Chapter 3

Chapter Three IN WHICH Simon Solves a Riddle What are we going to do?" Simon asked as they walked back down the hallway. "They have her," Jared said softly. He had to blot out what he'd just heard, blot everything from his mind except Mallory. "They want to trade her for the Guide." "But we don't have it." "Shhh!" Jared said. He had an idea, but he didn't want to say it aloud, out in the open air.

"Come on." Jared went to his locker and got a towel from his gym bag. He picked out a textbook—Advanced Mathematics—that was about the same size as the Guide and folded it in the cloth. "What are you doing?" "Here," he whispered, shoving the wrapped package at Simon. He grabbed his backpack from the locker. "Thimbletack fooled us with this trick. Maybe we can fool whoever took Mallory." Simon nodded once. "Okay, I think Mom has a flashlight in the car." They clamored over a chain-link fence at the edge of the schoolyard and crossed the highway. The other side of the road was overgrown with weeds. It was hard to walk in the dark, and the flashlight gave off only a faint narrow light. They climbed over a large pile of rocks, some covered in slick moss, others cracked in parts. As

they went, Jared couldn't stop replaying what he'd overheard. He thought about the awful things that his mother believed and the even more-awful things she was likely to believe now that he'd disappeared. No matter what he did, he wound up in deeper and deeper trouble. What if he were expelled? What if she were to send him out to live with his dad, who wouldn't want him? "Jared, look," said Simon. They had come to the edge of the old quarry. The rock had been mined jaggedly; chunks of stone stuck out like ledges along the nearly thirty- foot drop to the uneven valley below. Scrubby bits of grass grew along the walls from thick veins of dirt. The highway ran over the top of the cavern, elevated on a thick stone bridge. "It's weird to mine rocks, isn't it?" Simon asked. "I mean, they're just rocks. "Probably granite," he continued when Jared didn't answer. Simon wrapped his thin jacket tighter around himself.

Jared shone his flashlight along the walls, catching a streak of rust and a blush of ochre in the beam. He had no idea what kind of stone it was. Simon shrugged. "So, uh, how are we going to get down there?" "I don't know. Why don't you tell me, if you know so much?" Jared snapped. "We could...," Simon started, but he trailed off and Jared felt bad. "Let's just try to climb down," said Jared, pointing. "We can jump to that ledge and then try to get to another one." "That's pretty far down. We should get a rope or something."

"That's pretty far down."

"We don't have time," Jared said. "Here, hold the light." Thrusting the metal cylinder into his twin's hands, Jared sat on the edge of the cliff. Without the flashlight, when he looked down, he saw only the deep darkness below. Taking a breath, he scooted off, letting himself drop to a stone shelf he could not see. Turning, he started to stand. Light shone in his eyes, blinding him. He stumbled and fell forward. "Are you all right?" Simon called. Jared shaded his face and tried to keep calm. "Yeah. Come on. Your turn." He heard the crunching of dirt above him as Simon got into position. Quickly Jared moved out of the way, feeling ahead of him for an edge he only dimly remembered. Simon landed heavily beside him with a yelp. The flashlight tumbled from Simon's hands and fell into the darkness, hitting the valley floor hard, bouncing once and then lying still, illuminating a thin path of scrub and stone.