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

idea.
    She ripped open her pack and found the flask. She tore off the top and drank it down.

There was an agonizing instant when nothing happened, and then power like golden light surged through her veins, energizing her limbs, her hands, her brain. She felt strong, yet light. As if she could leap across the chasm, fifty yards, a hundred. No — she tried to put a brake on her speeding mind; she could jump far, very far, maybe thirty feet, but not that far, not yet. . . .
    Concentrate.
    Her mind immediately focused on Dan. The thugs surrounded her, but she jumped out of their reach, her legs springing her higher than she thought possible, and grabbed the zip line wire, the one that was being cut on the other side of the river.
    Amy made her way along the wire, hand over hand. She reached Dan in a matter of seconds, just as the wire broke. He dropped toward the water as his harness slid off the broken wire. But instead of filling her with terror, the sight of her freefalling brother activated a surge of energy as her arm shot out, grabbing one of Dan’s hands just before he fell out of reach.
    “Hold on!” she told him. She strained all her muscles to tighten her grasp. The wire tore at the skin on her hand. The momentum of the fall swung them back over the river, back to the side where Pierce’s men were waiting. She clung to the wire like Tarzan clinging to a vine. They swooped upward and crashed into the stunned goons waiting for them there, knocking them to the ground.
    Dan stared at Amy in shock. “What — ?”
    “Get on my back,” Amy ordered. The zip line wire now dangled down the cliff toward the rushing water. Dan clung to her back like a little kid. She shimmied down the wire, bracing her feet against the cliff.
    “Amy, what are you doing?” Dan felt heavy, but she knew she wouldn’t drop him unless he let go.
    “I’ve got you. Just hold on tight,” she shouted. They made their way down the wire, rappelling against the cliff. She jumped the last twenty feet to the narrow river’s edge. He slid off her back. Large rocks dotted the water from one side to the other. She stepped on the first rock, then the next. They were sharp, wet, and slippery. “To the other side! Come on!” she told Dan.
    He struggled to follow her across the rocks. Her sense of balance was supersharp — she hardly had to hold on to the rocks as she leaped from one to the next. Dan crouched down, clinging to each boulder as he slowly made his way over the rushing water.
    She helped him over the last few rocks until they landed on the other side of the river. Pierce’s men watched them helplessly from above, unable to reach them. “What do we do now?” Dan asked. There was nowhere to go but up, nothing on that side but a sheer cliff about thirty feet high.
    “We climb.”
    “But what about — ?” Dan pointed at the man with the machete looking down at them.
    Amy studied him. He had a machete, but there was only one of him. “We’ll deal with him when we get there.” She hoisted Dan onto her back again and started scaling the cliff. She stretched to reach a jutting rock, clung to it while her foot found a sturdy hold, and slowly made her way up the face of the cliff.
    About three feet below the top of the cliff was a narrow ledge of rock. “Climb off,” she told Dan. She left him perched on the ledge. Just above her, the man with the machete was waiting.
    Amy hoisted herself to the top of the cliff. The thug raised the machete, ready to strike. She kicked it out of his hand. It fell over the cliff to the river, clanking heavily against the rocks. The thug’s jaw dropped open in surprise. Amy knocked him flat with one swift kick to the gut. She reached down to Dan, hauling him up to the top of the cliff.
    They ran through the jungle to the zip line center a quarter mile away, where Jake and Atticus were waiting for them. She had to hold herself back so Dan could keep up with her. She felt like a gazelle, as if