Read The 39 Clues Unstoppable Book 3 Countdown for Free Online Page A

Tikal, I see.”
    “Yes,” Amy cut in. “We all made it. Just barely.”
    “Amy, so glad you’re all right,” Ian purred. “Everyone else present and accounted for? Dan? Atticus? That other one . . . what’s his name? Joke?”
    Amy turned red, her eyes involuntarily cutting over to Jake, who scowled. “That’s beneath you, Ian,” Amy said. “Listen, we need you to put Pony on a deep search for information about Debi Ann Pierce. Try searching for Deborah Starling as well.”
    “I’m on it.” More purring. This time it wasn’t coming from Ian but from an actual cat. “Ugh, get away from me, you filthy feline!” Ian grumbled.
    “Hi, Saladin!” Dan called out.
    “Meow!” the Egyptian Mau replied.
    “Are Ian and Hamilton feeding you well?” Amy asked. “Ian, is Saladin getting enough red snapper?”
    “We’re not pet-sitting here, you know,” Ian grumbled. “We’re actually busy helping you save the world, in case you’ve forgotten.”
    “And we appreciate it,” Amy said. There was a knock on the door. “We have to go. Tell Pony to get on the Debi Ann thing stat.”
    Jake opened the door to a tall, dark woman in a safari skirt suit.
    “Hello,” she said. “I’m Dr. Casanova. An Amy Cahill arranged to meet with me?”
    “Come in.” Jake stepped aside to let her through. “We’ve been expecting you.”
    “Thank you.” She nodded, glanced around the room, and sat down in the one chair that didn’t have boys’ clothes strewn over it. “I’m not usually available for private consultations, but when El Presidente asks for a favor . . .” Amy had pulled some Cahill strings to get a private meeting with Guatemala’s leading expert on Tikal, hoping to make quick work of locating the riven crystal. “I understand you have some questions about one of the temples here?”
    “Yes — only we don’t know which temple,” Amy said. “We’re looking for something called a ‘riven crystal,’ or shocked quartz.” She showed the archaeologist a photo of shocked quartz, taken through a microscope. The stone had waves of rainbow-colored layers striated by sharp black lines that looked almost like lightning bolts. It was strange and beautiful.
    Dr. Casanova nodded. “That’s not native to this area, but it is found in the Yucatán. The people of Tikal traded with the Yucatán and could easily have gotten some of this crystal. I’ve never seen it here, however.”
    “The stone only looks this way under a microscope,” Atticus explained. “It would be hard to spot it among other stones, since it looks like ordinary quartz to the naked eye.”
    Dr. Casanova eyed the eleven-year-old Atticus warily. He was so smart and mature for his age that some adults found him threatening, as if they were afraid of being shown up by a kid. Amy hoped Dr. Casanova was not that kind of adult.
    “Nevertheless,” the archaeologist said. “The temples that have been excavated have all been thoroughly examined. A piece of quartz, shocked or not, would have been noticed in all the limestone.”
    “But there could be a piece of shocked quartz in one of the unexcavated temples, right?” Amy said.
    “Anything is possible,” Dr. Casanova conceded. “Even landing a helicopter on a pok-a-tok court, from what I hear.”
    Dan started to laugh, but it died in his throat when he saw the stern look on the archaeologist’s face. “Yeah, sorry about that. It was an emergency landing.”
    “You might have crashed into priceless archaeological treasures,” Dr. Casanova said. “You could have ruined them forever.”
    “Uh, yeah. We also could have died,” Dan pointed out.
    “That’s not my concern,” Dr. Casanova sniffed.
    Amy caught Dan exchanging an oh, brother look with Atticus.
    “I know pok-a-tok is something of a mystery to us,” Atticus said. “But have you learned anything new about it?” Amy wasn’t sure whether he was changing the subject to be diplomatic, or it was just natural curiosity