The 39 Clues: Unstoppable Book 2: Breakaway Read Online Free PDF Page B

the door and into the room.
    “So tell me everything!” Dr. Rosenbloom said through a mouthful of pie. “How’s school?”
    “Good!” Atticus said, maybe a little too quickly. “The independent study is going really well.”
    “Awesome,” Dr. Rosenbloom said. “Harvard won’t know what hit them when you get there. What brings you guys from Rome, though? I’m happy you came, of course, but it’s such short notice. Is everything all right?”
    “Fine!” Jake said
.
“We just wanted to see you. And Atticus had some questions. About his independent study.”
    “Happy to help. What is it?”
    “Well, I’m looking at agriculture,” Atticus said. “Particularly the major Roman crops and who produced them outside of Italy.”
    “
Fascinating
topic.”
    Dan rolled his eyes and Amy elbowed him hard in the side.
    “It is,” Atticus continued. “But I keep coming across one crop that I can’t find much about. Silphium.”
    Dr. Rosenbloom nodded eagerly, swallowing a mouthful. “Mmm. Well, that’s probably because there’s not much anyone can say. It was one of the biggest and most sought after crops of its time, which was about the seventh century B.C. to the first century A.D. The Romans said it was worth its weight in silver.”
    “So what did it do?” Jake asked.
    Dr. Rosenbloom laughed. “Everything, apparently. People used it as a seasoning in their food and as a general-purpose remedy. Cured just about anything you could name. Or so they said. Here, guys, have some more.”
    Dr. Rosenbloom loaded Jake and Atticus up with fresh slices of pie.
    “Well, if it was so great, how did it go extinct?” Jake asked. “Why didn’t people just grow more?”
    “No one really knows,” Dr. Rosenbloom said, leaning back and brushing crumbs off of his rumpled tie. “Maybe they went through it too fast and then there was a crop failure. Some people said it only grew wild and couldn’t be cultivated, but that seems unlikely.”
    “Was it grown here in Carthage?”
    “Carthage?” Dr. Rosenbloom asked. “No, the main grower was Cyrene if I remember correctly. That’s Libya today. It’s close by but I don’t remember reading anything about it being grown here. Why?”
    “Just part of the project,” Atticus said quickly. “Kind of like a scavenger hunt. We’re supposed to try and find some, and my adviser thought we could try here.”
    “A scavenger hunt? For something that doesn’t exist? Atticus, that’s a total waste of your time. Who’s your adviser? I should call and straighten him out.”
    Dr. Rosenbloom reached back to a phone on his desk.
    “No!” Atticus said. “It’s fine. Really.” Atticus jumped up to stop his dad, and when he did Olivia’s notebook fell out of his hand and onto the table.
    “What’s this?”
    “Nothing! It’s just —”
    Amy suppressed a gasp as Dr. Rosenbloom took the notebook off the table and opened it.
    “Really,” Jake said. “It’s not anything. Just —”
    Jake stopped. An almost physical transformation came over Dr. Rosenbloom as he read. His soft and bright features turned a hard, ashy gray. Amy started forward, but Dan held her back.
    “I thought you said you came because you wanted to see me,” Dr. Rosenbloom said with a dark frown.
    “Dad . . .” Jake started.
    “Olivia CAHILL!?” he shouted, brandishing the notebook in their faces. “I told you I didn’t want you getting involved with the Cahills ever again.”
    “We’re not. We’re just —”
    “Don’t lie to me, Jake!”
    Dr. Rosenbloom’s shout echoed in the small office.
    “We told them we’d see what we could find out about the silphium,” Atticus said. “That’s all.”
    “You’ve seen the stories about them in the papers,” Dr. Rosenbloom said. “On TV. Is that what you want to be a part of? You want to be famous?”
    “Those stories aren’t true!” Atticus protested.
    “Think about your future, Atticus. And Jake’s. I know you think Amy and Dan are your