Free The 39 Clues: Book 8 by Gordan Korman Page A

furrowed. "But what did he mean?"
    Nellie rolled her eyes. "What do you Cahills ever mean? More thirty-nine clues mumbo jumbo."
    Amy frowned. " What you hold in your hand can only be the page itself. And it's not what we seek, since the clue is someplace else. Fixed forever in birth -- well, nothing stays exactly the way it is the instant it's born. And where the Earth meets the sky--"
    "I've got news for you," the au pair said sourly. "The
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    Earth meets the sky everywhere. That's how it works. Earth stops; sky starts. Face it, we've got nothing."
    Amy raised an eyebrow. "We don't know what Puyi was trying to say. But we do know when he said it--1924."
    "So?"
    Amy pulled Dan's laptop computer from his backpack and powered it on. "So if we research major world events from the early nineteen twenties, we might be able to learn what Puyi was up to. One thing about Cahills --we make the news."
    Nellie was skeptical. "The guy went from child emperor to rich slacker, to Japanese puppet, to war criminal, to librarian. What do you expect to find that isn't in the history books?"
    "The Cahill connection," Amy explained. "Look, books say Amelia Earhart was trying to fly around the world. We know she was really following the clue hunt. I'll bet there's something similar about Puyi."
    "Such as?"
    On the laptop's encyclopedia, Amy set the yearbook function to 1924. "Okay, within a few months of the day Puyi was exiled, IBM was formed, Joseph Stalin came to power in Russia--"
    Not for the first time, Nellie was amazed at the brilliance of the girl's logic. She peered over her shoulder at the screen. "Greece became a republic -- ooh, I'd love to go there. The islands, the baklava ..."
    Her voice trailed off as the bus crested a ridge. For
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    the past half hour, the terrain had been growing hill-ier, the rises steeper. Suddenly, it was laid out before them --the Great Wall of China.
    Beside her, Amy gasped. The ancient barrier stretched up slopes and into valleys, farther than the eye could see in both directions. Four thousand miles, Nellie reflected -- long enough to go from Boston to San Diego, and then hang a left to Mexico City.
    "I've seen pictures," Amy said in awe, "but the real thing --"
    Even Saladin turned his attention from the chicken in the next row to gaze out the window at the giant structure that loomed up as the bus approached.
    Nellie took the computer from Amy's lap and browsed to the Great Wall, glancing back and forth from the pictures on-screen to the mind-blowing reality. The only man-made structure that could be seen from outer space. Once guarded by more than a million men.
    During construction, when a worker died, his body was built right into the Wall itself. No one knew how many corpses lay within the stone and mortar, but some estimates ran as high as three million souls.
    It was a sight without equal anywhere in the world --unique because of its age, its historical importance, and mostly its unimaginable length.
    Nellie's heart sank. To find a single person in such a place --even a celebrity like Jonah Wizard --would be like searching the universe for a grain of sand.
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    CHAPTER 12
    The orange robe looked somehow right on Dan --like he was meant to wear it.
    "Can somebody take my picture?" He had his collection in mind. This would be the prized piece. He'd have it blown up to twenty feet wide. It would be an entire wall of his trophy room.
    "Photography forbidden."
    Dan was crushed. He opened his mouth to protest, then thought better of it. You didn't argue with a guy who could rip your arm out and beat you to death with the bloody end. "Can I at least keep the suit?"
    His sparring partners smiled tolerantly.
    The lesson began. Dan had envisioned himself flying through the air with the greatest of ease. But he was not surprised that it didn't happen that way. As a beginner, he started at the beginning--simple punches and kicks, and learning how to fall.
    It doesn't get any better than this, he reflected,