Into the Gauntlet

by Margaret Peterson Haddix

  Before the play started, he'd distracted himself from thinking about his mother's plans by sending a text to his dad:

  Yo Can hardly see stage b/c column in way Make sure this never happens 2 fans at my shows

  But his mother must have been intercepting his father's messages because she was the one who texted back:

  U R not there to enjoy the play

  Jonah's seat was in the section above Amy and Dan's. They couldn't see him, but he would be able to watch their every move when they left their seats. And then he would be able to ...

  Don't think about it, Jonah told himself.

  The play started. The actors sang and laughed; the actors fought. Jonah stopped thinking of them as actors. He could almost believe that what he saw was real. The prince of the city came out and said anyone

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  who started another fight would be put to death. Jonah started to sweat.

  And then he couldn't hear anything else because the prince's words kept echoing in his ears: "If ever you disturb our streets again /Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace ... On pain of death, all men depart."

  Your lives shall pay... Your lives shall pay ... On pain of death, depart...

  Jonah didn't depart. He sat there, numbly, until he saw Amy and Dan scramble down out of their section and grab something from the floor of the theater.

  Can't I just tell Mom they were too far below me to attack? he wondered.

  His mother didn't like excuses.

  A rope dangled off to the side, not far from Jonah's seat. Jonah couldn't have said if it had been there all along or not. But he squeezed his eyes shut and leaped for it. He planned to just climb down -- quickly, before anyone saw him--but the rope swung forward. Panicked, he let go.

  He landed on the stage.

  Before he had time to figure out what to do about that, somebody else landed right on top of him -- somebody in a tunic and breeches over a ninja costume. Jonah didn't even bother trying to make sense of it. He shoved the person away and stood up.

  The confused-looking ninja grabbed the rope again and started running toward the stairs to Juliet's

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  balcony. Jonah turned and saw that Amy and Dan were clambering up onto the stage off to the side. They froze when they saw Jonah.

  Mom thought they'd trust me again, but they don't, Jonah thought bitterly. And now I'm onstage, in full view of everyone....

  Jonah looked out at the audience. He had never known a moment of stage fright in his life: Audiences calmed him. He felt like he needed an audience right now--his fans, his millions and millions of homies. Romeo and Juliet aficionados weren't his usual crowd, but in a pinch, they'd do. Only this audience was stirring about angrily and screaming, "Get off the stage!" and "Stop ruining Shakespeare!"

  This audience was also so much smaller than anything Jonah was used to. He could pick out individual faces. He could see Alistair Oh advancing toward the stage in the center, knocking people aside with his cane. He could see Isabel, Ian, and Natalie Kabra --the ruthless Lucians Jonah's own mother wanted him to imitate -- slicing through the crowd from the left. And the Holts had evidently been in the section past Jonah's but in the highest seats. They were swarming down the wooden frame.

  Everybody's here, Jonah thought weakly.

  Behind him, Juliet screamed.

  Jonah whirled around. He was glad of the distraction, glad he'd have another moment before he had to decide anything. He saw Juliet plunging off her

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  balcony--she'd jumped to get away from the confused-looking ninja.

  "Catch me, you fool!" Juliet shrieked to Romeo.

  Romeo held out his arms and caught her awkwardly, but then he ad-libbed, "Uh, hark! What girl through yonder window breaks?"

  The entire audience--except for the advancing Clue hunters --began clapping and cheering.

  Jonah wanted that kind of applause. He always wanted applause -- from his fans, from his parents, even from his single-minded Clue-hunting relatives. He looked back and forth between Amy and Dan and the audience, all his choices so clear before him.

  Why do I have to choose who loves me? he agonized.

  And then, just like that, Jonah knew what he had to do.

  He took a step forward.

  "This is for you, Mom," he whispered.

  * * *

  "Amy! This way!" Dan called.

  Amy shook off the paralysis that had hit her the minute she'd seen Jonah land on the stage. She dashed off behind Dan, onto the front part of the stage where the rain had blown in. She skidded on the wet wood.

  "Amy! Down here! I'll help you!"

  Amy saw that Alistair was out in the crowd, waving at her. Could she trust him?

  "Throw me that paper! I'll keep it safe!" Alistair

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  called. "Then you can hold on to my cane --I'll help you down."

  Don't think so, Amy told herself. If Alistair cared so much about her safety, why had he asked for the paper first?

  She veered away from the front of the stage, her head whipping back and forth from watching out for Alistair, watching out for Jonah, and watching out for the pseudo-ninjas. Alistair was getting closer and closer to the stage. The ninja had tied the rope to the balcony so the other two costumed figures could climb down behind him. Now all three ninjas were rushing toward Dan and Amy.

  Amy put on a burst of speed.

  If only we can make it to the other side of the stage...

  Dan must have had the same thought because he sped up at the same time. He was right in front of her. They were almost there, almost to safety....

  Dan skidded to a halt.

  "What's wrong?" Amy shrieked.

  Dan's face was turning a sickly shade of green. He clutched his stomach. He reeled backward and barely managed to stay upright.

  "Is it--?" Amy began. Then she saw what Dan was staring at. Who he was staring at.

  "Kabras," Dan whispered.

  Right at the edge of the stage --right where Dan and Amy had thought they would reach safety--Isabel Kabra was rising out of the crowd. Amy was close

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  enough to see that the woman wasn't really floating in midair. She was climbing over the backs of her own children, Ian and Natalie. In spike heels.

  That's got to hurt, Amy thought.

  It was easier to think about shoes than to think about Isabel Kabra and everything she'd done. But Amy couldn't hold back the horror.

  The last time we saw Isabel face-to-face, Lester died, Amy thought.

  Isabel hadn't held his head underwater. It'd been her hired thugs chasing him....

  Amy cast a quick glance over her shoulder, suddenly even more worried about the bizarrely dressed ninjas.

  "Give us that paper!" the breeches-clad ninja growled. He was only a few steps away.

  On Amy's other side, Isabel stepped from her children's backs onto the stage.

  "Oh, no, I believe these are my victims," Isabel purred.

  So the ninjas weren't working for Isabel. That made Amy feel a little better. She could think more clearly now.

  She slipped the paper into Dan's hand and whispered in his ear, "We'll have to divide up and distract them. Run! I'll go the other way, and they'll chase me instead."

  But Amy caught a glimpse of Isabel's smug face --

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  Isabel had seen what Amy did. And now Amy and Dan were both trapped between Isabel and the ninjas, with Alistair climbing up onto the stage to their right.

  Maybe if we dart toward the left, if we run backstage ...

  Just then Jonah stepped up on their left, blocking any chance they'd had of escaping in that direction.

  "Yo," Jonah said. Oddly, he seemed to be addressing the entire audience, not just Amy and Dan.

  He slipped his arm around Dan's shoulders.

  Odd way to try to steal the paper, Amy thought. Or--he wouldn't try to strangle Dan, would he? Here in front of everyone?

  There was s
omething desperate about the way Jonah was holding on to Dan. Even Isabel was watching Jonah as if she didn't quite understand what he was about to do.

  Amy grabbed her brother's arm and pulled him away.

  "Yo," Jonah complained, turning toward Amy. "No. It's not like that. I was thinking --"

  The breeches-clad ninja shoved at Jonah's chest. Jonah was caught off balance. He flailed about wildly, knocking over a barrel at the edge of the stage. The barrel rolled into Isabel, knocking her off the stage. The barrel rolled after her. It hit the ground and exploded.

  The crowd shrieked and scattered, trying to dodge the flying debris.

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  "Yo, that's not--" Jonah began, as he tried to regain his balance.

  The ninjas shoved him again, knocking him back. Jonah's windmilling arms hit Alistair as well. Both of them plunged into the angry audience.

  Amy grabbed Dan's arm, ready to flee, but the mysterious ninjas surrounded them.

  But they just helped us! she told herself. Maybe they're allies after all?

  Amy wanted to believe that.

  "Uh, thanks for getting rid of Jonah and Isabel, uh--Hamilton?" Amy guessed.

  Elizabethan ninja costumes weren't the Holts' style, and the ninja in breeches didn't seem nearly big enough to be Hamilton. And the voice hadn't sounded right. But the Holts were the only ones on the Clue hunt with two girls and a boy.

  "We're not the Holt dolts!" the ninja growled. "They're over there!"

  Amy looked and saw all the Holts swarming across the stage from the opposite side. The girls and Mary-Todd were in new-looking, shiny pink tracksuits. Hamilton and his dad were in Manchester United shirts. They were definitely the real Holts.

  "Who is that?" Hamilton yelled across the stage. "Who are they working for?"

  Amy thought it might be better to escape than to stick around and find out. But just then the breeches-clad ninja grabbed her arm, yanking her away from

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  her brother. Both of the other ninjas grabbed Dan.

  Then Hamilton was there, grabbing the breeches-clad ninja and tugging at the ninja's hood.

  "I'll find out!" Hamilton cried. He held firm, even as the ninja screamed, "No! Stop!" and tried to squirm away.

  Long auburn hair tumbled out of the ninja's hood.

  Amy gawked. She'd read the expression "her eyes popped out of her head" dozens of times, but she'd never experienced it so completely before.

  "Sinead Starling?" she gasped.

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  CHAPTER 6

  Hamilton Holt dropped the boy--er, girl -- he'd just unmasked. Hamilton was quick on his feet. Put a football or a hockey stick in his hands, and people started using words like nimble and fleet-footed to describe him. In the Clue hunt, he'd discovered that, under pressure, his brain could be pretty nimble and quick, too.

  This wasn't one of those times.

  Right now his eyes and ears were telling him that the kid he'd just dropped was his distant cousin Sinead Starling. But his brain couldn't catch up.

  "No!" he protested. "You Starlings--you've been out of the race since Philadelphia. The second day. That explosion at the Franklin Institute ... you were going to have to be in the hospital for ages!"

  Hamilton felt a twinge of guilt--the Holts had been the ones who'd set off the Franklin Institute explosion. Hamilton's own family had caused the Starling triplets' injuries. But only by accident.

  Because we were trying to hurt Amy and Dan instead, Hamilton thought bitterly. He shook his head, trying

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  to clear it. Nobody knows, he told himself. Nobody knows it was us.

  Sinead was sneering up at him.

  "We're geniuses, remember?" she said. "Ted and Ned and I, lying in our hospital beds, we figured out new medical procedures to speed healing. And" -- she smirked -- "we read up on the clues, so we totally caught up in the clue hunt. I'd say we're probably even ahead. Wouldn't you, Ted?"

  Hamilton was still having trouble accepting that Sinead had been the ninja in breeches. He squinted at the other two ninjas, who still had on dark masks.

  "Ted and Ned are the dudes in dresses?" he asked. "I don't get it."

  "You Neanderthal brain," Sinead said, rolling her eyes. "Hello? It's a disguise and an homage. Obviously you don't know Shakespeare."

  Hamilton didn't. But the Clue hunt had taught him a lot about danger, and he could feel it around him now. If he stood here listening to Sinead, Jonah would be back up onstage, attacking again. Or Isabel would start carrying out some diabolical plan. Or ...

  Or Dan would be carried away.

  That was already happening. Even as she talked, Sinead had given some signal to her brothers, and they were carrying Dan toward the balcony.

  "Help!" Dan screamed. "Amy! Hamilton! Somebody!"

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  "I'm on it!" Hamilton yelled, running after them. Amy was right behind him. Romeo blocked their path.

  "Begone!" the actor demanded. "Get thee off our stage! Let us finish our play, meet our intended fates...."

  Eisenhower Holt slammed into Romeo like a tank.

  "Your fate just changed, dude," Hamilton muttered.

  Eisenhower took Romeo by the collar and hurled him toward the edge of the stage, where Isabel, Alistair, and Jonah were trying to climb back up. It was like watching an expert bowler pick up a nearly impossible split: As Romeo fell off the stage, he knocked all three Clue hunters back into the crowd.

  "Romeo!" Juliet shrieked.

  She jumped after him.

  The panicked crowd screamed louder.

  "Focus, Holts!" Eisenhower hollered like a coach at a half time huddle. "No distractions! Don't think about anything but the clue hunt!"

  Hamilton raced after Dan. The Starling boys had tied him to the balcony, several feet above the stage. Now they were reaching for the paper in Dan's hand. Dan was doing his best to keep it away from them, even as he squirmed and fought against the ropes.

  Amy had managed to dodge Romeo and Eisenhower and reach the balcony ahead of Hamilton. She tugged on one of the Starling boys' arms, but he just flicked her away.

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  "Pathetic," Sinead murmured behind Hamilton. "Who let those mouth breathers stay in the clue hunt so long? It's a good thing we Starlings are back because the rest of you are losers!"

  Eisenhower Holt's words still echoed in Hamilton's mind: No distractions! Don't think about anything but the clue hunt!

  Really, Hamilton only needed to grab Dan's paper and take off. But Hamilton was already distracted. He couldn't help seeing the pain and fear on Amy's and Dan's faces --and the hope that showed up any time either of them glanced toward Hamilton.

  Hamilton strode toward Ned and Ted and slammed their heads together. Then he slid one of the boys across the stage toward Sinead --just a variation on Dad's bowling-with-people technique. Sinead toppled in exactly the right way so Hamilton could scoop her up in a tight grip. He hung her by the back of her breeches beside Dan on the balcony.

  "Show some respect for my buddy Dan-o," Hamilton lectured Sinead, his face a few inches from hers. "Amy, too. You've missed a lot of this clue hunt, and things have changed. Amy and Dan, they're, they're--" He remembered a term his football coach back home liked to use. "They are worthy competitors. Got it?"

  "Ned!" Sinead gasped. "Ted! Plan B!" Barely bothering to look, Hamilton flailed out a fist in either direction --catching one Starling boy on the

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  right jaw and the other on the left. Both crumpled to the ground.

  "Thanks, Ham!" Dan exploded. "Do you mind?"

  Hamilton skillfully picked the knot the Starling boys had tied around Dan and lowered him to the floor of the stage.

  "Okay, okay, get on with it!" Eisenhower screamed, even as he and the rest of the Holts guarded the edge of the stage. They shoved back everyone trying to climb up again. "Now grab the clue for Team Holt! Do it!"

  Automatically, Hamilton reached his arm over Dan's shoulder. Dan bela
tedly tried to shift the paper from one hand to the other, to get it out of Hamilton's reach. This was pointless: Hamilton had already grabbed the tattered page. He held it up in triumph.

  "All right!" Eisenhower hollered.

  At the same time, Dan peered up at Hamilton in astonishment.

  "Ham?" he said. He sounded... betrayed. "I thought, well, since we helped each other out before ..."

  Hamilton froze. He looked back and forth between his jubilant dad and forlorn Dan.

  "Um," Hamilton said.

  "Worthy competitors are still competitors!" Eisenhower jeered. "Sucker!"

  "Oh, yeah? And some competitors aren't even worthy!" Sinead countered.

  She detached her breeches from the balcony and leaped for the paper in Hamilton's hand.

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  Hamilton could have moved. He had time. But his brain was slowing him down again.

  Team Holt, he thought. What does that really mean anymore? Beating up little kids -- is that any way to win? What's really going on here?

  Sinead ripped the page from his fingers.

  The rest of the Holts abandoned the edge of the stage to run and tackle her. And then other relatives piled on, too, each of them biting, kicking, scratching, screaming. Alistair Oh's elbow was in Isabel Kabra's ear, and her hand was in Sinead Starling's mouth, and Sinead's fingers were in Madison's hair.

  And the paper itself was torn to shreds.

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  CHAPTER 7

  "Amy! Let's go!" Dan screamed.

  "No! The paper! We have to --" Amy pointed toward the pile of Cahill relatives flailing about on the stage. She looked like she was about to leap into the battle.

  Dan grabbed her arm. Now she was fighting him.

  How was he supposed to play this?