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

“Not this past one, of course — the summer before. In June, maybe?”
    That would have been just before she got sick,
Jake thought.
Probably while I was away.
He had spent that summer working as a junior counselor at an eco-camp.
    “She came here with . . .” Dr. James paused and gave Jake a quick look he couldn’t interpret. “Do you know Dr. Siffright?” she asked.
    Jake shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
    “Oh. Well.” For the first time, Dr. James seemed to fumble for the right words. “They viewed the manuscript together. Dr. Siffright is — um, very intense about the Voynich.”
    “You mean she’s one of the angels-and-aliens crowd?” Jake asked in surprise. He knew that Astrid had always found those theories ludicrous.
    “Oh, no, nothing like that!” Dr. James said hastily. “Dr. Siffright is a reputable scholar! But most academics have several subjects that interest them. Dr. Siffright is — how should I put it — very single-minded.”
    “I get it,” Jake said. Since both his parents were academics, he knew the kind of people Dr. James was talking about. A little batty, but often entertaining when they weren’t boring you to death.
    “Anyway, I’m glad I got to meet Astrid,” Dr. James said. “I enjoyed our exchanges — we had some great discussions.”
    She looked from Jake to Atticus and back again. Then she clicked through to the home screen on the computer and stood up.
    “I’m going to make an exception to the rules,” she said, “in memory of Astrid. Let’s go to my office.”

    Dr. James led them through a corridor behind the reading room. At the back of the group, Dan gave Atticus a subtle thumbs-up. So far, the plan — if you could call it that — was working.
    In her office, Dr. James made a quick call and a young man named Michael came into her office. She introduced him to the group, then sent him to fetch the Voynich Manuscript.
    A few minutes later, Michael wheeled a cart into the office. Dr. James took the manuscript out of its storage box and placed it on a foam wedge to support it.
    Jake gasped. “It’s so small!” he said. “I thought it would be way bigger!”
    The Voynich Manuscript was about the size of an average paperback book, thick, but not large. It looked like a book, too, its pages bound between flimsy leather covers.
    “That’s a common reaction,” Dr. James said. “I think it’s because people who view the manuscript are used to studying the digital images. Those were enlarged to show the detail.”
    Jake reached out with his hand, then stopped and looked anxiously at Dr. James.
    “Go ahead,” she said. She stepped back and let the rest of them crowd around.
    “I can’t believe it,” Jake murmured, clearly awestruck. “I’m actually
touching
the Voynich!”
    He opened the cover gingerly.
    “Look at the writing,” Amy said. “It’s so tiny!”
    The pages contained line after line of text in perfect, delicate calligraphy. “That must have taken
forever
to do,” Atticus said.
    Botanical drawings, astronomical charts, more tiny writing. As Jake paged slowly through the manuscript, occasionally sharing comments with Amy and Atticus, Dan started to feel edgy.
Am I the only one who remembers why we’re here?
    “The numbers,” he said to Jake. “See the page numbers?”
    Each right-hand page had a number in the corner. Ordinary numbers, not in code.
    “Those were added long after the manuscript itself was written,” Dr. James said, “some think in the seventeenth century. And they’re not page numbers, they’re folio numbers.”
    “Duh!” Atticus said and smacked himself on the side of the head in disgust. “I knew that! With old manuscripts, you almost always talk about folios rather than pages. I can’t believe I forgot.”
    “What’s a folio?” Dan asked.
    “A leaf,” Atticus said. He moved closer and held a sheet of the Voynich to demonstrate; it had the number twenty on one side. “One folio equals two pages,