Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9 From backstage, the sound system in the Bird's Nest was shattering. The drumbeats were artillery shells. The capacity crowd swallowed this incoming fire and howled for more— eighty-one thousand people in frenzied overdrive, rattling the interlacing steel "twigs" of the most famous stadium in the world. Dan had never much appreciated Jonah as a person or as a celebrity. But the guy definitely knew how to work an audience, even a humongous one that didn't speak much English. He conjured his rhymes like Zeus conjured thunderbolts. And yet, when he addressed the crowd in his down-to-earth way, it was somehow intimate, as if every one of the eighty-one thousand were enjoying a personal visit with the megastar. He was electrifying. Clutching his backstage pass, Dan stood in the

wings with Jonah's father and assorted roadies, bodyguards, and music journalists. He couldn't help wondering why Jonah even bothered with the 39 Clues. Who needed to become the most powerful person in history when being famous was so flat-out awesome? Jonah had it all— money, fame, screaming girls. Even the Cahill family had nothing to offer compared with that. A few feet away, Mr. Wizard's BlackBerry lit up like a Roman candle, and he took an urgent phone call. Dan looked on eagerly. "Is that about my sister? Have you found their hotel?" He had to cup his hands to his mouth and shout directly into the man's ear. "No— no luck on that!" Jonah's father yelled back. "But this is an emergency! The fans have broken through to the tunnel outside the dressing room. Security says there are hundreds of them! It's not going to be easy to get Jonah out of here! Come on!" He led Dan and the bodyguards through a heavy door marked RESTRICTED ACCESS in a dozen

languages. Now they were in the true guts of the Bird's Nest, the passages no one got to see during the Olympics on TV. They navigated the network of underground concrete tunnels, squinting in the harsh fluorescent light. After a few turns, they emerged into the main corridor and sheer bedlam. Five hundred Jonah Wizard fans, amped up to fever pitch, were jammed in like sardines, screaming for a glimpse of their idol. They held up signs, in Chinese and English, with messages like MARRY ME, JONAH; I WANNA BE YOUR GANGSTA; and THE YEAR OF THE WIZ. The never-ending chant of Jo-nah! Jo-nah! Jo-nah! rivaled the gigawatt sound system of the stadium. Broderick and the security guards formed a human wall, holding the fans back, and Dan joined them. A fistful of Chinese money was thrust into his face by a girl even younger than he was. "I must meet him! One kiss!" she shrieked. Her face was the color of an overripe tomato, so flushed was she with emotion. A paper airplane came sailing from the middle

of the crowd and bounced off Dan's head. He unfolded it and giggled in amazement. The page contained a pink impression of kissing lips along with a Beijing telephone number. At that moment, Amy, Nellie, and the Clue hunt might as well have been a million miles away. Amy and Nellie were less than a hundred feet back, at the edge of the surging crowd. "You know, this kind of brings back memories," shouted Nellie, straining to push ahead in the sea of people. "Green Day at Fenway Park, summer 2005. I sucker punched a bouncer and got Billie Joe Armstrong to autograph my forehead. I didn't wash my face for a month." "But how are we going to get through to Jonah to ask if he's seen Dan?" cried Amy in despair. "No way can we sucker punch all these people!" Suddenly, Jonah's voice echoed through the underground tunnels of the Bird's Nest. "Goodnight, Beijing! You're the bomb! Word!" The stadium rocked with cheers. In the

corridor, the already charged atmosphere went supercritical. The chanting ceased; the cheering ceased; the signs were dropped. Five hundred crazed fans devoted all their energy to pushing. At the front, Dan, Broderick Wizard, and the security guards struggled to hold off the advancing wall of humanity. Even Jonah, who saw frenzied admirers everywhere he went, was alarmed by the ferocity of this onslaught. "Let's get out of here, yo! These people are psycho!" He wheeled away from the dressing room and sprinted for the emergency exit. That was when Dan made his first mistake. He took his eye off the crowd and turned to look at Jonah. The girl with the money leaped onto his back and hung on, clamping her arms around his head. Blinded, he staggered backward, and the throng poured in through the opening in the line. When the crowd began to move, oozing forward like an enormous amoeba, Nellie tucked Amy behind her and plowed into the fray. Amy followed, stumbling over fallen fans,

putting all her faith in the au pair. If Amy had bothered to look down instead of scanning the area for a glimpse of Jonah, she would have seen that she had very nearly stepped on the brother she was so anxious to find. Nellie and Amy barreled right over Dan, following the stampede. "Faster!" Amy shouted. Nellie stopped, poised like a pointer. The herd was thundering down the hallway to Jonah's dressing room. But Nellie's sharp eyes were focused on the emergency exit. "You think he left the building?" Amy panted. "You don't get Billie Joe Armstrong's autograph on your forehead without following your instincts," she shot back. "Come on!" They blasted through the door to see a Hummer stretch limo parked at the curb. The window was down, revealing none other than Jonah Wizard inside, drinking from a water bottle. A bodyguard jumped out of the front of the car and moved to bar their way. But Jonah called him back. "It's all good, Bruno. The little chick's my