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Dewey unhooked his seat belt and flew upward, pumping his fist in the air. “We did it! And we got the mercury!”
“One thing down,” Paige admitted as they neared the main road.
She swerved onto it and continued in the direction they’d come from originally.
“Three more to go,” Dewey said. “We’ve got to find that airstrip.”
“Should we go back to the library first?”
“No way. These guys are going to be out for blood. And there’s the vampire on the loose. We need to get the talisman and that mirror!”
“But we have no idea how to get to the airstrip. And we probably shouldn’t be running around with the mercury.”
“You’re right, you’re right. We should log this in, and while we’re there, we can get directions to the airstrip.”
“I’ll park the car in the alley outside the back entrance. It should be safe.”
They drove for a few minutes.
“How are we going to get back to the library from here?” Dewey asked. “We’re still lost.”
“I’ll show you how,” Paige said, a determined note in her voice.
She continued along the dark, winding road, taking the curves at breakneck speeds. They arrived back at the closed ramp to the highway in record time. Paige bypassed it without a second glance.
“Hang on,” she said, swerving onto the ramp they’d exited from hours ago.
“This is the wrong way, Paige!” Dewey exclaimed, clinging to his seat belt as he balanced his front paws on the door.
“I don’t care!” Paige shouted as she rocketed up the ramp, flying toward oncoming traffic.
With a quick twist of the wheel, she skidded off the ramp and onto the highway. The back end of the SUV fishtailed, tires squealing, as Paige righted it and sped down the highway, leaving behind a snarl of traffic and earning several horn bleats from other drivers.
“We’re still going the wrong way.”
“I know that,” Paige said with a wobble of her head. “I’ll get off at the next ramp and reenter there. They can’t all be closed.”
Within minutes, they’d reached the next off-ramp and corrected their direction. As the sun rose on the horizon, Paige sped through the streets of Shadow Harbor, approaching the library.
She swung the car into the back alley and eased it to a stop as close to the door as she could.
After retrieving her things, she tapped her shoulder, signaling Dewey to climb up. “Let’s go.”
“What? Out in the open?”
“Come on. It’s barely five thirty. No one will see you.”
With a gleeful grin, Dewey flew over and perched on her shoulder as Paige dug her keycard from her tote bag. She pushed in through the door and wandered down the hall past a sleeping Otis, his chin nestled in his chest in front of the security monitors.
Paige heaved a sigh as she dumped the pet carrier full of magic mercury on the Locartifact desk. “Wow. What a night.”
“And it’s not over yet,” Dewey said as he unloaded the glowing substance. “We’ve got to get to that plane.”
Paige yawned and scrubbed her face as she collapsed into the desk’s chair. “Maybe after a nap.”
Dewey tapped around on the computer before copying a few notes onto the notepad next to it and tearing off the top sheet. He tugged on the dinosaur costume he’d doffed earlier and hopped into the empty carrier, tugging the zipper closed around him. “You can sleep on the plane, Paige. Let’s go!”
A weary Paige rose from her seat and adjusted her ponytail. “How do you have this much energy?”
