Twenty Two
I read the message aloud slowly. Their faces say it all. "Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean, 'or you're dead'?" Toby snatches the phone out of my hand in disbelief. "I wouldn't lie to you, Toby." I pause. "Would I?" "No," he says, handing my phone back. "No, you wouldn't." "We all know what this means," Peyton mumbles. "We have to go back." "But we can't!" Toby argues. "If we go back now, Nikotopia will be destroyed!" "Listen here, Toby. We've got two choices right now. We can go back to the hotel and hopefully nothing will happen to us, but the bottom line is we'd be getting home safely. Or we could stay here and find the secret lair—which we don't know for sure is real—but risk getting murdered by our uncle," she pauses. "Or our stepdad." Toby shrugs, giving a little chuckle. He
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