A Date with Deception by Carolyn Keene Page B

moved out of her sight, he pounded a fist into the palm of his other hand.
    The chaperon wasn’t talking to Marina, and Nancy knew there must be a third person in the room.
    Dmitri’s voice softened, then got loud again. Nancy couldn’t understand anything he was saying.
    Finally Dmitri stopped talking. Nancy held her breath, keeping her eyes on Marina. The ballerina turned her head and said something to the third person.
    Finally, the third person spoke. Nancy had no trouble recognizing his voice. It was Sasha Petrov.
    Still out of Nancy’s sight, Sasha spoke quickly and forcefully in Russian. Nancy closed her eyes, frustrated at not being able to understand him.
    At last, though, Sasha said something she did understand. It was only one word, but the word was Jetstream.

Chapter

Thirteen
    B EFORE N ANCY HAD TIME to think about what she’d just heard, Marina interrupted Sasha. Looking back and forth between the two men, who were still invisible to Nancy, the ballerina spoke quickly and angrily, tapping at the watch on her slender wrist.
    She wants to go, Nancy thought. And I better go, too, before they spot me.
    Nancy wanted to run, but she was afraid of making noise. Forcing herself to move slowly, she backed down the hall, keeping her eyes on the door. If she saw a shadow cross it, she planned to slip into one of the other rooms. No one came, though, and Nancy could still heartheir voices as she reached the end of the hall.
    Once she got out of the building, Nancy gave in to her urge to run and was back at the car in seconds.
    â€œWhat happened?” Bess asked as Nancy slid breathlessly into the driver’s seat. “You look really upset!”
    Nancy started the car and drove off. On the way home, she told her friends what she’d heard. “So it looks like all the Soviets are in it together. I guess I shouldn’t be upset, but I am. I’m disappointed, too.” She shook her head and shrugged. “Anyway, let’s not talk about it now,” she said, pulling up in front of Eloise’s house. “Let’s get to work and see if we can find that needle in the haystack.”
    The house was quiet when they let themselves in. “Aunt Eloise must be asleep,” Nancy whispered. “Let’s try not to wake her. The less she knows about what we did tonight, the better.”
    Quietly the four of them tiptoed into the kitchen. Bess started a pot of coffee, and George found a box of doughnuts in the bread drawer and put them on a plate.
    Nancy helped Gary spread out the blueprints, and then they all gathered around the kitchen table.
    Bess’s eyes widened as she looked down at the intricate drawings. “Where on earth do we begin?”
    Gary grinned at her. “At the beginning;”
    An hour and two cups of coffee later, Gary shook his head and whistled.
    â€œWhat?” George asked. “Did you find something?”
    â€œNo.” Gary shook his head again. “I hate to admit it, but this is a lot more complicated than I thought. But don’t worry,” he added. “Something’ll show up.”
    â€œLook,” Bess said, using her doughnut as a pointer. “The engines are at the back. That’s kind of different, isn’t it?”
    â€œYeah, but they didn’t build it with the engines in front first and then rebuild it with them at the back,” Gary said. “It’s always been that way.” He held up the two-year-old blueprint and tapped it with a finger. “See?”
    â€œWhat’s the point of putting them on the back?” Nancy asked.
    â€œLess resistance,” Gary said. “When they’re in front, they pull the plane. In back, they push it. That’s kind of a simple way to put it, but basically, that’s it.”
    â€œThe simpler the better,” Bess remarked. “But does it change the way they’re built or wired or something if they’re at the