Lexi Magill and the Teleportation Tournament

by Kim Long

  “Hello there!”

  A tournament monitor popped up from behind the booth, and Team RAM jumped. “Sorry,” the man said with a chuckle. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” He handed over a manila envelope. “Here’s your next clue, and so you know, there’s a temporary teleport station near the bus stop, so there’s no need to return to Füssen. Make sure to stop by the food tent on the way out—there’s bratwurst and other German fare. Good luck.”

  “Heck yeah!” Ron shouted. “I’m starving.”

  Ignoring Ron, Lexi grabbed the envelope, slid a fingernail under the flap, and pulled out several pieces of paper. She read aloud the top page.

  DESTINATION NO. 2

  Congratulations! You have successfully solved clue #1. Place the black swan sticker over the No. 1 circle on your Trek Tracker.

  To continue:

  People thought King Ludwig’s idea of a flying car was foolish, but this man had similar ideas three hundred years earlier, and he’s considered a genius. Your next destination is a museum containing a replica of one of this genius’s flying machines.

  Hint: It’s in the country that inspired King Ludwig’s Venus Grotto.

  Pages of sketches accompanied the clue, and Lexi showed them to her teammates. Most resembled oddly shaped airplanes, but a few depicted an airborne car. “Some of these are pretty cool,” she said, tracing her finger over one of the more intricate drawings.

  “It’s gotta be Da Vinci,” Mal said, already typing on her tablet. Seconds later, she added, “Yep. The Venus Grotto is modeled after the Blue Grotto in Capri, Italy. Italy and flying machines is definitely Da Vinci.”

  “Italy! Cool!” Ron said.

  Lexi reread the clue to herself. Mal 100 percent sounded like she knew what she was talking about, but Da Vinci? Weren’t clues supposed to relate to teleport science? Drawings of flying machines hardly qualified. She tapped her lips. To be fair, Dr. Vogt had said the first part of the race would feature daring personalities. No doubt Da Vinci and King Ludwig were that.

  Lexi pictured Haley’s reaction as she read the clue. Her best friend would be complaining big-time about having to track down an artist. Ha! Maybe the nonscience clues would trip up some of the academy teams and give her the opening she needed.

  “Oh no,” Mal said, giving the tablet another swipe. “We might have a problem.”

  “What?” Lexi and Ron asked.

  Mal flicked the tablet. “There’s more than one museum in Italy that has a Da Vinci flying machine. Hang on.”

  As Mal searched, Lexi reached inside the envelope and retrieved a round sticker picturing a black swan. She peeled off its back and placed it over the first circle on the team’s Trek Tracker. One down, eight to go.

  “Okay,” Mal said. “I found three possibilities.”

  “Let’s hear ’em,” Ron replied.

  “The first is the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum. It’s in Florence. According to the website, it has life-sized versions of his inventions, including flying machines.”

  “That sounds good,” Lexi said. “What’re the others?”

  “The National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan and the Da Vinci Museum in Rome. Both are also supposed to have models of his flying machines.”

  Lexi pulled out the Teleport Tableau and found the cities listed under Italy. “Well, the good news is I have codes for teleport stations in all three—so we’ll be set with whichever we choose.”

  “Great,” Ron said, rolling his eyes. “So now all we have to do is figure out which one it is.” He tilted his head toward Mal. “What do you think? You’ve read about them. Does it seem one’s more likely than the others?”

  Mal shook her head. “I don’t know. I mean, this is mostly a science tournament, so maybe the one in Milan since it’s a science museum? Then again, the other two are specifically named after him.” Mal met their eyes. “Way I see it, it can be any of them.”

  “How far apart are they?” Ron asked.

  “About 145 miles between Rome and Florence, and then another 190 miles between Florence and Milan,” Mal answered a few seconds later.

  “Well, that cancels running to each one,” Ron said. He blew out a breath. “Well?” He turned to Lexi. “Any ideas?”

  Lexi squinted at the sketches again. There had to be a way to pick the right museum. The tournament directors wouldn’t leave it to chance. But after another inspection, she hadn’t noticed anything useful. “Any chance the museums have photos online?” she wondered out loud. “Maybe we can compare the flying machines in these sketches to the ones in the photos to see if there’s a match?”

  “Good idea!” Mal said, reaching for the sketches. She bumped the tableau, knocking it out of Lexi’s hand. As Lexi retrieved it, her eye caught the abbreviation for Florence’s teleport station.

  “Wait!” Lexi cried. “The first clue—the one with Otto. Read it again. There was something we were supposed to do after finding Otto’s room, wasn’t there?”

  Ron gasped. “Yeah, you know, there was. Hang on.” He yanked the clue out of a side-zippered pouch and unfolded it. It says, “To continue the trek, go to the castle I built that is considered my favorite home and find the room that contains my brother. Then, go with the flow.”

  “Do you know what that means?” Ron asked.

  Laughing, Lexi thrusted the tableau under her teammates’ eyes. “Take a look at the code for the station in Florence.”

  ITA-FLO

  “Get it? It’s F-L-O, pronounced as flow. Like Team RAM is our initials. Go with the FLO.”

  As Ron and Mal rocked back and grinned, Lexi folded the tableau and then filled out a Travel Request Form. “Florence, here we come!”

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Ciao.”

  Lexi opened her eyes. A man with a bushy mustache filled her view. “Benvenuti a Italia!” He held out his hand, and Lexi took it and stepped off the platform. The man gestured to the corner, where blue and gold streamers hung over a small booth. A clock on the counter flashed 7:30 p.m.

  Lexi’s heartbeat quickened with the realization of how close they were to the end of Day One due to the time change. Team RAM had a lot of ground to make up—and fast.

  “Where’s Mal?” Lexi asked Ron as she approached.

  “Bathroom.” Ron tilted his head toward the booth. “I’ve got some bad news, too. Take a look.”

  Lexi stood on her tiptoes to see over the crowd of kids. Although several teams were present, no one was actually at the counter being checked in. Instead, everyone furiously typed on their tablets, talking to themselves. “What is it?” she asked out of the corner of her mouth.

  “Listen,” Ron whispered into her ear.

  Lexi tilted her head to the side. Seconds later, she understood. Everyone was using their tablets to figure out how to translate English into Italian. She spotted a banner hanging from the ceiling: Non parliamo Inglese/We Don’t Speak English.

  “Get it?” Ron asked.

  “Yeah. I wonder why. It can’t be that hard to find people who speak English and Italian, right?”

  “That’s it! Great idea.” Ron slapped Lexi on the back and then ran to the waiting area. He returned with a teenager and pointed him to the booth. As the kid walked toward the check-in counter, Ron explained, “He speaks English and Italian. I sent him to check us in.”

  Less than a minute later, the kid returned. “Sorry, but they said no. They want you to figure out how to communicate. They said it’s part of problem-solving for your tournament.”

  “Oh,” Ron and Lexi said.

  “Thanks, anyway,” Ron added, and he and the kid knocked fists.

  Lexi loosened her pack’s straps. “While we wait for Mal, we should write out what we want to say so it’s all ready for her to type into a translation website.”

  Ron rocked off his backpack, nearly crushing a passing family in the process. “Good idea. I’ll get my notebook.”

  “Hey!” Mal said, bounding toward them. “Sorry, but
I really had to go.” She paused. “Why aren’t you guys in line?”

  Lexi exhaled. “We have to speak Italian. We were waiting for you, since we’ll need the tablet to find a translation website.”

  Mal narrowed her eyes. “No English?”

  “Nope,” Ron said, positioning himself behind Mal and grabbing the zipper to her purse.

  Mal spun. “Hey!”

  “Relax. I’m getting the tablet.”

  Mal swung the purse to her front. “Leave it,” she said. She strode toward the booth. “Come on.”

  “No, seriously,” Ron called.

  “Yeah,” Lexi added. “There’s a sign and everything.”

  Lexi tried to follow, but she lost Mal’s braid in the sea of stammering teams. She moved behind Ron and let him blaze a path.

  They made it to the booth, where an irritated-looking Mal greeted them. “About time,” she said, stretching out her hand. “Passports and badges.” After her teammates didn’t make a move, Mal shifted her weight and turned to the tournament worker, saying something that, judging from the conversation that followed, had to be fluent Italian.

  Lexi gasped as she noticed the awed faces of the teams they’d passed. Mal had totally saved them. She tapped Ron, and both retrieved their passports and badges. The tournament worker completed the check-in, and Mal backed away.

  “Let’s go,” Mal said. Minutes later, Team RAM was standing outside of the bustling station. Mal tipped her head toward a brick-paved street. “It’s not far. We go right down Vie de Servi.”

  “Hold up,” Ron said. “What was that back there? You speak Italian?”

  “Yeah,” Lexi added with a bounce to her step as she spied her frustrated competitors still hovering over the check-in counter. “I knew you spoke Spanish, but Italian? Do you realize how awesome that is? We skipped ahead of at least five teams!”

  Mal delicately slid a loose hair into her braid. “I speak French, too. My dad gives art lectures all over Europe. Since my family spends tons of time here, my parents thought it’d help if I knew the languages.” She resumed walking. “Come on. The museum’s this way.”

  The brick road led to a large, open-air pedestrian plaza. As Mal led them through, Lexi rubbed her arms. While warmer than the mountains of Germany, Italy’s weather was brisk. With night looming, it would only get colder. She fiddled for her sweatshirt, missing Ron’s sudden stop and bumping into him.

  “Look,” Ron said, pointing.

  Lexi raised her eyes. A gigantic domed building stretched for blocks. Mainly white with tinges of pink and green splashes throughout, the structure resembled an old church—except for the fact that, at least in Lexi’s estimation, it was the size of at least ten churches. Spires jutted from the roof, reminding Lexi of the towers on King Ludwig’s castle.

  “Welcome to downtown Florence,” Mal said. “We’re in the city center. That’s the Duomo, a cathedral built back in…” Mal scratched her chin. “Back in… well, I don’t know when. Back a long time ago, like the 1400s or something.” She snapped a photo. “This is a real popular area. I saw my first opera around the corner.”

  “It’s huge,” Ron said. “Hey, I’m gonna check—”

  “Yeah, it’s amazing,” Lexi interrupted. “But let’s keep moving.” She stepped around Ron as he continued talking about the plaza and followed Mal down the street, all the while keeping one eye on the cathedral. “I can’t believe how big it is.”

  The street tapered to a strip lined with three- and four-story buildings. Bicycles, motorcycles, and pedestrians hurried along the narrow corridor, which was framed by shops and restaurants. A block or so past the dome, Mal stopped in front of a beige building with an arched wooden door. A red “Leonardo da Vinci” banner hung above one of the windows, which displayed a “Museum Activities” sign.

  “Ready?” Mal asked with her hand on the door. Before Lexi could answer, Mal peered past her. “Wait—where’s Ron?”

  Lexi spun. Ron wasn’t there. “I… I have no idea. He was with us by the domo thing.”

  “Duomo. Yeah, I know.”

  The girls squinted down the street from where they had come. Pedestrians walked to and fro, but there was no sign of their teammate.

  Lexi spoke through clenched teeth. “Where could he have gone? There’s no way he could have gotten lost. We were going straight the whole time.”

  Mal tapped Lexi’s shoulder. “Well, he knows where we’re going. Is it against the rules to get the clue and start without him?”

  “No, but we won’t be able to leave Florence. They won’t give us tickets or check out partial teams.” She turned again, hoping to catch a glimpse of Ron or his pack. “I can’t believe he wandered off.”

  Mal opened the door and tugged Lexi inside. Passing the gift shop, they strode to the “Museum Entrance” sign in back. A directory showed that the museum was divided into five sections: Mechanisms, Earth, Water, Air, and Fire.

  Lexi nodded to the Air section. “Da Vinci’s flying machine is probably here.”

  “Or up there!” Mal pointed.

  Lexi looked up. A wooden sculpture resembling a hang glider hung from the ceiling on the other side of the room. Tucked away in a corner underneath sat a blue-and-gold decorated tournament booth. The girls sprinted to it, and the official handed them a manila envelope.

  Lexi tore it open.

  Congratulations! You have successfully solved clue #2.

  Place the eagle sticker on space No. 3 of your Trek Tracker.

  To continue:

  DESTINATION NO. 3

  The museum where you are standing is dedicated to some of my inventions, but science was not my only passion. I had an artistic side as well. Reflect on what you know about me and one of the rooms in King Ludwig’s Linderhof castle to find this painted portrait of a lady.

  “What the heck is this?” Lexi wondered.

  “What’s what?”

  Lexi passed the clue to Mal. “Any chance it’s written in old-world Italian or something?”

  As Mal read, Lexi placed the eagle sticker on the third circle of the team’s Trek Tracker, leaving the second spot free. Eventually, this would make sense, but for now, she’d put them where she was told.

  Mal handed the clue back to Lexi. “Sorry, but no.”

  “What? Are you sure?”

  “Yeah.” Mal tapped the paper. “Take a look. Half of the letters aren’t even real letters. I have no idea what it says.”

  Rustling sounded from the entrance, and Lexi poked out her head, thinking Ron had finally decided to join them. Instead, the Solar Flares rushed inside. Shoot.

  Lexi read the clue again. “Painted lady and Linderhof castle. I have no idea—”

  “I have a bunch of art history stuff on my tablet,” Mal said. “I’ll scroll through and see what portraits Da Vinci painted. Maybe something will click.”

  Lexi eyed the flying machine overhead. “Good idea. While you do that, I’ll take a closer look.”

  Constructed from wood, the flying machine had two bat-like wings that extended from opposite sides of a central plank where, according to the sketches accompanying the exhibit, the pilot would lie down. Cranks installed near the front and back of the board allowed the pilot to control the machine with his hands and feet. A tail, which was essentially a smaller version of one of the wings, protracted from the back. Lexi read the exhibit’s description. A life-sized machine could have a wingspan of over thirty feet.

  Lexi walked under the entire replica, searching for some kind of hidden message or hint. Not spotting anything, she decided to move on. The puzzle said to use their knowledge of Da Vinci—not only the flying machine. Maybe the clue was somewhere else.

  In addition to the flying machine, the museum displayed replicas of Da Vinci’s crane, rolling mill, bicycle, and tank. Lexi studied each one closely, but even though they sounded as fascinating as the flying machine, none of them offered any help in determining where they were supposed to go next. She moved to a mo
del of Da Vinci’s wooden car.

  “Get anything, Lex?” a familiar voice called.

  Lexi turned. Jacob, one of the Powerful Protons, drifted in from the opposite corridor. A big astronomy buff, Jacob organized the academy’s annual April celebration in honor of Yuri Gagarin, the first human to launch into space.

  “Hey, Jacob,” Lexi said. “No, but we just got here. You?”

  “Not yet, but Marley’s workin’ on it in the other room. How’re you doing?”

  “Okay, I guess. How was Yuri’s Night?”

  Jacob chuckled. “Not the same without you, Lex. No one would wear the Martian head.”

  Lexi laughed as she recalled the large papier-mâché alien costume she’d helped Jacob construct a couple years ago. Her stomach tightened as she remembered how she’d spent this year’s Yuri’s Night—watching space movies alone.

  She peered past Jacob. “Are there any other teams in there with you? Have you seen Haley?”

  “No, though I heard—” A muffled voice cried from the other room, and Jacob reversed direction. “That’s Marley,” he said. “Take it easy, Lex, and good luck. Oh, and rumor is the Comets, Sanbornes, and Phenoms tore through here a while ago.”

  Lexi blew out a breath. Great. Down a teammate and with no idea where to go, that was not what she wanted to hear. She rushed to Mal.

  “Well?” Lexi asked, watching Mal scroll through a few pages on the tablet.

  Mal beamed. “I think I got it!”

  Lexi brightened. “Really? That’s great. Where?”

  Mal revealed the screen. “I went through the archive, and Da Vinci didn’t paint a lot of female portraits, so I went back to the one I know. It’s world-famous—the Mona Lisa. I think this has to be it.”

  “Where’s it located?”

  “The Louvre in France,” Mal answered breathlessly. She stared into space. “Ahhh, Paris.” She placed a hand over her chest and looked at Lexi expectantly. “The fashion capital of the world.”

  Lexi tried to think of an answer, but “hmmmmmm,” was all that came out of her mouth. She needed a little more to go on than “Ahhh, Paris” to justify teleporting somewhere. “Well,” Lexi finally said, doing her best to avoid Mal’s excited eyes. “Maybe, but how’s the Mona Lisa connected to Linderhof?”