Risked (The Missing ) by Margaret Peterson Haddix Page A

armor’ / ‘Oh, no, you don’t; I can take care of myself; this isn’t 1483 anymore’ issues.”
    He imitated them in such ridiculous, mincing voices that Chip and Katherine both protested: “We don’t sound like that!” Then, realizing that they’d each said the exact same thing, they stopped and gazed into each other’s eyes.
    Oh, brother, Jonah thought. Young love. Ick.
    Jonah grabbed each of them by the arm to get them to look at him. Katherine winced slightly.
    Oops, Jonah thought. Guess I grabbed the sore one.
    But she didn’t say anything, so he ignored it.
    “Help me out here,” he said. “Let’s just figure out what we need to do next—as a team. Don’t you think we should rescue Gavin and Daniella? Chip, if you were able to make us all invisible, that must mean you got Gavin’s Elucidator away from him after all. So why don’t you pull that out, and—”
    “Jonah, I don’t have Gavin’s Elucidator,” Chip said, shaking his head so hard it made his curly hair bounce up and down.
    “Then how’d we all end up invisible?” Katherine asked.
    Chip tilted his head to one side.
    “I thought I made it happen, but now that you question me, mayhap I could be wrong,” he began slowly.
    This was something else that made Chip’s medieval moments particularly maddening: He could take forever thinking through things.
    “Just tell us what happened,” Katherine said.
    “With twenty-first-century words,” Jonah added. “And speed.”
    Chip got the hint.
    “I was behind a bush when we landed here, so I was pretty sure that none of the guards would see me,” he began. “I couldn’t understand what anyone was shouting about, but I thought if Gavin had an Elucidator with himand it was voice activated, then maybe I could just whisper, ‘Make me invisible,’ and it would happen.”
    Jonah wished he’d thought of that himself, before he’d jumped up and started yelling at the guards.
    “But that didn’t work,” Chip said.
    See? Jonah told himself. It doesn’t actually matter that I was stupid.
    “So then what did you do?” Katherine asked.
    “Well, by then that one guard was dragging you two away, and I knew I had to do something drastic,” Chip said. “I crawled over as close as I could get to Gavin.”
    “Wasn’t the other guard taking him and Daniella away too?” Katherine asked.
    “No, for some reason he was acting like he needed the first guard to come back and help him,” Chip said. “Like he didn’t think Gavin could walk or something.”
    “That’s weird,” Jonah said.
    “No, it’s not,” Katherine said. “Alexei Romanov had to use wheelchairs a lot. Because of the hemophilia.”
    “What’s that mean, anyway?” Jonah asked.
    “Mom told me—it’s something about blood not clotting right,” Katherine said. “So I guess if he got even, like, a little cut, he could bleed to death.”
    Jonah didn’t quite get how that was connected to wheelchairs—were Alexei’s parents afraid that if he stoodup and walked on his own, he might fall down and get hurt? Jonah wasn’t going to ask, because he wanted Chip to move along with his story.
    But Chip was just staring at Katherine.
    “Wait a minute,” Chip said. “You’re saying Gavin, who’s really Alexei Romanov, who’s that kid who was lying on the ground over there a few moments ago—he’s got this disease where he could bleed to death from a little cut?”
    “Yeah,” Katherine said.
    It didn’t seem possible, given that Chip was already translucent, but he suddenly looked paler. Maybe it was because of the horrified expression on his face.
    “Oh, no,” Chip said. “Oh, no. Do you think it’s a problem that I just slam-tackled him?”

TWELVE
    “You did what ?” Katherine asked.
    “That was what I had to try next!” Chip said defensively. “I didn’t know the kid had medical problems!”
    “But why tackle him?” Jonah asked, still puzzled. “I mean, I know Gavin kind of attacked us first,