Read Sealed with a Lie for Free Online Page B

letter attached to it, but I refused to even look at it. Evan pulled it from the flames before it got destroyed.
    “Well, it contained information on how to get a message to them.”
    “I don’t care,” I say, moving away from his touch. “They’re dead to me.”
    Evan sighs, then changes the subject. “So where exactly are we going, Kari? And what are we going to do once we get there?”

Chapter Five
    I fill Evan in about our new buddy, the thief. Gustav Duvernay is being held at a juvenile detention center in Murnau am Staffelsee. While it’s probably not a maximum security facility, it will definitely be guarded and no cakewalk to get into. We certainly won’t be able to waltz in after signing up for a guided tour.
    We’re going to need some help, and Evan convinces me that it’s not practical to run out the door within five minutes. We’ll need to take a train in the morning.
    Since I refuse to even consider contacting my parents, we decide to call Matthis. He’s brilliant, resourceful, and capable of keeping his mouth shut.
    Matthis arrives within a half hour, looking rumpled and almost as stressed as I am. Charlie is really his only friend, and he’s beyond worried.
    In the meantime, after a huge debate with myselfabout the risk, I have called Kale on Rebecca’s secure line and told him to ditch class, then find a way of getting Rita out of Kennedy Prep for the afternoon. We may need them both in order to break out this Gustav person—Kale for his muscle and knowledge of martial arts, and Rita because she has hacking skills that Matthis may not.
    I have Matthis do a sweep for monitoring software, then install an encryption program for messages and files on all our cell phones. He also puts extra security on all our laptops. We comb the Internet for information on Duvernay, and find that he is a world-class cat burglar. Then I hold my breath and pray that I haven’t made a huge mistake as Rita and Kale Skype in from his apartment in Washington, DC.
    “Hey, Kari.” Kale looks the same as always, compact and muscular with his black hair short and razor cut, his handsome Japanese features set in calm lines. The only indication that he’s worried is in his left fist. He keeps clamping it around his thumb, then releasing it and doing it again.
    Rita sits down next to him on his bed, which is covered in a pale blue spread. Behind them is a landscape of ducks flying low over a river. She waves, somberly. The usual spiky ponytail rides high on her head, and she’s got on dark green Calvin Klein glasses that match her sweater. Rita’s got an entire wardrobe of the coolest designer frames, all made to order in her prescription.
    “Hey,” I say, knowing I don’t look anywhere near calm.“You remember Evan, right? And this is Matthis, a friend from the Paris Institute. He’s Charlie’s buddy.”
    “Hi, Matthis,” Kale says. He turns back to me. “So who are these people who have Charlie?”
    “We don’t know. I couldn’t even tell if the caller was male or female.”
    Rita asks, “What do they want you to do for them?”
    “Break a thief out of custody. Then steal something with him.”
    The two of them exchange a glance. “Steal what?”
    “I don’t know.”
    Their eyebrows shoot up in tandem. “Huh?”
    “They haven’t told Kari what it is yet,” Evan explains. “But the thief has a rap sheet for art and jewel heists, so it’s probably something like that.”
    “Oh, that’s all,” Rita says, as if we’re going to be snatching a pack of gum from a 7-Eleven convenience store. “Awesome.”
    Kale runs his tongue along his front teeth. Gives one quick nod. “So how can we help?”
    “Well, we need some of Rita’s talent, first of all,” I say.
    Evan gets more specific. “Hack into this juvenile detention center’s computer system. Find the files on Duvernay, Gustav. Report anything useful that will help us break him out.”
    “Spell the name?” Rita grabs a pen off Kale’s