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“Ow,” he whimpered.
Whispers could be heard from all around the room.
“He read a nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine-page book!”
“But he bent his paper clip.”
“He wrote a ten-page book report.”
“But he bent his paper clip.”
“No, he unbent it.”
“Everyone stop talking, now!” ordered Mrs. Jewls. “Do not leave your seats for any reason!” She pulled Jason out of the room and slammed the classroom door behind her.
She dragged him straight to the closet that wasn’t there.
Jason read the signs. “KEEP BACK!” “DO NOT OPEN DOORS!” “DANGER!” “CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT IF YOU SMELL SOMETHING UNUSUAL!”
He sniffed.
He didn’t smell anything.
Yet.
Mrs. Jewls turned the dial on the padlock as she quietly said the combination to herself. “Twenty-four . . . seventeen . . . six.”
The lock opened.
“But you said it wasn’t there,” Jason pointed out.
“Of course it’s there,” said Mrs. Jewls. “Hold this.” She gave Jason one end of the heavy chain.
He remained where he was as Mrs. Jewls took the other end and walked four times around the closet, unwrapping it. Then she took Jason’s end from him and tossed the chain aside.
It clanged against the floor.
A steel bar, held in place by two clamps, still blocked the closet doors. The locks on the clamps had letters instead of numbers.
Jason watched as Mrs. Jewls set one lock to ACBD and the other lock to BDBC.
The clamps snapped open.
“I’m really sorry about the paper clip, Mrs. Jewls,” said Jason.
“It’s a little late for that now, don’t you think?” said his teacher. She lifted the steel bar and tossed it aside. A loud CLANK echoed down and up the stairs.
Mrs. Jewls walked down several steps. Jason watched, amazed, as she slid open a secret compartment hidden in the third step from the top.
She removed two keys, one red and one green.
Each closet door had a keyhole; one was green, the other red. Mrs. Jewls put the green key in the red hole, and the red key in the green hole.
“I have to turn them toward each other, at precisely the same time,” she said, “or else it will trigger the sirens and smoke screen.”
Jason held his breath as he watched her turn the keys.
The doors clicked open.
