by Jess Keating
I kept my mouth shut, hoping she’d continue. It was one of the tips that Mary herself had taught me about getting information out of people. Usually, she said, if you stay quiet, people will keep talking to avoid the silence.
Unfortunately, Mary was wise to her own tricks. But I wasn’t buying it. I hadn’t imagined that scared look on her face or the phony perky attitude. She might be able to read people, but she couldn’t act as well as Grace or Charlie.
“You don’t seem it, that’s all.” I kept pushing. I knew I should drop it, but more than anything, I wanted Mary to know that if she was afraid, I was here for her, along with the rest of the team.
Mary sped up, moving in step beside me. “You know how I feel about this place,” she admitted. “Every time I return to London, it reminds me. Of them.”
My heart dropped. “Your parents,” I said. I’d forgotten that Mary had lived in England for a brief time as a child, before her parents passed away. “I’m sorry.”
She laughed easily. “It’s fine, Nikki! You don’t need to worry about me! Honestly, I think I’m a little freaked out about the whole virus thing,” she said. A small flutter of relief appeared on her face, reddening her cheeks.
“Oh,” I said, bowing my head. Who wouldn’t be scared of a deadly virus?
“Well, that makes two of us.” I decided to lighten the mood. “But, hey, you have to admit, some superhuman strength would be pretty awesome at times, right? Even if it’s only temporary! Think of it, we could fight crime like the Avengers, with our muscly arms flexed for the world to see!” I flexed my arms playfully and made a face.
Mary giggled. “I don’t know if I’d like wearing those tight leather pants they always make superheroes wear,” she mused.
“True,” I said. “I bet they’re terrible in the summer. Think of the sweat!” I barked out a laugh, causing Grace to swivel her head around curiously behind her to see what all the noise was about.
“Right this way.” A man at the entrance to the dark room that held the Crown Jewels beckoned us forward.
The first things I noticed were the luxurious navy blue walls. They gave the entire room a solemn, stuffy vibe and focused our attention on the main event.
“Whoa,” Bert said. He shoved his glasses higher up on his nose, blinking in awe. “There they are! Billions of dollars worth of rocks and metal.”
The jewels were artfully arranged in a glass display case, with lush red velvet pedestals beneath them. There were scepters, orbs, and glittering crowns studded with rubies, sapphires, and more diamonds than I’d ever seen, lit from all angles to show off every sparkle and flicker of light.
“Did you know that the oldest jewel here is over eight hundred years old?” Charlie babbled. She was talking up a storm, but it was all an act. Her feet moved artfully around the other tourists, navigating herself to the north side of the room with Leo.
“Nah,” Leo said, winking at me. “It doesn’t look a day over five hundred.”
In case you’re wondering, it is very difficult to look innocent when you’re searching for suspicious people. Usually, you can busy yourself pretending to take pictures with your phone, but cameras aren’t allowed in that room. Instead, we had to talk about the display in front of us like regular tourists, while still keeping a close watch on everybody else in the room.
“Do you see that diamond there?” Mary asked loudly enough to be mistaken for an obnoxious tourist. “The one in the middle of that purple crown?”
“Yeah,” I said. “What about it?” I pretended to be super interested. It wasn’t actually hard; billion-dollar diamonds two feet from your face are hard to ignore. Part of me wanted to break the glass and see if I could steal it, just because it was so shiny. Think of all the treats I could buy for Pickles with that kind of money!
“That’s the Koh-i-Noor diamond,” Mary said. Her eyes met mine briefly but then darted over my shoulder as she kept track of what was going on behind me. I followed her lead.
“It was supposedly first discovered in India, in the fifteenth century. It’s one of the largest cut diamonds in the world. One hundred and five point six carats.”
“That’s one giant diamond. Wanna steal it?” I snickered.
Mary’s eyes widened. “Don’t make jokes like that around here! The Beefeaters take this stuff very seriously!”
“Why do they call ’em Beefeaters?” I glanced at the stern-faced guard by the door. “You’d think they should be protecting the world’s most valuable T-bone.”
The guard shook his head at my direction, his mouth pinching with annoyance. Clearly these guards couldn’t take a joke.
“Oh, come on,” I said, turning my attention back to the rest of the room, still searching for our suspect. “That rock would be a nice little souvenir from this field trip of ours …”
Mary grinned devilishly. “It’s cursed, anyway, so you probably don’t want it.”
That got my attention. I shifted my weight on my hip and crossed my arms, still searching behind her. “For real?”
She nodded. “It’s beautiful, right? And huge! Because of that, lots of people wanted it. It’s surrounded by myth. Some say it was a gift to the earth from Surya, the sun god.”
“That was nice of her,” I mused, still scanning the room. Making quick eye contact with Grace across the room, I gave my head the tiniest of shakes while she did the same.
No sign of Victor anywhere.
“Others say it was stolen from the god Krishna while he was sleeping, and that it has magical powers,” Mary continued. “Throughout history, it’s been fought over, stolen, and lost repeatedly. It’s now said that its owner will be granted power and the ability to rule the world, but that it will ultimately bring them only misfortune and death. And get this.” Mary pointed to the diamond again. “It’s only for men.”
I turned back to her and rolled my eyes. “Of course it is. Sexist diamond.”
“No, not the magical powers,” Mary said. She crossed her arms over her chest. “The curse. While it jinxes all men who possess it, it’s believed that the Koh-i-Noor diamond actually protects the women who wear it.”
“Now that’s a diamond I can get behind!” I said. “We should definitely lift it.”
I thought Mary would laugh at my antics, but instead her mouth dropped open. A small lock of her hair had drifted over her face, but she didn’t seem to notice. She was too busy staring at something—or someone—behind me.
I froze. “What is it?” I asked through gritted teeth. “Did you spot Victor?”
Refusing to blow our cover at such a crucial moment, I held my breath and shifted on my heel. Forcing myself to turn as slowly as possible, I prepared myself for trouble.
Mary’s cheeks went pale, but she immediately shook her head, pulling herself back to the moment. “No,” she said quickly. Her eyes narrowed, and she ducked her head slightly to the left, shifting to get a better view of something behind me. “It’s just that … you know what? It’s nothing.”
I followed her gaze. Her weird, blank expression was hard to shake. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost, Mary.”
I scanned the crowd for our suspicious-looking perp but found only young families, elderly retirees, and a few middle-aged women making their way out of the jewel room and back to the main hallway.
“I thought I saw someone I recognized, that’s all!” Mary said, grabbing my shoulders and whirling me around. “Let’s keep looking.”
“Well, who was it, then?” I demanded. “You can’t go all blank-faced like a robot and expect me not to notice.” When I glanced in the direction she’d been looking, something caught my attention: a flash of brown hair, darting past a velvet rope that cordoned off an exit the Beefeaters weren’t guarding.
Too fast, too out of place.
“Did you see that guy?” I took a step toward the spot where the man had been, waiting to see if he’d make another appearance. “He was alone. Brown hair and about the right height.”
I closed my eyes for a second, trying to remember the image I’d seen.
I hit the small transmitter above my ear. One of my own audio-visual inventions—a GeckoDot—that allowed the team to communicate verbally and visually with one another while we were in the field. “Grace,” I said. “I think it was him.”
Mary stood taller, shifting on her feet. In each corner of the room, my friends all turned to face me.
“Where?” Grace’s voice sounded loud and clear in my ear.
“He snuck out an off-limits exit; I’m not sure how he avoided the guard’s attention. But we’re not meant to go past that rope. And he did. Grace …” I clenched my fists. My desperation rose by the second. What if he got away before we could tag him? “He already has a head start. We need to go after him.” I spoke through my teeth so the guards wouldn’t hear me or read my lips. “Now.”
Grace shook her head. “Whether or not he’s ignoring visitor rules here, we can’t be caught for doing the same. If we’re caught, the mission fails. If we miss him, we miss him. We’ll have to find him somewhere else. We should go outside to track him there.”
Grace was right. And she was the team’s leader. We all trusted her with our lives, and she’d never given me any reason to doubt her instincts. But something in my gut was telling me to follow the guy, anyway.
I huffed angrily and looked to the others for help. Charlie, Bert, and Mo all stared grimly at me. And Mary was ever so slightly shaking her head in agreement with Grace. She even reached out like she might grab me if I made a move.
Anger rushed through me. “Guys, this isn’t the time to be timid! The more I think about it, the more I know he matched the description. And he was acting suspicious, leaving from the other exit like that.” I lowered my voice, but my urgent tone was bristly and sharp. “Please let me go after him. I can spray him while the rest of you distract the guards. There’s no way he’ll see me if the six of you do your jobs correctly.”
I knew I was crossing a line with that last remark, but I swallowed down my guilt. Why didn’t Grace understand? We were this close to finding Victor and might not get another chance.
“Sorry, Tesla,” Grace said. She took a step toward me, but at that moment, another flash of black denim appeared in the corner of the room.
“That’s him!” I hissed. The man had ducked through the door that he’d left a few seconds earlier. “Right there!” I balled my hands into fists and practically stomped my foot to get their attention. I wasn’t exactly being casual, but I couldn’t let Victor get away from us a second time.
Then something eerie happened. Almost as though he could sense me talking about him, the man turned and stared directly into my eyes.
My breath caught in my chest, and I jumped at the touch of Mary’s fingers on my wrist. She’d seen the way he was looking at me, too.
“Stay put,” Grace instructed. “I’m going over there.”
I could feel my face turning hot. “No,” I said. “You won’t make it in time. He’s onto us.”
As the man started to duck behind the door again, he turned back to stare at me once more. He flashed the hint of a smile, then disappeared.
I jerked my head back in surprise.
This dude was toying with us!
I couldn’t let him get away with it. It had to be a warning. If I didn’t tag him today, I knew he’d be gone without a trace. He was smirking because he thought he had us beat already, that we couldn’t stop him from selling Spark to the highest bidder or unleashing it on an unsuspecting public himself.
“I’m going after him,” I said, and this time, I meant it.
Protests erupted in my ear. But I was already following my suspect as he wound his way through the tight stone corridors, away from the jewel room and the other tourists.
Behind me, a commotion began. It wasn’t angry guards chasing after me; it was the raucous sounds of Mo and Charlie wailing. Even though I’d ignored Grace’s orders, they were creating a distraction for me, anyway. I made a mental note to thank them, and the extra gratitude for my friends gave me the boost of energy I needed to move even faster.
“Wait!” The voice behind me caught me by surprise.
Mary!
I reached my hand back to yank her toward me, hauling her along. “We’ve almost got him! He went this way.” I ducked under a construction barrier and kept chasing Victor through the castle, willing my legs to move faster. The air got colder as we wound around damp hallways and corridors, bumping into walls worn with time. Quick flashes of his black jacket and shoes were enough to tell me that we were catching up.
A smile grew on my face as we raced up a stone staircase. “He’s running out of places to go,” I panted. “We’ve almost got him. Get ready!”
Mary let out a scared whimper behind me but kept pace.
Following the man around a final corner, I skidded to a stop. Dust clogged the air, and there was a distinct smell of mold and damp earth.
“Where’d he go?!” Mary asked. She whipped her head around, checking the small window slits for any sign of him.
It was like walking a plank. One minute, I had steady ground beneath me, the next, my stomach plummeted.
My suspect was gone.
“He was right here!” I shouted, gripping the small canister of aerosolized tracker paint that Martha had left each of us. “There’s literally nowhere else he could have gone! How did we lose him?!”
Mary wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve. “Maybe he took a quick turn we didn’t see? Or …” Her voice trailed off. She looked to the tiny windows.
“No.” I shook my head. “There’s no way he jumped out there.”
“Grace,” Mary called over her GeckoDot. “He’s not here.”
My hand whipped to my ear when Grace didn’t answer, sending my stomach sinking with disappointment once again. My own GeckoDot must have fallen off while I was running, but Mary was still able to communicate with the team.
“Uh-huh,” Mary said, answering Grace. “No. Completely gone.”
Mary’s mouth tightened into a thin line. Whatever Grace was saying, I was glad I couldn’t hear it for once. It wasn’t the first time I’d disobeyed her orders, but this time definitely felt like the worst.
And I hadn’t even successfully tagged my suspect to make up for it.
I pored over every inch of the room, desperate for a small closet, trunk, or anywhere the man could have hidden. But there was nothing.
“It’s fine,” Mary said, still talking to the others. “We’ll meet you all outside. Yes, I know.” Mary stared at me. They were talking about me now. “No, she’s okay, too. I’ll tell her. Wait …”
The abrupt change in Mary’s tone made me twitch. I picked myself up from where I was inspecting the floor for a secret exit and looked at her.
She stood ramrod straight, with her arm outstretched and pointed toward the window.
“There’s something here …” Her voice was barely a whisper.
I crept over to where she was pointing. How had I missed the small black candle, flickering on the narrow windowsill?
Peering at the candle more closely, disappointment swept over me. It wasn’t the only thing I’d missed. A small, folded piece of paper sat tucked on its side against the window. Easily overlooked, if not for the candle acting as a beacon.
“It’s a note,” Mary repeated to the others. “Hang on. Nikki, be careful.”
I took my time picking the note up from the ledge, ensuring there were no traps or hidden mechanisms. But it was a regular piece of paper. A stamped glob of black wax sealed the note shut. Some sort of lightning-shaped pattern stared back at me.
Taking care not to damage the image, I carefully pried the note open, lifting the wax in one piece.
“She’s reading it.” Mary continued to narrate my movements for the others.
I’d already been twitching with exertion
from our chase, but the minute I began to read the note, a whole new set of tremors started to build in my body.
“We’ve got a problem,” I croaked. A sharp pain stabbed my chest, right above my heart. Handing the note to Mary, I wished I could go back in time—back to the jewel room, back to Costa Rica, anywhere that wasn’t here, where my entire team was in immediate danger.
Mary read the note. She exhaled slowly, with one long shaky breath. “Grace.” She blinked at me, shaking her head. “You need to get out of there as fast as you can.”
I could hear vague mumbling coming from the others from Mary’s GeckoDot. They were demanding answers before they left in a hurry.
“Just do it!” Mary screamed. “It’s a setup! GET OUT NOW!”
But it was too late. The sudden rumble beneath our feet made the mortar and dust from the stones above us crumble over our heads, like floating ash from a volcano.
“Was that an explosion?!” I gasped, gripping Mary’s arm tight. My bones seemed to shake inside my body with the force of the blast. “Are they okay?!”
Mary snatched the note from me and held it to the light, scrutinizing it like it might suddenly catch fire. The taunting words were still etched into my mind. Words I never thought I’d see after chasing a random stranger through an ancient castle in London. Words written by someone who had just blown up the Tower of London.
There was no time for questions. Three things were clear to me:
The man I’d chased through the Tower had left us the note. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he’d known we were going to be here today looking for him.
Whoever he was, he’d somehow managed to set off a bomb in the Tower of London.
Worst of all: I’d really messed up.
No, “messed up” didn’t cover it. I’d completely and utterly failed in what felt like the most colossal way possible.
Mary and I managed to follow a smoky trail of corridors back to the grounds of the castle, where we were hoping beyond hope to meet the others in one piece.