The Emperor's Code
Gordon Korman
 After an argument with his sister in Beijing's Forbidden City, Dan Cahill is kidnapped by Ian and Natalie Kabra. He is dumped in Jonah Wizard's lollipop factory where Jonah treats him nicely and gives out his own suite, taking him to a concert, and letting him fly first class. Meanwhile, Amy Cahill and Nellie are searching for him, and head to Alistair Oh to get help in finding Dan. Alistair translates a Chinese newspaper saying that Jonah is going to the Great Wall of China. However, Jonah cancels his flight to the Great Wall, knowing that Amy and Nellie are going there; he then goes to a Wushu City, where Dan takes Wushu lessons. Later, while Dan explores a tunnel he finds lab equipment from Gideon Cahill's lab and a picture of Madeleine Cahill that belonged to the notorious Anne Bonny. The Wizards get a mysterious message that gives coordinates saying to go to a specific spot at the Terra Cotta Warrior's resting place. Meanwhile, Amy and Nellie look for Dan at the Great Wall and find a secret door. Nellie picks the lock and they come into a room. After Amy's Feng Shui style organizing, a light shines in showing Mt. Everest. While they were searching the Great Wall, Jonah and Dan checked out the Warriors. Jonah meant to send Dan in alone in case it was a trap, and it was. They were put in jail. Jonah's Dad gets them out and Jonah decides to quit the hunt. Cora Wizard, his mother, is disgusted and slaps Jonah telling Dan that they have discovered his branch is Janus. Dan tells them he is a Madrigal and leaves the shocked Wizards. After he leaves, he sees the Holts climbing Mt. Everest on television. Grace had stored an advanced helicopter, the A-Star, in rural China and told Amy and Dan about it knowing they would need it in the future eventually. Dan, knowing the location of the A-Star, travels to it. When Amy and Nellie get the A-Star ready, Dan meets up with them. Dan and Amy head up to Mt. Everest in the A-Star where they found a serum embedded in Mt. Everest. They lose the serum when Ian falls off the edge of a cliff. He hangs on to the edge and Amy saves him letting the serum plunge miles below, with Amy knowing that they already had another form of the clue with them- the piece of silk. Amy then explains that the serum was silk in its liquid form. After Amy finds the inscription indicating it was Anne Bonny's, they then head to the Caribbean to search for their next clue that Anne Bonny may have left there. The secret message throughout the book was "Madrigals are behind everything. They lay out the path, the others will walk. The end is coming." This code is circled throughout the book. The code on the cover, the message of animal codes on the emperor's crown, reads "Tenzing knew too." The crown also has the words "Because it's there", which is one of the quotes by a person in the book.