Theo pulled down his sunglasses a little, watching intently as he awaited their answer.
Sam hesitated, thinking back to the face he had seen in the mirror.
So which Sam Solomon was he? The one who hacked into school computers to change his friend’s grades, or the one who did his best to save the country from treachery that went back more than two hundred years?
Sam realized, to his surprise, that he already knew. He’d promised his mother that this trip would change him, and it had. He couldn’t keep pulling dumb pranks and winning puzzle contests, not when he knew what was really going on.
Besides, even though yesterday had been terrifying and crazy and painful, he had to admit it had been exciting too. It wasn’t like he could go back to sneaking into the principal’s office, not when he’d survived falling into flooded mine shafts and solving underwater puzzles and escaping from crazy castles built in the middle of deserts. And could he really leave Marty Always-Wright and Theo the Giant to have all the fun without him?
No way.
“Yeah,” he said. “I’m in.”
“Me too!” Martina’s eyes were sparkling. “After all, Sam will just bungle it without me. We can’t leave the saving of the world to somebody with ketchup all over his chin.”
Sam scrubbed at his chin, glaring at Martina. She stuck her tongue out at him. Theo shook his head, chuckling, and slid his sunglasses back into place.
“Excellent.” Evangeline looked pleased. “Now we can move on to the next mission.”
“I’m not sure how.” Sam leaned against a pillar. “We’ve got to find the next Founder’s vault, I get it. But we don’t even know where to look!”
“My ancestor would hardly leave us with no direction, Mr. Solomon,” Evangeline said, smiling.
“Yeah, we found his clue, the one in the key, but that Arnold guy took it. Didn’t Theo tell you?”
“He didn’t take our memories, though.” Martina dug a pen out of one of her pockets and flipped her note from Evangeline over, sketching quickly on the back—a mountain, a horned animal, a foot, a person with a flattened head. “This is it, right? Sam, you saw it too. Did I miss anything?”
Sam came to look at the picture with Martina. “You’ve got it, but what does it mean? It’s a mountain. A mountain with a goat. That’s a goat, right?”
“Has to be the Rocky Mountains,” Martina said. “Mountain goats are native to the Rockies.”
“Okay, fine. That’s one big mountain chain, though,” Sam pointed out. “We can’t check out every mountain in the Rockies.”
“That’s why the Founders left us the other clues.”
“Unless they were just doodling. What are these pictures supposed to mean? A black foot? A guy with a flat head?”
“Do they always sound like this?” Evangeline asked Theo.
He nodded. “It’s how they work.”
“Carry on, then,” Evangeline said to Sam and Martina, her eyes bright with amusement.
“Flat foot. Black head,” Sam mumbled. “I mean, black foot, flat head. I’m not seeing anything here.”
“That’s it!” Martina exclaimed.
“What’s it?”
“Blackfoot! Flathead!”
“Yeah, but, Marty, saying the same words I was saying like they actually mean something doesn’t solve the puzzle.”
“Ugh, just wait a second! Evangeline, can I borrow your phone?”
“Hey! Google is cheating!” Sam said.
Martina ignored him, tapping on the phone’s screen. “Blackfoot and Flathead are the names of two Native American tribes, Sam. And their ancestral lands are in . . .” She stopped, then waved the phone in front of his face. “Glacier National Park! In Montana! Look, the mountain goat is actually the official symbol of the park. That must be where the next Founder’s vault is hidden!”
“Glaciers. You’re kidding me,” Sam grumbled. “Out of the frying pan”—he gestured at the desert all around them, heating up rapidly as the sun rose—“and into the freezer?”
“Glacier National Park, huh,” Theo said. He looked thoughtful.
“We’ll stop for some parkas,” Evangeline said, rising from her chair. “And some insulated boots, perhaps. Well, no time to waste!”
“I have to pack!” Martina leaped up too. “Oh . . . I don’t actually have all that much to pack. That Arnold guy took all my stuff! Can we stop by an outdoor supply place? And a bookstore? And a cartographer’s maybe? When are we leaving?”
“Next year, by the sounds of it,” said Sam.
Evangeline pointed to a dot in the sky, growing larger by the second. It wasn’t long before a white helicopter was settling down on the resort’s lawn, setting the American flag whipping frantically in the wind from its rotating blades.
She smiled at Martina. “Does that answer your question?”
POSTSCRIPT
Dear Mom and Dad,
We’re leaving Death Valley today. We hiked in the desert, took a swim in an underground pool (totally refreshing), and even got to explore an old abandoned gold mine. I’m learning a ton of stuff about history. Did you know that Ben Franklin had a list of thirteen virtues he tried to live by? I’m never going to forget any of them! This actually is the trip of a lifetime. When you see me again, I’ll be a different person. I hope you’ll be proud of the new . . .
Sam
Copyright © 2016 by Working Partners
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
First published in the United States of America in April 2016
by Bloomsbury Children’s Books
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The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Thomson, Sarah L.
Secrets of the seven : the Eureka key / by Sarah L. Thomson.
pages cm
Summary: Sam (a puzzle master) and Martina (a history whiz) become involved in a dangerous quest to find seven keys left behind by Benjamin Franklin and a secret society of descendants, which, when gathered together, unlock a powerful weapon, so the middle schoolers must solve the puzzles, find the artifacts before the bad guy does, and save the nation.
ISBN 978-1-61963-731-3 (hardcover) • ISBN 978-1-61963-732-0 (e-book)
[1. Puzzles—Fiction. 2. Antiquities—Fiction. 3. Secret societies—Fiction. 4. Franklin, Benjamin, 1706–1790—Fiction.] I. Title. II. Title: Eureka key.
PZ7.T378Sg 2016 [Fic]—dc23 2015012116
eISBN 978-1-61963-732-0
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The Eureka Key Page 16