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Informationen zum Autor CHRIS GRABENSTEIN is the bestselling author of the Mr. Lemoncello's Library, Smartest Kid in the Universe, and Dog Squad series, and many other books, as well as the coauthor of numerous page-turners with James Patterson and of Shine! , cowritten with Chris's wife, J.J. Grabenstein. Chris lives in New York City. Klappentext Twelve-year-old Jake McQuade is the smartest kid in the universe, but if he wants to keep his title he will have to figure out a way to defeat the villain who steals his ingestible knowledge capsules. Leseprobe 1 The clock was ticking. Jake McQuade, the twelve-year-old who’d defeated the world’s most sophisticated artificially intelligent computer, solved impossible cases for the FBI, and--thanks to his newfound knowledge of geometry, physics, and human psychology--starred on his middle school basketball team, was on a mission for the top-secret agency known as the Consortium. His pale, freckled skin baked in the scorching midday sun. He was on a high-speed rigid-hull inflatable boat speeding across choppy waters with a small team of commandos in scuba gear. His mother had been right: Jake should’ve packed sunscreen. The commando team dropped Jake and his best friend, Kojo Shelton, on a craggy island. “You two are on your own,” said the squad commander, clicking a stopwatch. “You have fifteen minutes to secure the package.” Jake used a handheld mapping device to quickly find the target building. But inside the windowless structure, things slowed down. The place was like a dark maze trapped inside a fun house. Except this house was more dangerous than fun. Jake and Kojo followed the blinking green dot through a series of switchbacks and found themselves trapped inside a black box of a room. The instant their feet hit the floor, a huge metal door slammed shut behind them. “We need to get out of this room, Jake,” said Kojo, checking his glowing watch. “Fast! We only have ten more minutes to secure the package.” “Working on it,” said Jake. He was thinking. Trying to come up with a solution. “Where to next?” “I’m, uh, not sure.” “What? Come on. Use your big jelly-beaned brain.” This mission was, clearly, a test of Jake’s superior intellect. And that made him a little nervous. Jake hadn’t become super intelligent the usual way--studying, reading books, doing homework. He’d taken a short cut: Ingestible Knowledge capsules in the form of jelly beans. Jake never knew if or when his mental superpowers would disappear. He just hoped it wasn’t today. 2 “Oh, wow, check it out,” said Kojo, rustling around inside the sleek nylon sling bag the Consortium had given them for this mission. “There’s all sorts of cool gear in here. Duct tape. A Swiss Army knife. A pair of binoculars. Hold up. I think there’re some Hershey bars in here, too.” He sniffed loudly. “Oh yeah. That’s chocolate.” Another sniff. “This one has almonds.” “Great,” mumbled Jake. He was distracted. His whole mind was focused on the mapping device. But the green dot in the center of the grid had stopped moving. All it was doing now was blinking. “Looks like that thing’s busted,” said Kojo, peering over Jake’s shoulder. Jake nodded, even though he wasn’t sure Kojo was right. He needed time. To study the sequence of blinks. “Two long, one short,” he muttered. “Three long. Long, short, short, short, short . . .” “You thinking about pants?” said Kojo. “Shirtsleeves?” “Nope.” Jake reached into his own nylon sling bag. He shoved aside the binoculars and pulled out a spiral notebook and a pen. “It’s Morse code. Short blinks and long blinks. Dots and dashes.” “Cool,” said Kojo, biting off a chunk of chocolate bar. Jake wrote down the...
