"Ian, are you even paying attention?"

With a jolt, Ian shook his head, as if he could erase the look in Amy's face when he and Natalie had left her, Dan and Alistair entombed at the Pukhansan. Fool! He chided himself angrily. Stop it! She was just a tactic, not your girlfriend!

He turned his attention to his scowling sister, who didn't look as beautiful as usual when she did that. It was like staring at a smaller, feminine version of himself. But, gorgeous and lovely as she was, with cartloads of common sense like Natalie always claimed, she was still a bit foolish. Ian had been embarrassed enough for her actions during the alliance. "Yes, Natalie?"

Natalie crossed her arms in front of her white silk dress with Oriental embroidery and draped her luxuriant black hair over one shoulder. "There is no Lake Tash at Kyrgyzstan," she told him through clenched teeth. "It was one big joke."

Ian felt his blood run cold. Had it all been a lie? Had he endangered Amy's life for nothing? No-stop thinking about her! He forced himself to view the matter through the 39 Clues. This was a huge setback. They wouldn't be able to move on to the next Clue-and they hadn't even known the second Clue! The pilot of their private plane was eyeing them uncertainly, not sure whether to laugh or if they were deadly serious about Lake Tash.

"Um," the pilot cleared his throat uncomfortably, "I might be mistaken, of course. Perhaps I just haven't heard about it…" His voice trailed off. His hands were twisting and untwisting nervously, and he gulped, his Adam's apple bobbing imperceptibly.

"Well, do a check on it or you're fired!" Natalie snapped furiously. She couldn't believe this. She had thought they were one step ahead of those Cahill orphans, but it turned out that they had been one step ahead of the brilliant, rich Kabras. We never lose! She shouted at herself mentally. Especially not to those destined for the poorhouse!

Everyone thought that this was just another adventure to them, this contest that old Grace Cahill instituted, the 39 Clues. But this would catapult the Kabras to even greater glory, to prove that Natalie and Ian were even more clever than their parents, to prove their worth to their branch, to show them that they weren't just riding on their parents' coattails, that they had talents of their own.

Natalie glanced at her brother. Ever since the alliance with Alistair Oh and those charity cases, Amy and Dan, he had never been the same anymore. Yes, the making-Amy-fall-in-love thing was a surefire plan, an excellent strategy. But Natalie knew something even Ian wouldn't admit to himself, and their parents would loathe.

It wasn't just Amy who had fallen. Ian did, too, consciously or not. Ironic, predator and prey. Emotion for emotion. My pain for your pain. Isaac Newton had been right when he had invented the Law of Interaction. But it didn't hold true only for objects. It was the same for feelings.

She seethed. Daniel Cahill was going to pay, for lying to them, for making them look like fools in front of their lesser subjects, but most of all, for having a sister that had left such a huge impression on her brother.

Soon enough, that thirst for revenge would be quenched.

Amy leaned throbbing temples against the cool, plastic window always present in airplanes, trying desperately to forget those painful memories. She had won over Nellie on the fight for the window seat. She had needed some space, some alone time.

Since that cave-in back in Korea, she had felt dead. First, Ian had betrayed her. And then, their only real ally ever, Uncle Alistair, had died, only to reappear mysteriously.

It was too much.

Uncle Alistair was behind her. He had been cursing himself for exposing them to unnecessary danger just to retrieve a Clue he had already known, which he could just have told them about. Most of all, he was angry at himself for allowing the alliance with the Kabras to occur, which led to Amy's first heartbreak, and finally, to her slow death within. She was there, but not really around. It had worried them, but they knew better than to comment upon it. It would just hurt her even more.

Amy's green eyes stared out as the landscape faded away, only one name on her lips.

Ian…