Inside the Shadow City (31 page)

“Duck!” Kiki shouted, and we made it under the door with an inch to spare. Kiki drove the Vespa down a steep ramp and into a dark parking garage, where she slammed on the brakes and spun around to watch the door shut quickly behind us.

We were in the basement of one of the bland apartment buildings that line the lower reaches of Third Avenue. Of all the places I had imagined Kiki's secret lair might lie, I would never have picked this one. I swallowed my disappointment and tried to focus on the mission at hand.

“Sorry for the fancy driving.” Kiki removed her helmet and shook out her hair. “I never know when I'm being followed, and there's no point in making it easy for them.”

“Followed?” I asked “Who's following you?”

“I don't have time to explain,” she said. “Let's move.”

We rode an elevator to ground level and stepped into a lobby decorated with fanciful murals of old New York. A handsome doorman in an old-fashioned uniform was there to greet us.

“Hello, Boris,” Kiki said to the doorman.

“Good evening, miss,” he replied in a Russian accent. He selected a key from the hundreds that dangled from a ring on his belt, walked over to one side of the lobby, and unlocked a door that had been disguised to look like part of the mural.

Beyond the door was a set of fire stairs. Kiki bolted up two flights and paused briefly in front of a window on the
third-floor landing. Before I had the chance to catch up, she threw open the window and hopped outside.

“Are you coming or not?” I heard her call.

I peered out the window and saw Kiki standing on the fire escape of the building next door. Its metal railing was only a couple of feet from the window. I stepped onto the window ledge and leaped toward the fire escape. I landed with a thud and started climbing. Twenty torturous flights later, I reached the top, where a simple rope ladder dangled from the roof of the building. My muscles were burning, and I stood against the wall, catching my breath, as Kiki scaled the rope ladder and disappeared. Once I had recovered enough of my strength, I dragged myself up the side of the building and onto the roof. When I stood up, I found myself in the middle of a well-tended lawn.

Grass sprang up around my sneakers, and the leaves of a cherry tree brushed against my hair. A rustic wooden house sat in the middle of the lawn, far enough from the edge of the building to be all but invisible from the street below. Looking out into the night, I realized I had a bird's-eye view of the entire city. The skyscrapers of Mid-town grew like a forest of lights in the distance, and a helicopter circled the financial district like a lone vulture.

As we walked through the grass toward the house, the front door swung open. Verushka stood in the doorway, dressed in an olive-green robe and leaning on a gnarled wooden cane. I forced a smile to hide my shock. In the two years since I had seen her, Verushka had grown old. Her hair was mostly gray, and all that was left of its once vibrant color was a single streak of red. Her left leg appeared all but useless.

“You are back!” she called out cheerfully, but once she caught sight of Kiki's expression, she knew the operation had not gone as planned. A flicker of disappointment passed across her face before she turned and greeted me with a heartfelt smile.

“My dear Ananka. It has been a long time—long enough for me to become an old woman.” She put a hand to my cheek and whispered in my ear, “I was pleased to hear that you are on our side again.”

She ushered me into a living room teeming with a jungle of exotic plants.

“Please excuse my hobby. I cannot leave the house as I once did, so I am forced to bring nature inside.” She stopped to tenderly stroke the leaves of a giant orchid covered with tiny purple blooms. “Did you know that an orchid, if properly cared for, will never die? They are immortal. If only we were all so fortunate.”

Verushka sighed and sank into a sofa that was in danger of being swallowed by an overgrown Virginia creeper.

“Now you must tell me. What has happened?”

“We know who's behind the kidnappings,” Kiki informed her. “It's Naomi Throgmorton and Jacob Harcott. They're working with the Fu-Tsang gang.”

“The Atalanta girl and the boy from the park? No,” Verushka said, shaking her head in disbelief. “I cannot believe they could organize such an ingenious plan.”

“I wouldn't have thought so, either. But there's no doubt now. Ananka saw them in action.”

“And were you able to plant the tracking device?”

“Yes. But not in the way that we had hoped.”

“No? Then how did you plant it?”

“Something went wrong, Verushka. They weren't after Tyler Deitz. They wanted another girl.”

“How is this possible? Who did they take?”

Kiki grimaced, unable to find the right words.

“They kidnapped the Princess,” I told Verushka.

“Sidonia?” The horror in Verushka's voice told me two things. The first was that Kiki was not behind the kidnappings. The second was that they knew the Princess well.

“Yes,” Kiki admitted.

“I do not understand. What do they want with Sidonia? She cannot give them the map.”

“No, but she has enough money to fund their little get-togethers. And she's tortured Naomi for years,” I said, offering the only solution I had been able to find. “I guess this was Naomi's revenge.”

“Stupid children,” said Verushka sadly.

“There's more,” Kiki told her. “Betty tried to save Sidonia. They took her, too.”

“You will have to find them,” Verushka insisted. “Tonight. You will not be the only ones looking. You must get to them first.”

“We're already on the case. The Irregulars are meeting us at Ananka's house. I'm just here to collect some supplies.”

Kiki set off down the hall and disappeared into another room. Verushka leaned back on the sofa, lost in thought. An opportunity had presented itself. With Kiki gone, I could ask the question that was bouncing around in my head.

“Verushka?”

“Yes, my dear?” she replied absentmindedly, still distracted by the news.

“How do you know the Princess?”

Verushka snapped to attention and looked at me with an amused expression.

“Two years ago you were too shy to ask such a question.” She pulled herself up with her cane. The effort was clearly painful. “You ask how I know Sidonia? This is not a story I can tell in a few minutes. Just remember that all are not cooks who walk with long knives. If I tell you more, I will put you in terrible danger.”

“As far as I can tell, I'm already in danger.”

“This is true,” she agreed. She studied me for a moment, then walked to a bookshelf, where she retrieved a small red book. “Kiki has told me you like to read,” she said enigmatically.

I nodded.

“This is a very important book. You must keep it in a safe place and never let anyone see it. Even little books can be very dangerous.”

I scanned the cover, but the book had no title. I slipped it into my knapsack.

“What's it about?” I asked.

I could tell that I wasn't going to get a straight answer.

“Do you know why you were chosen for the Irregulars?” Verushka asked instead. It was a question for which I had never found an answer.

“Because of my library?” I guessed.

“No,” Verushka said, chuckling softly and shaking her head. “There are other libraries. Maybe they are not so good, but …” She shrugged. “You were selected because
you were the only one Kiki did not have to find. You found
her
. That makes you very special.” I didn't know what to say. “Take care of my book,” she said.

“I will,” I promised, and Verushka reached out and hugged me with her free arm.

Kiki walked into the living room stuffing a flashlight and a handful of hypodermic needles into a black knapsack.

“How touching,” she said. “You've gotten awfully sentimental in your old age, Verushka. Let's go, Ananka. It's getting late.”

We left the house, and I began to cross the lawn, heading for the fire escape.

“Not so fast,” instructed Kiki. “We may have been spotted on the way here. We'll have to take the fast way down. Here, put these on.” She tossed a pair of heavy gloves at my feet.

“Spotted? Who could have spotted us?” I asked.

“Bad guys,” said Kiki.

“What kind of bad guys? And why are we running from them?”

“Did you see Verushka's leg? They shot her. She'll be crippled forever.”

“I don't understand. When was Verushka shot?” I asked.

“After the explosion in the Shadow City. Now stop asking questions and move faster. If we get caught, they'll be happy to shoot us, too.”

My hands trembled as I pulled on the gloves. Kiki walked to the edge of the building and threw two ropes over the side. She grabbed one, and without waiting for
me, began rappelling down the building's wall. I took the other in my hands, muttered a short prayer, and hopped over the side. But my feet never made contact with the wall of the building. Instead, I swung in through an open window and landed with a crash inside a dark bedroom where a teenage boy was sleeping in his underwear.

“No, I don't want to go to your spaceship,” he mumbled, tossing in his sleep. “I want to stay here on Earth.”

I jumped back out the window, skinning both knees in the process. A few minutes and a panic attack later, I slid off the end of the rope and landed in a courtyard in the back of the building.

“What took you so long?” asked Kiki with an arched eyebrow.

“I dropped in on one of your neighbors,” I said, feeling a little light-headed.

“Yeah, I saw that. Betty's been kidnapped and you're making social calls. Come on, we have to leave the Vespa,” Kiki said. “We'll go out the back way.” She climbed over a fence that separated the courtyard from the backyards of several buildings. I scrambled behind her as we made our way to the other end of the block. Peeking out of a narrow alley, we checked Second Avenue for suspicious vehicles. A battered taxi sped through a cloud of steam that billowed out of a manhole in the middle of the road.

“All clear,” said Kiki. “Let's go.”

• • •

I found the door to my apartment unlocked and a figure pacing the center of the room. I flipped the light switch,
ready to confront the intruder. When my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw it was Oona. DeeDee and Luz were seated on the couch.

“You don't mind, do you?” whispered Oona. “It's past midnight. I didn't think we should wake your parents up, so I picked the lock.”

I made a mental note to change the locks.

“Just be quiet,” I warned them. “My parents think I'm spending the night with Kiki. If they hear us, we'll be stuck here 'til morning.”

“What's going on?” whispered DeeDee. “Where Betty?”

I couldn't think of a thing to say.

“They got her, didn't they?” snarled Luz, jumping to her feet. “I knew something bad was going to happen. I can't believe I snuck out of the house for this.”

“Didn't the Miracle Mixture work?” DeeDee was distraught.

“It didn't have a chance to work,” I assured her. “They never tried to drug Betty. They weren't after Tyler Deitz. The kidnappers wanted the Princess. They got her.”

Every eye in the room turned to Kiki.

“Then where's Betty?” demanded Oona.

“She tried to save the Princess. They took her, too.”

Luz pointed a finger at Kiki. “Don't you see? She's behind all of this. She's a liar and a thief, and you guys were idiots to believe her. I'm out of here.”

I stopped Luz before she got to the door.

“This is all about the gold, isn't it, Luz? Are you really that greedy? Betty's been kidnapped, and we don't have long to rescue her. If they find out she's a spy, she could die.”

“Oh, come on, Ananka. Don't you know when you're being had? You can't tell me that
she
didn't set this whole thing up.”

“Actually, I
can
tell you that. I know who's responsible for the kidnappings. It's Naomi Throgmorton and Jacob Harcott. I saw them drug the Princess with my own eyes.”

Luz and I stared at each other. Any sign of uncertainty in my face, and she'd walk out the door. Finally, she sighed and tugged on her ponytail.

“We need your help, Luz,” I begged.

“Okay. I'll do it for Betty. But as soon as we find her, I quit. Now give me the tracking device.”

I reached into my knapsack and handed it to Luz. She turned it on and studied the screen. “The signal's faint, but it looks like they're in Chinatown,” she said.

“Do you think they could be in the Shadow City?” I asked.

“They're not that far underground. The signal would be much weaker. But they could be in one of the hidden rooms with an entrance to the Shadow City.”

“What are we waiting for?” asked Oona. “Let's go!”

“Hold on. I need to get the map,” I said.

“The map of the Shadow City?” asked Oona.

“Are we going back?” whispered DeeDee.

“I'm not sure we have a choice,” I told her.

I left the Irregulars in the living room and went to retrieve the map from its hiding place. I shut the door of my bedroom and scanned the towers of books that lined the walls. I snatched a book of fairy tales and shook it.
The map of the Shadow City fell to the floor, its paper stiff with DeeDee's dried blood. I grabbed
Glimpses of Gotham
and opened my knapsack. Inside was Verushka's book. There was no time for reading, but I couldn't stop myself from flipping past dozens of pages handwritten in Russian. One of the few entries in English was marked with a small photograph.

It is the anniversary of the death of Princess Sophia. Ten years ago, she and her husband were poisoned, and Livia became queen of Pokrovia. Today, Livia and her men continue to search for us, and the world believes I am guilty of Sophia's murder. When you are older, we will make sure that the truth is told. It is my duty to punish Livia for the terrible things she has done.