9. Heat Race

HEAT RACE 9 Sam, Lucy, and Antonio raced toward the teachers' lounge. They were making good time. "Not much farther!" Sam called out. As they passed the principal's office, all three friends slipped at once. The floor had become one long sheet of ice. They slid the rest of the way there.

Sam got there first. He grabbed the teachers' lounge doorknob and pulled himself up. Lucy and Antonio were close behind. "We made it!" Sam said, smiling. "I cannot believe we're going in here!" Antonio said. "This is like a secret world!"

They opened the door, and looked around. The teachers' lounge was dull. Nothing but newspapers and mugs and uneaten snacks. "Well this is disappointing," Lucy said. "This is the most boring secret world ever." But then the friends were disappointed for a different reason. They spotted the thermostat. It was trapped behind a wall of ice.

"Oh no!" Lucy exclaimed. "Look how thick that ice is!" Antonio said. "And it's only here. Sam said, as he looked around the room. "Orson put this ice wall here, to stop us from touching the thermostat." Antonio pounded his fists against the ice, but it was useless. And no amount of salt would help. The ice was too thick. It would take two hundred forks and two hundred hammers to break through this, Sam thought. They could see the thermostat through the ice. It showed the current temperature: 18 degrees, and falling fast.

"There must be another way," Antonio said. "Look through Orson's notes again. Hurry!" Lucy quickly scrolled through Antonio's photos. Sam and Antonio peered over her shoulder. They read as fast as they could, looking for anything that might help. Antonio shouted, "There! The page about weather experiments!" Then Antonio read Orson Eerie's words aloud: "'My plan will work so long as no one finds the hidden switch.'" "A hidden switch!" said Sam.

Suddenly, the walls trembled and swayed. The floor quaked. Antonio gulped. "I think we're on the right track." "Where could it be? We need to find that switch!" cried Sam. "Let's check the blueprints!" Lucy said. She pulled her binder from her backpack. I remember seeing something about a switch..."