The Empress's Tomb (10 page)

“Sorry, Princess, but the smell is only going to get worse from here,” I snipped. “That reminds me—did somebody get more rat-repellent from Iris?”

“Picked it up this afternoon,” said DeeDee. “She was upset that we didn't invite her to come tonight.”

My right hand tightened into a fist when I heard Oona snort behind me.

“Iris knows we couldn't invite her,” said Kiki. “Her parents are getting suspicious about all the time we've been spending in their basement. They want her to find friends her own age.” The hallway reached a dead end, and Kiki stopped in front of Augustus Quackenbush's
tomb. I caught a glimpse of the maze-dwelling monster carved into the side of the dead man's empty sarcophagus, and my skin erupted in goose bumps. “Okay. Everyone ready? Luz?”

Luz reached into her shopping bag and handed out packets of motion detectors.

“We have to split into pairs if we want to position them all tonight,” Kiki explained. “DeeDee, you're with me. Luz, you and Betty are a team. Oona, you're going with Ananka.”

“So how do these things work?” I examined one of the thin black disks, trying to hide my disappointment at being stuck with Oona for the evening.

“Simple. Each disk sends out an invisible infrared beam,” Luz explained. “If someone—
or something—
passes through the beam, an alarm goes off. These are the receivers.” We all were given small electronic gadgets that fit neatly in our palms.

“It looks like a GPS device,” said DeeDee. “You bought six of them? That must have cost a fortune.”

“I got them on eBay a while back. They were cheap 'cause they're old models, but they're easy to customize. They're programmed so that if one of our alarms goes off, the location of the tripped beam will flash on the screen.”

“Where do you want us to put all the sensors?” asked DeeDee.

“I made maps of the Shadow City for each of us,” I said. “Place a motion detector wherever you see a red dot. And whatever you do, don't forget to destroy your
maps before we leave tonight.” Even Oona nodded in agreement. In a town filled with homicidal princesses and kleptomaniac squirrels, keeping one map safe was hard enough.

We slid the heavy sarcophagus lid to one side. With her flashlight tucked into her waistband, Kiki climbed down the ladder that led from the coffin to a crude earthen tunnel below. Just as I started to follow behind her, Oona butted in front of me.

“I think you should let me go first,” she announced in a superior voice. “Kiki may need help picking a lock and the rest of you are hopeless with your hands.”

DeeDee let loose a quick, sharp stab of a laugh.

“Don't slip,” Luz mumbled murderously. Betty offered me the sort of sad-eyed smile one gives a person who's about to have a limb amputated. It seemed even she pitied me for being paired with Oona, who was still livid about Iris's prank and punishing the rest of us for witnessing it.

One by one, the Irregulars descended blindly into the gloom. One by one, our boots hit dirt and we fumbled for our flashlights. Finally, there were six spotlights swirling around the cramped passageway that Augustus Quack-enbush had built to smuggle stolen fabric from the graveyard to his nearby store. Never intended to survive to the twenty-first century, the passage was showing its age. Specks of earth sprinkled down from the ceiling, tree roots snatched at our hair, and by the time we reached the door to the larger tunnels of the Shadow City, we were already filthy. While Oona paused to brush herself
off, I forged ahead. I figured the only way to survive the evening was to act like a professional and hope Oona took the hint. Hurrying through the tunnels, I planted our motion detectors as quickly as possible. Rather than help, Oona dallied and dawdled, rooting through crates and checking coat pockets for coins.

“Come on, Oona.” I sighed when I caught her examining her nails in the beam of her flashlight. “I know you're mad, but we've got work to do. You can make me suffer when we're done.”

“You should have brought Iris,” Oona snapped without bothering to look up.
“She'd
never let you down.”

“I'm sorry Iris embarrassed you. But you've got to admit, you deserved it.” I could hear how cold my voice had become. “She's tired of being the butt of your jokes. And you know what, Oona? The rest of us are pretty sick of you, too. What kind of person picks on an eleven-year-old kid—or Betty, for that matter? It's like kicking puppies. And then you have the nerve to get offended when one of them fights back? I don't know what's wrong with you these days. You've always been a little rude, but lately you act like you were raised by wolves.”

“You think I'm rude?” Oona's voice wasn't angry. She sounded surprised, as if the thought had never occurred to her. “I thought I was just being honest.”

“People don't always need
you
to tell them the truth,” I told her, though I was already beginning to regret it. I'd wanted my words to feel like a slap, but instead I'd delivered a punch. “Be a little nicer, would you? We're
supposed to be your friends.” I turned my back to her and started for the next location. It wasn't until I was almost out of sight that Oona began to follow me.

An hour later we placed our last motion detector inside the tunnel that burrowed beneath the Lower East Side. As I zipped up my empty backpack, the beam of my flashlight passed across Oona's face and I saw that her eyes were red and swollen.

“The room where we found the little Chinese statue isn't that far away.” I tried to sound friendly. “Want to take a look?”

“Sure,” said Oona quietly.

“I think this was a stop on the Underground Railroad,” I explained once we stood in the room with the ten little beds. “There's an exit that leads to a synagogue on Bialystoker Place and a tunnel that stretches up to the riverbank. Someone was hiding slaves in the Shadow City and helping them escape to freedom.” I pointed to the rumpled bed. “We found the Chinese statue wrapped up in those sheets. Kiki sat on it.”

Oona's eyes skimmed across the bed, then came to rest on mine.

“I'm sorry I've been acting so awful. I know it's no excuse, but I've been under a lot of pressure.”

“What's bothering you?”

“I need to tell you guys something,” she confided. “But I haven't had a chance. First Kiki disappeared, then Luz got mugged, and then we found out someone's been in the Shadow City. Nobody's had time to listen to me. It's driving me crazy”

“I'm listening now,” I told her.

“I think I need your help.” She stopped. It was as if she'd admitted something shameful and had to work up the courage to continue. I saw her mouth open once more, but her voice was drowned out by a loud, insistent beeping. A bright red dot flashed on our receivers.

“Let's not worry about it,” Oona pleaded once we'd switched off the alarms. “One of the other girls must have accidentally set off a sensor.”

“I'm sorry, Oona. I know it's really bad timing, but we've got to check it out.”

I'd never seen Oona appear so utterly defeated. “See what I mean?” she asked.

•     •     •

As we raced through the tunnels, all thoughts of Oona's confession were left far behind. According to our receivers, the tripped motion detector was under Chinatown, not far from a familiar storeroom. Once a passage had linked the chamber to an old opium den, but the Irregulars had destroyed the connection in June after the Fu-Tsang gang had used it to access the Shadow City. As we drew closer to the storeroom, Kiki and DeeDee joined us, and we sprinted together until we came to a sudden stop a few yards short of our destination. Luz and Betty were already waiting for us on the scene.

“Holy moly,” whispered DeeDee. The storeroom was crammed with rats. Thousands of mangy creatures that hadn't been able to force their way into the chamber were crowded outside the door, craning their necks for a peek at what lay inside.

“I set off the alarm when we saw the rats,” Luz
explained. “Something's going on in there. I thought we should all check it out.”

“Good call. Ladies, it's time to freshen up.” Kiki passed around a bottle of Iris's rat-repelling perfume, and the stench grew stronger than a freshly fertilized field on a hot summer day. “Okay, follow me.” Kiki waded through the rodents, which squealed and scattered at the smell of her perfume. But though they kept a safe distance, this time they refused to run away.

Inside the storeroom, the biggest, most powerful beasts surrounded a cargo crate, gnawing at the wooden slats with superhuman concentration. A tiny hole had appeared in a corner of the crate, and one of the rats was on the verge of breaking through. He and his friends were not pleased to find six foul-smelling humans crashing their party. They backed away from the box and into the corners of the room, where they squealed loudly and gnashed their razor-sharp teeth.

“Whatever's in there must be pretty tasty,” said Luz. “They were ready to eat right through the box to get to it.”

“Let's see what we've got.” Kiki pulled off the lid of the crate.

Curled up inside was a boy, his thin legs tucked up against his chest. His clothing was filthy and tattered, and when the beam of a flashlight passed across his face, he mumbled deliriously.

“He's not speaking English, is he?” asked Betty.

“Sounds like Chinese.” Luz looked to Kiki and Oona. “What's he saying?”

“They speak more than one language in China,” said
Kiki. “I understand only Cantonese and a little Mandarin. He wasn't speaking either of them.”

“He was speaking Hakka.” Oona's face was as gray as cheap porcelain. “He said he wants to go home.”

“I'm sure he does,” I said. “But how did he get down here in the first place?”

“If we don't get him out of here, we may never find out,” said Kiki. “See the foam around his mouth? He's dehydrated. He may have been down here for days. We need to get him to a hospital.”

“No!” Oona shrieked, startling the rest of us.

“What do you mean,
no?”
Kiki snapped. “You want him to die?”

“We can't take him to the hospital,” Oona insisted. “He's an illegal alien. I'm sure of it. If you take him to the hospital, they'll send him back to China.”

“Maybe that's what he wants,” Betty suggested. “He did say he wants to go home.”

“If we can't go to a hospital, what are we supposed to do with him?” I asked Oona.

“We'll have to take him to my house.”

“Your house?” DeeDee's eyes were cartoon wide, but Kiki looked unfazed. She pulled Oona to the side.

“Are you
sure?”
Kiki asked quietly.

“Yes,” Oona insisted. “Mrs. Fei and the ladies will know what to do.”

“What ladies?” I asked, but they both ignored me.

“Everybody give your maps to Ananka and help me lift the boy out of the box,” Kiki ordered. “Ananka, find us an exit near Catherine Street.”

While I studied the map my mind remained stuck on one shocking thought. Kiki knew where Oona lived.

•     •     •

We emerged from the Shadow City in one of the hot, hellish restaurant kitchens tucked beneath the sidewalks of New York. Pipes gurgling with sewage and steam hung so low from the ceiling that even Kiki was forced to stoop. In one corner, two freakishly fat cats shared a mouse entrée while cockroaches the size of parakeets danced on the countertops. We crammed all seven of our bodies onto a rusty metal platform, and DeeDee punched a red button on the wall. Slowly, the freight elevator rose out of the basement, through a metal grate, and delivered us onto the sidewalk above. The Irregulars' logo glimmered beneath the streetlight. It was one o'clock in the morning, and Chinatown was sleeping. Yellow tape printed with the word
caution
flapped in the glassless windows of an abandoned building across the street. A demolition notice was posted on the door and a debris-filled Dumpster concealed all but the tip of a golden
i.
Sadly, I made a mental note to revise the map. Another entrance to the Shadow City would soon be gone for good.

With Oona leading the way, we carried the boy to the stoop of a decrepit tenement building that was covered in artless graffiti. Oona rang one of the buzzers.

“It's awfully late,” I whispered. “Don't you have your own key?”

“I don't need a key,” Oona said. “Someone's always up.” A few seconds later, a stunning woman in a tailored red suit and scarlet lipstick opened the front door. I
thought I detected the outline of a pistol under her suit jacket. She greeted Oona with a smile that shriveled when she saw the boy. She didn't bother asking for an explanation. Instead, she peered anxiously in both directions before ushering us into a barren hallway. There, she and Oona exchanged a few nervous words.

“We need to take him upstairs,” Oona announced to the rest of us.

“I thought Oona was an orphan,” Betty whispered as Kiki and Oona carried the boy to the second floor.

“I'm not an orphan.” Somehow, Oona had overheard. “But that woman isn't my mother. She's a bodyguard.”

“Bodyguard?” Betty mouthed silently.

At the top of the stairs was a single door. Oona's bodyguard unlocked it, and we stepped out of the dingy hallway and into a palace. Precious rugs covered the floors, and mahogany furniture upholstered in silk sat solidly against the walls, which were painted the color of the sky and decorated with images of delicate willow trees and preening peacocks. In the middle of the room stood four Chinese women. The oldest was dressed in simple black pajamas, while the rest wore long, brightly colored robes and embroidered slippers. The younger three flew into action the moment we appeared, like birds fluttering about a beautiful cage.