Amy went to join him. She peered out the window at the groups of diners in the restaurant. A few couples, a group of women, five people at a round table--
Amy gasped and turned pale.
Five people.
Ian, Natalie, two very large men--and Isabel.
Isabel Kabra, with a bandage on her head--a bigger version of the gauze Amy had worn two days earlier. Somehow, the bandage didn't make her look feeble or vulnerable; instead, like a pirate's eye patch or a motorcycle gang member's scar, it made her even more formidable.
Amy felt a flicker of what almost could have been admiration. Only a few hours earlier, Isabel had been unconscious and bleeding. She probably still had a whopper of a headache at the very least. But here she was doing all the talking as the group huddled together, clearly making plans.
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And Amy knew for sure it wasn't a tea party they were planning.
"Dan!" Amy ran over to him. "The Kabras--they're here!"
"Where?"
Amy waved her hand frantically. "Out there. In the restaurant. They might come in here any minute now!"
"We have to warn Lester--"
As they hurried across the lobby to Lester, Amy wondered what to tell him. They could hardly give him a crash course in the Clue hunt--that would take hours. Just the most important thing, Amy decided.
"Lester," she said breathlessly, "there are some people in the restaurant, and if they come in here and see us--whatever you do, do not let them get anywhere near that box. They mustn't know anything about it-"
"They might try to steal it from you," Dan said. "Maybe you should pretend like you don't know us-"
Lester looked from face to face; Amy could tell he was completely befuddled.
"They're coming!" Dan said.
No time for a plan. "Look out the window," Amy said desperately. "That will put our backs to the room, and maybe they won't notice us."
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Nellie was walking toward them. "All checked in," she called out. "What's going on?"
"It's the Kabras," Dan said. "We can't let them see Lester."
Nellie didn't ask any questions. She stood behind Lester as they arranged themselves in a little cluster by the window, with Lester and the precious box in the middle.
"Here they come," Dan said.
The Kabras entered the lobby, followed by the two men, who were wearing tracksuits and sunglasses. The men were huge, both well over six feet of solid muscle. They looked like they ate Dan-size children regularly for breakfast.
Amy pretended as hard as she could to be fascinated by something outside the window, which at the moment was the rain pelting down. As the Kabra group walked past on the other side of the lobby, she could see them for a few moments in her peripheral vision. Then they were out of sight, and she fought the urge to turn around and watch them by counting off the seconds.
Two ... three ... four ... If they were staying at the hotel, they would have reached the elevator by now, and if not, they should be just about out the door. Five ... six ..., seven ...
Seven did not prove to be a lucky number.
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CHAPTER 16
* * *
"There they are!" Isabel's voice rang out through the lobby. "Hugo, Anton, quick!"
Amy whirled around. The Kabra group had indeed reached the elevator; Ian and Natalie were already inside. The doors slid shut, leaving Isabel with the two men; the floor numbers began to light up, indicating that the elevator was in motion.
Nellie turned to Lester. "Run! And whatever you do, don't let them get that box. We'll stall them."
Lester seemed about to speak, but Isabel was already striding across the room with her companions in tow.
Dan was still holding Saladin. Suddenly, he thrust the cat out toward Isabel and the two men. "STAY BACK!" he yelled, brandishing the cat in front of him. "This cat is dangerous! He has, um--feline--feline spongiform halitosis! It can be fatal to humans!"
Saladin cooperated by swiping the air with his claws extended and hissing fiercely. It seemed that he did not appreciate being described as disease ridden, even if the disease didn't really exist.
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Isabel broke stride, and the two men stumbled into her. She bumped her head on the shoulder of one of the men. Letting out a shriek of pain, she put her hand to her forehead and staggered.
It was a delay of only seconds, but it was enough.
"Please, Lester!" Amy begged. "Go!"
Lester shook his head in bafflement, then edged his way out the door to the restaurant. Moments later, Amy saw him out the window, running through the rain along the beach back toward the excavation hut.
Just then, the elevator doors opened. Natalie and Ian stepped out after their ride up a few floors and back down again.
Isabel shook her head, as if clearing her vision. "Typical!" she yelled. "Where have you two been? Hugo, Anton, you idiots, don't just stand there! Go after the man--he's carrying something--he went that way!" She pointed at the restaurant door.
Dan hurriedly deposited Saladin in his carrier. The hotel bellman standing nearby looked alarmed and gave the cat a respectful berth.
Then Dan followed Amy as she and Nellie dashed toward the door, with Hugo and Anton on their heels.
Hurricane. That was the word that popped into Nellie's head as soon as she set foot in the open-air restaurant. The rain seemed to be coming at her horizontally. Nellie
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had never seen a hurricane before, except on TV. If this wasn't a hurricane, she didn't ever want to be within a thousand miles of a real one.
She ran through the restaurant, where the staff was hurriedly locking things down. At the far end of the terrace were shallow stairs leading to the beach. With Amy and Dan beside her, Nellie took the stairs in a single jump. Within a few strides she was soaking wet.
"This way!" she heard Amy scream into the wind.
They turned to the right. Far down the beach, they could see a blur that was Lester struggling against the storm. The beach was quite wide because the tide was out, or at least it had been before the storm began. But each wave that crashed in was bigger than the one before it.
What was the best way to slow down Isabel's thugs? Nellie risked a quick glance over her shoulder.
"HEY!" she hollered.
Hugo and Anton were no longer behind them.
"They must have gone out the front!" Dan screamed. "They're going to try to head him off!"
"We have to get to him first!" Nellie screamed back.
They had to scream to be heard over the howling wind.
Nellie tried to think. With the rain pummeling down and the wind shrieking, she could hardly hear her own thoughts. They'll be faster, running on the road instead of on the sand. Lester has a good head start. But when he gets
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to the hut, then what? They'll get there before us. ...
They raced down the beach. Lester was almost to the hut now.
"Come on!" Amy shouted, and pulled ahead.
Nellie had thought that she was already running as fast as she could, but seeing Amy's burst of speed made her find one of her own.
Up ahead, Lester stopped abruptly. Nellie knew what that meant: He had spotted either Hugo or Anton.
Sure enough, Lester reversed himself and began running back toward them.
Behind him, Nellie saw one of the thugs. Where was the other one?
A few seconds later, she had her answer. The second man emerged on the beach not far ahead of them. Now Lester was caught between the two men, who were rapidly closing in on him. He moved forward a few more yards and then, to Nellie's astonishment, he turned to his right and started running.
Toward the ocean.
"What's he doing?" Dan yelled.
Hugo and Anton thundered after Lester, the Cahill gang right behind them. Through the pelting rain, Nellie could now see what she hadn't earlier. Lester, still hugging the box to his chest, was running on a narrow s
pit of sand that rose a little higher than the rest of the seabed and stretched far out into the water. Maybe he was hoping that the thugs wouldn't follow him. Who runs out into the ocean during a hurricane?
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The spit was so narrow that the three of them couldn't run side by side. Amy was in front. Water was splashing around Nellie's ankles, but everything was so wet that she couldn't tell if it was rain or waves.
Beyond Amy's shoulder, Nellie saw Lester make a flying leap. He landed and stumbled forward a few steps. Then he turned and looked behind him.
Hugo and Anton had been running one after the other, barely two paces apart. Suddenly, they both tripped and fell forward.
But what had they tripped on? Nellie couldn't see a rock or a piece of driftwood or anything--just sand, with water roiling and swirling over it. ...
"STOP!" Lester screamed. "DON'T COME ANY FARTHER! IT'S QUICKSAND!"
Amy stopped so fast that Nellie ran into her, and Dan plowed into both of them. Somehow, grabbing on to each other, they managed to remain upright. All three of them gaped at the scene before them.
Hugo and Anton had tripped because their feet had been sucked in by the quicksand that Lester had jumped over. They had already sunk in up to their knees and were struggling violently, trying to pull their legs out of the mire.
"NELLIE!" Lester yelled. "CATCH!"
He tossed the canvas parcel to her, then shouted, "GO BACK! WAIT FOR ME AT THE HUT!"
Yeah, right, Nellie thought, like we're going to leave you out here on your own.
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But she backed up, and so did Dan and Amy.
Lester took a step toward Hugo and Anton.
"Listen to me," he shouted. "I'm going to tell you how to get out. Stop struggling; you'll only get sucked in more. Lie back, like you're floating on your backs--"
Anton and Hugo responded with a string of swear words, some of which Nellie had never heard before. They were still trying to pull themselves out.
One of them had already sunk in as far as his waist, the other to his thighs.
"Lie back!" Lester yelled again. "Spread out your arms and kick your legs like you're swimming! It's your only chance!"
He took another cautious step forward. Nellie could see that he was being careful to avoid the edge of the quicksand pit.
Then Hugo--or maybe it was Anton--gave an enormous bellow, lunged forward, and grabbed Lester's leg. If he was trying to use Lester to pull himself out, his strategy failed miserably.
Instead, he pulled Lester in.
"LESTER!"
Dan, Amy, and Nellie all screamed his name at once.
The two thugs were both yelling and grappling with Lester, one grabbing his arm, the other clutching at his belt. Lester almost fell face-first into the quicksand but
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grabbed on to Anton--or maybe it was Hugo--and straightened himself out. Then he used his elbow to whack one thug squarely in the nose. The thug howled and clapped both hands to his face.
"If you idiots don't want to die, you better listen!" Lester shouted.
Dan felt a surge of admiration. Lester was shouting so he could be heard over the thug's howls, but there was no panic in his voice. Dan wondered if he could ever be that cool under fire.
Hugo and Anton looked at each other, then at Lester. Both of them stopped struggling. Dan noticed that the storm had eased up a little. It was still pouring, but the wind wasn't howling anymore.
"That's better," Lester said. "Now. No one ever really sinks completely into quicksand--that's a Hollywood myth. As long as you keep your arms out, you'll only sink in as far as your armpits. The real danger now is the tide coming in. If we don't get out soon, we could drown."
Dan saw both thugs' eyes widen in fear.
"You." Lester pointed up to the thug who had fallen in first and was now mired to his chest. "What's your name?"
"Anton," the thug replied.
"Okay, Anton. Start wiggling your feet and legs. DON'T PANIC. Little motions, like kicking. Don't try to pull them out. What you want to do is get your body as horizontal as possible."
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On hearing this, Hugo, who had fallen in after Anton and was therefore only up to his waist, immediately began moving, too.
"NO," Lester said to him sternly. "One at a time. Too much movement will destabilize the sand and we'll sink even faster. Anton goes first, he's in deepest--"
"Screw that!" Hugo yelled. Although, of course, Dan couldn't see what Hugo's legs were doing; they must have been moving like crazy because just as Lester had predicted, all three of them began to sink faster.
"CUT IT OUT!" Anton screamed. "You heard him, I go first!" He reared back and punched Hugo in the nose--the same nose that Lester had elbowed earlier. Hugo roared out a curse and grabbed his nose again.
Dan took a step closer, then squatted down. "Lester," he said urgently, "what can we do?"
"Go find a pole or a flat piece of wood or something," Lester said. "If they listen to what I'm saying, we shouldn't need it, but just in case--" He was now up to his waist in the quicksand himself; even so, he gave Dan a cheerful wink.
Dan looked at Amy and Nellie. "You go," he said. "I'll stay here. Hurry!"
Amy and Nellie started running toward the beach.
"BE CAREFUL!" Dan yelled after them.
The Kabras were still onshore somewhere.
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CHAPTER 17
* * *
With Hugo somewhat subdued, Anton must have been able to wiggle his feet and legs the way Lester had told him to, because Dan saw that his head and shoulders were leaning back, as if he were trying to lie on top of the sand. The waves were lapping at his neck and chin.
"Good, you're in position now," Lester said as calmly as if he were giving a tennis lesson. "Pretend like you're floating on your back--move your arms and legs like you're swimming."
Dan watched in amazement as the rest of Anton's body gradually emerged from the quicksand.
"Any minute now, you should be able to roll out," Lester said.
Sure enough, a few moments later, Anton "swam" onto firmer sand and rolled onto his stomach. He pushed himself up on his hands and knees and panted, looking so much like a giant breed of dog that Dan almost laughed.
"Your turn," Lester said to Hugo. "Start wiggling your feet and legs."
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Hugo ignored him. "Get over here and pull me out!" he yelled at Anton.
"He can't pull you out," Lester said. "The suction's too strong. You'll have to do what he did to get out."
"Do like he says," Anton said.
"GIMME YOUR HAND!" Hugo bellowed.
Anton shrugged. Then he lay down on his stomach and put out his hand. Hugo grabbed it and Anton started pulling. Hugo struggled against the muck.
"NO!" Lester yelled. "You're churning up the sand--"
Instead of being pulled out, Hugo sank in further.
"LET GO!" Anton yelled. "You're pulling me in!"
Hugo responded by grabbing on to Anton's arm with both hands. Anton made a fist with his free hand. "Let go or I'll bash your nose again!" he threatened.
The quicksand was moving, sliding around and rippling as if it were a living thing. Now Hugo and Lester were both up to their armpits in the mire. Hugo was much taller than Lester; the waves were lapping at his chin. But they were washing over Lester's mouth.
Just then the crest of a bigger wave broke over them. Lester managed to hold his breath in time, but Hugo emerged coughing and spluttering.
"Okay, okay!" he choked out. "I'll do it your way!" He glared at Lester, then looked up at Anton. "Hold him so he don't get in my way."
Anton grabbed one of Lester's arms, although Dan could see it that it was totally unnecessary. Lester wasn't getting in anyone's way.
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"Go on," Lester said. "Lean back, wiggle your feet." He held his breath as another wave washed over him.
Hugo was mired deeper than Anton had been, so it
was taking him longer to get his body into position. Now Lester could only take a breath by stretching his head up between waves.
"Lester!" Dan shouted. "Forget about him--save yourself!"
He looked over his shoulder. Where were the girls? Hugo finally rolled out of the quicksand. "Let's blow," Anton said.
"Wait!" Dan cried out. "You're just gonna leave him? After he helped you?"
Hugo shrugged. "Whatcha want us to do, kid? He said it himself, we can't pull him out."
"That's what he said," Anton agreed.
They began splashing their way toward the beach, leaving Dan at the edge of the quicksand pit with Lester all but fully submerged.
Dan glanced around frantically. No sign of Amy or Nellie. He looked at Lester, who was leaning back, obviously wiggling his legs in the quicksand. Dan knew that Lester could get himself out--if he didn't run out of air.
He thought he'd have enough time. He didn't count on the waves getting bigger so fast.
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Another wave crested, and Dan saw to his horror that Lester could no longer take a breath between waves; his head was completely underwater.
A tube, like a snorkel, Dan thought desperately. Some sort of tube he could stick in Lester's mouth that would clear the top of the waves so he could breathe ...
Dan patted his pockets frantically. Nothing there.
Nothing anywhere except water that was getting deeper by the minute.
Lester was still leaning back, working his legs and feet toward the surface. But as Dan watched, Lester's eyes began bugging out. He was almost out of air.
Dan had never felt so helpless. If he grabbed Lester and tried to pull him out, it would only make things worse. Should he run back to try to find help?