Inside the Shadow City (33 page)

Kiki opened the door to the Shadow City and stood aside to let us pass. On the other side, we found an avalanche of rubble that blocked one side of the tunnel. Two years earlier, I had stood in the very same spot and watched DeeDee running for her life.

“The tunnel looks exactly like we left it,” Luz marveled. “Why wasn't it flooded?”

“Maybe all the rubble kept the water from coming in from the Princess's house,” I guessed.

“But what about Iris's basement?” Luz asked. “It was totally soaked. It
still
smells like mildew.”

“The trapdoors must be watertight,” said Kiki. “The river's only a couple of blocks away. In the days when the tunnels were built, it must have flooded all the time. The Shadow City would have been destroyed pretty quickly unless the builders had found a solution.”

“So this is what happened,” said DeeDee. Her eyes drifted across the destruction. “Now that I've seen it,
there's no doubt in my mind. This was my fault. I made the explosives too powerful. They never should have caused this much damage. It must have been a bad batch.” She turned to Kiki. “I let everyone blame you. I can't tell you how sorry I am.”

“It was a long time ago,” Kiki said, taking DeeDee's arm and steering her away from the rubble. “It's over now. All that matters is that we all got out alive. I just hope we'll be able to say the same tonight.”

As Kiki and DeeDee started to walk away, I saw Luz heading toward the spot where DeeDee had fallen after the explosion.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Wait a second,” she said without looking back. She stopped in front of one of the large rocks that lay scattered about the floor of the tunnel. Bending down, she reached out and brushed it with her fingertips. It wasn't a stone, but rather a backpack sprinkled with gray dust. Luz looked up at me. Her eyes were wide and her jaw slack.

“It's DeeDee's backpack. It's the gold,” she whispered in a voice that was barely audible.

“The gold?”

I heard the other girls stop and turn back.

“It's been here all along.” Luz looked as if she might burst into tears. I turned in time to see Kiki drop DeeDee's arm.

“You didn't take it?” Oona asked, staring at Kiki in astonishment.

“No,” admitted Kiki.

“But why did you leave it here?”

“I had to. It was too heavy to carry. And saving DeeDee was more important. I thought I'd come back for it later. But I never got the chance. I was too busy trying to stay alive.”

“I don't understand.” Luz was struggling to keep her voice even. “We thought you had stolen it.”

“It was better to let you think I was a thief than to let you risk your lives going back for it. After the flood, I didn't want you to return to the Shadow City unless it was absolutely necessary. It just wasn't worth it. There are easier ways to make money. When I had to disappear, I wrote to the Capybaras Corporation and told them about the Reverse Pied Piper. I assumed that would make up for the lost gold.”

“I thought … I mean, I've said so many horrible things. I nearly turned you in to the FBI,” Luz sobbed, her face now slick with tears.

“There's no time for any of that,” Kiki said softly. “We're all friends again, right?” Luz nodded. “So forget the gold. Let's rescue Betty.”

“Okay,” said Luz. She wiped her face on her sleeve and set off down the tunnel, leaving the bag of gold lying on the ground.

• • •

We walked south toward Chinatown. The tunnel was colder and much smellier than I remembered. A putrid odor assaulted our senses, and we shivered in our light summer clothes. My bare arms were covered with goose bumps, and I longed for the uniform that was now several sizes too small for me.

For what seemed like miles, we followed the tunnel's twists and turns. Then, after choosing a fork in the path, I saw something scamper across the beam of my flashlight.

“Did you see that?” I asked the others.

“Uh-huh,” said Oona.

“Was that what I think it was?”

“Uh-huh,” Oona confirmed.

“What was it?” asked DeeDee.

“A rat the size of a cocker spaniel,” I told her.

“But there can't be any rats in the Shadow City. We got rid of them all,” said Luz.

“That doesn't mean that a few haven't moved back in,” said Kiki. “I brought my Reverse Pied Piper just in case.”

We huddled closer to one another. I linked arms with Oona and checked the map with my free hand. We weren't far from our destination. Another half a mile and we would be under the warehouse. Just then, I tripped and dropped the map. As I scrambled to retrieve it in the darkness, I felt a warm furry body brush against my arm. I screamed and grabbed my flashlight, pointing it toward the section of the tunnel we had just walked through. The others aimed their beams in the same direction. For a second, I fought the urge to faint. There behind us were thousands of rats, their teeth gleaming in the light.

“Don't move,” ordered Kiki, pulling a Reverse Pied Piper out of her knapsack. She put it to her mouth and blew. Nothing happened. The army of rats stared at us in anticipation, waiting for us to make the first move. Kiki
tried once more. Again, nothing. Growing restless, the rats began to inch toward us.

“What's going on?” DeeDee wailed.

“It's not working,” said Kiki, examining the Reverse Pied Piper with her flashlight. “It must have broken when I dropped my backpack.”

Suddenly, the whole horrible situation made sense to me.

“It's not broken. It doesn't work because the rats are all deaf.”

“Tell me you're joking,” pleaded Luz.

“Remember the first time? A few of the rats weren't bothered by the Reverse Pied Piper. They must have been deaf, too. They were left behind in the city and now they've had two years to breed. These are their descendants. There could be thousands of them by now.”

“Well, I guess we only have one option,” said Kiki, tucking the Reverse Pied Piper into her pocket.

“What?” I asked.

“RUN!” she shouted.

With the rats behind us, I led the way as we sprinted through the tunnel. There was no time to check the map. I let my intuition guide me past a dozen identical doors and through featureless forks in the tunnel. Once or twice, I worked up the courage to look over my shoulder. The thundering herd of bloodthirsty rodents was hot on our heels. A giant rat was running alongside Luz, nipping at her shoe. With one well-aimed kick, she sent it flying into a wall. Her moment of victory didn't last long, however. It was only a second before an even bigger and hungrier
specimen took its place. I picked up speed and hoped I was leading the Irregulars in the right direction. One misstep, one wrong turn, and we'd all be eaten.

As we neared the warehouse, the ground became soft and slippery. Dozens of dirty mink coats lined the floor of the tunnel, along with two human skeletons, their bones picked clean by rats. A third skeleton wearing a jacket decorated with the Fu-Tsang dragon lay just outside the door I had been searching for. I darted inside and waited for the others to file in behind me before I slammed the door as hard as I could. There was no lock, and I hoped that the mutant rats hadn't learned to turn doorknobs. We could hear hundreds of furry bodies hurling themselves against the wood and the squeals of frustration when the door refused to budge. Once we knew we were safe, we collapsed on the floor of the room.

“I thought we were dead for sure,” DeeDee panted.

“Don't worry,” said Kiki with a grin. “It will take more than a bunch of rats to get rid of us.”

“Oh, yeah? Did you see those skeletons? And all of the coats?” Luz asked. “The rats got rid of s
omebody
.”

“Now we know why the robberies stopped,” Kiki said. “The Fu-Tsang gang couldn't get past the rats. They didn't have enough bullets to kill them all. And it's hard to run fast when you're carrying stolen goods.”

“At least we're safe now,” said DeeDee.

“Sure, as long as Ananka's brought us to the right place,” said Oona.

I looked around the room. The ceilings were low and the space was crammed with crates, rolled floor mats,
and dirty pillows. The floor was strewn with wooden chopsticks. Above the crates was a hole in the ceiling.

“Yeah, this is it,” I said. “We're in the storeroom under the opium den.”

Kiki and I slowly climbed through the opening in the ceiling and up a long ladder that led to a wooden trapdoor. The boards we had used to close off the entrance had been removed. We pushed the trapdoor open an inch and the too-sweet odor of Devil's Apple drifted down to us. The walls of the opium den were lined with shadowy wooden cubbyholes the size of coffins. Most were filled with old silk cushions, but two were hidden from view by brightly colored screens on which miniature dragons danced. The room was dark and cavernous, but a lantern on a table at the far end of the room illuminated an unexpected scene.

Seated at the table less than twenty feet away from the trapdoor were Jacob Harcott and Thomas Vandervoort, both dressed in the expensive suits they had worn earlier in the evening. Jacob was boasting of the time he'd forced a boy to walk the plank on the way to a Bannerman Ball. When he finished with his story, they both slumped over the table, their bodies heaving with laughter.

“Idiots,” spat Kiki. “They should take better care of the few brain cells they were born with.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, not entirely certain of her meaning.

“Just look at them. They've been sampling the Devil's Apple. Even those oafs wouldn't act that stupid without a little help. But I guess it makes it easier for us.”

“They may be high on wart remover, but they're still dangerous,” I cautioned her.

“Not as dangerous as I am,” she said, climbing into the room.

“Hey, look,” said Thomas Vandervoort, shaking his friend's arm and pointing in Kiki's direction. “It's the leprechaun!”

“How'd it get in here?” asked Jacob, looking up in confusion at the camouflaged trapdoor that led from the opium den to the warehouse above.

“Must have followed the rainbow,” said Thomas Vandervoort, cracking himself up.

Kiki walked over to the table. “Having a good time?” she asked with the syrupy politeness of an overeager waitress. “I really hate to interrupt your fascinating conversation, but I just wanted to thank you.”

“Thank us?” asked Thomas Vandervoort, his evil smile fading quickly.

“Yes. I want to thank you for making this so easy. I mean, look at me. I'm just a girl, and as you can see, I'm not a very big one at that. So thank you for going out of your way to make it so easy to kick your butts.”

Jacob Harcott stood up from the table, knocking his chair over backward. A snarl deformed his handsome features as he towered over Kiki like an angry ogre.

“We spent six months in jail thanks to you,” he growled. “We know who you are, and we've been looking forward to meeting you again. It's not going to be easy this time.”

“Oh, I beg to differ,” said Kiki. “This is going to be another walk in the park. By the way, how was juvie? I hear
the food's not bad, but the maid service leaves something to be desired.”

“Do it, Jacob. Bash her head in,” Thomas Vandervoort cheered. Jacob Harcott reached down, grabbed Kiki by the throat with one giant hand, and lifted her off the ground.

“Your luck just ran out, leprechaun,” he sneered, clenching his free fist and rearing back to punch her in the face. Kiki didn't struggle. Instead, she looked him calmly in the eye and rammed her tiny foot into his gut. Jacob Harcott dropped her to the ground, clutching his wounded stomach.

“Who needs luck when you can do this?” asked Kiki as she landed on her feet. She spun around, jumped high in the air, and kicked him in the side of his massive head. His eyes rolled back and he crashed to the floor like a toppled statue.

Thomas Vandervoort leaped from the table and scurried toward the trapdoor that led to the warehouse above. Kiki was on him in no time. With one quick move of her feet, she tripped him and sent his body sliding across the floor.

“Going somewhere?” she asked as she stood over him.

“Don't hurt me!” Thomas Vandervoort begged, curling his body into a tight ball. His voice quivered as if he might cry, and a puddle of liquid began to form beneath his body.

“Oh, don't you worry your pretty little head. I'm an expert. This isn't going to hurt a bit.” She landed a karate chop on the base of his neck with surgical precision. Thomas Vandervoort's body went limp.

“All done, Ananka,” Kiki called out to me. “Want to give me a hand?”

I climbed out of the hole in the floor and walked across the opium den toward the two massive bodies.

“Are they dead?” I whispered, prodding Thomas Vandervoort's carcass with the toe of my sneaker.

“I'm dangerous, not homicidal. They're just unconscious. We're going to have to tie them up.” She grabbed a roll of duct tape from her bag and tossed it over to me. “Make sure you wrap their hands and feet tightly. And put a strip over their mouths as well. I don't want to listen to them blubbering like a couple of babies when they wake up.”

Luz, DeeDee, and Oona crawled into the opium den, and we wrapped Jacob Harcott and Thomas Vandervoort in miles of duct tape until they both resembled metallic mummies. Just as I finished placing a strip of duct tape over Jacob Harcott's mouth, his eyelids fluttered. He looked up at me, and a fat tear rolled onto his cheek.

“You big crybaby,” I whispered into his ear. “Now you know why your mother warned you not to hit girls. Sometimes they hit back.”

“Hey, everybody, I found Betty!” Oona called out behind me. She had moved one of the screens and was standing in front of a wooden cubbyhole. “She's out cold!”