Down below, Tess coughed with impatience. They had come so far. He had to know. He had to.

Theo felt around the works again, his nimble fingers finding a wire. He didn’t need any of the tools that Tess and Jaime had given him to yank it away from its connection.

The ticking stopped.

Theo waited for something else to happen, anything else to happen, but nothing did. He glanced down at Tess and Jaime and shook his head.

“Come down,” Tess shout-whispered.

Theo took a deep breath and willed himself to take a step.

“You’re not moving,” said Jaime.

“I’m getting ready to move,” Theo muttered. “Give me a second.”

Just as his foot hit the rung below, he heard a strange rumbling sound. He gripped the ladder and looked around, but he didn’t see anything except for a bunch of sleepy train passengers doing exactly what he was—looking for the source of the noise.

Another rumble and more cracking sounds like tumbling rocks. Coming from outside somewhere. But where?

And what?

“Oh no,” said Ono.

“Hurry!” Tess said.

Theo made it a quarter of the way down the ladder when there was a bone-rattling crash. Across the lobby, an enormous window shattered, glass raining to the floor below. People covered their heads as something large and silvery darted through the air, circling, showering everyone with bits of rock and dust. Another huge silvery thing crashed through the window and circled the other way.

Theo froze on the ladder as one of the large silvery creatures passed so close to him that he could have jumped on its back and ridden the thing straight to Mordor.

He had just enough time to say, “Well, the eagles are finally here,” when the tip of a huge wing hit the ladder, knocking Theo right off.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Jaime

Jaime stood there in shock as the great silver eagle knocked Theo off the ladder, and Theo fell and fell and fell. It took so long, the falling, so, so long. Ono was shouting, “Oh no!” and Tess was shouting, “Oh no!” and Jaime was, too. It seemed like hours before Jaime could make himself dart forward, arms out, as if he could catch Theo without both of them being smashed to pieces on the marble. “This is so stupid,” he said to himself. “You’re not Superman.” But just then, another eagle swooped down, caught Theo by the collar. The eagle landed only long enough to drop Theo to the floor before it launched itself into the air once again.