Creeping through the closest doorway, they found a giant bed covered in candy bar wrappers and empty pizza boxes. In the next room, they found the Spider-Lady’s extra sets of arms. It was in the grand master suite that Carter thought to check the bathroom. Sure enough, the bathtub was filled with stolen wallets, watches, jewelry, and more. “It looks like the booty that I saw the frown clowns trying to hide in one of the circus train cars the other night,” Carter said. “The car had already been filled up, so the clowns must have brought Bosso’s most recent booty here.”
Leila whispered, “Just what we were looking for!”
They started digging through it. But there was no journal, no bow, no lucky lockpicks, and no wooden box. “They aren’t here,” Carter muttered, feeling his blood turn hot.
“Then where would they be?” Leila asked.
“I don’t know,” Carter fumed.
“We need to return all this stuff to their proper owners,” Leila said.
“There’s no way you and I can haul out this stuff without getting caught,” Carter said. “We’ll grab our stuff, then call the cops anonymously.”
“But we saw Bosso and the gang pay off the sheriff by the pool downstairs,” Leila said, simmering. “Our hands are tied.” She patted the pocket of her jacket, and Carter heard the clinking of metal cuffs. “If only their hands were tied…” she added, gritting her teeth.
“Hey, there’s one room left,” Carter said and waved for Leila to follow. The last room was locked. There was a handwritten sign taped to it that read:
“Well, that’s ominous,” Leila said. She pulled out her old rusty lockpicks again and went to work. A moment later, the door opened. “Holy guacamole! Look at that diamond! It’s huge!”
In the center of the room was a bed covered in blueprints of a stage, yellow notepads with furious handwriting scratched all over them, and on top of it all, the world’s largest diamond, the Star of Africa.
“He stole it!” Leila said. “Bosso already stole it!”
“No, he didn’t,” Carter said, looking more closely. “My uncle trained me over the years to spot the difference between a real diamond and a fake one. Uncle Sly always said stealing a fake was a waste of time. And this one—it looks real, but it’s a fake.”
“Then why does Bosso have a fake replica of—” Leila didn’t finish her sentence. She and Carter came to the exact same conclusion at the exact same time.
“Bosso is going to switch out this fake one with the real Star of Africa tonight at his show,” Carter explained. “He’s going to steal the world’s largest diamond in front of everyone.”
Carter thought of all the people his uncle had ripped off and of all the heartache that he himself had helped to cause. He cracked his knuckles, then said, “We have to stop him.”
HOW TO…
Move Objects with Your Mind!
You’ve returned! I’m so pleased. I have another trick I’d like to teach you. No lollygagging—let’s get to it.
They say a magician never reveals his or her secrets. Unless, that is, the magician is teaching a fellow magician. Which I am. So here’s a little trick that I think you’ll enjoy. It is certain to astound and astonish! (If not, you have the wrong audience.) We already know that Bosso was planning to move the giant diamond into his treasure stash. Well, this is how to move a ring WITH JUST YOUR MIND (but really with a string).
WHAT YOU NEED:
A button-up shirt–which is what you should be wearing. It’s always nice to look nice on stage. Dark colors are better; black is best.
A stick–preferably one foot (or so) long or a wand, if you’d like
A thread–this should be about the same length as from your shoulder to your fingertips. It is best if the color matches your stick or your clothing. (Bonus points if your clothes match your stick!)
A ring–perchance one off an audience member’s finger (I’d avoid anything too valuable.)
HELPFUL HINTS (PRACTICE!):
Have I mentioned practice to you before? I have? Good. Let me say it again. Practice before you perform this! (And nap and snack…) You’ll thank me for it later.
STEPS (BEFORE YOU HAVE AN AUDIENCE):
1. Fasten the thread to the top of the stick.
2. Fasten the other end of the thread to a button on your shirt.
STEPS (AFTER YOU HAVE AN AUDIENCE):
3. Ask an audience member for a ring. If you already have one, give it to an audience member to inspect for any trickery. Then ask for it back.
4. Put the ring over the top of the stick, moving it slowly (so no one sees the thread!).
5. Move the stick away from your body slowly. The ring should go up. Now move the wand back toward you. The ring will go down. You now have complete control over whether the ring moves up or down the stick—simply by moving the stick back and forth!
SIXTEEN
After meeting in the lobby of the resort’s main hall, Carter, Leila, Theo, and Ridley raced all the way down the hill to Vernon’s Magic Shop. They didn’t stop for so much as a breath of air. After they rushed through the door, Leila slammed the door shut.
“Abracadabra!” Presto squawked.
Carter and Theo fell to the floor, panting for breath. Ridley leaned back in her wheelchair and fanned herself.
“Dad… Bosso… thief… steal… diamond… tonight,” Leila wheezed.
“Slow down,” Mr. Vernon said, coming out from behind the counter. “Take a deep breath and start over.”
The four misfits did just that. They started with their stakeout at the pool and everything Carter and Leila had discovered in Bosso’s locked bedroom. The entire time, Mr. Vernon remained calm and collected. When they were done, he took a deep breath himself and said, “Well, that’s disappointing of Bobby.”
“Who’s Bobby?” Carter asked.
“Never mind,” Mr. Vernon said, perturbed. “Let’s focus on one thing at a time. I told you that I would never condone what you four spent the afternoon doing.”
Leila spoke up, “But I thought you said—”
“Regardless, you are armed with information that I’m sure the local law enforcement would like to know. Perhaps you should call and inform them?”
“I would but we can’t—” Leila went on.
“—Sheriff Shaw is on Bosso’s payroll—” Ridley added.
“—we saw Bosso pay him off—” Carter continued.
“—it looks like we’re on our own,” Theo finished.
“On my own? I wish!” Olly said, waving his thumb at his sister. “This one is always following me.”
“Following you?!” Izzy laughed. “I came out first! You’ve been following me around since we left Mom’s womb!”
“Olly! Izzy! Where did you come from?” Leila cried.
“We wanted to see how things turned out, so we trailed you. You took off so fast, we didn’t have a chance to ask if you liked our two-man show,” Olly said.
“Two-man show? You mean, one-woman, one-boy show,” Izzy smirked.
“I see your numbers have grown.” Mr. Vernon smiled. He seemed surprisingly calm. Maybe even too calm… “You’re practically an army now. It appears none of you are on your own. You remind me of my own friends when I was your age. We were unstoppable.”
“What are you going to do, Dad?” Leila asked.
“Me? I’m going to go watch the show, of course,” Mr. Vernon said. “It’s important for magicians to watch other magicians. That’s how we learn.”
“That’s it?!” Carter asked. “What are you going to do about the diamond?”
“Me?” Mr. Vernon asked. “I thought you were going to do something about it.”
“We are,” Ridley said. “We have a plan!”
“You do? Pray tell.”
“Well, I think the four of us—” Ridley started.
“Six of us,” Olly and Izzy interrupted.
“Fine! The six of us will stop Bosso. As for the how…” Ridley paused. Her chest sank, as
if she were suddenly losing steam. “Well… I guess we only have the concept of an idea of a plan.”
“Well, a well-executed show must be well thought out well ahead of time.” Mr. Vernon grinned. “Plan carefully. No one likes a sloppy show. Feel free to use whatever you want from the shop, of course. What is mine is Leila’s, and what is Leila’s is yours.”
“But aren’t you going to help us?” Carter asked, shocked by Mr. Vernon’s carelessness.
“I will be helping in my own way. After all, I trust that you six have things well in hand,” Mr. Vernon said, picking up his top hat and cape. “There are leftovers in the fridge. Help yourselves. I’m going to head out for an early dinner with the Other Mr. Vernon at the hotel and then have a polite conversation with an old friend. Let’s hope for the best. Either way, I suspect we’ll all see a truly amazing show tonight.”
Mr. Vernon turned the sign on the shop door from OPEN to CLOSED, COME AGAIN SOON. “Leila, make sure to lock up when you leave! Ta-ta for now.” Then, with a flourish of his cape, he disappeared, and the door closed all by itself.
“Hrmph,” Ridley said. “I was expecting him to be a little more… helpful.”
“Me too,” Carter whispered.
“This is an awful situation to be placed in,” Theo said. “We’re just kids. What can we do?”
“We can do magic,” Leila said.
“So can Bosso,” Ridley reminded her. “And his tricks seem real.”
“But we have one another,” Leila added.
“And Bosso has a whole gang of Sideshowers and Pock-Pickets and frown clowns,” Carter replied. “We’re just a bunch of… of…”
“Misfits!” the parrot squawked.
“Rude bird!” Leila said.
Carter shook his head. “Presto is right. The Pock-Pickets were right. We’re just a bunch of misfits. We can’t do anything.”
“Yes, we can!” Leila shouted, slamming her fist on the counter. It was the first time Carter had seen Leila truly angry. “Just because we’re misfits doesn’t mean we aren’t amazing. In fact, I think being misfits makes us more amazing. Carter, you have street smarts and fast hands. I can escape from anything. Theo can make things float. Ridley is a total brainiac. And Olly and Izzy are hilarious. Plus, they know the Grand Oak better than I do. If we work together, we can stop Bosso from stealing the Star of Africa.”
“But things could get sticky,” Carter said. “We could get into trouble—big trouble.”
“What’s life without a little risk?” Leila said firmly. “But you’re right. Everyone should have a chance to walk away right now. No hurt feelings. If anyone’s scared or doesn’t want to go up against Bosso or has homework, now’s the time to say something.”
The gang of misfits looked at one another in silence.
Carter thought of the past few days. He had spent his life minding his own business, letting Uncle Sly get away with all sorts of bad things. But now he had a chance to do something—not to help himself, but to help others.
“I’m in,” Carter said. “I’ve got nothing to lose.”
Theo smiled. “I have everything to lose, but this sounds like a challenge that I cannot miss.”
“No one steals from me and gets away with it,” Ridley said. “What about you two? You don’t have a beef with Bosso.”
Olly narrowed his eyes. “Bosso is a jerk and that’s enough beef for me.”
“We went up to try to talk to him after the show,” Izzy explained, “since we’re showbiz people too, you know? All he said was, ‘Shoo, flies.’ Then that Walrus guy pushed Olly.”
Olly and Izzy both shook their heads in disgust.
“The only thing we hate more than a thief—” started Olly.
“—is tomatoes,” finished Izzy.
Olly glared at his sister.
“What?” cried Izzy. “We hate tomatoes!”
“And jerks!” said Olly.
Izzy bobbed her head. “Oh yeah. That’s what I was going to say. We’re in.” The twins rubbed their hands together, looking like little devils, and said, “So… what are we going to do?”
“Like Dad said…” Leila smiled. “We need a plan.”
For a few seconds, they stood in silence, allowing their minds to churn.
“We’re going to need all the breakfast leftovers in the Grand Oak kitchen,” said Olly.
“And lots of syrup!” added Izzy.
“We’re going to need to get Carter a suit with some hidden pockets,” said Ridley.
Theo added, “And some props from the backstage of the Grand Oak theater.”
“I know something we can do with the theater curtains,” Leila said, grabbing a pencil and paper and marking down notes.
“What we need to do next,” Carter said, “is share our ideas and then put it all together. Build a great big trap for the reigning heavyweight clown kingpin. And we need to act fast. We’re running out of time.”
SIXTEEN BILLION
Gotcha again!
I’m sure you knew this was coming, right? You read the Table of Contents at the beginning of the book very, very carefully, didn’t you?
You did? Oh good. That’s all I needed to hear. Paying close attention to details is very important for a young magician.
But let’s hurry and check out the Grand Oak Resort with the rest of our group. Quickly now! We don’t want to keep anyone waiting.…
SEVENTEEN
The Grand Oak was bustling with action when the misfits arrived. Hundreds of people had descended on the resort to see Bosso’s big final show. Maybe they’d been drawn by talk of his big-top show, or maybe they were curious about the Star of Africa. The crowd was overwhelming, and the lines were long.
“This way,” Leila said, heaving her giant backpack higher on her shoulders. All of the kids had a large pack filled with everything they needed. “We can get in using the service doors in the back.”
“Nothing but the best for the Grand Oak’s brightest upcoming stars,” Olly said sarcastically.
“At least our fans won’t attack us for autographs,” Izzy joked.
“Plus, we can drop by the kitchen to pick up some of the goods for our show,” Ridley added.
The six misfits made their way through the resort to the Grand Oak’s Grand Theater. As they approached, Theo was the first to notice the ticket takers. “Oh no,” he said. “We don’t have tickets.”
“Tickets, schmickets,” Olly said. “You have something better than tickets—you have us.”
“We know this theater like the back of our hands,” Izzy said. “Follow us.”
As they passed through the corridors, Carter noticed police officers at every exit. Seeing so many of them made Carter want to vanish all over again.
Inside the auditorium, the seats and curtains were all red velvet, and the walls were trimmed in gold. In the left rear corner, behind a thick column, the twins led the misfits through a hidden door behind wallpaper and wood paneling. Inside the small room was a ladder leading into the ceiling, and a long, narrow hallway, wide enough for one person, that seemed to spiral downward into darkness. “Up goes to the catwalk,” Izzy noted.
“A catwalk?” Carter asked, wondering why a theater would need a place for cats to walk.
“It’s a series of platforms that hang by cables over the stage where the crew arranges the lights and directs special effects for the performance.”
“Oh, right,” Carter answered, nodding slowing, pretending to understand. “A cat… walk.”
“Down leads to the orchestra pit and under the backstage,” Olly went on with a grin.
“Divide and conquer again,” Ridley said. “Theo and I will head down to survey under the stage. Izzy, Olly, you take Carter and Leila and head up. We’ll meet you on the other side.”
As Carter followed Leila and the twins up the ladder, his palms began to sweat. He’d never been up so high. “If you’re afraid of heights, don’t look down,” Leila said back to Carter as she crawled out ont
o the thin, hanging platform.
Of course, Carter immediately looked down.
Beneath them, the venue had a large balcony and seating for almost a thousand people. From eighty feet up, all the preshow workers below looked like miniature dolls walking about.
Keep crawling forward, Carter told himself.
When they got to the other side, Carter, Leila, and the Golden siblings began to remove some of the surprises they had in store for Bosso from their backpacks. “We’ll take it from here,” Izzy said. “You two go ahead. We’ll catch up.”
Leila and Carter nodded. They crawled across the upper skeleton of the great theater. Way down in the pit, the orchestra tuned their instruments with bursts of noise. Carefully, they passed over the wires and ropes holding up the red curtain dividing the audience from the stage. Then they crawled above the Sideshowers and clowns, who were setting up for Bosso’s big show directly below.
Quietly, Leila and Carter moved toward the rear of the catwalk maze. They were about to climb down the back ladder when they heard familiar voices below.
“Bobby, listen to reason,” Mr. Vernon said. He was speaking in a more serious tone than Carter had ever heard. “If you do this and get caught, you’ll go to jail. And not just for a few years this time… for the rest of your life.”
Carter and Leila leaned forward, just able to see Vernon and who he was talking to—B. B. Bosso.
“What’s going on?” Leila whispered. “How does my dad know Bosso?!”
Carter had no idea, but a sinking feeling gripped his stomach.
The Magic Misfits Page 11