A flash of light exploded over Max’s, 99’s and Brattleboro’s heads.
“Well, that ends the game,” Max said.
He dived under the bed.
99 followed him.
Brattleboro ducked behind the chest of drawers, one drawer of which was missing.
“Don’t just sit there! Zop!” Lucky Bucky shouted at Guru Optimo.
Guru Optimo’s head, upside down, appeared over the edge of the bed.
“Hide your eyes!” Max warned 99.
There was a flash of light.
But Max and 99, their eyes shielded by their hands, were unaffected.
“Grab’em!” they heard Lucky Bucky cry.
Peeking out, they saw that the guards had arrived.
The guards dived under the bed after them. Max and 99 crawled out on the other side.
A flash lighted the room.
But it was aimed at Brattleboro. And, looking out through the opening where the drawer had been, he caught the flash full in the eye.
Brattleboro jumped up, then began roaring around the room, throttle wide open.
The others stared at him.
He knocked over a table, a floor lamp, the chest of drawers, then roared out of the room and down the corridor.
“What was he?” 99 asked.
“A motorcycle cop,” Max replied. “And I think he’s after that hit-and-run driver who ran that traffic signal earlier tonight.”
“Zop’em!”
Max and 99 ran for the doorway. But a guard had stationed himself in the opening.
A flash of light exploded inches away from them.
They dived back under the bed.
The guards followed.
Max and 99 crawled out from under the bed, and, hand in hand, galloped across the top of it-and across Guru Optimo in the process.
Guru Optimo aimed.
“Zop! Zop! Zop!”
But at that instant the guards emerged from under the bed and stomped across it in pursuit of Max and 99, tromping Guru Optimo beneath their boots and spoiling his aim.
Max and 99 dashed for the doorway again.
The guard still barred their way.
“Zop!” Buckley shouted wildly.
A flash of light.
The guard in the doorway-hit-dropped to his hands and knees. “I’m the George Washington Bridge!” he cried happily.
Max and 99 clambered over him and out through the doorway. They raced down the corridor, turned a corner, raced down another corner, then jumped back just in time to keep from getting hit by a motorcycle cop who roared by and then disappeared around a different corner.
“Poor Brattleboro,” 99 said sadly.
“Don’t waste your sympathy on Brattleboro, 99,” Max said. “I suspect that he’s putting on an act.”
“An act, Max?”
“It’s my guess that when Guru Optimo zopped him, trying to make him think he was a motorcycle cop, Brattleboro also zopped Guru Optimo back, making him think he was making him think he was a motorcycle cop.”
“Then you think Brattleboro isn’t really a motorcycle cop?”
“Right, 99. I think he’s just a crazy kid on a hopped-up Harley Davidson!”
“But-”
A flash of light exploded behind them.
“Run, Max!”
They turned the corner and ran down the corridor. At the next corner they turned right. Racing along corridors and whipping around corners, they turned right, left, left, right, left, right, left, right, right, left, left, right, left, left, right-and plowed head-on into the guards.
Max and 99 were the first to emerge from the pile-up. They raced back the other way, left, right, right, left, right, right, left, left, right, left, right, left, right, right-and plowed head-on into the heap of guards, who had not yet regained their feet.
Once more, Max and 99 were the first to arise. They dashed around the corner-and plowed head-on into Lucky Bucky and Guru Optimo.
All four of the accident victims arose at the same moment.
“Zop!” Lucky Bucky commanded.
Max and 99 ducked.
The spell hit a guard who was coming around the corner, pursuing Max and 99. The guard made a gun of his index finger, pointed it at Max, 99, Lucky Bucky and Guru Optimo and snarled, “Awright, youse guys, stick’em up!”
Eight hands flew into the air.
“What is he, Max?” 99 asked.
“Well, he’s- Wait a minute! That last zop canceled out his previous zop! He isn’t hypnotized any more. He’s an actor again, and he’s doing his Edward G. Robinson imitation!”
“Then-”
“Right, 99! That finger is only a stage prop! Run!”
Max and 99 darted past the guard-or actor-raced around the corner-and piled head-on into the rest of the guards.
Lucky Bucky Buckley, Guru Optimo and Edward G. Robinson came running around the corner an instant later and piled head-on into Max and 99.
There was a wild scramble.
Max squirmed out from the bottom of the pile. “99! Where are you!”
“Here, Max!”
An arm reached out.
Max grabbed it by the wrist and galloped down the corridor.
“Max! Wait for me!” a voice far back along the corridor called.
He halted. He found that he had Edward G. Robinson by the wrist.
“Awright, youse-”
Max dropped him with a karate chop. “Sorry about that,” he said. “But you’ve had it coming a long time, you know, going around ordering everybody to stick’em up.”
99, who had freed herself from the spaghetti of arms and legs, caught up with Max.
“Let’s go, Max!” she said urgently.
“All right, 99. But no more lefts and rights. The next set of stairs we come to-down. Agreed?”
“Anything you say, Max. Just-”
There was a flash of light.
Max dashed along the corridor, with 99 close at his heels. They reached some stairs. But there was only one flight, and it ascended.
Max ran on.
“Max, why didn’t we take those stairs?” 99 asked.
“It’s against the rules to go down the up staircase, 99.”
“Max. . would it have hurt, just once?”
“That’s how bad habits start, 99. You go down the up staircase once, then, the next thing you know, you’re going up the down staircase. And after that you think nothing of it. It’s up the down staircase and down the up staircase all day long. And the nights are even worse.”
“Max, that doesn’t sound so terrible to me.”
“99, that’s only the beginning. Pretty soon, staircases don’t satisfy you. You need elevators!”
“Max, I still say-”
“Up ahead, 99! A down staircase!”
They reached the stairs, then dashed downward. When they reached the next floor, they stopped. Max looked back.
“Oh-oh!” he said, alarmed.
“What, Max?”
“Look, 99-that’s an up staircase we just came down.”
“Only from here, Max. From where we were it was a down staircase.”
He looked at her thoughtfully. “That’s what we tell ourselves, 99,” he said. “But who’s to say? Who really knows the truth, 99?”
Lucky Bucky Buckley and the guards appeared at the head of the stairs.
“Halt!” Lucky Bucky shouted.
Max and 99 took flight, running down a corridor.
“There-up ahead!” Max pointed. “Another staircase!”
“Max, do you think we should-the way it effects you?”
“I have no choice, 99,” Max replied, wild-eyed. “The worst has happened! I’ve got the habit! I’m hooked!”
7
Driven by his mad desire, Max raced down, down, down one ascending and/or descending staircase after another, with 99 right behind him. Finally, he reached bottom-the dungeon.
“Max! We can’t go any further! There are no more staircases!”
“I don’t know why you’re so disappointed, 99. Now, I can break the habit.”
“But we’re trapped!”
“Every silver lining has its dark cloud, 99.”
They heard Lucky Bucky and the guards at the entrance to the dungeon. Max grabbed 99 by the hand and led the way along the corridor. A moment later they reached the torture chamber.
“Maybe we can find someplace to hide,” Max said, looking around. “That well over there looks safe.”