Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12 All the doors into the theater were locked, but it was only a few minutes before a maintenance worker emerged, pushing a garbage can on wheels. Dan saw the opportunity they needed and shoved Amy into the man's path. When she hit the cart, Amy caught her foot on the metal wheel and flew forward onto the marble floor. "You little monster!" she said, turning beet red and forgetting for a moment that she was visiting one of the more opulent concert halls in Europe, disguised as an adult. When she got up, the man was wearing a cramped smile, trying not to laugh. He mumbled something in Russian that Amy felt sure meant "hopeless klutz," then wandered down the long corridor, shaking his head. "Dan?" Amy looked every which way, straightening her

ridiculous wig and glasses, but there was no sign of her brother. "Pssst. Over here," said Dan. Amy turned around and saw that a door to the theater was open just far enough for Dan's goatee to poke out at her. "Get in here before someone sees you." Amy backed up slowly as a group of women walked past, chatting quietly in Russian. By the time they'd disappeared, Amy had her back against one of the two doors. Dan grabbed her by the arm and yanked her inside. "What's taking you so long?" Amy scowled at her brother. First he pushes me, then he pulls me. Now he gets all over my case. "You're starting to annoy me," she said, gearing up for an epic brother-sister argument. But when she turned toward the stage, her anger melted away. Amy loved the theater almost as much as she loved books, and the State Kremlin Palace was a stunner if ever she'd seen one. The stage was set with blue lights shining down as night descended on the scene. There were scale model buildings

and a Russian-style church deep in the background. It was breathtaking from where they stood, like a scene from a fairy tale in which Anastasia came back to life and Rasputin roamed the woods. Long rows of seats lined the middle of the theater, all of them empty, awaiting theatergoers who wouldn't arrive until evening. Dan led the way into the darkness along the back wall of the theater. "The balcony's up there, so the stairs can't be too far. This place is gigantic. It must hold at least six thousand people." They could hear a door opening as they crept onto the stairs, which were hidden behind a curtain. Amy put her finger to her lips, then looked back to see that a security guard had entered. And what was worse, he had a giant German shepherd on a leash. Dan waved Amy along and soon they were at the top of the gilded stairway, down a short hall, and standing in Balcony Box 4. Dan began searching for row number 3, then tried to imagine what D1 meant. He hadn't got that far in his thinking before Amy could tell he was stumped.

She crouched down low, peering over the edge of the balcony. The dog was guiding the guard closer toward the stairs. "He's coming this way!" said Amy. She crept over to Dan, and they both looked at the scribble of numbers and letters on the piece of paper again. "There are three Ds— D1, D2, D3. Maybe they refer to doors?" "Could be," said Dan. He whispered all the letters and numbers again. Sometimes it helped to say things out loud. "SKP BAL BOX4 R3 D1 45231 D2 45102 D3 NRR." "Hurry, Dan! That dog is serious business. It looks angry and hungry. You know what that means—" Dan walked along Row 3 and sat down. "What are you doing? This is no time to sit around! Do something!" "I am," said Dan. "I think I got this." "You think you got what?" Amy said nervously. She was searching on the floor for a button or a lock, anything that might get them away from the approaching guard dog. "Look for some dials or a

hidden panel. Make yourself useful!" Dan calmly got up and sat in the next seat over, seat number 5 in the row. He'd been in seat number 4. Then he got up again and sat in seat number 2. "Seriously, Dan, you've lost your marbles." "I don't think so," he whispered. "45231 might be the order in which a person has to sit in the seats in Row 3. Let me finish." He sat in seat number 3, then moved right up next to Amy. "If something doesn't happen when I sit down, we're in big trouble." He took a deep breath and plopped down in the seat. There was a soft snick behind a curtained wall at the rear of the balcony. "I think you did something," whispered Amy. She could hear the German shepherd sniffing at the top of the stairs now. Dan and Amy moved quietly to the rear of the balcony and pulled back the red curtain. One of the panels had slid open an inch, revealing a black seam of darkness behind. "Kto tam?"

Amy nearly jumped out of the balcony at the sound of the guard's voice. He was right outside, about to enter, as Dan slid the panel open just enough to glide through. Amy followed and the curtain dropped. She slid the panel shut. The German shepherd whined and sniffed, searching everything in the balcony, including the curtain. But the dog didn't find anything. Dan and Amy had vanished. "I guess we follow the lights," said Amy. They were in a long, narrow corridor with runway lights embedded in the center of the floor. The walls and ceiling were black, so that it felt like walking in the midnight sky along a line of stars. They snaked back and forth for fifty feet and came to the end. "Looks like an elevator," said Dan. "D2— door number two." Amy nodded her agreement in the darkness. A row of five elevator buttons, each round and circled in red, glowed softly against the black wall. "Remember the order?" asked Amy. Dan stepped up to the bank of buttons and began