The 39 Clues Invasion Read Online Free PDF Page A

cabinets, and finally sending him sprawling in front of the sliding glass doors.
    The man ran his finger along the engraved flat of the dagger’s blade as he turned around to advance. Through blurry vision Atticus saw Dan crawling toward him, his face flushed bright red as he desperately puffed on his inhaler.
    Atticus tried to crawl left, but the man stepped to his right with his dagger, forcing Atticus to shrink back against the glass door. There was no escape. The gleaming knife swayed back and forth in front of him like the head of a viper.
    There was a flash of silver as the man pulled the knife back for one killing blow, and then a blur of the colors of Cambridge High School. With a roar, Jake Rosenbloom lowered his shoulder and slammed into the burglar from behind. Glass shattered as the man crashed through the doors and tumbled onto the back porch.
    Sirens blared from the front of the house. Atticus had survived the longest five minutes of his life. The police had arrived.
    Atticus finally let his breath out and took in ragged gasps of air, watching as the burglar sprinted off into the woods.
    “Att, what happened?” Jake asked as he pulled Atticus to his feet and wrapped him in a hug.
    “They were burglars, probably after the mask in Dad’s study. Dan and I knew we couldn’t stand up to them, so we fought them with traps.”
    Jake pushed Atticus far enough away that he could look down into his brother’s eyes. “You fought them? No stupid mask is worth your life. You could have been killed!”
    He wasn’t sure when it had started, but Atticus realized he was crying. “I know we should have run, or hidden, or given up. But Jake, if they got the mask and Dad lost his job. . . .”
    Jake looked down at his brother in shock.
    “Dad and Mom can’t take anything else right now. And if Dad loses his job, what about Mom? We won’t have the money to figure out why she’s sick.” Atticus’s eyes gleamed with tears.
    Jake grabbed his brother by the shoulders. “Att! You could have died .”
    “You wouldn’t understand!” Atticus yelled. “She’s not that important to you!”
    “What? Of course she . . .” Jake shook his head in disbelief. “Why would you think that?”
    “You act like nothing’s wrong! Whenever I try to talk about it, you try to cheer me up.” Atticus pulled away, and Jake was forced to let him go. “It’s okay. I get it. She’s not really your mom.”
    Jake’s stricken face was outlined by the blue and red flashing lights from the police cars outside. “Att, she is my mom. She may not be my biological mother, but she woke me up to go to school, and patched me up when I got hurt, and made me dinner every night for the last twelve years. I’ve actually known her longer than you have! If the doctors in New York can’t figure out what’s wrong with her, I don’t know what I’ll do.” Jake drew in a shuddering breath. “I was trying to be brave for you! But if I thought saving that mask would save her life, I would have taken on a hundred burglars myself.”
    Atticus grabbed his brother and buried his face in the front of Jake’s tracksuit again. He didn’t know what to say, so he just held on as tight as he possibly could. Jake hugged him back, and Atticus could feel sobs rattling in his brother’s chest. By the time the police pulled them apart and took them outside, there was a big wet spot on the front of Jake’s tracksuit and Atticus’s ribs were sore from Jake’s hug.
    The police hauled them away to the station and kept Atticus up half the night trying to help an artist sketch the burglars. But Atticus didn’t mind. All three burglars had escaped, and Atticus didn’t mind that, either. He didn’t mind any of it, because the police had called his dad, and by the time Detective Corelli dropped the kids back off at their house, the family station wagon was waiting in the driveway.
    Mom was coughing as she stepped out of the car and the predawn sky silhouetted her