Chapter 1

STORM WARNING by LINDA SUE PARK

CHAPTER 1 "Bahamas." "Jamaica." "Bahamas." "Jamaica." Dan gritted and clenched every part of his body that could be gritted or clenched. He tried one more time. "BA–HA–MAS. Amy, think about it—" "I am thinking about it!" his sister shot back. "Which is more than you're doing! Look, if we're going to go where she went, it has to be Jamaica. She wasn't even a pirate when she lived in the Bahamas!" They were talking about Anne Bonny, who had disguised herself as a man and become a swashbuckling pirate way back in the 1700s. And who might — or might not — be one of their ancestors. In China, Dan had found a miniature

portrait of a woman with Anne Bonny's name on the back. It was their only lead to the next step in their quest. Amy and Dan were Cahills. For more than five hundred years, Cahill family members had been among the most influential people in the world. Scientists like Galileo and Marie Curie; artists and writers like Vincent Van Gogh and Mark Twain; world leaders — Napoleon and George Washington; the list went on and on… and it was looking like Anne Bonny might have been a Cahill, too. In the early 1500s, the Cahill family had separated into branches, each bearing the legacy of a child born to Gideon and Olivia Cahill. Oldest son, Luke: the Lucians. Strategists, politicians, businesspeople. Sister Katherine: the Ekaterina branch, innovators and inventors. Brother Thomas: the Tomas clan of explorers, adventurers, and athletes. And sister Jane: the Janus line, populated by artists and visionaries. Since that time, the factions had been battling one another in a desperate race to find the secret to becoming the most powerful people on the

planet. Amy and Dan had joined that race. Not that they knew what they were doing at first. When their beloved grandmother Grace died, the terms of her will gave them a hint toward the first Clue — and set in motion an adventure they could never have imagined. Not alone, either. Other teams were chasing down the Clues, too — teams that would do anything to keep Amy and Dan from getting there first. Explosions, cave–ins, atttempts to poison them, drown them, bury them alive. In France, Austria, Japan, Korea, Egypt, Australia, South Africa, China… Dan and Amy had survived it all, finding several of the precious Clues along the way. And they still didn't know what they were doing. They were now in the Beijing airport waiting for Nellie, their au pair, who was at the currency exchange window. "Jamaica was the last place anyone ever saw or

heard of her," Amy said. She had already researched Anne Bonny online. "So that's where we should start looking." "But—" Dan stopped, trying desperately to think of a way around Amy's reasoning. She was good at this stuff, at seeing the big picture. He was more a detail guy, and right now he was very interested in one particular detail about the Bahamas. Amy looked him right in the eye. "I know what you're thinking, Daniel Arthur Cahill," she said sternly. "Don't be ridiculous. We've got to beat the other teams to the next clue. We don't have time to waste at some dumb amusement park." Dan yelped. "'Dumb amusement park'? Is that what you think it is? Don't you know anything? Oceanus is the biggest water park in the world! They've got, like, a hundred waterslides! And you can swim with dolphins! And see stingrays and piranhas!" "Ha!" Amy pointed at him in triumph. "I knew you were thinking about Oceanus!" "Well, it's the last thing you'd think about,"

Dan said bitterly. "The only person in the world who has no idea how to have fun, and she has to be my sister. No wait, I take that back. Your idea of fun is a library open twenty–four–seven." Amy's eyes widened in hurt. "D–Dan, that's not f–fair," she said, her slight stammer surfacing as it always did when she was upset. Dan's shoulders slumped. Hurting Amy's feelings always made him feel bad, but honestly, sometimes he couldn't help it. "Look, I know you think it doesn't make sense for us to go to the Bahamas first. But we don't know for sure that the clue is in Jamaica, either." "True," Amy admitted. Dan sensed her softening and strained his brain to come up with something that would convince her. "With every clue we've found, it's always been because we discovered a bunch of other stuff along the way, right? In the 'wrong' places. But if we hadn't gone to the wrong places first, we wouldn't have gotten what we needed to find the clue in the right place." His face was a little red now from the effort of