Chapter 25

CHAPTER 25 "Somebody hit the button to go down again!" Amy yelled, forgetting that nobody would want to help her now. "We've got to go rescue Nellie from Eisenhower Holt!" Amy stabbed her fingers uselessly at her cell phone, trying to call Nellie. But the lit-up screen gave her the same message she'd been getting for the whole elevator ride: NO SERVICE. Hamilton seemed to be having the same problem with his phone. He threw it to the floor in disgust. "Yeah! Go down! We've got to go rescue my dad from…" A baffled look came over Hamilton's face as if he'd just realized he couldn't say Eisenhower needed to be rescued from Nellie or the helicopter pilot. Unless he really did believe that Madrigals were the most evil people on the planet. "We've got to go back for the rest of my family!" he said instead.

Alistair was feeling around on the elevator wall. "Yes, yes, of course some of you will want to go back down," he said in an oily voice. "I'll do everything to help you with that, just as soon as I get out here…." He had one foot out the door. "Hmm. I'm not finding a control panel." Hamilton shoved his way out of the elevator and began pounding on the keypad outside. "Down! Down! Down!" he screamed. The elevator didn't budge. "Ham—your family can climb up here on their own," Dan said. "Oh, right," Hamilton said numbly. "Fortunately, that will take a while," Alistair muttered. "And by then…" By then, somebody else will have found the prize, Amy thought. Everybody seemed to be thinking the same thing, a distraction from being outraged about Madrigals. The whole group surged forward. "No! Don't push! I'll fall!" Jonah screamed. "You need me! You need a Janus!"

Amy reached the front of the elevator and saw what he was screaming about: There was only a narrow rock ledge and then a straight drop, all the way down to the cemetery. Amy stepped out of the elevator and immediately moved to the side, clutching the rock wall. "Amy?" Dan said quietly beside her. Amy braced herself for him to make fun of her fear of heights. But when she turned, Dan looked just as white-faced and terrified as she felt. "Maybe we should… hang on to each other," he whispered. Their mind-meld was working again. Amy could tell Dan had been thinking the same thing as her: What if the others hate Madrigals so much that they decide to throw us off the cliff? But Dan's thought had a second part to it: They needed someone from every branch— even the Madrigals— to get the elevator to work. They might need a Madrigal again. But they only need one of us. So… we have to stick together to be safe. Amy grabbed her brother. She turned and saw

that Ian and Natalie were clinging to each other just as desperately. Same reason, she thought. We only need one Lucian, too. Alistair was watching Jonah thoughtfully. "Need a Janus," he murmured. "Perhaps…" He turned toward the keypad beside Hamilton. "Perhaps someone from each of the five branches should touch this at the same time. What would happen then?" Nobody answered him. But suddenly everyone was pushing and shoving again, each person fighting to get to the keypad. "Come on! Now let's jump back into the elevator!" Dan yelled, tugging on Amy's arm as soon as he'd touched the keypad. We'll go down, Amy thought. Not back to the cemetery, but to some other level— where the prize is… Amy tripped over Jonah's feet; Dan tumbled on top of Natalie. Alistair was the last one to climb in. He probably planned that, Amy thought. So

he'll be the first one out. The first one to get the prize. But the elevator didn't move. "Perhaps my hypothesis was wrong," Alistair said. Just then there was a whirring sound at the back of the elevator. Amy spun around to look: The entire back wall had vanished.