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the volume knob, but just then their steaks came.
    Until he started eating, Jack hadn’t realized how famished he was. Leesa just pushed her food around on her plate, spearing a few bites of steak with her fork, dipping a few fries in ketchup. She eyed Jack’s empty plate and asked, “Would you like to finish mine? I’m not hungry.”
    â€œNo thanks,” Jack answered. He wouldn’t have minded finishing Leesa’s steak, but he figured it would be impolite.
    When the server came to ask whether they wanted dessert, both of them said no, and Jack picked up the check. At the cash register, he said, “Uh, I was told to charge these two meals to my room.”
    This was a different hostess than the one who’d seated them. “Just sign your name and room number here at the bottom,” she told him. When he did (after writing TIP $5 and hoping that was enough), she examined his signature and said, “You’re Jack Landon? There was a phone call for you more than half an hour ago. I announced it over the intercom, but no one came.”
    â€œThat must have been when we were outside,” Leesa declared, looking at Jack.
    â€œWas there any message?” Jack asked.
    â€œYes. From a Steven Landon—your father, I guess. He said he and your mother had been detained and you and Leesa are supposed to go straight to your rooms and lock the doors and wait there.”
    It upset Jack that he’d missed the chance to talk to his father, to find out what was going on, and to tell him about Darwin Falls. “Come on, Leesa,” he said, and pushed ahead of her through the door.
    Out here where it was quieter, he could contact his parents on the two-way radio the sergeant had given him. He studied it again, trying to figure out where the talk button was—the handset looked quite different from his own. It had a longer antenna, arrows pointing up and down like the volume on a remote control, and four buttons on the front marked P0, P1, P2, and P3.
    â€œJack, watch out!” Leesa yelled. She grabbed his arm and yanked him backward so hard that the radio flew out of his hand, right in front of the two-horse team pulling a buckboard wagon with a driver and three passengers.
    â€œHey, kid, pay attention. I nearly ran into you,” the driver shouted.
    At that moment one of the horse’s hooves landed squarely on the radio handset. Jack tried to dive for it, but Leesa held him back. He watched in horror as the wagon’s back wheel crunched the radio’s antenna against the pavement.
    â€œOh my gosh! Now I’m really in trouble,” he moaned. He’d just destroyed government property! Not intentionally, but what difference did it make whether it was intentional or not? His own two-way radio set had cost more than a hundred dollars; how much more would this far more complicated military radio cost to replace?
    Fighting the temptation to close his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see how badly the radio was wrecked, he dropped to his knees in the road. When a car approached, Leesa jumped in front of it and waved her arms to make it swerve around Jack.
    â€œPick up the pieces,” Leesa told him. “Maybe we can find some glue and fix it.” But from the expression on her face, he could tell she didn’t really believe that.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    T he radio was in two pieces, held together by wires. All the way back to the room Jack tried to jam the pieces together. At the same time he wondered how many years he’d have to save his allowance, shovel snow in winter, rake leaves in autumn, mow lawns in summer, and get a paper route to pay for this wrecked bit of expensive military equipment.
    â€œAt least you didn’t get hurt,” Leesa told him. “You were heading right in front of that horse. It’s better to have a broken radio than a broken leg.”
    Jack wasn’t so sure.
    The room he shared with his parents, 913, was right