“Fair enough,” Dad said. “Do you have rides left on your metro cards?”

Zoe and I both nodded.

Dad shook an index finger at us. “But even though you feel comfortable, you need to stay alert. Trouble can be anywhere. Keep an eye on one another and text me when you get home.”

“I’ll text you,” Zoe said. “Arcade never knows where his phone is.”

“Yes, I do!”

“Oh, yeah? Then where is it right now?”

I reached for the back pocket of my jeans.

Empty!

“Hey! I know I put it in there!”

“Ha!” Zoe held up my phone. “I pickpocketed you five minutes ago!”

“Give it back, zoo breath!”

Zoe laughed and handed it over. I slipped it in my back pocket.

Ding!

The elevator had arrived to take us down to the bottom floor. We all stepped in and had to crunch in with a crowd.

“Hey, Mom, what’s the craziest elevator you’ve ever ridden?”

Mom looked up toward the elevator ceiling. “Hmmmm.” Then she glanced over and gave Dad a funny look. “Must’ve been that time we rode one to Australia.”

Dad’s eyes widened.

“You rode one to Australia?” Triple T jumped inside my shirt.

Mom crunched her eyebrows together. “Oh, did I say to? I meant in. The craziest elevator ride was in Australia.” Then she turned and looked straight ahead. But the look on her face told me there was more to the story. Much more.

*  *  *

“Zoe, I think Mom knows I have the Triple T Token.”

Zoe and I bobbed and weaved through the crowd on the way to the 50th Street subway station.

“That’s ridiculous. How could she know?” We stopped at the crosswalk. The red hand blinked away, but the cars were stopped and not going anywhere, so we zigzagged our way around them.

“Because when she mentioned the elevator in Australia, she had a look. I don’t know. I can’t explain it. I think we should tell her, Zoe. We should tell her everything.”

We reached the top of the stairs to the subway. “Everything? You want to tell her about the Badger brothers, how they’re after you, and that we left them hanging off the Golden Gate Bridge in 1935? Oh, yeah, and let’s tell her all about the time we traveled halfway around the world to India. I’m sure she won’t mind.”

“Mom had the token before us. She knows how it works.”

“Do you know how it works, Arcade?”

I reached for the token inside my shirt. “Of course not.”

“Then she probably doesn’t either. I think we should wait a little longer before we talk to her. We need patience, remember?”

“No, you need patience. I need compas—”

Right then something ran into me. Something huge.

“AHHHHHHHHHH!”