The 39 Clues [Cahills vs. Vespers] 05 - Trust No One by Linda Sue Park Page A

said firmly. “Mabu.”
    Whatever the guy was saying, he seemed really sure about it. Dan spoke on impulse. “Okay, Mabu. Let’s go —
vámonos
.”
    Which was Spanish, not Portuguese, but the driver got the message and pulled away from the curb, tires squealing.
    The backseat reacted immediately. “Whoa!” “What’s going on?” “Where are we going?”
    Dan explained about the driver’s reaction to the Voynich image. “He seems to think it’s something called Mabu,” he said. “So I told him to take us there.”
    “That’s ridiculous!” Amy said. “You have no idea what he’s talking about — it could be hundreds of miles away!”
    “It might not be a place,” Jake pointed out. “Mabu could be a person. A famous swimmer, maybe.”
    Atticus’s eyes were as round as CDs. “What if it’s, like, a nudist colony?”
    Dan snorted. “You wish.”
    “We don’t have time to waste on wild-goose chases,” Amy said. “Stop this nonsense and ask him for a sporting-goods store.”
    “It might not be far,” Dan countered. “What’s the harm in checking it out?”
    They were still arguing a few minutes later when the taxi turned into a driveway that led to a big hotel.
    “Mabu,” the driver said with a satisfied expression.
    The sign said MABU THERMAS HOTEL AND SPA .
    “‘Hotel and Spa’ — it could still be for nudists, couldn’t it?” Atticus said. “Gimme the laptop.” He took it from Dan and began tapping on the keyboard.
    Amy was sitting like a stone, refusing to move. Dan opened the taxi door. “Come on, Amy —”
    “No — YOU come on! Some random guy takes us to a random hotel, and you think it could be part of this?”
    Her voice, shrill and brittle, was setting off alarm bells in Dan’s head.
Why is she acting like this? Okay, so she doesn’t think it’s a great idea, but does she have to get hysterical about it?
    Amy’s shrieking continued. “I can’t believe — you can’t possibly —”
    “Hey!” Atticus cut her off with a grin and held up the laptop. “Poos!”

The hotel’s pools were its most famous feature. According to the website, an underground thermal spring bubbled up into a large hot tub. It was constructed so the water would spill out via a waterfall into a swimming pool built on a lower level. The water in the pool cascaded into yet another pool, with the temperature getting cooler with each successive level; you could choose whether to simmer in the hot tub or be refreshed in the lowest pool.
    Atticus smacked himself on the head. “The word
pools
in Dr. Siffright’s message — that should have told us it couldn’t possibly be the big falls.” He bounced up and down a little. “I have a feeling — this could be the right place!”
    With Amy partly mollified, the group checked in and went to their rooms. None of them had swimming gear, so the boys all put on shorts. Amy had to go to the hotel shop to find a bathing suit, her companions helpfully trailing along.
    Atticus pulled a suit off the rack. “How does this even
work
?” he said, examining it in wonder. Several skinny black straps were connected in a complicated and mysterious way to a few tiny triangles of fabric.
    “I believe it’s called a thong,” Jake said wisely.
    Amy blushed, snatched it away from Atticus, and hung it back up on the rack. “I am
not
wearing that.”
    “Amy, how about this one?” Dan held a spangly leopard-print number under his chin and sashayed a few steps, wiggling his hips.
    “Oh, Dan, that’s
so
you!” Jake said in falsetto. All three boys howled with laughter.
    “Would you all please just LEAVE?” Amy said, now bright pink with mortification.
    “Okay, okay,” Jake said, his hands raised in mock surrender. “We’ll wait outside.”
    A few minutes later, Amy joined them wearing a towel wrapped around her waist and a navy-blue striped bikini. They took the elevator down to the pool level. As they pushed through the glass doors, Atticus put one hand over