17 The Light Will Set Us Free

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN The Light Will Set Us Free Mercury (noun). One of two elements that is a liquid at room temperature. It moves around like an alien and it's super shiny—you could almost imagine it's from the planet Mercury! "OKAY, IT'S SIMPLE NOW," said Jeremy. "We just need to find a black light." "On it," I said, kneeling on the floor to search under the desk. Birdie went back to inspecting the bookshelf. Elijah banged open and shut every drawer, while Memito inspected behind various doors. And Jeremy checked behind some framed posters. My eyes scanned the tile floor for something we had missed. I picked up area carpets as Birdie slid her hands behind the old radio to check it out one more time. Suddenly there was shuffling outside. "Please, hurry!" said the spy formerly known as Ms. Daly.

"Dr. Dragas and his gang are almost at the lab. You're running out of time." "Guys, we can do this!" said Elijah, staring at the clock. "Only eight more minutes," reported Memito. His voice sounded as panicked as I felt. He plopped onto a seat. "I don't see how we can get out in time before... you-know-who arrives." I frantically scanned the lab. Could there be a black light clue near one of the gazillion test tubes? No, we had already checked. Or maybe in the bookshelf? No. It had been thoroughly searched as well. "The answer has to be here somewhere. I'm sure we're missing something big." "Kate's right," said Jeremy. And for a moment, I blinked in complete shock. Did Jeremy Rowe just agree with me for the second time today? I felt too stunned to say anything back. "Hey, what if it's something right in front of our eyes," added Jeremy. "Something so obvious it's funny." That's when Elijah started grinning really big. He raced into the closet and pulled out a blue lab coat. He dug his hands into the left pocket of it and whipped out what looked like a thick black pen. "Look what I found!"

"Dude, how?" asked Memito. "We already checked those coats." "I know," said Elijah. "I put on the lab coat I'm wearing now when we first got here. The one I got in Daly's lab was too small. Ms. Daly must have planted this blacklight in my pocket." Memito smacked his head. "That's why we didn't find it. Because you had already switched lab coats." "Yup!" Elijah clicked the back of the light, and suddenly Jeremy's white shirt was glowing super bright. "It's you!" joked Elijah. "Jeremy is the message." "You know it, bay-bee!" said Jeremy. Phoenix and I snickered. The light hit a bar of soap near the faucet in the WC. I raced over to pick it up to see if any message was on it. It was so bright it almost looked radioactive in the dim room. But nothing. Elijah continued to shine the black light around the room, but nothing else was glowing, except for some paper on the desk, which we had already examined. "It doesn't seem to be doing anything," I said, exasperated. "Seven minutes," announced Jeremy, shining his regular flashlight on the timer.

Meanwhile, Memito started to try to open up the drawers in a cabinet. "I've looked through those," Jeremy huffed. "Well, you didn't find this." Memito held up a ball of black slime and threw it for Elijah to catch. "Gross," said Elijah. He set it down on a nearby table. "Why would Dr. Franklin have slime in her lab?" asked Phoenix as she started opening drawers on the desk. "I've already done that," said Memito. "Well, you didn't open this center drawer." Phoenix tapped the drawer right under the desktop. "Because it's stuck." Memito pulled on the knob. "Because it's supposed to be that way. It's one of those fake drawers." Crouching down, Jeremy inspected. "Nope. They usually only do those fake drawers in bathrooms. They're directly under the sink. An actual drawer assembly can't fit because of all the plumbing." "Wow. I didn't know that," admitted Elijah as Jeremy began to try to pry open the drawer. "My uncle is a plumber." Jeremy shrugged. "He's taken me to a few jobs." He tugged on the knob. "This is a real drawer all right. I could

probably do something if I could just work the blade of a putty knife right down in there." He continued to try to pull. "Whoa, stop," I said. "Remember what Ms. Daly—I mean that spy said. We shouldn't force anything." "I think the drawer might have a magnet inside," said Jeremy. Memito started counting down the minutes. "Five minutes. That's all we got." "Stop," said Birdie. "You're making me nervous." Crouching down, I shone a flashlight in the little crack in the drawer. "I don't see a magnet," I said. "I don't know what you're talking about." "Me either," said Elijah. Then I remembered something I saw on Dr. Caroline, and suddenly, it all made sense.