Floors #2: 3 Below Read Online Free PDF Page A

long are they staying?” asked Leo.
    “She wouldn’t say. And you know Mr. Yancey — he’s always on his phone. He just handed me a gold credit card and walked away.”
    “Keep an eye on them, will you?” asked Leo. “Remi and I have something we need to do. It might take a while.”
    “Yeah, like a week,” Remi murmured under his breath.
    LillyAnn Pompadore took this as a joke and waved them away. She was fully capable of taking care of the hotel . . . as long as nothing big went wrong.

    Finding Betty was easy, because it was a summer morning and all the ducks were swimming in the pond on the roof. It took some bread crumbs to lure her out of the water, and all six of the ducklings came along. They stared up at Remi when the crumbs were gone, and Remi dug into his red bellboy jacket pocket for more.
    “I’m running a little low here,” he said. “I didn’t expect seven mouths to feed. Show her the card, quick.” Remi dropped another handful of crumbs and the ducklings fought over them as Betty looked on.
    Leo whistled softly, holding the card out for Betty to see. When she noticed it, she honked loudly in Leo’s face.
    “It’s working!” Leo said. Obviously Betty had seen the card before, because she was actually standing on Leo’s feet, trying to get a better look. “You know this card?” he asked, holding it a little bit closer as it changed colors in the sunlight. He held it too close, and Betty half flew, half jumped into the air and chomped down on the card. She got the card and Leo’s thumb, and Leo yelled, pulling his hand away.
    Just that fast, Betty was now in possession of the key card Leo and Remi had been given, a card that was supposed to lead them to seven hundred thousand dollars and a dangerous adventure.
    “Perfect,” said Remi. “She’s going to eat the key card!”

    Betty couldn’t quack without letting go of the card, so she made an awful wheezing sound instead, like she’d swallowed a giant marble and couldn’t cough it up.
    “This is bad,” said Remi. “First the Yanceys, now this.”
    Leo shook the sting out of his thumb and moved in low, trying to coax the key card out of Betty’s mouth. The ducklings stared up at Remi, quacking excitedly for more crumbs. When Betty turned slightly to one side, Leo leapt toward her head, reached out, and grabbed for the card. Ducks are faster than they look, and the pond was closer than it seemed, so Leo missed the duck and landed facedown in the water. His maintenance overalls, with their many pockets and tools for carrying and fixing, were soaked.
    “Come on!” Remi yelled. “She’s getting away!”
    Betty was waddling quickly away from the water, but the ducklings were only interested in more bread crumbs. They were nipping at Remi’s pant legs, so he took the last of the bread crumbs and threw them into the pond. They passed Leo coming the other way and darted off in different directions before landing in the pond, swimming for crumbs.
    “Run!” Leo said, passing Remi and grabbing him by his coat. “She’s heading for the duck elevator!”
    Sure enough, that was exactly where Betty was going. It was a small elevator, barely big enough fortwo boys and a duck, and by the time Leo and Remi caught up to her, Betty was standing inside, staring at them both.
    “We’ve got her cornered,” said Remi. He looked at Leo, then back at the duck. “She bites hard, huh?”
    They both wondered if getting into a tiny space with Betty was a good idea or not. It might be the same as sitting in a car with a badger, something that would involve a lot of biting and screaming. Leo inched closer, talking softly to Betty, until his body blocked the door.
    “They’re coming back,” said Remi, hearing the ducklings getting out of the water. “They eat like little horses!”
    But Leo wasn’t listening. Betty had set the strange key card on the floor of the duck elevator and was pushing it toward him with her bill.
    “Come on,” Leo