Free The 39 Clues: Unstoppable Book 2: Breakaway by Jeff Hirsch Page B

Pony,” Hamilton said.
    “Pony Boy!” Jonah said. “You staying gold?”
    Pony still couldn’t quite believe that Jonah Wizard was actually talking to him.
    “Just taking a break. How’s the research going?”
    Jonah swiveled around in his chair. “Huge! Me and Ham here broke this whole thing wide open.”
    “No way.”
    “Check it out,” Jonah said. “We learned that the desert outside Tunis was used as a primary location for the first Star Wars movie. And not only that, so was Tikal in Guatemala.”
    “And,” Hamilton said, “Angkor Wat was used as a model for a planet briefly mentioned in
Revenge of the Sith
.”
    Pony looked at them blankly. “So?”
    Hamilton leaned forward. “So we have to ask ourselves,” he said in a conspiratorial whisper, “have we fully considered George Lucas’s role in all of this?”
    Pony rolled his eyes. “You two need anything from the fridge?”
    Hamilton shook his head.
    “Big glass,” Jonah said. “Half ginger ale. Half root beer.”
    “Ian?”
    Ian ignored him, which was no surprise. He’d barely said a word since they’d gotten back to Attleboro. He sat in a dark alcove staring at a computer screen or pacing angrily downstairs. Pony figured that being benched must be driving him crazy.
    Pony rooted around in the fridge until he found his magic elixir. Electroshock Cherry Limeade Caffeine Blast. Pony didn’t bother with a glass; he upended the two liter and let it slosh out of the bottle and down his throat. He imagined his life bar go from caution red to yellow to a glowing electric green. He grabbed a second two liter and Jonah’s drink, then headed back to his station.
    “What’s up, Pony?”
    Pony almost spit out a mouthful of soda. Nellie was sitting in his chair, but there was something distinctly un-goddesslike about her.
    “You look . . .  weird.”
    “You know, Pony, I think it’s your tact that makes everyone love you so much.”
    “But your hair. And your clothes. You’re dressed like my mom.”
    Nellie’s brown eyes narrowed on him. “I’m undercover,” she growled. “Now sit down. I need your help.”
    “What’s up?”
    “I need anything you can get me on Trilon Laboratories.”
    This was music to Pony’s ears. Nellie moved out of his chair and he leaned into his keyboard like a musician, his fingers be-bopping over the keys, pounding out a crisp plastic rhythm. In the end the whole thing was a bit of a disappointment. Pony shrugged and took another swig of his hacker juice. “There.”
    “There what?”
    “Pwnage. Total and complete pwnage.”
    “I really need some kind of geek-to-English dictionary.”
    “I’m in,” Pony said. “Right in the middle of their systems. Trilon Laboratories now officially works for me.”
    “Already?”
    “It was just off-the-shelf security stuff. Easy to break.”
    “So what’s there?”
    Pony surfed the system, dipping in and out of files at will. “Not much. E-mail. Some accounting stuff. A list of all fifty-seven employees.”
    “Wait. Fifty-seven? I saw like a hundred people in the parking lot.”
    Pony surfed around until he could bring up a rough schematic of the building. “In here? They’d need a crowbar to fit that many people in a building this size.”
    “Can you print that out?”
    One keystroke and a full set of blueprints were spooling through the printer. Pony spread them out on a table and pored over lines and notation.
    “Anything weird?” Nellie asked.
    “It appears to be a building,” Pony said. “With walls and a floor. And a roof.”
    Nellie glared at him.
    “What? Paper isn’t really my strong suit.”
    Nellie pushed him out of the way and traced the maze of lines in and out of rooms. She turned a page to look at the electrical wiring schematics.
    “Huh,” she said. “Look.”
    Pony sat forward, flipping the pages back and forth. He would never have thought it possible with something as supremely lame as some sheets of paper, but he started to feel