Read Online The 39 Clues [Cahills vs. Vespers] 05 - Trust No One by Linda Sue Park - Free Book Online

Yes, but —
    Amy closed her eyes against the heat of her tears. “Dan,” she whispered, “I don’t think I can do this anymore.”
    Dan was silent for a few moments. “I know,” he said at last. “It’s — it’s awful. But, Amy —”
    She could feel him shifting his weight, leaning toward her, so she opened her eyes and looked at him.
    “Two things. First, it’s not like we have a choice,” he said. “I mean, what are you gonna do — just give up and abandon the hostages? And second, remember what you told Ham, about how Erasmus and Phoenix would have wanted us to keep going? It’s not just something you said to make Jonah feel better. It’s the truth.”
    “But I feel like — like I’ve got nothing left,” she said, “and even that nothing is all beat up and kicked around and trampled on. . . .”
    Her voice trailed off. They sat there for what seemed like a long time, their silence a bubble of sadness surrounding them.
    Finally, Dan straightened up a little. “I know what we need,” he said. “Microwave burritos.”
    Amy smiled weakly at the mention of Alistair’s most famous invention.
    “Remember that party he gave at the house?” Dan went on. “Mini-burritos for appetizers, burritos for the main course, and ice-cream burritos for dessert!”
    “We took the leftovers to the soup kitchen — how many was it?”
    “Eighty-seven,” Dan said. “I counted. Alistair was bummed that there were so many left, but man, we were all stuffed — we’d eaten as much as we could!”
    “He was a funny duck, for sure,” Amy said. “And it took him forever to make up his mind about us. Even though I think he liked us right from the beginning.”
    “Except for that time he nearly got us blown up.” Dan barked out a laugh. “It was almost worth it, to see the look on his face when he saw us again!”
    “He was with us during some tough times,” Amy said. “Really, he ended up helping us a lot more than — than he hurt us. And after the hunt was over . . .” The rest of her thought stayed clogged in her throat.
He was like an uncle to us. And that’s how we thought of him. Uncle Alistair.
    Amy couldn’t hold back the tears any longer.
    Dan hesitated for only a moment. Then he put an arm around her shoulders as her body shuddered with sobs that only he could hear.

It was a source of satisfaction to Jake that Sinead had left the keys in the SUV’s ignition. He had taken them, so now they had a car and she didn’t.
    It was only a small thing, but it was worth a gloat.
    Jake and Atticus sat in the front, Jake in the driver’s seat. They were quiet, both thinking about the Cahills and their Uncle Alistair. Jake tried to think of what he could say to Amy to make her feel better.
    But that’s dumb. When Mom died, I didn’t want to feel better — not at first. It really bugged me when everyone kept trying to cheer me up. People
need
to feel bad for a while.
    He wished they could take a walk, just him and Amy.
Not gonna happen anytime soon, not with all this craziness.
    And it struck him that this was the way to help her: to figure out the next step.
    “Weren’t you saying” — Jake tapped Atticus’s knee — “that you had an idea about what to do next?”
    Atticus perked up. “Yeah, listen. I remembered something else Mom said when she was sick. I thought she was saying
voyage
, but now I know it was
Voynich
.
And at the same time she was saying
LaCher
—”
    “Siffright,” Jake broke in. “That’s twice her name has come up.”
    “So she and Mom were studying the Voynich together,” Atticus said. “And I thought — hang on.”
    He dug into his backpack and took out his laptop. Atticus’s laptop had belonged to Astrid; he had taken it for his own after she died. All her files were still on it; he had never erased anything of hers. Jake remembered the early days following her funeral, sitting with Atticus and looking at the computer — reading things she’d written, listening