The 39 Clues: Unstoppable: Nowhere to Run by Jude Watson

crossed her arms.
    “Are you crazy, lady?” The African-American man was white-haired and angry. “I’m on my way to work! Don’t give me a hard time now.”
    “I just need a ride,” Nellie said. “Me and my friends.”
    “Do I look like a
bus
?”
    The two men were now on the sidewalk, watching. Amy knew it wouldn’t take long before they would make a decision. With the same chilling neutrality, they could kill the man in the car, too.
    She ran over, already reaching for the cash in her belt. She handed the man a hundred-dollar bill. “Here’s your fare.”
    He stared at it. “I think I just started a business. Ernie’s Car Service. Get in.”
    They hopped in the backseat and Ernie took off. It took whole minutes for their heartbeats to slow.
    “Nice rescue,” Dan said. “How’d you get that truck?”
    “They shouldn’t have stopped for coffee,” Nellie said, and winked.

Chapter 12

    Ernie was heading to his job at a downtown bakery, and he obligingly dropped them off on the Upper West Side.
    Nellie had contacted Fiske from the car, and to her great relief a black late-model car was waiting at the corner of Broadway and 110th. They stood for a minute, shivering in the suddenly cold wind. A pattering of rain hit the streets.
    “Here we go, kiddos,” Nellie said. “After tonight, I think you’ll be safer in Ireland.”
    “There’s one thing,” Amy said. “Those goons — do you think there was something crazy about how strong they were?”
    “What do you mean?” Nellie asked.
    “One of them ripped the chain link from the door with one hand,” Amy said. “And the way they ran . . . how fast they caught up to us.”
    “They never broke a sweat,” Dan said. “And you’d just hit them with a car.”
    “Do you think . . .” Nellie left the sentence unfinished.
    “I don’t know,” Amy said. “Could Pierce have used Sammy’s experiments to give his guards a boost?”
    “I think he’s capable of anything,” Nellie said. “We saw that tonight.”
    “That means we’re up against a bunch of serum-boosted guys?” Dan asked.
    Nellie felt hopelessness suddenly engulf them, as relentless as the rain sweeping up Broadway.
    “We’ll beat them,” Amy said. “We’ll beat them because we have to.”
    Nellie smiled. Leave it to Amy to sum it up. Simple and clear.
    Nellie wanted to burst out crying. She wanted to tell them how proud she was of them.
    Instead, she had to let them go on alone.
    “The car will take you to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey,” she told them. “There’s a private jet waiting there under the name Swift. When you land in Dublin, someone on that end will meet you.” She hugged them both. “Good luck, kiddos. Remember — minimal contact from now on, but always let me know where you are. Keep a low profile. As soon as Pony gets the system back up, we’ll figure this all out. And we’ll beat them.”
    “Because we have to,” the three of them said.

    Nellie ran across deserted Broadway against the light. She hadn’t wanted Amy and Dan to know where she was going, because they would have insisted on coming, too. Tonight it had been brutally brought home to her that Pierce would stop at nothing to get at anyone with access to the serum. He was willing to throw two kids off a bridge —
her
two kids.
    They’d survived, but the terror they’d felt tonight would haunt them. Nellie touched her shoulder. The scar from the gunshot wound was still red. She’d been a hostage. She knew about nightmares.
    There was one more target. One that had occurred to her in Ernie’s car. The only other person who knew the serum formula.
    They never should have left Sammy alone.
    Sammy had mentioned that he was going to pull an all-nighter. With any luck, he’d still be there, safe and sound and all nerdy and adorable in his lab. Nellie tried to text and run at the same time as she headed toward the chemistry building.
    ARE YOU STILL THERE
    SAMMY IT’S NELLIE
    No answer.
    When