And Loving It!

“I see it, Max.”

“Where. . where?”

“In your hand, Max. You have the flashlight.”

“Oh. . yes, I forgot about that.” He put out the light. “There, now, we won’t make that mistake again.”

“I’m sure that will be a big help, Max. What do we do next?”

“We’ll just have to backtrack, 99, and look in every room until we find Brattleboro and Guru Optimo. Let’s go.”

They retreated along the corridor, opening doors, looking into the rooms. But, again, Max kept reporting nothing, nothing, nothing.

Then they came to a door that was standing partly open.

“This has to be it,” Max whispered. “Careful, 99!”

He peeked into the room.

“Is it, Max?”

“Yes!”

“What do you see?”

“Guru Optimo. He’s asleep in his bed.”

“And Brattleboro?”

“I can’t see him, 99, but I know he’s in there. I can sense his presence. Evidently he has clouded my mind and is making me think he’s something else. We can’t let that stop us, though. We’ll have to go in there, wake Guru Optimo, and attempt to persuade him to rejoin Control.”

“Won’t Brattleboro try to stop us?”

“Undoubtedly. But there’s nothing we can do about it until he shows himself.”

“All right, Max. .”

They crept into the room and crossed toward Guru Optimo’s bed. Max’s eyes darted to the right and left, looking for some sign of Brattleboro. And, preoccupied, he bumped into a chair, then stepped back, surprised.

“Ouch!” a voice said.

Max flew into action. He leaped to the window, yanked the cord from the drapes, and quickly wrapped it around the chair, binding it.

“Max,” 99 asked curiously, “why did you do that?”

“99, I’m very surprised that you can’t figure it out. That chair is V. T. Brattleboro.”

“Is it?” She inspected the chair. “How do you know, Max?”

“Didn’t you hear it cry out when I bumped it?”

“Max. . that was me.”

“You, 99?”

“When you stepped back from the chair after bumping it, you stepped on my foot. I cried ‘ouch!’ ”

“99, didn’t I ask you to keep quiet unless you had something important to say?”

“Ouch seemed sort of important at the moment, Max.”

Max unwound the cord from the chair. “Well, it was still a good move,” he said. “If we can’t talk Guru Optimo into rejoining Control, we can tie him up and force him to put in with us again.”

Max motioned to 99, and once more they crept across the room toward Guru Optimo’s bed. Then suddenly, when Max was only a step away from Guru Optimo, the floor opened up beneath him and he went hurtling downward. He landed in water, disappeared below the surface, then bobbed up. Treading water, he looked around. Facing him, treading water too, was V. T. Brattleboro.

“Oh, so there you are!” Max said.

“I see you found Guru Optimo’s room,” Brattleboro replied. “Wasn’t that a little sneaky? What about our agreement? You were supposed to look for Lucky Bucky Buckley’s room.”

“Let’s call it even,” Max said. “You cheated too, you know.”

“How?”

“You were supposed to have been a chair.”

“I wish I were a chair,” Brattleboro said. “I’d stand on myself and climb out of here. Look where we are! This basement, or whatever it is, has no doors and no windows, and the water is approximately ten feet deep. In a very short time, we’re going to become too tired to tread water and then we’re going to drown.”

“Brattleboro,” Max replied, “if there’s one thing I’ve learned during my many years as a secret agent, it’s this: If there’s a way in, there’s a way out.”

“We fell in through that trap door,” Brattleboro said, pointing upward.

Max looked, “Mmmm, yes, I see. . it closes after the victim passes through it. Well, that certainly proves one thing.”

“What?”

“Sometimes the things you learn during your many years as a secret agent aren’t worth a hill of beans.”

But at that moment the trap door was suddenly pushed open and 99’s face appeared. “Max! Are you down there?” she called.

“Shhh! Don’t wake Guru Optimo!”

“All right,” she whispered. “But are you down there?”

“I can’t hear you, 99. Speak a little louder.”

“I don’t want to wake you-know-who.”

“When you shake what, it glows blue?”

“You-know-who!” 99 shouted.

“Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh!”

“He’s down here!” Brattleboro called up.

“Max, why are you imitating Brattleboro? And who’s down there?”

“I am. He is. We both are. Now, look, 99, I think I’ve figured out a way to get us out of here. I still have that cord. I’m going to toss it up to you. You catch it. Then you can pull us out.”

“I don’t think I’m strong enough, Max.”

“99, in times of extreme peril, a person can summon an extra strength that he didn’t know existed. You can do it!”

“I’ll try, Max.”

Max tossed the cord up to her. She caught it.

“Ready, Max?”

“Just a second.”

Max looped the cord around his wrists. “All right, now, 99-pull!”

“Here goes nothing, Max!”

There was a sudden splash. Then 99 bobbed up beside Max and Brattleboro.

“Something apparently went wrong,” Max said thoughtfully. “I wonder what it was?”

“Max, you were the one who was in extreme peril,” 99 said. “So I guess you summoned an extra strength that you didn’t know existed and out-pulled me.”

“Well, I’m glad to know, at least, that the theory is still valid.”

“It’ll be a nice thing to die knowing,” Brattleboro commented.

“All is not lost quite yet,” Max said. “We still have the cord. Maybe I can lasso something up there in Guru Optimo’s bedroom. If it’s firm enough, if it holds, we can pull ourselves out.”

“Boy, would I like to be in a position to take bets,” Brattleboro said.

“Try it, Max,” 99 urged. “It’s our only chance.”

Max made a loop in the end of the cord, then slung it up through the opening. It did not return.

“Max! You caught something!”

“Don’t get your hopes too high, 99. I’ll give it a little tug, and-”

“What, Max?”

“I did catch something!” Max said excitedly.

“Will it hold us, Max?”

“Let me give it another little tug. We’ll-”