Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5 Shocked, Nellie pushed her charges back down among the linen. "Uh — I'm sorry," she managed. "I thought the suite was empty. I'm supposed to bring fresh towels to the Wizards' room." "My dear young lady, this is the suite of his Highness the Grand Duke of Luxembourg." The man's lip curled slightly. "The American television actor is in the suite below — and a great fuss he made about that, I might add." Nellie began backing the cart toward the door. "Sorry, sir. I'll get out of your way." "A moment, if you please. Now that you are here, His Highness's bedchamber requires refreshing." Nellie continued backing away. "Well, I really should get down to the Wizards' …" "Nonsense. It will take but a moment. And

there are several other matters that require your attention. If you'll follow me to the bathroom …" "Coming," she called after him. She leaned down into the linen bin, thrust the key card into the nearest hand, and whispered, "When you hear my voice in the next room, get out of here!" "What about you?" Amy squeaked. "I can handle myself. You get the diary. I'll meet you back at our hotel. Be careful!" And she was gone. A moment later, they could hear her announcing loudly, "This bathroom is bigger than my whole apartment!" The sheets began flying, and Amy and Dan scrambled from the cart and slipped through the door into the hallway. "Jonah's one floor down," Dan rasped. They ran for the stairs. The door of suite 1600 was identical to its upstairs counterpart, except there was no crown. "Poor Jonah," Amy said sarcastically as they let themselves in with the key card. "He's really slumming it."

If the rooms were any less opulent than the Grand Duke's accomodations, Amy and Dan couldn't tell where corners had been cut. The suite was massive and elegantly decorated. The marble floor gleamed; the rich carpets were hand-woven and luxurious. Every vase and ashtray on every end table looked like it had been placed there by an artist. "Kind of makes our place in Boston seem like an outhouse," Dan observed. Amy sighed. "I don't care about the high life. But sometimes it bugs me just how rich the competition is." "Grace was rich." Dan's brow clouded as he remembered the fire that had destroyed their grandmother's mansion on the day of her funeral. "Anyway, I'd rather be poor and normal than a rich idiot like Jonah or the Cobras." "Yeah, but money is a big advantage in a contest like this," his sister argued bleakly. "It can open a lot of doors that we'll have to find another way around. We're really outclassed, Dan." "That's what cheating is for." He surveyed the

expansive parlor. "Now, if I was a stuck-up idiot with my head on a Pez dispenser, where would I hide the diary I jacked?" Amy smiled in spite of herself. "We'd better search the whole place." They began to comb the huge suite, looking under sofa cushions, in drawers, behind drapes, and through closets. "Hey, check it out." Dan reached into a small carton and withdrew a six-inch-tall action figure, Jonah Wizard in plasticized Phat Farm jeans and warm-up jacket. "Not a very good likeness," he commented. "He's much uglier in real life." "Put that back!" hissed Amy, rifling through a drawer. "It's bad enough we broke into his room. We don't need to steal his dumb toys." "It's for my collection," Dan protested. "He's got a whole box of them. Hey — this must be the one with the kung fu grip." He pressed the button and watched the tiny fist snap closed. "Whoa — no wonder it's being recalled! You could crack a walnut with this thing!" "Look!" Amy's eyes danced with excitement.

She turned the toy around in Dan's hand. When the grip was activated, a sequence of red letters and numbers lit up on the back of the figure's headband. "GR63K1!" she read breathlessly. "It's some kind of secret code!" Dan snorted a laugh in her face. "For a straight- A student, you can be pretty dumb. Sure, it's a code — to download a free Jonah Wizard screen saver from his website! The commercials are all over TV back home." His sister reddened. "I guess I'm not as much of a couch potato as you," she mumbled in embarrassment, and returned her attention to the search. Dan stuffed the figure in his pocket and joined her. The suite had five rooms — the parlor, two bedrooms, a dressing chamber, and the kitchen. They went through every inch of the place, with no results. The master bedroom had a safe, but it was unlocked and empty. Even an examination of the kitchen and minibar revealed nothing. "You don't think he's got it with him, do you?" Dan asked in alarm.

His sister shook her head. "You don't bring a hot item like that to a place where every TV camera in Europe is pointed at you. It's here. We just have to find it." "Where do we look?" Dan was running out of patience. "It's too dark, anyway! What's up with these fancy hotels putting twenty layers of drapes over all the windows?" He flipped a light switch. A vast crystal chandelier blazed overhead. Amy and Dan gasped. At the center of this confection of light hung a basket formed by ropes of crystals. There, dark against the brilliance, was the unmistakable silhouette of a book. "The diary!" they chorused. Dan ran for a chair. "Not high enough!" his sister barked. "Come help me with the table." They took the heavy glass table and hauled it under the chandelier. Dan climbed atop it, but he was still too short. "Hand me the chair." Soon, Amy was perched on the table, steadying the chair and her brother, who stood on tiptoe atop two phone books on the seat.