Hunted by Riley Clifford Page A

while.”
    “Couldn’t have been that long,” Ned replied. “We only lost them half an hour ago.”
    In the passenger seat next to Ted, his sister, Sinead, was already pulling on the door handle. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go!” she said.
    Sinead and Ned were Ted’s fellow triplets, each with matching auburn hair and freckles. They were sixteen years old, but Sinead was technically the oldest. Only by a few minutes, but that didn’t stop her from acting like she was in charge.
    Amy and Dan Cahill had managed to lose them on the highway en route to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, looking for a Clue believed to be hidden by Benjamin Franklin himself. They’d had a stroke of luck — there was no other explanation as to how they’d gotten here first. The Starlings were all geniuses, and Ted knew more about Benjamin Franklin than most Franklin historians, while Amy and Dan were younger, less informed, and not half as smart.
    The triplets piled out of the car and made for the Franklin Institute. Ted’s stride quickened as they approached the sprawling building he’d once spent so much time in. When he was a kid, Franklin had been his favorite inventor — the guy had discovered electricity and designed the first bifocals, after all. He was almost as talented as Ted himself.
    Inside, Sinead went straight to a map of the museum and planted her finger on it. “There,” she said. “Franklin Gallery. That’s where the little orphans are.”
    Ted and his brother followed her without comment, but something was niggling at the back of Ted’s super-powered brain as they passed through the halls.
    “Ned,” he said, “remember that time our parents took us to Philly for the weekend? And we spent a whole day in this museum?”
    “Yeah, you spent half the day in the Franklin Gallery, quizzing the curator about Franklin trivia.” Ned laughed. “He tried to have you kicked out for causing a disturbance.”
    “Yeah, but he was really just mad that I knew more about Franklin then he did,” Ted said. “And then I got bored and sneaked off to try to get into the storage room. They kept more stuff back there, like the really old documents that weren’t on display.”
    Ned’s eyebrows shot up. “Documents written by Franklin?”
    Ted didn’t answer. “Sinead,” he hissed, so that his sister slowed down to look at him. “I have an idea.”

     
    The entrance to the storage room was just as Ted remembered. Locked.
    It was also right off a busy hallway, and on top of plenty of other visitors and a school group, the hall was patrolled by several museum personnel.
    “I don’t like this,” Sinead said. “Amy and Dan are probably busy gathering all the information in the gallery right now!”
    “You can go to the gallery if you want,” Ted said, knowing that there was no way she would actually take him up on it. The Starling triplets always worked together. When the three of them combined their genius IQs, they were unstoppable.
    “Just hurry up,” Sinead grumbled.
    Ted had his cell phone out, a special one he’d modified himself, and was aiming it at the lock on the storage room door. The lock was a typical model, nothing very sophisticated. Just a keypad requiring a five-digit code. The decoder on Ted’s phone would have it unlocked in less than a minute. The problem was getting them inside without anyone seeing.
    “Ned,” Ted said, “I’m going to need you to make a distraction.”
    Ned rolled his eyes. “You get to have all the fun,” he said, but he was already sauntering off, getting as far away from Ted and Sinead as possible. Ted aimed his phone at the door and heard a satisfying
snick
as the lock released. A moment later, his brother’s voice suddenly rang out through the wide hall, drawing the eyes of every person in the vicinity.
    Ted and Sinead pulled the door open and slipped inside.
    “Too easy,” Ted said.
    “Whatever. Just start looking for Franklin documents. Anything that