Free The 39 Clues Unstoppable Book 3 Countdown by Natalie Standiford Page A

and Atticus had zipped by right before he got there. He spoke into a two-way radio, nodding as if he’d just been told where to go and what to do. Brandishing a machete, he climbed up to a platform in a tree next to the zip line. Then he started hacking at one of the two zip line wires.
    Dan was headed straight for him.
    Amy’s heart jumped to her throat. Dan was halfway across when the top wire that held him snapped.
    “Dan!” Amy screamed.
    The wire dropped in front of Dan. His harness halted with a jerk and the lower wire drooped low over the river. He dangled above the water rushing over the rocks below, supported by only one wire now, the other in his way, keeping him from sliding forward.
    Amy heard thudding footsteps behind her. She turned quickly. The rickety suspension bridge had slowed down the fighters who’d been chasing them — the men were so big they had to cross it carefully, or their weight might break it or sway it so much it would throw them off. But they had finally made it over the bridge and were running toward her down the jungle path.
    They’d be on top of her in a matter of minutes.
    Across the river, the saboteur hacked at the second wire. Once it broke, the pulleys holding the harness would slide off the wire and Dan would tumble into the river to his death.
    “DAN!” she screamed again.
    Dan twisted in the harness, looking for Amy. When he found her, they locked eyes. She could read his thoughts, and they were terrible.
    This is it , he telegraphed to her. Good-bye.
    No! Her body jolted with terror, a lightning bolt to the brain.
    Without thinking, she jumped into her harness. She’d zip over to Dan, catch him, glide him to safety. . . .
    She’d nearly leaped over the water when she caught herself. It wouldn’t work. She’d reach Dan halfway over the river, and they’d both be stuck. Half the zip line had been cut. Across the river, the strongman was chopping, chopping, chopping. The second wire weakened, sagging even more.
    Dan’s body dropped closer to the rushing water, the harness holding him like a noose.
    Every nerve, every fiber in Amy’s body strained over that river toward her brother. Her brain was on fire, rat-a-tatting, save him save him how how how?
    She scanned the ground for a life preserver, a float, something she could toss him that might break his fall, but there was nothing. The wire thinned. Dan’s body dropped lower. He closed his eyes, his face a mask of terror.
    The wire was hair-thin. It was about to break.
    Behind her, the thugs were only yards away.
    As if in a nightmare, Amy saw what was about to happen. She saw Dan’s body fall into the river. She saw his head bash against the rocks, spattering them with blood as his limp, lifeless body washed downstream. . . .
    If only he could climb back to her, back on the wire. But he wasn’t strong enough to do that, and anyway, the thugs would be waiting for him there on her side of the river. Or if he could cling to the wire as it broke, and slide down slowly toward the river. But he’d have to be superstrong to do that, at least as strong as Pierce’s men, maybe stronger.
    A howl of anguish ripped from her body. He was her brother, and she couldn’t help him! She was powerless, powerless, power . . .
    Power.
    In a flash an answer appeared to her. She had all the power she needed. Right there in her backpack.
    The serum.
    If she were superstrong, she could slide out to him, keep him from falling, ease him down the wire to the edge of the river. . . .
    If she were superstrong, and if she acted fast.
    The wire sagged lower. In ten seconds, maybe five, it would break. Dan struggled in the harness, trying to claw his way back along the wire toward her, but he wasn’t strong enough. He was as helpless as a trapped animal.
    Her little brother. Her Dan.
    Save Dan, save Dan, save Dan. . . . The words were a drumbeat in her mind. She couldn’t think of anything else, couldn’t think past that one