The Great Escape

by Kate Biberdorf

  “Of the virus?” asked Memito, his eyes wide.

  “Yes, it’s one of the deadliest viruses that ever existed. Dr. Dragas and his associates want to use it so they can copy the virus and unleash it on the world.”

  Memito made a low whistle. “That’s rough. Almost as bad as a zombie apocalypse.”

  “Isn’t there some kind of antidote?” I asked.

  “I’m afraid not,” said the spy previously known as Ms. Daly. “Dr. Franklin disappeared two weeks ago. You must find her breakthrough image and give it to me before the evil Dr. Hans Dragas gets to her lab.” She looked down at her silver wristwatch. “Which intel suggests will be in forty minutes.

  “Not much time,” yelped Memito.

  “You are about to enter Dr. Franklin’s lab,” she said, pointing to the PTA office. Or rather the former PTA office. I noticed a little piece of paper taped to the door that said DR. FRANKLIN’S LAB. “Once the door closes behind you, the clock starts,” continued Blanche. “Are you prepared to take on this grave responsibility? You must find Dr. Franklin’s image of the virus and get out of the lab before Dr. Dragas and his henchman arrive. Which is in forty minutes. Otherwise, the virus will be unleashed upon the entire world.”

  “Yes, let’s do it!” I cried.

  “Great,” said Blanche, and she handed Memito an egg timer. “So you can keep track of your time. Give yourself forty minutes as soon as you enter the lab. The main door to the lab will have a combination lock,” she said. “That’s the one you need to figure out how to open in order to escape. We’re entering the lab by a side door. After you enter, I’m closing that side door, and you won’t be able to open it back up, unless you want to forfeit.”

  We all shook our heads. Nobody wanted to do that.

  A moment later, we shuffled into Dr. Franklin’s lab. It was so dark you could barely see the person in front of you. Creepy music played in the background.

  “Is this a lab or a haunted house?” asked Elijah. “Because if it’s a haunted house, I know how to take care of ghosts. I watched that movie Ghost Busters.”

  I laughed out of relief. “Can we please turn on the lights?”

  “Yes,” said Blanche. “But it will only brighten the room a little bit.” Then she closed the door behind her with a bang. When we turned on the lights, we couldn’t believe what stood right in front of us.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  A Cool SetUp

  Condenser (noun). A device that chemists use in labs that looks like a goofy glass tube. It’s super fancy because it is used to transform a gas to a liquid. The vapor passes through the cold tube and turns into cute little droplets. So it sort of acts like a little refrigerator.

  INSIDE OF DR. FRANKLIN’S laboratory was more glassware than I had ever seen, including all kinds of Erlenmeyer flasks! Those are the triangular glass containers that are wide at the bottom and skinny at the top. There were giant ones and even itty-bitty ones. There was all kinds of tubing going from one flask to another. Oh, plus dozens of test tubes. And a Bunsen burner to heat liquids and stuff.

  “This is awesome,” I said. “They even have condensers.” I pointed to some horizontal glass pipes that were moving chemicals from one spot to another.

  “I don’t see the X-ray machine that Dr. Franklin used to take images,” said Phoenix.

  “She probably locked it up,” said Memito, turning on the egg timer to start the countdown.

  “Right,” said Elijah. “She didn’t want that evil Dr. Dragas to get his hands on it.”

  Elijah pointed to the front door of the lab. It had a combination lock on it. “Somehow we’re going to have to figure out the code to that thing.”

  “Meanwhile, check out that closet,” said Birdie in a nervous voice. “It’s a wreck.” A bunch of lab coats were piled in a heap on the floor.

  “I’m on it,” said Elijah, hurrying into the closet.

  “It’s weird that the lab coats are on the floor,” said Phoenix thoughtfully. “I read a biography of Rosalind Franklin over the summer, and it said she was always very neat and careful.”

  “Yes, yes, good point,” I admitted. And a little teeny part of me was jealous. I should have been the one to have read the Franklin bio. After all, I’m the kid obsessed with chemistry, and Rosalind Franklin is the queen of chemistry.

  Elijah stepped out of the closet, making a frowny face. “Nope, nothing in the closet. I checked everywhere. But I did put on a new lab coat. The one I had was too small.”

  Suddenly, Phoenix dropped down to the floor and scooped up a clue. “Got something!” she announced, waving a small, bright red journal.

  “Mmm. That color reminds me of candied apples,” said Memito. “Which I’m definitely getting at the Fall Festival.”

  “Shh,” said Phoenix. “We’re not going to the festival unless we can escape from here.” Carefully she flipped through the pages. “It’s Dr. Franklin’s diary,” she said with more than a hint of wonder. Then her chin dipped to her chest. “Most of the pages were ripped out. Wait. Look at the last page.” Her voice grew excited. “It says, ‘Must rush out. There’s no more time. Dr. Dragas will never find the image of the virus. He can track me down. But I don’t have it. He’ll never find it in my lab. Only ghosts. I must go . . .’ Then the rest is just a scrawl.”

  “What does she mean by ‘only ghosts’?” I wondered aloud.

  Elijah leaned in to inspect. “Maybe because the page is torn up, like a ghost of a page?”

  “I doubt it,” said Jeremy.

  “Well,” said Phoenix, “I bet Dr. Franklin had to hurry away to evade that horrible Dr. Dragas. There probably wasn’t enough time for her to transport the virus image out of the lab without real danger.”

  “I bet she was worried about Dr. Dragas finding her and taking the image if she kept it with her,” said Elijah.

  “That image has to be somewhere in here,” said Memito, his eyes scanning the shelves. “It says so in the journal. Blanche said it’s up to us to find it before Dragas gets here.”

  “We already know most of this,” said Jeremy, groaning impatiently. “Dr. Franklin obviously hid that image. Now it’s time to find more clues. So we can get out of here in time.”

  Memito set down the timer with a plunk on the counter in front of him. “Guys, we only have thirty-eight minutes. I couldn’t even take my shower and get ready for school in that amount of time. Just saying.”

  Birdie glanced at the front door longingly. “Seems like a long time.”

  “Not really,” said Jeremy. “Let’s find some more clues.”

  I hurried to a central lab table and checked if anything might be hidden underneath. Even after swiping my fingers on the backs of some stools, I came up with nothing. Not even a ball of dust was in sight on the neatly swept floor.

  Meanwhile Birdie stood across from me inspecting the back of a chalkboard. Memito spun a globe of the world with his finger and then shook it to see if anything was inside. Elijah fiddled with the buttons on an old-fashioned radio that had a glowing yellow tube coming out the top of it. “It really looks like we’ve stepped back in time,” he said.

  “I know.” Memito joined Elijah, who was now sliding his hand around the back of the radio. “Man, that thing is old,” said Memito. “What if it breaks? And then you’d have to use your allowance to pay for it. Or what if—”

  “—there is a hidden code inside of this.” Elijah pulled an instruction booklet from behind the radio.

  “Is there food behind there, too?” asked Memito. “I’m starving.”

  “Hey, I just found a receipt,” Birdie announced. “It was behind a picture frame. It’s for a plane trip somewhere.” She squinted thoughtfully. “Unfortunately, the print is too faded.”

  “Good. Good!” I encouraged. “We do know that Rosalind Franklin left on a trip.”

 
; “More clues isn’t always better,” mumbled Jeremy. “That could be a red herring. Something to throw us off. We need to find something that will lead to that.” He pointed to the lock on the door.

  “And that image of the virus,” Phoenix reminded us. Kneeling down in front of the main door, she flipped over a small area rug. “You never know what could help.” She pulled off a tag. “This wasn’t attached. It could be something.”

  “Probably not,” said Jeremy.

  “You guys,” I said, waving my arms in a stop motion. “Hold up. We have to have a plan.”

  Jeremy stepped next to me. “Yeah. You’re right.”

  I couldn’t believe he was actually agreeing with me. I met Birdie’s eyes in a look of astonishment.

  “My brother loves watching escape room hacks on YouTube,” said Jeremy “So I’ve seen a ton of them. One of the number one tips is to have a project manager.” He thumped his chest. “That’s me.”

  “Actually, I think it should be me,” I said. “Since I probably know the most about”—I spun around the lab—“all the equipment in this place.”

  “Yes, but did you watch the top ten escape room tips video?” said Jeremy. “No.” He pointed to the egg timer. “You hear that thing ticking? Well, we only have thirty-six—correction, thirty-five—minutes. The trick is to divide and conquer.” He waved his arms. “And put all the clues in one place. Let’s say right here.” He grabbed a flashlight off a tabletop, clicked it on, and flicked the light over the surface. “This can be the official clue corner. It’s next to a whiteboard and dry erase pen. Obviously to help us write down codes, if we ever find any.”

  “Okay,” I said, a little reluctantly. “It does make sense.” That’s when I spotted a plain white piece of paper sitting on top of the desk.

  I snatched the sheet. “This could be a clue. What if it came from the journal?”

  “Then it goes on the clue table,” directed Jeremy.

  “Okay. Fine.” I dropped the sheet down onto the table and double-checked to make sure I wasn’t missing any teeny-tiny writing or something.

  “Kate, I hope you know the paper is blank,” said Memito.

  “Hey, I know,” snorted Jeremy. “The message on the blank piece of paper is: Help. I’m a snowman in a snowstorm.” He cracked up. Nobody else laughed, except for Memito, who gave a little chuckle.

  “You guys, there could be a secret message,” I said in all seriousness. “It could be written with lemon juice. I saw that done on Dr. Caroline’s YouTube show once.” As I waved the flashlight over the paper, I felt a quiver of excitement. “Wait for it, you guys.”

  On second thought, wait for nothing. The paper just remained blank. No secret codes. No numbers or letters.

  Frustrated, I clicked to make the light bright.

  Still nothing.

  “I was so sure,” I said, biting my lip. “I mean, what’s the point of having a completely blank piece of paper?”

  “Not much. Knew it wouldn’t work,” said Jeremy.

  “Maybe it’s just to write on?” suggested Birdie.

  “Doubtful,” said Phoenix. “Remember, we have that whiteboard and markers.”

  Suddenly, Jeremy hurried over to the shelf right above the clue table. “Hey, you guys. I think I just found the answer. Crayons.”

  “Why would a world-famous scientist have crayons in her lab?” I said.

  “That makes no sense.” Phoenix shrugged.

  “Well, exactly. That’s why it’s a clue.” Jeremy snatched a red crayon. “Let’s rub it over the paper and see if it works. I saw Dr. Caroline do that to a salt-infused paper. The salt crystals collect more crayon wax, revealing a secret message!”

  “I’ve never heard of that,” I harrumphed. “But I guess it’s worth a try.” I motioned for Birdie to come over. “You should do it, Birdie. You have the artistic touch.”

  “Uh, sure. I mean, anyone can use a crayon. But why not?” Birdie rubbed the crayon over the paper.

  “Wow, it took two of you guys to figure out how to use a crayon,” said Jeremy, shaking his head.

  “Shh! Something is showing up!” said Birdie.

  “A coil-looking thingy,” said Elijah. “Right on the paper.

  “I see! I see!” I couldn’t help but jump up and down. “And lots of numbers. 020-7111-2413.”

  “That’s a code!” said Jeremy, who sounded truly excited for the first time.

  “Try the number on the front door,” said Elijah.

  When Jeremy grabbed the paper with the numbers, I didn’t try to snag it back. There was no way I was going to get into another tug-of-war with him.

  Jeremy studied the lock and exhaled loudly. “Nope. Won’t work. This lock is one of those four-number combination ones.”

  “Great. I don’t see any other locks,” said Memito, scanning the lab. “Or snacks in this place. I’m so hungry.”

  “I thought this was going to be easy,” said Jeremy with a frustrated groan.

  “Well, guess again,” I said.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The Ladder to Somewhere

  Double Helix (noun). The appearance of a double-stranded DNA molecule with two lines that run parallel to each other and twist together. DNA is very famous and probably would have signed autographs if it could have.

  “WE DIDN’T FIND ANYTHING in the bathroom,” Elijah said as he and Memito stepped out of the tiny bathroom on the side of the PTA office. We continued to search through the lab, opening drawers and looking behind bookshelves. There were lots of books on molecular chemistry. But no textbook on DNA since Rosalind Franklin had just made that breakthrough. Understanding the structure of DNA might have been the most important discovery of the twentieth century. At least, that’s what Dr. Caroline says. DNA is a molecule that looks like a twisted ladder. That’s why they call it the double helix. DNA is sort of like an instruction booklet for your body to do every job it needs to survive. It tells each cell in your body what it needs to do, like telling your hair how to grow or your stomach how to break down food.

  Suddenly thoughts of DNA gave me an idea. “Hey, you guys, you know that coil that appeared after we rubbed the crayon on the paper? What if it’s DNA? Maybe it’s another clue.”

  “But it’s not like we can see DNA with our eyes,” said Phoenix.

  “True,” I said. “You can’t even see DNA with a regular microscope. It’s ridiculously small.”

  Somehow before we knew it, we had twenty-nine minutes left. Actually, it was hard to forget since Memito kept on reminding us every few minutes.

  “Hey, look at that old-timey phone,” said Memito suddenly, pointing to a high-up shelf. It was black with a rotary dial. “I just noticed it. And there’s some kind of letter next to it.”

  “Yeah, and the phone’s got a really long coil thingy,” said Elijah.

  I whirled around to stare up at the phone and an old-fashioned curly telephone cord. I pumped my fist in the air. “Score! A coil. That’s our clue.”

  “Wow. It really does look just like the coil on the paper,” said Birdie, amazed.

  “Quick! Quick, get it down,” I yelled.

  “Ugh, where’s Skyler when you need him?” said Elijah as he tried to jump up to reach the phone and the letter, but it was just out of reach.

  “Use the stepladder,” said Phoenix, pointing to a small ladder in the corner.

  I grabbed it and shoved it against the bookcase.

  In a flash, Elijah climbed up a couple of rungs and pulled down the phone, along with the envelope. “There’s a cardboard tube here, too,” he exclaimed. After taking the plastic cap off the tube, he inspected it and shrugged. “It’s empty.” He stuck it in his lab coat pocket. “This will make a great drumstick though.” Then he ripped open the envelope and began to read the note. “Customers, please pardon the inter
ruption in service. There was an explosion nearby that knocked out the wires. But service has been restored.” Then he flipped to the back of the note. “There’s a zero next to an eleven, then the number forty-four written in giant numbers.” He shrugged. “Maybe it’s how much the stationery cost?”

  “Listen to the phone,” said Elijah. “Maybe there’s a message for us.”

  Memito picked up the phone’s receiver. “Nah, it’s dead. Dead like we’re going to be if we don’t escape this room and that evil dude gets here, Dr. Dragon.”

  “Dragas,” corrected Phoenix.

  “Can you not use the word ‘dead,’” I pleaded.

  “The point is that an old-timey-looking phone has no dial tone,” said Jeremy.

  “And can you not say ‘old-timey,’” said Phoenix. “It takes us out of the moment.”

  “Then why do you dress that way?” accused Jeremy, nodding at Phoenix’s vintage shirt. “All old-timey?”

  “Everyone, please stop arguing,” said Birdie, her voice warbling. “I seriously want to get out of here.” Her eyes slid to the combination lock on the front door.

  “Birdie is right,” I said. “We need to find the image of the virus and figure out the code to open the lock.”

  “Also, anything can be a code,” Jeremy stated with certainty.

  “Yeah,” agreed Memito. “I once saw this video where kids were trapped in an escape room. I mean really stuck because it was a horror movie. And anyhow, they had to deal with this creepy guy in a clown outfit if they wanted to live.”

  “Oh, please stop,” I said, clapping my hands over my ears. “I really don’t want to hear about creepy clowns.”

  “Me either,” said Birdie.

  “We should also think about what might be a safe or even a lock,” said Jeremy. “In this one escape room I heard about, the roulette wheel was actually this giant combination lock. So everyone keep your eyes open.”