01_-_The_Alchemyst

“Where are we?” Josh asked, looking around now that his eyes had
become accustomed to the dim light. They were standing in a long, narrow,
spotlessly clean hallway. The walls were covered in smooth blond wood,
and there were intricately woven white reed mats on the floor. A simple
doorway covered in what looked like paper stood at the opposite end of the
corridor. Josh was about to take a step toward the door when Flamel’s iron
hand clamped onto his shoulder.
“Don’t move,” he murmured. “Wait. Look. Notice. If you keep those
three words in mind, you just might survive the next few days.” Digging into
his pocket, he picked out a quarter. Positioning it on his thumb, he flicked it
into the air. It spun over and over and began to fall toward the middle of the
hallway….
There was a barely perceptible hiss—and a needle-tipped dart punched
right through the metal coin, impaling it in midair and pinning it to the
opposite wall.
“You’ve left the safe and mundane world you once knew,” Nicholas
Flamel said seriously, looking at each twin in turn. “Nothing is as it seems.
You must learn to question everything. To wait before moving, to look before
stepping and to observe everything. I learned these lessons in alchemy, but
you will find them invaluable in this new world you’ve unwittingly
wandered into.” He pointed down the corridor. “Look and observe. Tell me:
what do you see?”
Josh spotted the first tiny hole in the wall. It was camouflaged to look
like a knot in the wood. Once he found the first one, he realized that there
were dozens of holes in the walls. He wondered if each hole held a tiny dart
that was powerful enough to punch through metal.
Sophie noticed that the floor did not join neatly with the wall. In three
separate places—on both the left-and right-hand sides, close to the skirting—
there was a definite gap.
Flamel nodded. “Well done. Now watch. We’ve seen what the darts can
do, but there is another defense….” He took a tissue out of his pocket and
tossed it onto the floor, close to one of the narrow openings. There was a