Chapter 9
Quinn rapped on the glass door of the security office while he racked his brain for some plausible reason to be doing so. One of the guards was on the telephone, standing and looking at the monitor showing the gem hall. He was speaking animatedly into the phone. The other guard, still seated in a swiveling chair, was pressing buttons on the computer and switching three more computer screens to shots of the gem hall. Neither guard seemed likely to stop what he was doing to answer Quinn’s knock on the door. Quinn raced back into the lounge room where he and Jack had been left. He picked up a chair and threw it at the base of the wall separating the guard’s room from the lounge. He didn’t want to break anything, just to get their attention. But the chair was more fragile than it looked. It hit the floor and broke into splinters. In the enclosed space, the crash reverberated loudly. The guard who was still seated turned to look. Seeing Quinn shouting through the soundproof glass, looking red in the face and crazed, he stood up and crossed to the door.
“What’s the big idea!” shouted the guard, “are you out of your mind!”
“Take me to your leader!” Quinn shouted right back at him, “I demand to see your supervisor!”
The guard looked at the broken chair and back at Quinn, “Yeah, I don’t think that’ll be a problem. She’s going to want to see you, too.”
The guard was a young black man who, despite the circumstances, remained calm and collected. He turned back into the control room, unclipping his radio from his belt as he went. Quinn used the opportunity to bolt. He sprinted past the entrance and out towards the elephant hall.
“Hey!” shouted the guard. He took off after Quinn. That left just one guard in the control room. He was still on the phone.
“I’ve got to go,” said Jack, “I might be able to turn off the monitor if that other guard goes after Quinn.”
But the other guard didn’t even look away from the screens.
“I’m telling you, there’s no little bald guy,” said the guard. This guard was a middle aged man with walrus moustache. He had a paper napkin tucked into the front of his uniform shirt. A half eaten falafel in a paper carton was balanced on the edge of the bank of monitors beside a drink in a paper cup.
He didn’t notice Jack creep into the control room. On the monitor, Jack could see the construction workers assembling in the main room upstairs. Two other monitors showed the two other rooms in the gem hall. On a smaller screen, Jack could see Cable standing alone with his back to an elevator door. It was only a matter of time before the guard saw it too. Jack had to act fast. He swiped his hand and sent the cup flying onto the computer screens. It was nearly full. Soda went everywhere.
“What the—“ exclaimed the guard, dropping the phone.
Jack caught the phone before it hit the ground and yanked it. The cord snapped free from the electrical panel and the line went dead. Jack tossed the phone back to the guard, who instinctively clutched at it. One of the monitors had blinked off from its Diet Coke bake already. Another was flickering. Jack scanned the computer bank for a hard drive or a power strip, but he didn’t see one. The guard, meanwhile, made a lunge for Jack. He was not a nimble guy, but the space was so small that he couldn’t help but get a piece of Jack. Jack yanked his arm free and dove out of the room. The guard’s paper napkin fluttered to the ground. By the time the guard stood up, a second computer monitor had gone blank, and Jack was gone.
Jack flew out into the elephant hall past the guard’s desk, which was empty. He saw a cluster of guards racing out the front door of the museum and assumed that they were chasing Quinn. Good luck with catching him, Jack thought. Quinn was the fastest runner in the school. Plus, he could run all day and all night without getting tired. Jack tapped the speed dial on his earpiece.
There was no answer. He looked up at the mezzanine and located the Gem Hall. Then he hurried over to the area underneath it, with the intention of figuring out where the cargo elevator came through. His phone beeped and he tapped the button to answer.
“Cable?” he blurted.
“No Jack, it’s me Max,” said Max. “What the devil is going on?”
“Max. I can’t talk now,” said Jack.
“Is everything OK? Where are you guys?”
“Really Max,” said Jack, he had found the exhibit hall underneath the gem exhibit and was hurrying past old fashioned display cases of cavemen and sabertooth tigers in plaster dioramas, “I gotta go. I’m getting another call.”
He tapped the button and switched lines.
“Jack!” it was Cable. “I’m out of the elevator. I’m in some kind of warehouse loading dock kind of thing. It’s all clear down here. No guards in sight. Where are you?”
“I seem to be in the early Stone Age,” said Jack. “I’m looking for the elevator but I don’t see it.”
“I’m on a lower level,” said Cable, “I think it’s the level we came in on. There’s an exit door over here. Hey, I’m getting a call from Quinn. Is he with you?”
“No,” said Jack, “he took off with like half the security guards from the whole museum but I—“ A beep told Jack that Cable had put him on hold.
“Quinn, where are you?” asked Cable.
“I’m back at the car,” said Quinn, not even out of breath, “where are you?”
“Headed your way,” said Cable, “Jack said the guards were chasing you.”
“Not for long,” said Quinn. “by the time I got to the corner there were only three of them. I jumped the fence by the sculpture garden and then doubled back around here. There’s no sign of anyone now. Hey – Max is calling me.”
Quinn hung up on Cable and Cable’s phone switched back over to Jack. “Jack, are you there?”
“Yeah,” said Jack, “is Quinn OK?”
“He’s back at the car. Where are you?”
“Heading back down the escalator the way we came in. I’ll meet you back at the car.”
Five minutes later, all three boys were in the car and heading into the underpass that led beneath the Mall to the highway and back to Fredericksburg.
Each filled the others in on their exploits at the museum. It was Cable’s story, most of all the fired their imaginations.
“So are you ready for my theory now?” asked Cable smugly. “We’ve got a missing shipment of precious stones, a museum guy and a contractor both looking for a taxidermist whose gone AWOL, and a house full of books on gems and secret compartments. Do I have to plug in the details or is that obvious enough, now? We’ve got a jewel thief on our hands.”
Jack nodded, “something like that, it looks like.”
“What was in the secret compartment, anyway?” asked Quinn.
“Omigosh, I forgot,” said Jack. He reached in his pocket and pulled out the envelope that he’d retrieved from the armadillo pedestal. It was a plain business envelope, still sealed, with no writing on the outside. Jack opened it carefully. He pulled a folded sheet of blue paper out and checked to see if there was anything else in the envelope. There was not. He unfolded the page and read it the neat handwriting, which was familiar to him from the crossword puzzle books. The note read,
“Since ewe won’t accept my terms, old ‘friends,’
I’ve changed the plans to meat my ends.
But wood eye leave you dry and high?
Ewe said In TEAM there is no I
Nor in LON nor TGER nor BEAR
I’ve left you what I think is fair.
If my black Owl finds this note
I’ll contact you in time
Till then in Berkeley is the truth
Laid bear and knot in rhyme.
Keep an eye on the
Prey my friend this has a happy end.”
Cable let out a low whistle. Jack looked up from the paper with an appreciative gleam in his eye. From the back seat, Quinn just grinned.
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