The 39 Clues [Cahills vs. Vespers] 05 - Trust No One
Read The 39 Clues [Cahills vs. Vespers] 05 - Trust No One Online
Authors: Linda Sue Park
The world is counting on you to stop the Vespers. This book comes with six digital game cards that unlock your online mission. Good luck!
TO ADD CARDS TO YOUR ONLINE COLLECTION:
Go to www.the39clues.com/ebookCVV5 and log in. If you haven’t signed up, click on “Join Now” to create a new account.
You need your book with you. Use it to answer the two questions provided.
Your cards and mission will be unlocked.
Amy and Dan need YOUR help to stop the Vespers!
Contents
The plane made its final approach into New York City. It was morning on this side of the ocean. Who knew what time it was in Timbuktu now?
Along with his sister, Amy, and two friends, Dan Cahill was a passenger on a private jet. The jet was owned by their distant cousin, hip-hop superstar Jonah Wizard. As Dan gazed out the window, he downed the last of the fresh strawberry and pineapple smoothie made to order by the cabin attendant.
It was a pretty amazing way to travel.
Dan leaned sideways a little to get a clearer glimpse of the skyline. He loved the view of all the iconic structures: the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the Brooklyn Bridge.
And most of all, the Statue of Liberty, standing proud in the harbor. Dan would never have admitted it out loud, but whenever he flew into New York, he always felt like she was welcoming him personally, as she had so many travelers before him.
The cabin attendant, a calm and efficient man named Victor, came by to take Dan’s empty glass. He leaned over Dan’s shoulder and pointed out the window toward the southern end of Manhattan.
“That’s where the towers used to be,” Victor said. “The World Trade Center buildings. You probably were just a baby when they went down.”
It was true. Dan had never seen them in real life, only on video. It was easy to recall the footage from that day in September of 2001: the hijacked plane crashing into the first tower, then the second, gouging huge, jagged holes into the buildings. Floods of black smoke and fierce orange flames everywhere.
Even more horrific than the crashes themselves were the unbelievable moments that followed, when both of the massive superstructures collapsed and crumbled into dust, as if they were no sturdier than sand castles. The first time Dan saw the footage, he thought it looked like something out of a Hollywood action movie.
But it had been all too real. Nearly three thousand people had died.
“That part of Manhattan always looks so empty to me now,” Victor said.
The southern end of Manhattan was hardly empty. There were hundreds of buildings massed together, short, tall, taller. It reminded Dan of a crowd jammed into one of Jonah’s concerts: The tallest buildings were like the people who sit on their friends’ shoulders so they can see better.
It was hard to imagine how or where two massive towers could have squeezed into that jumble.
“So sad,” Victor said, “the things people will do to each other.”
Dan sat back against the seat cushion and let out a sharp breath. Victor’s words had hit him like a body blow.
The Vespers.
They had already done terrible things to people Dan cared about. If they got everything they were after . . . Dan couldn’t imagine what they might do next.
He had to stop them. And he knew exactly how to do it.
All he had to do was finish assembling the serum — and then take it.
