"That's our answer, too!" Morgan cried out to The Dark. "Madame Curie told us radioactivity wasn't a chemical reaction."

Laughter rang out. The void brightened.

The thunder rolled in the distance, its echo quieter now. The snakes of darkness that had nearly covered Morgan and Collin began to slip away.

I'm not finished yet! The Dark bellowed. I will have them. I will!

"You'll never have us!" Collin threw back. "We're better than you. We're smarter, too!"

When all was quiet, Courtney rushed toward her brother and her friend, hugging them tightly. "Where were you?" she asked. "I was so worried."


"We were in Paris with Madame Curie. What about you? We looked everywhere," said Morgan.

"What's wrong?" Morgan asked.

"I was so worried, I didn't think to bring anything back. I don't have any puzzle piece."

"We brought back some pitchblende from Madame Curie's lab," Collin told her proudly. "That's a type of rock, you know? We put it in the puzzle piece and it closed up, but we didn't know what the riddle was."

"Pitchblende?" said Courtney in an awed voice. She looked down at her hand. In her tightly clenched fist she still held the small rock paperweight that Einstein had handed her in his office.
"You brought pitchblende back, too?" asked Morgan, surprised.