The Genius Files #4 by Dan Gutman Page B

the—”
    At that instant, something smashed into the ground with a boom at the exact spot where Coke had been standing.
    Well, it wasn’t just something . It was a cow. A big, brown, 1,400-pound spotted cow.
    As their parents rushed over, Coke and Pep lookeda few feet to their left to see the cow lying on the ground next to them. A very dead cow.
    â€œIt’s a cow!” Coke said, stating the obvious. Then he peered up at the tower, struggling to see who would have been crazy enough to do such a thing.
    â€œAre you okay?” Dr. McDonald asked, checking to see if there was any blood on his son in places where blood wasn’t supposed to be.
    â€œYeah, I think so,” Coke said, still dazed. Then he turned to his sister. “You saved my life.”
    â€œIt was just instinct,” she said. “I saw something falling. I didn’t know what it was.”
    A few people came over to see what was going on. After all, it wasn’t every day that a cow fell out of the fake Eiffel Tower. Some teenage girls took cell phone pictures of the cow and walked away giggling. A man wearing a cowboy hat and blue jeans walked over. He knelt down and put his hand on the cow.
    â€œIt’s dead,” he said.
    â€œThat’s so sad,” said Mrs. McDonald.
    â€œIt would have been a lot sadder if our kids were under it,” Dr. McDonald told her.
    â€œIt’s cold as an ice pop,” said the guy in the cowboy hat, who appeared to know a thing or two about cows. “I reckon this bossy was dead before it hit the ground.”
    â€œWhy would somebody drop a dead cow on my son’s head?” Mrs. McDonald demanded. “For that matter, how did they get a dead cow up there in the first place?”
    â€œWhy is the sky blue?” the guy replied. “Why is sugar sweet? Stuff happens.”
    â€œWait a minute,” Dr. McDonald said, clearly annoyed. “There are scientific reasons why the sky is blue or sugar is sweet. There’s no logical explanation for why a cow should fall on our son’s head.”
    â€œNever said it was logical,” drawled the guy in the cowboy hat. He stood up and walked away.
    Just for the record, this was not the first time a large object had fallen—or been dropped—on the McDonald twins. Back in North Carolina, Pep was standing under a building that looked like a giant chest of drawers when a real chest of drawers fell out of it and nearly killed her. At South of the Border in South Carolina, Coke was standing under the giant Pedro statue when a bag full of plastic Pedro statues almost landed on him.
    And now, a cow.
    â€œWhoever did this is going to pay !” Coke said, his fists clenched.
    He was sweating and his heart was racing, as you would imagine your heart might race if you had nearlybeen flattened by a dead cow dropped from sixty-five feet. Pep put her arm around him protectively.
    â€œI’m sure it was just an accident,” she said, shooting a look at her brother.
    â€œMaybe we should take you to a doctor,” Dr. McDonald told Coke.
    â€œI’m fine. Let’s just get out of here.”
    â€œWell, I want to file a formal complaint,” said Mrs. McDonald. “Somebody should be notified that cows are falling on people. You could get killed out here. This place is dangerous.”
    While their parents went to look for a place to lodge their complaint, Pep walked her brother back to the car to rest and recuperate.
    â€œDo you think that was intentional?” Pep asked.
    â€œNo, a dead cow accidentally fell out of that tower on my head,” Coke snapped.
    â€œYou know what I mean. Did somebody drop it on purpose?”
    â€œYou can bet on it,” Coke said, looking up again at the tower. “And he’s gonna pay .”
    â€œOr she.”
    To get her mind off what had just happened, Pep opened her notepad and looked at the cipher that had been stumping her all