In Too Deep - 39 Clues 06 by Jude Watson Read Free Book Online

open the door.
    She gave Amy a small shove. "If I were going to kill you, I could have done it ten times already.
    We need private talk away from the Kabras. When you don't show up on time, they'll come looking. So go."Amy found herself in a large storeroom. Huge cans of baked beans and tomatoes sat on the shelves. "You've brought me to Costco?" she asked in a mocking voice. She needed to push back, let Irina know she wasn't paralyzed with fear.
    Even though she was."You should know by now I don't understand the jokes." Irina pushed her to the rear of the storeroom.
    A smaller door was set into the thick stone wall, made of old wood with deep, long cracks running down it. Irina produced a large iron key and fitted it into the lock. She pushed open the door.
    All Amy could see was darkness."Now I show you special piece of Australian history." Irina nudged her in the back.
    Amy felt the shar pness of her fingernail. "Go."
    CHAPTER 8
    A tiny penlight barely illuminated a rickety set of stairs. The door thudded shut behind them."We could meet an occasional rat," Irina said.
    "Otherwise, perfectly safe.""Don't worry," Amy said. "I'm used to rats. They run in my family.""Comedian like your brother, eh?" Irina said. "This tunnel was used in the 1800s.
    If a lowlife drank too much rum at a bar, he found himself on a ship out to sea the next morning.
    Smuggled through tunnel to harbor."They reached the bottom of the stairs. The floor was dirt, the walls crumbling stone.
    Amy couldn't see what was ahead."Wh-where are you taking me?" She hated the quaver in her voice. She wouldn't let it out again.
    "Ha!" Irina barked the word without humor. "You think I'm kidnapping you? I'm saving you. There are some things I won't stoop to do."
    "Really," Amy said. "I thought you stoo ped at nothing."
    "Is a joke? It's true, though, what you say. There was nothing I wouldn't do to win. But today, Amy Cahill, I'm doing you a favor.
    I'm giving you advice you need. Here it is-- you are afraid of everything except what you should fear.""Thanks," Amy said.
    "That was really helpful.""For example, you are afraid of me right now. Understandable, I am your enemy.
    But at this moment, I am least of your problems.""Really?" Amy said. "Weird. Seeing that I'm in a tunnel with rats, and you just threatened me with poison."
    "Here is other thing I must tell you -- you don't remember what you should never forget.""That really clears up a lot.""Go ahead, make the fun.
    But before we part, you must understand that what you don't know will doom you. And the world.""Exaggerate much?" Somehow, taunting Irina kept her fear in check."No." Irina spun her around. In the darkness, she stood very close.
    "Listen to me, Amy Cahill. It is time you lift your head and look around you. The thirty-nine clues are like game to your brother, yes?"Amy felt compelled by the ferocity of Irina's gaze.
    Her eyes, even in the faint glow of the penlight, were ice blue, her lashes startlingly dark against them.
    She couldn't deny what Irina had said. In many ways, the chase for the Clues wa s a game for Dan.
    "But you know better. That's why I risk so much to talk to you. Your parents died for this. Do you think they wanted to go?"
    "Don't talk about my parents!" Amy would have put her hands over her ears if she wasn't afraid it would make her look like a child."No parent would ever want to leave a child.
    Do you think they would leave their beloved children for a game?"
    "Stop it!"
    "Do you think your mother left you alone and raced back into a burning house just for her husband?"Amy looked at Irina, startled. Frozen. "How do you know what happened?" she whispered.
    Irina shrugged. "From newspaper, of course. Unless not. Only you know for sure. Because you know who was there that night.
    You were old enough to see. You won't believe what any Cahill tells you, and that is smart. We each have our agenda. So you must remember."
    "I don't remember anything from that night," Amy said. But