Samantha and Nipper stood in the center of their uncle’s apartment for a while. They felt triumphant.

“Uncle Paul was warning me about the ninjas all along,” said Samantha.

“That’s great,” said Nipper. “Now what’s our next move?”

Samantha stood there, tapping one finger on her chin as she tried to come up with an answer. She looked excited for a moment. Then she looked serious again. Then she looked thoughtful. She had nothing.

“We’ve just got to keep looking,” said Samantha. “Somehow, we’re missing an important clue that can lead us to Uncle Paul.”

She started to pace around the room impatiently.

“Why are those ninjas so smelly?” she asked, talking faster and louder. “And how did they find Dennis and Mom and Dad at the Pet Expo?”

She looked at the coffee table. Then she walked over and grabbed the hula hoop trophy. She waved it at the note pinned to the wall.

“And what’s so special about waffles?” she shouted dramatically.

“We don’t even know that Uncle Paul’s alive, Sam!” Nipper shouted back at her. “And I don’t want to puzzle over this place anymore!” He rubbed the bruise on his cheek and cried, “I got hit in the face with money today and I didn’t even get to keep it!”

He gestured toward the window. The sun was starting to set.

“It’s getting dark,” he continued, even louder. “I’m tired, and I—” Nipper stopped mid-complaint and stared.

The sun was sinking lower in the sky, and a nearby streetlamp switched on, shining directly through the windows of the apartment. It cast a web of dark lines from the shadow of the basketball net onto the wall across the room.

Samantha turned and saw what her brother was staring at.

Lines crisscrossed the wall, one running diagonally over Uncle Paul’s note.

The line crossed through four letters: E-D-F-U.

“Edfu?” Nipper asked.

Samantha was already reaching for a large atlas on the shelf next to the Encyclopedia Missilium. She opened the book, turned to the index, and scanned the list of cities and countries.

“Edfu, Egypt,” she answered, and closed the book.