“A forty-five minute hour!” Lucky Bucky scoffed. “You think I can’t do better than that? Guru Baby, I’m talking show business! Stick with me and you’ll meet a lot of nice girls. That’s what show business is all about!”
Guru Optimo broke out in a grin that covered his entire face.
“99,” Max whispered, “I think we’ve been out-bid.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised, Max.”
“Zop’em!” Lucky Bucky shouted.
Max and 99 whipped around and dashed back into the secret passageway. A flash of light exploded behind them. They raced down the steps into the total darkness.
“After them!” they heard Lucky Bucky cry. “The guard that catches them gets a star on his dressing room door!”
Max and 99 reached the bottom of the steps.
“Now, to find where the wall opens,” Max said. “Ready, 99?”
“What do you want me to do, Max?”
“The same as last time. I’ll pretend I’m a tennis court and you-”
“Max! That won’t work!”
“You’re right, 99. I forgot. I left my net in the dungeon! We’ll just have to break our way through this wall the way we broke our way through that panel upstairs.”
There was a crunching sound as Max threw his weight against the wall.
“Max? Are you all right?”
“Well, I’m not in as good shape as the wall is, 99.”
Lucky Bucky’s voice was heard again. “They’re here someplace! Grab ’em!”
“We’ll have to fight our way out, 99!” Max said.
The guards and Lucky Bucky reached the foot of the steps. A battle began. Karate chops hacked through the darkness.
“I got one, 99!”
“That was me, Max.”
“Sorry about that, 99.”
Bodies dropped to the floor. Guards chopped guards. Guards chopped Max. Max chopped Lucky Bucky. Lucky Bucky chopped 99. 99 chopped Max. Max chopped the wall.
“Owwwwwww!”
“Max, there are too many of them!”
“Give me your hand, 99!”
“Here, Max!”
Max grabbed the hand and raced back up the stairs. He reached the opening to Guru Optimo’s room.
“We’re free, 99!” he said. “We can-”
He found that he was holding Lucky Bucky’s hand.
“Zop’im!” Lucky Bucky shouted to Guru Optimo.
Max ducked back into the secret passageway, dragging Lucky Bucky with him. He dropped Lucky Bucky with a karate chop, then dashed back down the steps.
“99-that wasn’t you! Where are you?”
“Here, Max!”
Max found a hand. Holding it firmly, he started back up the stairs-then stopped.
“99,” he said, “are you sure this is you? I’d feel a little silly if I dragged a guard up these steps.”
“I think it’s me, Max. Somebody has hold of my hand.”
“It might be a guard, 99.”
“How can we tell, Max?”
“Let’s see. . I know. Here’s something a guard wouldn’t know. What was the name of my drama teacher when I was in second grade?”
“Miss Himmelman?”
“That’s right, 99. It’s you! Come on!”
They scampered up the steps-and reached Guru Optimo’s room just as Lucky Bucky was recovering.
“Zop ’im!”
They turned and dashed back down the steps.
“Max! The guards are coming back up after us!”
“This way, 99!”
There was a crash! Max had broken through the wall into another room.
“That was quick thinking, Max,” 99 said.
“Actually, 99, I thought I was heading back up the steps. Apparently I lost my sense of direction in the darkness.”
They looked around the room they had entered. It was crowded with glass cases that were mounted on pedestals. Inside the cases were ancient musical instruments.
“It’s the music room, Max,” 99 said, fascinated. “Look at all those wonderful old instruments. There’s a sixteenth century Strumplecord, and a bass saxopular, and a thirteenth century hinkenschmaller, and a-”
“99, that’s very interesting. But when the guards and Lucky Bucky get to that hole in the wall they’re going to guess where we are.”
“I know, Max. But, look, there’s a fourteenth century aphelkhnocker! ”
“99, will you-”
“In there!” they heard Lucky Bucky shout. “Grab ’em!”
Max and 99 ran to the door. Max yanked it open and they darted out into the corridor.
“Which way, Max?”
“It’s time to split up, 99. If they get one of us, the other can try to complete the mission. You go that way, and I’ll go this way.”
They ran down the corridor, each in a different direction. Max turned left and raced down another corridor. Meanwhile, 99 turned right and dashed down a different corridor. At the next corner, Max turned left again. 99, reaching the next corner, turned right. They met head-on in the corridor, crashed, and staggered back, stunned.
“I think we better stick together, Max,” 99 said.
“Either that or work out some signals,” Max replied.
Lucky Bucky and the guards appeared at the end of the corridor.
“Grab’em!”
“Is that all he can say, grab’em and zop’em?” Max complained. “I’m getting a little tired of hearing it.”
“I don’t think you’ll be hearing it much longer, Max. He’s bound to catch us sooner or later. He knows the castle, and we don’t. Oh-oh! Here they come again.”
Max and 99 turned and ran back along the corridor. When they reached the corner they turned right, then, at the next corner, took another right. They came to an open doorway and ran into the room.
“And a whelpschmacher,” 99 said. “And a pianissimo, and-”
They dashed back into the secret passageway and raced up the steps. A few moments later they reached Guru Optimo’s room. Once more, he sat up in bed.
“Have you been thinking about that offer to rejoin Control?” Max asked.
Guru Optimo grinned. “What do you mean, ‘limp,’ Doctor? You operated on my lower lip.”
“Oh. Well, it was a natural mistake,” Max replied.
Behind them, Lucky Bucky’s voice shouted, “Zop’em!”
Max and 99 dived under the bed.
The guards dived under after them.
Max and 99 emerged and ran toward the doorway.
There was a flash of light.
“Duck!” Max warned.
The flash missed them. They darted through the doorway.
Behind them, they heard, “Quack! Quack! Quack!”
“He got another guard,” Max guessed. “Poor fellow. I wish now that I’d yelled something besides ‘duck!’ ”
99 looked back. “Max, they’re right behind us! Where to now?”
“I’m not sure, 99. I guess we’ll- No! Up ahead! See that!”
“That door at the end of the corridor, you mean, Max?”
“Yes. It’ll save us!”
“Max. . how?”
“See what it says over the door?”
99 peered ahead. “It says. . ‘Squash Room.’ Max, what is that?”
“Squash is a game, 99. It’s played on a four-walled court that is sixteen-feet high by eighteen-and-a-half feet wide by thirty-two feet deep. The back wall, which is shorter than the front wall, usually measures about nine-feet. Horizontal service lines six-and-one-half feet high are marked on both the front and back walls, while a floor service line is marked off ten-feet from, and parallel to, the back wall. The court is marked into two service-”
“Max, that’s fascinating,” 99 interrupted. “But what makes you think a squash room will save us?”
“Don’t you want to know what the game is played with, 99?”
“All right, Max.”
“A hard rubber ball.”
“Gee.”
“It’s one-and-three-quarters inches in diameter.”
“Golly whiz. Now, what makes you think the squash room will save us?”
“Because I doubt very much that it’s a squash room, 99. When this castle was built, the game of squash hadn’t even been invented.”
“I see. Then what is the squash room, Max?”
“Unless I miss my guess, it’s V. T. Brattleboro.”
“Max-”
“It’s the only thing that makes sense, 99. Would a Spanish castle have a squash room? Of course not! What’s happened is, Brattleboro has clouded our minds, making us think that he’s a squash room.”