36 Chapter 36

Chapter 36 Down on the first floor, Charles and Andrew were working their way around the semicircle of threestory- tall floor-to-dome bookcases filled with fiction. It was nearly eight p.m. "We need to find that blasted book," said Charles, craning his neck to study the shelves. "I'm getting kind of hungry," mumbled Andrew. "You had a snack this afternoon," snapped Charles.

"Well, now it's time for dinner." "No. We need to find Anne of Green Gables first." The classic by Lucy Maud Montgomery was the middle book on the top shelf in the Staff Picks display case. So far, Charles, Haley, and Andrew had not been able to find it anywhere in the library. "Unfortunately," said Andrew, "they've temporarily erased the book's call number from the database." "So we wouldn't know what to punch into the hover ladder's control panel," grumbled Charles. "Actually," said Andrew, "they might've shelved it in the Children's Room. Or maybe the eight hundreds, with Literature. Could be in the four hundreds, too, because it was originally written in Canadian, which is, technically, a foreign language." "So you have said, Andrew. Repeatedly. But we've already searched those other locations. Several times. It has to be here with the other fiction titles. You just need to fly up and find it."

"Well," said Andrew, "I'm kind of afraid of heights." "Fine. Whatever. I'll go up and grab it. But you have to give me some kind of call number to enter into the hover ladder." "Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote other Anne books. There's Anne of Avonlea.…" Charles dashed over to the nearest library table and swiped his fingers across the glass face of its built-in computer pad. "Here we go. Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery. F-MON." "Yes," said Andrew. "Fiction books are usually put on the shelf in alphabetical order by the author's last name. Nonfiction titles are classified according to the Dewey decimal system." "How long have you known this?" Andrew's nose twitched. "Since second grade." "So all we ever needed was 'F-MON'? We could've found this book hours ago?" Andrew gulped. "You are such a disappointment." Shaking his head, Charles huffed over to one of the hover ladders. He quickly jabbed "F," "M," "O," and

"N" into the keypad. The boot clamps locked into place around his ankles. "You owe me for wasting all this time, Andrew. You owe me big-time. If you let me down once more, I swear I will tell everybody you're a big blubbering baby. I'll Twitter it and post it on Facebook." "Don't worry. I'll make you glad you picked me for your team, Charles! I promise." The hover ladder lifted off the floor and gently glided up to the M section of the fiction wall. Shuttling sideways, it carried Charles over to a shelf displaying all the Anne books. He grabbed a copy of Anne of Green Gables. As soon as he did, the ladder started its slow descent to the floor. "What'd you find?" asked Andrew when Charles landed. "The clue we needed." He showed Andrew the card that had been tucked inside the front cover.

"Okay," said Andrew. "It's 'C plus hat'! So the word is 'chat,' which, by the way, could also be 'chat,' the French word for cat!" "Well done, Andrew," said Charles, even though he knew the clue was really "C plus Anne," equaling "can," thereby making the puzzle "You can walk out the way BLANK BLANK inn in past BLANK." The way what did what? he wondered. And what does "inn in" mean? Charles desperately needed to find the three missing pictograms. Suddenly, Mr. Lemoncello's voice boomed out of speakers ringing the rotunda. "Hey, Charles! Hey, Andrew! Let's Do a Deal!" Game show music blared. A canned crowd cheered. Charles turned around and saw shafts of colored light illuminating three envelopes perched on top

of the librarian's round desk. Clarence the security guard marched into the reading room and, folding his arms over his chest, took up a position near the three envelopes. "We have a green envelope, a blue envelope, and a red envelope," said Mr. Lemoncello. "In two of those three envelopes are copies of two of the three pictogram clues you still need. In one, there is a Clunker Card. If you pick an envelope with a clue, you get to keep it—and you get to keep going. But once you pick the Clunker Card, you're done … and you must suffer the consequences." Andrew raised his hand. "Yes, Andrew?" "What are the consequences?" "Something bad," said Mr. Lemoncello. "In fact, something wicked this way will probably come. Do you want to do a deal?" "Yes!" said Charles. The canned audience cheered. "All right, then! Charles, you roll first." "Pardon?" "Swipe your fingers across the nearest desktop computer panel. The dice tumbler app is up and