer is basically our worst nightmare. It monitors all the cameras as well as a whole suite of motion and thermal detectors. So basically if anything moves or even just exists at a higher temperature than seventy-two degrees, then W.A.T.S.O.N. knows it's there.”

“How are we going to get past it, then?” Bethany asked.

Moira winked at her, then patted the pile of books. “You can thank my Sad Panda over there for the idea. We've got it covered.”

“Thanks, Sad Panda,” Bethany told Owen, and smiled at him again. This time he didn't return it.

“What does W.A.T.S.O.N. do if it detects you?” Owen asked, still trying not to look at Bethany.

“All
kinds
of fun things!” Moira told him. “Every door in the school can be electrified. Even some floors, it sounds like. The book was a little vague. It can also release sleeping gas in any room in the school, alert the guards, call the police, anticipate your next move, wake you up in the morning, and I think do the laundry. That part was vague too.”

“You mentioned guards,” Kiel said. “How many?”

“You don't remember them yet?” Bethany asked.

Kiel shook his head. “Should I?”

“They're enormous,” Bethany said, shuddering. “They're all big and bald and look exactly the same.”

“They're ex–British Special Air Service, the SAS,” Moira said. “Like our navy seals. Top of their field, the toughest of the worst. And Doyle has about thirty of them, all armed to the teeth.”

Owen swallowed hard. This had sounded good when Doyle had been describing it in the book as a way to keep the hardened criminal kids he caught locked away in his rehabilitation school, but from this side it felt a lot less comforting and a lot more impossible.

“Why don't we just jump into a page already inside the school?” Kiel asked, flipping through the book.

“Because those scenes all take place before Bethany went in the first time,” Owen told him. “If we're going to get your magic back and erase Doyle's memory, we need to go in after she hired him.”

“Can we talk about this whole wiping his memory thing?” Moira said, giving them a suspicious glance. “Don't think I haven't noticed how it keeps coming up. You don't plan on doing that to
me
, do you?”

Bethany, Kiel, and Owen all stared at the floor.

“What?!”
Moira shouted. “How
could
you! I thought we were all friends!”

“You're charging us all the gold you can carry,” Bethany said, giving her a guilty look.

“Right, I'm charging my
friends
. You're going to wipe my memory?” She shook her head. “No way. I'm out. Keep your gold. Or better yet, don't wipe my memory and give me all the gold.”

“You know,” Owen said, shrugging a bit, “if you did have your memory wiped, you'd be able to deny doing anything wrong this whole time. If your father asked, you'd be able to tell him you lived up to your promise.”

Moira stared at Owen for a second, then burst into a huge grin. “My silly, sad little panda,” she said. “I love when you get underhanded. Okay, you can wipe my memory too, but you better still pay me. Memory or not, I know when I've been cheated, and I'm giving you guys a
great
plan here.”

“Which part of this has been your plan?” Bethany said. “All I'm hearing so far is how impossible it's going to be to break in there.”

“That's what
I
thought too,” Moira yelled excitedly. “But we'll get to that! So it sounds like Doyle keeps all of his important treasures in a safe in his office. The book doesn't say where the safe is, only that it's hidden, and he's the sole keeper of the combination. Supposedly even W.A.T.S.O.N. doesn't know it.” She beamed. “So
that
will be a fun challenge. If it takes me any more than two minutes to crack it, I'll give back every gold coin you're going to pay me.”

“So what are these books for?” Bethany said, taking the top one off the pile.
“Alpha Predator?”

“Invisibility suits that also hide our heat,” Owen pointed out. “The book's about this race of aliens that hunt down humanity, and the only survivors have to wear these suits to go about their lives. And if the suit gets ripped even a little—”

“I get it,” Bethany said, frowning. “I hope there's a less scary place to jump in and grab some of those suits.”

“This one has hover shoes, in case the floors get electrified,” Owen said, handing Bethany a book called
RoboJones.
“Then there's
Boxing Day 2150
with its knockout gloves. They use them in these crazy fighting tournaments. It's actually a terrible book.”

“I'm not hearing how that'll help us against W.A.T.S.O.N.,” Bethany said, taking the books from Owen.

“That's the best one!” Moira said, and knocked over the rest of the books in her excitement to grab the bottom one. “Take a look!” She shoved the book into Bethany's hands, then stepped back, giving Owen a smug look. “Nailed this one. I'm
so
proud of us.”

“Do Computers Worry About Electric Cooties?”
Bethany said, then slowly looked up at Owen and Moira. “Are you kidding me?”