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"Geez, Sarah, you’re acting like he’s been chopped in half or so He’ll probably pop awake in an hour and be mad they went on the mission without him" I try to sound optimistic Sarah is probably too tired to notice the uncertainty in my voice

"If he was chopped in half, they could probably heal hi else I can see the pain on his face It’s like he’s being tortured in front ofI can do about it"

I pour Sarah a glass of water and take soe I don’t bother heating it up We eat in silence, picking at cold fried rice and boneless spareribs straight from the cartons I repeat the phrase he’ll be fine over and over in my head, like a mantra, until I’m confident that I can say it with conviction, even if I’m not entirely convinced it’s true

"He’ll be fine," I tell Sarah firoes back to watch over John and Ella, I try to get souess when you’ve just recently seen your best friend sucked into a state of perpetual sleep, napti Still, , and I must fall asleep for at least a few hours

The first thing I do upon waking up is check on John and Ella There’s still no change

I wander down to the Lecture Hall thinking that soood Maybe if I pick out the noisiest guns in Nine’s arsenal to use in target practice, I’ll disrupt John and Ella’s sluh the workshop onsoed in and I can see that five blue dots haveslowly across the southern tip That’s good Ittheir new fake IDs at the airport and that there weren’t any Mogadorian scouts waiting to pick the just the way John planned If only he ake to see it

I notice so in the corner of one of the coram my dad set up It must have been on autopilot this entire ti up

TRANSLATION COMPLETE PRINT NOW?

I s hard, not sure if it’s adorian translations, but clicking YES anyway A printer beneath the desk hisses to life, spitting out the docue before the rest have even finished printing

So it clear that the translation program is not 100 percent accurate But even with the occasional nize the document immediately I’ve seen it before

I realize that I’ers have clenched the papers tight enough to wrinkle and bend the downin my hands a copy of the notes my father took on the Garde’s Inheritance Tacked onto the end is the address of the John Hancock Center

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

I BURST OUT OF THE WORKSHOP, THE DOOR sharply clanging behind , al heat Mywith copies of otten theht when adorian i suspicious, especially when adorians did with his ht out and said that it could be a trap

But that wasn’t possible He’s my father We could trust him

I race down the hallway toto do when I find hiet the hell out of here?

His roolance around, not even sure what I’lish dictionary? Nothing looks out of the ordinary

There has to be a rational explanation for this, right?

Hadn’t I seen with adorians are capable of? I’d seen Adas ripping out the memories from a dead Garde Even now, John and Ella were comatose thanks to some telepathic assault perpetuated by Setrákus Ra The Mogadorians held on to my dad for years and ran unspeakable experiments on his mind

Was it really outside the reals could’ve brainwashed hiht not even be aware they’re controlling hi to his brain and then let hi that he’d be ence The Mogs could’ve progra to the about how double agents could be hypnotized into forgetting their own subterfuge Was that a real article or a comic book? I couldn’t remember

Back in the hallway, I yell, "Dad? Where are you?" I try to keep adorian spy? I don’t want to tip him off

"In here," my dad yells back from Ella and John’s roorip, Saht’ve found in They Walk A Us It’s ridiculous More importantly, I know in my heart that it isn’t true

So why do I feel so nervous?

I stand in the doorway to Ella’s rooone to her own rooet so watch over John and Ella BK is curled up, asleep,behind his ears

"What is it, Sam?" he asks

My dadHe leaves BK and walks towardsinstinctively backwards into the hallway I’ father who rescued me from a prison cell Great

I thrust the docuadorians have these?"

He flips through the papers, turning the pages more rapidly as he realizes what they are "These--these are et their hands on them?"