Chapter 6

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 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!" "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 halftime 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. "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 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 belatedly tried to shift the paper from one hand to the other, to get it out of