The Emperor's Code

by Gordon Korman

  Alistair sat forward, stiff with wonder. “Where did you acquire this item? In the Imperial Palace?”

  Nellie spoke up. “Just be grateful that you’re seeing it at all. What do you know about it?”

  The older man was vastly impressed. He pointed to the red signature chop in the bottom corner. “That is without a doubt the personal seal of Puyi himself, the last emperor of China.”

  “So it’s true!” breathed Amy. “The Qing dynasty were Cahills.”

  Alistair nodded. “That is well known among the Asian branches of our family. It began with Emperor Qian Long, who ascended the throne in 1736. His mother was related to the Janus in Manchuria.”

  “But Puyi only reigned until he was six,” Amy mused. “No way is this the work of a six-year-old.”

  “He was no longer emperor,” Alistair agreed, “but he was permitted to live the emperor’s life until he was eighteen. Like his Qing ancestors, he pursued the arts. And, we now know, the thirty-nine clues.”

  Amy indicated the “equation” of Cahill symbols. “What do you make of this?”

  “It seems fairly self-explanatory. The Lucian, Janus, Tomas, and Ekat branches comprise our family.”

  “But if it’s so obvious, why treat it like some huge secret?” Amy persisted.

  Alistair avoided her eyes, focusing instead on the Chinese message on the silk. “This part appears to be a poem. It says:

  ‘That which you seek, you hold in your hand,

  Fixed forever in birth,

  Where the Earth meets the sky.’”

  “Well, that explains everything,” Nellie said sarcastically, jotting down his translation on a napkin.

  “Some poem,” scoffed Amy. “It doesn’t even rhyme.”

  The older man regarded her with perplexity. “Surely you know, Amy, that poetry is often free verse.”

  “I do,” Amy replied shakily. “I was just thinking that, if Dan were here, that’s what he’d probably say.”

  It sobered them all.

  Uncle Alistair broke the melancholy silence. “To business, then.” He scanned the headlines of the Beijing Daily and then opened the paper to page two.

  A very famous face smirked out at them.

  “Jonah Wizard!” Amy exclaimed. “Why is that bonehead getting so much press?”

  Alistair scanned the article. “It would appear our Janus rival is also in Beijing. He’s performing a rap concert at the Bird’s Nest this evening.”

  “I remember that stadium from the Olympics,” Nellie put in. “How’s a no-talent creep like him going to fill that place? It holds, like, eighty thousand people.”

  “And we’re going to be two of them,” announced Amy.

  Nellie made a face. “Why would a missing kid go to a hip-hop concert?”

  “Think, Nellie. He doesn’t know the language, he’s got no money, he can’t go to the embassy, he can’t find us. Jonah’s a familiar face for him.”

  Alistair frowned. “We’re all anxious to find Dan, but this seems far-fetched. It makes very little sense to go.”

  “Maybe,” said Amy. “But it makes even less to stay away.”

  CHAPTER 9

  From backstage, the sound system in the Bird’s Nest was shattering. The drumbeats were artillery shells. The capacity crowd swallowed this incoming fire and howled for more — eighty-one thousand people in frenzied overdrive, rattling the interlacing steel “twigs” of the most famous stadium in the world.

  Dan had never much appreciated Jonah as a person or as a celebrity. But the guy definitely knew how to work an audience, even a humongous one that didn’t speak much English. He conjured his rhymes like Zeus conjured thunderbolts. And yet, when he addressed the crowd in his down-to-earth way, it was somehow intimate, as if every one of the eighty-one thousand were enjoying a personal visit with the megastar. He was electrifying.

  Clutching his backstage pass, Dan stood in the wings with Jonah’s father and assorted roadies, bodyguards, and music journalists. He couldn’t help wondering why Jonah even bothered with the 39 Clues. Who needed to become the most powerful person in history when being famous was so flat-out awesome? Jonah had it all — money, fame, screaming girls. Even the Cahill family had nothing to offer compared with that.

  A few feet away, Mr. Wizard’s BlackBerry lit up like a Roman candle, and he took an urgent phone call.

  Dan looked on eagerly. “Is that about my sister? Have you found their hotel?” He had to cup his hands to his mouth and shout directly into the man’s ear.

  “No — no luck on that!” Jonah’s father yelled back. “But this is an emergency! The fans have broken through to the tunnel outside the dressing room. Security says there are hundreds of them! It’s not going to be easy to get Jonah out of here! Come on!”

  He led Dan and the bodyguards through a heavy door marked RESTRICTED ACCESS in a dozen languages. Now they were in the true guts of the Bird’s Nest, the passages no one got to see during the Olympics on TV. They navigated the network of underground concrete tunnels, squinting in the harsh fluorescent light. After a few turns, they emerged into the main corridor and sheer bedlam.

  Five hundred Jonah Wizard fans, amped up to fever pitch, were jammed in like sardines, screaming for a glimpse of their idol. They held up signs, in Chinese and English, with messages like MARRY ME, JONAH; I WANNA BE YOUR GANGSTA; and THE YEAR OF THE WIZ. The never-ending chant of Jo-nah! Jo-nah! Jo-nah! rivaled the gigawatt sound system of the stadium.

  Broderick and the security guards formed a human wall, holding the fans back, and Dan joined them.

  A fistful of Chinese money was thrust into his face by a girl even younger than he was.

  “I must meet him! One kiss!” she shrieked. Her face was the color of an overripe tomato, so flushed was she with emotion.

  A paper airplane came sailing from the middle of the crowd and bounced off Dan’s head. He unfolded it and giggled in amazement. The page contained a pink impression of kissing lips along with a Beijing telephone number.

  At that moment, Amy, Nellie, and the Clue hunt might as well have been a million miles away.

  Amy and Nellie were less than a hundred feet back, at the edge of the surging crowd.

  “You know, this kind of brings back memories,” shouted Nellie, straining to push ahead in the sea of people. “Green Day at Fenway Park, summer 2005. I sucker punched a bouncer and got Billie Joe Armstrong to autograph my forehead. I didn’t wash my face for a month.”

  “But how are we going to get through to Jonah to ask if he’s seen Dan?” cried Amy in despair. “No way can we sucker punch all these people!”

  Suddenly, Jonah’s voice echoed through the underground tunnels of the Bird’s Nest. “Good-night, Beijing! You’re the bomb! Word!”

  The stadium rocked with cheers. In the corridor, the already charged atmosphere went supercritical. The chanting ceased; the cheering ceased; the signs were dropped. Five hundred crazed fans devoted all their energy to pushing.

  At the front, Dan, Broderick Wizard, and the security guards struggled to hold off the advancing wall of humanity. Even Jonah, who saw frenzied admirers everywhere he went, was alarmed by the ferocity of this onslaught.

  “Let’s get out of here, yo! These people are psycho!”

  He wheeled away from the dressing room and sprinted for the emergency exit.

  That was when Dan made his first mistake. He took his eye off the crowd and turned to look at Jonah. The girl with the money leaped onto his back and hung on, clamping her arms around his head. Blinded, he staggered backward, and the throng poured in through the opening in the line.

  When the crowd began to move, oozing forward like an enormous amoeba, Nellie tucked Amy behind her and plowed into the fray.

  Amy followed, stumbling over fallen fans, putting all her faith in the au pair. If Amy had bothered to look down instead of scanning the area for a glimpse of Jonah, she would have seen that she had very nearly stepped on the brother she was so anxious to find.

/>   Nellie and Amy barreled right over Dan, following the stampede.

  “Faster!” Amy shouted.

  Nellie stopped, poised like a pointer. The herd was thundering down the hallway to Jonah’s dressing room. But Nellie’s sharp eyes were focused on the emergency exit.

  “You think he left the building?” Amy panted.

  “You don’t get Billie Joe Armstrong’s autograph on your forehead without following your instincts,” she shot back. “Come on!”

  They blasted through the door to see a Hummer stretch limo parked at the curb. The window was down, revealing none other than Jonah Wizard inside, drinking from a water bottle.

  A bodyguard jumped out of the front of the car and moved to bar their way. But Jonah called him back. “It’s all good, Bruno. The little chick’s my cousin.”

  Amy saw no reason for small talk. “Jonah, have you heard anything from Dan?”

  Jonah looked surprised. “Dan, your brother? Why would he be calling me?”

  Those simple words were a cannon-shot to Amy’s chest. If Nellie had not been there to hold her up, she might have collapsed on the spot.

  “Something wrong?” Jonah asked with concern.

  Amy tried to answer, but there seemed to be a short circuit between her brain and her mouth. She had pinned so much hope on the idea that Dan had somehow found Jonah. How crazy was that — like a gambler piling his life savings on a single number on a roulette wheel! And now that her bet had come up empty …

  He’s gone …

  Not temporarily separated or turned around. Lost. For more than twenty-four hours now. A real missing person. And she had absolutely no idea where to look for him.

  “We got separated from Dan,” Nellie explained to Jonah. “Our cells don’t work here, so he’s got no way to reach us. We thought he might come to you because you’re the most visible.”

  Jonah nodded. “Makes sense. I’ll keep my eyes open. He still might show up.”

  “Thank you,” Amy managed, fighting back tears. “I know we’re not on the same side, but Dan’s only eleven. This is a huge country, and there are”—an image of Isabel Kabra appeared in her mind—”bad people out there. Some things are more important than winning.”

  “Right — uh — word.” The megastar’s eyes strayed to the exit. “Can I offer you ladies a ride? You don’t want to get busted if the cops call in the riot squad.”

  He hustled them inside, and the limo drove off. Amy and Nellie were passing through the Bird’s Nest VIP gate when the object of their search stepped out of the emergency exit in the company of Jonah’s father.

  They had missed seeing Dan by fifteen seconds.

  The Chinese TV network provided the surgeon who stitched up the nasty cut over Dan’s eyebrow where the money girl had used his face as a starting block for her bull run at the dressing room.

  Jonah was contrite. “Sorry, cuz. Never meant for you to end up in the middle of a feeding frenzy. My fault.”

  Dan tapped the Steri-Strip on his forehead. Regular people sat in the emergency room, getting coughed on and waiting hours to be seen. When you were with the Wizard posse, a private doctor came to your hotel at two in the morning. It made getting stitches almost a luxury experience.

  “It’s okay,” Dan told him. “Thanks for the doctor.”

  “Least I could do. Listen, we haven’t located your sis yet, and this is our last night in Beijing.”

  “You’re leaving?” What was Dan going to do with no Amy and no Jonah? Could he make it on his own in this vast alien city?

  Jonah nodded. “Places to go, people to see. Here’s the thing — I know you can handle yourself, yo. But as your cousin, I can’t dump you in Beijing all alone. It’s just not cool.”

  “I have to find Amy.”

  “True,” Jonah agreed. “But look — we both know the real reason we’re in China, and it has nothing to do with TV shows or concert tours. The next clue is here somewhere.”

  If there was one topic Dan wasn’t in the mood for, it was the 39 Clues. “So?”

  “So even though we’re not on the same team, your sis is looking for the same clue. The way to find her is on the clue hunt.”

  It wasn’t hard to see the truth. Maybe Dan was out of the contest, but Amy was still hot after Clues.

  “Come with us, cuz,” Jonah went on. “We’ll find her together. I got you.”

  Cold suspicion chilled Dan from the inside. I quit, but Jonah doesn’t know that. To him, I’m still the competition.

  What if this was a trap — a plan to strand Grace Cahill’s grandchildren oceans apart from each other? Nile crocodiles were a minor inconvenience compared with losing his sister.

  McIntyre’s words again: Trust no one.

  Yeah, real helpful advice — I’ve got no Amy and no money. If I don’t trust somebody, I’m sleeping on the street!

  Aloud, he said, “It’s pretty risky. If you and Amy are working different angles, we could end up thousands of miles away from each other.”

  “Word,” Jonah agreed seriously. “I’m not going to lie and tell you it can’t happen. But you’ve got a better chance tracking her down on the clue hunt than by hoping to run into her in a city of seventeen million.”

  “But what if she’s looking for me here?”

  The star shook his head. “Then we would have found her by now. It’s not just my pops — we’ve got the whole Wizard PR machine on this job. No way she’s local.”

  It made sense. Why would Amy waste time waiting around for Dan?

  She probably hates me after what happened in Tiananmen Square….

  “You’re right, Jonah. I’ll stay with you guys. Where to next?”

  “Change in plan,” the star replied. “I was scheduled for a state tour of the Great Wall, but that’ll have to wait. Sorry if I can’t give you all the details, but this is hardcore inside-baseball Janus info. One day, when you guys figure out which branch you belong to, you’ll understand the code of silence they slap on you.”

  “I understand,” Dan said, thinking darkly of his secret Madrigal identity. “I haven’t told you everything, either.”

  “Anyway, we’re going to Henan Province to a place called the Shaolin Temple. Heard of it?”

  Dan was bug-eyed. “You mean the place where kung fu was developed? Those are the sweetest fighting skills ever!”

  “The Janus are all about that,” Jonah went on. “You know — martial arts? We’re more than just pastels and harpsichords.”

  “This is going to be awesome!” Dan exclaimed. “Is it far? How do we get there?”

  “Chinese TV has a private jet we can use. When you roll with me, you go first class.”

  CHAPTER 10

  Alistair Oh was absently doodling on his paper place mat at the dim sum restaurant when Amy and Nellie joined him.

  “Nice calligraphy,” Nellie commented.

  Startled, the older man leaped to his feet, upending his walking stick, which clattered to the floor. “Good morning!” He seated them in his gallant old-world fashion.

  “What does it say?” Amy asked listlessly.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  She indicated the Chinese character on his place mat, elaborately formed despite the fact that he was using a ballpoint pen rather than the customary paintbrush.

  “That word. What does it mean?”

  “Oh, this. It says—‘charm,’” he replied, looking a little uncomfortable. “Never mind that, Amy. Where is your brother?”

  “We didn’t find him.” Amy was working hard to hold it together, but the dark circles around her eyes revealed the depth of her worry. “I’m getting really freaked. What if Isabel Kabra has him?” Isabel, the human worst-case scenario.

  “Calm down.” Nellie put an arm around her shoulders. “It doesn’t help Dan if we panic.”

  “Isabel is not the problem.” Alistair held up a copy of the Beijing Daily, featuring a picture of Jonah at the Bird’s Nest. “This is what I called you about.”r />
  Nellie shook her head sadly. “Old news, Uncle A. Bad music. Good riot. No Dan.”

  “Jonah’s keeping an eye out for him,” Amy added. “I know he’s the enemy, but I think he really cares.”

  Alistair was unimpressed. “Allow me to translate.” He read from the middle of the article. “‘Police broke up the altercation before there were any serious injuries. But one member of the Wizard entourage, Mr. Daniel K. Hill, was treated for a minor cut above his left eye. Mr. Hill, a young cousin of the superstar, described the scene as Ladies’ Night Smackdown …’”

  “He’s alive!” Amy exploded. “Who else could think of wrestling at a time like this?”

  Nellie’s powerful sigh of relief sent paper napkins aloft. “Thank God! He’s still lost, but at least he’s okay. I mean, he’s with Jonah—” Her face twisted. “That stuck-up tin-plated little hip-hop freak show! I should have known he was lying!”

  Alistair clucked wanly. “How little our Janus cousins have changed over time. In the years leading up to the Second World War, Puyi became a Japanese puppet in exchange for the chance to be emperor again — just as Jonah has become so obsessed with his own purposes that he can’t see the anguish he’s inflicting.”

  “Or he sees it fine and flat-out doesn’t care,” the au pair suggested darkly.

  Amy struggled to keep her emotions in check. “But why would Jonah kidnap Dan? And more important, why would my idiot brother play along with it?”

  “The second question you’ve answered yourself,” Alistair replied. “He has nowhere else to go. He probably believes he’s an invited guest. As for Jonah’s motive — isn’t it obvious? The search for the thirty-nine clues.”

  Nellie frowned. “He’s got money up the wazoo and connections everywhere. What does he need Dan for?”

  “Don’t you know?” Surprised, Alistair turned from the au pair to Amy. “You children have created quite a stir in the hunt.”

  “Why?” asked Amy. “We’ve outsmarted a few people, but I don’t think we’re winning.” She paused. “Are we?”