Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8 It had to happen. After all these years of hating museums, he'd turned into a permanent exhibit. Dan pressed his palms against the wall. "Help," he whispered. "How much longer do you think he'll leave us here?" Amy asked. "Until we crack," Dan said. "How can we crack? We don't know anything." "I know I'm hungry," Dan said. "If Oh offered me a pizza, I'd think of something." "Nellie will start to wonder where we are," Amy said. "She'll never find us." "She'll tell the front desk. Maybe they'll call the police…."

"Don't you get it? He owns the hotel. They're not going to do anything." "He can't just leave us here." Amy's voice quavered, and she swallowed hard. She had been in worse spots, she told herself. But somehow this Plexiglas cube made her feel panicked. Like she was a thing on display, not a person. She tried to take a breath. "How much air is in this thing?" "I don't know," Dan said. "Maybe… maybe we shouldn't talk." Now she had scared her brother. Losing his breath was a real issue for him. Amy straightened her shoulders. She wasn't going to lose it. She'd freaked out in front of Dan before, and she wasn't going to do it again. Ever. "I'm sure there's enough." For how long? The thought rose and she batted it away. The panic eased a little. She could do this. She knew now that the trick to being brave was not thinking of the worst thing that could happen. It was a weird thing— if you acted brave, you could almost feel brave. She'd just have to work at it. As hard as she

could. "Kiddos?" Nellie called from the bedroom. "There'd better be food out there waiting for me!" No answer. "Dudes?" Nellie knotted the sash of the thick hotel robe. "Munchkins?" They hated when she called them that. But no howl of dismay came from the other room. Nellie pushed open the door. The room was empty. A robe lay on the floor next to a broken umbrella. The kids had flown the coop. Well. Who could blame them? They were in a five-star hotel, and they wanted to explore. Nellie flopped on a sofa and gave herself up to a luxurious perusal of the room service menu. Twenty minutes later, she'd plowed through quite a bit of the delicious assortment of small dishes called meze. But even with the last bites of sabanikhiyat, she realized that her stomach was more full of worry than spinach. Something was up. It had taken her way too long to realize it. Alarm bells should have been clanging way before this. She was getting sloppy.

Blame it on hunger or jet lag, but there was no excuse. You've got some explaining to do if you don't kick your brain into overdrive, Nellie. She had been schooled not to show panic, so she didn't. She sprang up and inspected the room. For the first time, she took note of the robe on the floor by the door. At first she'd assumed that it was Dan's usual sloppy habits, but when she studied it again, she realized that the way it was lying meant that someone had flung it off in a hurry. While standing facing that connecting door… Nellie sprang forward. She examined every inch of the door. Then she looked at the broken umbrella on the floor. And everything suddenly made sense. She saw them before they saw her. Her heart squeezed. Just clapping her eyes on them gave her a nice rush of relief. But how was she going to get them out of there? She took a breath and composed herself. She had to keep them calm. Amy heard the slap of flip-flops and whirled around. The fear in her eyes turned to relief.

"Nellie!" She could hear her clearly. The cube must have been wired for sound. Nellie took a bite of her pita. "What is this place?" she asked. "Nellie? Uh, notice something?" Dan asked. "Like, we're trapped in a cube?" He was trying to act casual, but she could hear his breath was short. She had tucked his inhaler in her robe pocket in case he needed it. But it would be better if he didn't. Nellie took another bite. Even while she chewed, she assessed the situation with a cool glance. Saladin appeared and brushed against her ankles. "You two are an au pair's worst nightmare. This could be a way for me to keep tabs on you. It's, like, a method." "NELLIE!" they shouted. "He could be back any minute!" Dan said. "Who?" "Bae Oh! He's the one who put us in this thing." "That old dude you told me about? What did he do, arm wrestle you?"

"NELLIE!" Nellie walked around the cube. She tapped it with a fingernail. "Any suggestions?" "Look up in that far left corner," Amy suggested. "The circuit is up there." "He pointed a laser at it," Dan said. Nellie slapped the pocket of her robe. "Whoa, I think I left my laser pointer back with my PowerPoint presentation." "Nellie!" She walked directly over to the corner and peered up. "I see it," she said. She reached into her pita, then bent down and fed it to Saladin. "He loves hummus," she said. "Who knew?" "Well, he is an Egyptian Mau," Dan said. "Maybe this is home cooking for him." "This is no time to feed the cat!" Amy exclaimed. Saladin licked his cat lips and began to rub against Nellie's legs, begging for more. Nellie scooped out another blob of hummus. She looked up at the corner again. She aimed and