“THREE!”
Alex’s voice shouted from the shadows. Niemand spun around. He fired a blind shot into the woods.
Max flinched. “Alex!”
“Three!” Alex said again, from a different place in the woods, further to the left.
“Shkch?” André asked.
“Find her, you nincompoop!” Niemand fired a shot into the air. “Go!”
André looked left, then right, then ran straight up the middle. From the woods directly behind Niemand, Alex leaped out of the shadows and onto his back, screaming, “Three!” She brought the end of her shovel down hard on his head.
His mouth dropped open, and the gun fell from his hands. Max jumped away from the chest and pulled the old tapestry from the ground. He flew toward Niemand, shoving the moldy rug into his face. As they tumbled to the forest floor, Max landed on top of him. For a moment Niemand was out cold, and Max managed to roll him into the rug so his limbs were pinned together.
In a moment, Niemand’s body convulsed with a sneeze. He kicked and wriggled, coughing violently. “As . . . As . . . Asthma!” he shouted.
“Now you tell us,” Alex said.
André emerged from the woods. Seeing the gun on the ground, he leaped for it.
But Alex got there first. She held it in her hands like a rotten fish. “I hate these things,” she said. “Don’t make me use it.”
André stuck his hands in the air.
“As . . . achoo! . . . asthma!” Niemand spluttered.
“Is that true?” Max asked André. “Is he asthmatic?”
“Why are you asking him, Max?” Alex said. “We can’t understand a word he says.”
André held up a finger. Sheepishly he grabbed a stick and traced a word in the ground.
LIE
“Klmpf,” he said, sneering at his boss.
“Whaaaat?” Niemand’s body shook side to side. “You disloyal, mangle-tongued, green-eyed, snake-headed disgrace to humanity—”
André put his fingers in his ears, stuck out his tongue, and said, “Pppptttttt!”
“That I understood,” Max said.
“Max,” Alex said. “Do you think we’re being rude? I think Stinky would like to take a tour of the Nautilus.” She untied the Nautilus’s rope from the chest. Moving quickly, she wrapped it around Niemand’s torso, trapping him tightly.
“Good idea, Alex,” Max said, picking up the end of the rope that held Niemand. “Maybe André can help you drag him there.”
“Wait—no! Don’t you understand? The fate of the world is at stake. Only I can make humanity great again! None of what happens here is as important as Niemand Domes! Do you understand? Where will your families live when the oceans rise? Let me go! We can share this opportunity—OWW!” Max followed Alex and André as they dragged a writhing, carpet-wrapped Niemand through the woods. “This is cruel and unusual punishment! Entrapment! Assault and battery! You will hear from my lawyers! You will hear from my board of directors! You will spend the rest of your lives in court!”
When they reached the dug-out submarine, Max opened the hatch with his free hand. “Today only, admission free for two people.”
“Smmtch?” André said.
“Now!” Alex and Max said at the same time.
André dumped his boss into the sub. Niemand’s cry of pain wafted up from the musty dark. Max waved the gun, and André climbed in after him.
Max slammed the door shut, and Alex jammed her shovel between it and the railing, to keep it from being forced open.
“They’ll figure a way to get out,” Max said.
“I know. We just need to buy enough time to get away,” Alex said. “Come on, let’s move.”
“Where?”
“They came on that cutter,” Alex said. “Do you know how to drive it?”
“No,” Max replied. “Do you?”
“No.”
Max shrugged. “Well, I like learning new things . . .”
As he spoke, the deep thrum of whirring blades sounded in the distant sky. Max dropped the gun. He and Alex ran out of the clearing, through the woods, and out to the rocky beach.
Far overhead, a helicopter hovered, tilting left and right as it scoured the island. The two cousins began screaming and waving their hands. “Here!” Max cried out. “We’re here!”
Alex inserted her fingers into her mouth and let out an ear-splitting whistle.
“Who are they?” Max shouted.
As if in answer, the chopper tilted to the side. Qisuk was staring down at them through a pair of sunglasses.
“Hiiiii!” Max screamed, waving his hands.
“I guess,” Alex said, “he came looking for his boat.”
Max threw his head back and let out a howl of joy. “And wait till he sees the tip we give him!” he shouted, as the helicopter slowly began to descend.