Free The 39 Clues: Book 8 by Gordan Korman

the other end of the crackly line had told her. "But nothing takes precedence over the clue hunt."
    "You're talking about an eleven-year-old kid!" Nellie had shouted into the pay phone.
    "Who happens to be Grace Cahill's grandson," the voice had added. "He has shown himself to be quite a resourceful young man. We have every reason to believe he can take care of himself."
    Big talk from someone sitting in a paneled office thousands of miles away.
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    Suddenly, the pressure of keeping her real mission a secret seemed nearly as exhausting as the Clue hunt. Nellie slumped in her seat, hugging Saladin to her chest.
    The guilt gave her no respite. These poor kids had been deceived practically from birth --first by their parents, who had hid their Cahill identity, then by Grace, who had withheld the truth about the fire. Next, the Clue hunt -- practically a double-crossers' convention. Who knew what lies Jonah was telling Dan right now?
    And on top of it all, there's me --someone they trust. Someone who's supposed to protect them ...
    If it ever came down to a choice between the mission or Amy and Dan--
    Don't get ahead of yourself. Worry about today's problems, not what might happen tomorrow. Find Dan. Keep Amy from losing it--
    After all, whatever Nellie's covert role, she was still an au pair. The kids were her responsibility. That included Dan's safety and Amy's mental health.
    Keep her distracted.
    She turned to Amy. "How's the book? Any leads?"
    Amy shrugged. "Puyi was a Janus, all right. I recognize the type --spoiled rotten, nuts about art, totally self-centered. According to this, his life was basically one extended hissy fit after he was kicked off the throne. It wasn't so bad while they let him stay in the Imperial Palace. He still had eunuchs to worship him
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    and servants to do his bidding. When he demanded a Western education, they brought him a tutor all the way from London. He loved the West--even took an English name: Henry."
    "Emperor Henry," Nellie mused. "Has a nice ring to it. Like King Ralph."
    "When they threw him out of the Forbidden City, he kind of fell apart. He turned into a real playboy, a do-nothing rich guy. Sound like anybody we know?"
    "At least Jonah raps for a living," Nellie offered. "I mean, he's a world-class idiot, but he has a job."
    There was a roar as the bus picked up speed. They were moving again.
    "During World War Two," Amy went on, "the Japanese set Puyi up as emperor of Manchukuo -- the old Manchuria, where the Qing dynasty had originated. He knew he was just a puppet for Japan, but he needed to feel like a king again. He paid the price, too -- when the war was over, he served ten years in jail for it. And after they let him out, he spent the rest of his life as an ordinary citizen working in a library. He died in 1967."
    "That's cold," Nellie agreed. "It's a big come-down from jewel-encrusted golden robes. Poor guy peaked at six."
    "It's pretty Cahill, too," Amy pointed out bitterly. "They dump everything on your shoulders when you're just a kid. In our family, you don't get a childhood. We're too busy trying to dominate the world."
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    And I'm a part of that, Nellie reflected as the bus rattled over a pothole. Pushing children into a lethal game.
    She felt a sudden yearning to take the girl in her arms, to reassure her that everything would be okay, that she'd get to be a normal teenager one day. Yet that would be deception, too.
    Aloud, she said, "So when Puyi painted that silk and hid it in the secret attic, it had to be before he got booted from the Forbidden City. They wouldn't have let him back in and given him the run of the place."
    Amy checked the time line at the front of the book. "That happened in 1924, when he was eighteen. Maybe Puyi sensed that his days were numbered in the Imperial Palace, and that's why he wrote the poem." She recited from memory:
    '"That which you seek, you hold in your hand,
    Fixed forever in birth,
    Where the Earth meets the sky.'"
    Her brow