Chapter 12

     Ahead of them was a stone walkway with a roof supported by marble columns, leading through a pleasant grass garden into the distance where they could glimpse the entrance to the manor. As they passed through it, Drew noticed something strange on the archways they passed under.
     “Hey, look…there’s these weird containers attached to the columns all along here,” Drew said, pointing at them as they went along. “And it’s got these different letters on them…actually, they seem like element symbols…”
     “What kind of elements?” Anastasia asked.
     “Huh…well, here’s silver, copper, magnesium…potassium…nitrate ion?”
     Suddenly Heather stopped dead in her tracks. “Wait a minute…” She frowned and blinked. “Why do those ring a bell…?”
     Then, a giant popping sound and a loud “ooof!” came from ahead of them. Strufis, who had been at the head of the group, was lying on the ground in front of the gap in the wall surrounding the manor.
     “This looks kind of familiar,” Anastasia remarked as they came over to him and helped him up.
     “Okay, that was not there before,” Strufis grimaced, embarrassed at his ostensible klutziness. “The lava was always there on the other hand, but…dang, when did he up the security?”
     “If it was always there, then how come you didn’t know how to get past it if you’ve visited this guy before?” Heather inquired.
     Strufis shook his head. “He usually just let me and the Prof in with a drawbridge that's usually there.” He pointed at it behind them, although they couldn’t see anything. “Doesn’t feel that lenient now to us, I guess.”
     Phillip took off a shoe and waved it in front of him. It rebounded off a transparent barrier, with tiny electrical flashes each time it reached the gap in the wall. “It looks like this blocks the entrance…”
     As Strufis and Phillip were examining the invisible gate, Heather was scrutinizing the containers that Drew had noticed. “I’m looking at these…one side has mostly elements, and the other has a lot of cations…there’s transition metals, but alkali ones too…I swear this reminds me of something…”
     “Maybe the elements and ions are supposed to be matched? Because these containers have got to be what will get this wall unblocked. First rule of video game puzzles: if it sticks out, then it’s important!!”
     Strufis and Phillip came back over to them. “It looks like whatever’s there isn’t going to budge unless we plug in some kind of electrical circuit to disrupt the field,” Strufis said.
     “I doubt we’ll be able to break it open, so we’re going to have to find a source somewhere around here,” Phillip added.
     “That’s it!!” Heather yelled out, pointing fervently at him.
     Phillip blinked incredulously. “Wha…?”
     “Electricity! That’s where I’ve heard those sequence of ions from. It’s redox!”
     “Wait, I get it!” Drew caught on. “What this puzzle wants us to do is to set up a circuit through these columns. If we put it in order of spontaneous reaction, we’ll get current out of these things, all the way down to the gate!”
     Strufis nodded ardently. “Right, okay, so let’s start with the strongest oxidizing agent and go from there.”
     It was again, tough work. The elements and cations were all scrambled rigorously, so that they were running back and forth, trying to look for the next one on the table. It didn’t help that they were trying to hide the light from the radium lamps so they couldn’t be seen easily from above; in the forest they had cover, but it was wide open in the courtyard, and they had nowhere to run.
     “I knew I said I wanted things more hands-on in class when doing worksheets and everything,” Drew said dolefully, “but something like this in the middle of the night wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”
     Phillip yawned. “You know…especially right now, I really don’t care.”
     “Let’s just get this over with, quick.” Heather covered the tops of her eyes again to read what was on the data table. “This had better be the last of these stupid chem puzzles.”

     “No, sir, we still haven’t found them yet,” Kersta sighed over the intercom. Our people on foot have a lot of territory to go through, and since we’re trying to be unobtrusive tracking has been very difficult.”
     “Wait.” Mr. Templehill blinked and sat up in the helicopter seat. “Mr. Delanore. He lives right around here; I remember Roose talking about visiting him before.”
     “Mr. Delanore, sir?”
     “Mr. Delanore is Roosevelt’s brother.”
     “…Oh,” Kersta said, taking the hint. “Well, then, let’s see if we can make our way over there.”