by Jude Watson
Within a few minutes, Shep pulled into a space in front of a small surf shop. Soon he was cheerfully directing them to the proper gear and slapping down a credit card. Now dressed in board shorts and tops, they followed him down to a wide beach with rolling high surf.
“The waves look awfully big,” Amy said.
Dan was glad that somebody besides him had said it.
“Don’t worry. Excellent lifeguards. Don’t wave if you get into trouble, just raise your arm. Hey, there are my surfies!”
Shep waved at a group that was passing around bottles of juice and sandwiches. They all looked tanned and athletic, both men and women, with sun-bleached hair like Shep’s. Surfboards were resting on the sand or stuck in it like standing stones.
“There he is!” one of the men called. “Took your time getting here, mate.”
“What have you got there, some shark biscuits?” another one called.
“Did they just call us shark food?” Amy asked, gulping.
“Don’t pay them any mind. Shark biscuit just means a beginner.” Shep strode forward. “These are my rellies Amy and Dan, and their au pair, Nellie. They’re going to learn how to surf like an Aussie.”
“Choice,” one of the girls said. “I’ve got a boogie board you can borrow.”
Shep grinned and tucked his board under his arm. “Come on, you three. I’ll give you a quick lesson. And don’t worry about the sharks — just stay between the flags.”
“Sharks,” Nellie muttered. “Better on a plate. Sauce on the side.”
They spent twenty minutes trying to get the hang of the boogie boards. Nellie caught on almost immediately, but Amy kept falling off and getting dunked in the surf. She’d wind up yards down the beach and come up sputtering, having swallowed half of the Pacific Ocean. Dan kept laughing at her and getting smacked in the face with a wave. It was the most fun he’d had since he’d Fed-Exed his dead spider collection to his piano teacher.
“I think you’ve got the hang of it now,” Shep told them after awhile. “If you don’t mind, I’ll paddle out with the long board for a bit.”
“I’m going to sunbathe,” Nellie said.
Nellie headed in, and Shep paddled out. Dan and Amy positioned themselves for the next wave. Amy pushed her hair out of her eyes and grinned. That worried look that made her eyebrows come together was gone. Dan caught a wave at the perfect point. He yodeled with happiness.
When he finally came into shore, he sprang up laughing. But his grin faded when he saw a family in matching bright yellow board shorts and blue goggles start to splash into the water with long surfboards.
Holts. Muscle-bound dimwits on parade.
Dan towed his board as he timed a swim out past the breakers to where Amy still lay on her board, rocking with the swells.
“We have company.”
Amy scanned the beach. “Oh, no. Quick, let’s—”
But it was too late. Eisenhower Holt had spotted them. He pointed a thick finger in their direction. “Game on!” he bellowed over the crashing surf.
“What do you think they want?” Dan asked. “Besides to drown us?”
“Hamilton wouldn’t,” Amy said uncertainly.
They had struck up a temporary alliance with Hamilton Holt in Russia. They’d even shared a Clue with him. But that didn’t mean they were friends.
“The Hammer is scared of his daddy,” Dan said. “I’m scared of his daddy. You can’t show fear to a Holt, though. They smell fear, and it tastes like chicken.” He smacked the surface of the water. “Bring it on!” he yelled back at Eisenhower.
Eisenhower flopped onto his board awkwardly, but as he began to paddle through the surf, he moved powerfully fast. “You owe us!” he yelled. “You sent us to Siberia! That wasn’t fun! Now we need some answers.”
“We gave you a clue!” Amy shouted.
“Big deal! We would have found it anyway!”
“Dream on!” Dan yelled. “You couldn’t find a clue if it bit you on the nose and hung on until Thursday!”
Eisenhower beckoned to his family. “Hit the waves, crew!” Reagan and her twin sister, Madison, jumped on their boards and began to paddle. Mary-Todd followed more slowly, eyeing the breaking surf. Hamilton brought up the rear.
“What should we do?” Amy bit her lip.
“Catch the next wave,” Dan said. “C’mon!”
They flipped over on their boogie boards and looked behind. A set of waves was approaching, and they paddled hard. But they couldn’t get up enough momentum. The first wave picked them up, but they ended up sliding over the lip instead of being carried toward the beach.
Eisenhower Holt emerged through the breaking wave, his powerful arms propelling him toward them. Within seconds, he had smashed his board into Dan’s. Dan felt himself flying off and hitting the water. When he came up for air, Eisenhower’s big hand was on his head. Dan felt himself going under again.
He came up sputtering.
“Stop it!” Amy shouted. She threw herself off her board and began pounding on Eisenhower’s leg. “He has asthma!”
Amy might have been a delicate frond of seaweed brushing his leg for all the attention he gave her pounding fists. Eisenhower ducked Dan again. Dan felt his lungs squeezing. When he came up, he hung on to Eisenhower’s board and panted. His own board floated nearby.
Eisenhower held his meaty palm over Dan’s head. “Give me a hint or he goes under.”
They had drifted down the beach and were closer to the big sets rolling in. A wave was forming.
“Dive,” Dan said to Amy.
“Dive?” Eisenhower asked. “What kind of a hint is—”
Dan and Amy dived. The last thing they heard was Mary-Todd screaming, “Honey, watch—”
Dan felt the powerful pull of the wave, but he was deep enough to escape it. He came up, taking a breath. Amy emerged next to him, treading water.
Eisenhower hadn’t had time to maneuver himself or dive. The wave smacked into him and took him, his surfboard flying in the air. They only saw flashes of bright yellow as he tumbled. A lifeguard stood up with binoculars, watching.
Eisenhower ended up on the beach, his face in the sand. Mary-Todd had caught the wave in, and she hurried toward him. Eisenhower got up, red with anger. He shook off Mary-Todd’s arm, struggled back to his board, and charged back into the surf. All the Holts began to power-paddle their way out to the breakers again. They moved like sharks, slicing through the water with grace and speed.
Shep paddled up to Amy and Dan, towing their boogie boards. “He got caught in the rinse cycle, all right. Deserved it, too. Does he think it’s funny to dunk a kid? Friend of yours?”
“A really obnoxious family we met on the plane,” Amy said. “Think you and your friends can out-maneuver them?”
“Seriously?” Shep said.
The rest of his surfing buddies came near as Shep gave a whistle. They paddled over in quick strokes.
“My rellies have a slight problem with those yellow tourists over there,” Shep said. “They’re trying to horn in on our territory, for one. And they’re a bit nasty, to boot.”
Shep’s friends all grinned. “Let’s go,” one of them said.
“I’ll catch you later,” Shep told his friends. He turned to Amy and Dan. “Just paddle along behind me. I’ll get you clear.”
They paddled behind Shep but couldn’t resist twisting to watch his friends. Three of them caught the next wave and headed straight for the Holts, who were paddling out to the break. With expert control of their boards, Shep’s friends plowed right through the group. Eisenhower fell off his board and came up sputtering. Amy saw Hamilton start to laugh, then quickly dive into a wave instead.
The surfers easily cut back over the wave and paddled out again. A red-faced Eisenhower swam after his board, shouting at his children and his wife.
The Holts spread out as another wave rolled in. Two of Shep’s friends paddled quickly. Amy lost sight of them as the wave curled, but in another mome
nt she saw them riding the wave … straight toward Eisenhower. Eisenhower’s eyes bugged out as he saw two surfers skimming down the wave at him. He tried to maneuver his board away, but it flipped over and flew into the air. They lost sight of Eisenhower until the shallow water, where he came up gasping. His board smacked him on the head.
Dan and Amy burst out laughing.
“All right, we’re going to catch this wave,” Shep said.
Amy gulped. The swell looked enormous. “That one?” she squeaked.
“Just paddle as fast as you can. Then ride this baby in. NOW!”
Amy dug her fingers into the sea, paddling as fast as she could. She felt the wave suck her backward. And then suddenly, she felt the lift as the wave caught her board and propelled her forward. Shep leaped to his feet and glided down the wave, shaking the water out of his hair.
Amy decided she wasn’t going to die. She heard Dan yell “Ya-hoo!” as the wave brought them in. She rolled off the board, her whole body tingling.
Amy scanned the ocean behind her. Reagan and Madison were paddling out. Mary-Todd was hanging on to the edge of her board. Hamilton was beyond the swells, rocking gently on the waves. When Eisenhower saw that Amy and Dan had hit the beach, he tried to turn around, but Shep’s friends ringed him on their long boards. He got hit in the face with another wave.
Shep’s friends waved good-bye as they headed up the beach. Nellie was already standing, waiting for them. Laughing, they ran to Shep’s Jeep. He tossed towels at them, still chuckling.
“Nothing like a band of surfies to teach some manners,” Shep said, satisfied.
CHAPTER 5
Irina Spasky sat on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. The roofline of the famous building surged forward, mimicking the dancing waves of the harbor. The sun was a golden disc in a sky as blue as a Fabergé egg. Tourists and locals walked by, contented people enjoying a lovely day in a beautiful city.
You are all doomed, she thought.
If she were to stop these people and ask Where are you from? — although of course she would never be so friendly—the answers would be easy. Sydney, Tokyo, Manila, Los Angeles. Tourists from so many cities and small towns in so many countries. Sometimes their countries got along, and sometimes their countries did not, and that was why there were governments and diplomats and, occasionally, wars. That’s the way the world worked. They thought.
But where did the real power lie? In the shadows. In the shadows, there were no borders. Everything dissolved into gray.
For a Cahill, countries and boundaries were meaningless. Only branches mattered. One branch could rule the world.
Blin! Irina had come to grudgingly admit that Grace had done it after all. She had contrived a way to find the 39 Clues. A hunt that had been going on for hundreds of years, but at last it would be over. Irina had little doubt of it now. She felt it in her Russian bones.
Then what?
Irina had always believed with every cell in her body that the Lucians were best equipped to win. She had believed in Vikram Kabra once. But the years had corrupted that bright young man she’d known at Oxford. He had met the beautiful Isabel and married her. Once upon a time, if those two walked into a room, it seemed to shine and spin with their particular dazzle. Irina remembered days and nights of falling under their spell—Vikram’s warm voice, his keen intelligence, Isabel’s shrewdness and humor.
Once upon a time … yes, every fairy tale began that way.
When she’d met them, she’d already been a KGB agent for two years. She’d joined the KGB at sixteen — their youngest operative — and had been trained and educated to become an exchange student at Oxford. She had met Vikram, and they’d become friends almost immediately.
Irina hadn’t known it, but she was a Cahill. She had been recruited by the KGB because she was a Cahill. Her superior had also been a Lucian, and she had been sent to Oxford, where Vikram had been waiting.
It had been Vikram who had shown her the Cahill world, told her about the Lucians. She had continued in the KGB, but as the years went on, she did more and more jobs for Isabel and Vikram as they ascended the ranks of the Lucian elite.
She had believed in them. She had believed in their ruthlessness. She’d believed in her own. It was necessary. The Lucians must win at any cost.
And then just a few days ago, she’d almost killed two people who got in her way.
Amy and Dan Cahill. Children.
What had become of her?
Irina put a finger on her twitching eye, but it would not stop jumping.
Irina stared at the bright, pretty world. She was not used to having doubts. They made a person feel so … unmoored.
Right now she had a job. Amy and Dan were in Sydney. Isabel herself had gone with the Lucian team to tail them from the airport. It had been years since Isabel had acted as an agent, and it was typical of her to jump in and risk the careful planning. Her ego came into play, as it always did. She wanted to prove that she was still an expert at disguise. So she’d pretended to be an elderly woman, and then, just for fun, she’d stolen Amy’s jade necklace. Which meant she had to leave the bus, which meant that now Irina had a problem. She had no idea where Dan and Amy were staying, and Isabel snapping Find them! in her face wasn’t helping.
What was Isabel up to? The fact that she’d actually left her mansion in London to fly all the way here was troubling. Isabel and Vikram liked to control things from afar. Isabel claimed that jet lag gave her wrinkles.
Not that you have to worry about such things, she’d told Irina with a laugh. Obviously, you don’t care about your appearance.
This was true, but it was still insulting. Once, Irina had been attractive. Some had called her beautiful. One person in particular.
Irina’s eye twitched. That was long ago.
So much had gone wrong in Russia. Amy and Dan, she was sure, had found the Clue. She’d been certain that they were being helped, but still…. What they were able to accomplish on their own … Dan on that motorcycle! Amy driving a car! Irina quirked her lips, but she didn’t allow the smile to escape.
She rose to her feet. Enough. She had a duty to do. If only the memories would stop! A little boy walked by between his parents, clutching a stuffed animal, something gray … a monkey? No, a puppy. It was only a puppy.
Irina felt the nerve in her eye shiver, and she reached up a hand to still it. A group of young people thought she was waving to them, and they waved back.
Scowling, she jammed her black sunglasses on. How she hated Australia! It was such a cheerful country.
CHAPTER 6
It was hard to imagine, but it was still afternoon. Jet lag was beginning to set in. But there was so much still to talk about. Shep made tea, and they sat around a table on the patio off the kitchen area. The exhilaration of out-surfing the Holts had drained away. Now they wanted answers.
Saladin jumped up on Shep’s lap. Shep stroked him absentmindedly as he talked.
“I did get the idea that Art and Hope’s visit was more than a pleasure trip,” he said. “I guess Art was doing some sort of mapping connected to his mathematical genius thing. He was always interested in geography as a kid. Always poring over maps. It’s strange how I was the one who traveled the world. I think he liked going places in his head.” Shep smiled. “Not your mother, though. She was ready for anything.”
“So where did they go?” Amy asked.
“Normally, I’d space that kind of thing out,” Shep admitted. “I fly a lot of people a lot of places, you see. That’s what I do for a living — I fly tourists around the outback. But that trip, I remember. Let’s see … I flew them to Adelaide, dropped them off for a few days while I went on to Perth. Then I flew back, picked them up, and we all went up to the Top End. Darwin. Hey, I bet I still have their itinerary. Lucky for you, I’m the original pack rat. I don’t throw anything away.”
Gently, Shep dropped Saladin on Dan’s lap and got up. Through the open door, they could see him rummaging in on
e of the colorful bins. “Well, would you look at this,” he muttered, tossing away a tennis racket. “That’s where that went. Never could stand tennis. Now, I know it’s in here someplace…. Aha!”
Shep came back, a battered leather jacket over one arm and a thick book in the other. He handed the jacket to Amy. “Here’s something of your mother’s. She picked it up at a vintage shop in Darwin. At the last minute she left it with me. She said she had enough baggage to carry. Sure she would want you to have it.”
It was warm on the patio, but Amy let the weight of the jacket remain on her lap. Her fingers ran over the leather. Her mother had picked this out. Slipped her arms in the sleeves. Amy would hug it if she could, but she was too embarrassed.
Shep held up the book. “This is my logbook from that year. Let’s see now …” He leafed through it. “I thought so. They gave me an itinerary, just in case, they said. Here.” He held out a piece of paper. Amy recognized her mother’s neat handwriting in the purple ink she liked to use.
“They went to all these places?” Amy asked.
“Round-the-world trip, I guess,” Shep said.
Dan peered over her shoulder. “How come Sydney isn’t there? And Adelaide?”
“I guess I was the pleasure part of the trip,” Shep said with a grin.
Amy put her finger on Miami. “I remember now!” she exclaimed. “They brought us along on the first part of the trip. We stayed in a hotel on the beach. Dan, you were only about three. Grace came with us, too. I remember crying so hard when they left. I thought I’d never see them again….”
Amy’s voice trailed off. She remembered her six-year-old self crying as though her heart would break, feeling abandoned. She’d been holding Grace’s hand, and it scared her when she saw that Grace was crying, too. Grace never cried. They had stood in the lobby of the hotel, watching through the glass doors as her parents climbed into a taxi. She remembered that glass wall between them, so that no matter how hard she cried her mother couldn’t hear her.
“I don’t remember a thing,” Dan said.
“No, you were too young,” Amy said. “They were gone for a long time — I mean, it seemed long, but it was probably about a month. Grace stayed with us.” Amy had a sudden memory of Grace sitting at the window, looking out at the yard. Her grandmother had looked so worried. To Amy, it seemed that Grace had felt exactly as she did, lonely and scared. She had climbed into Grace’s lap. They’ll be home soon, Grace had murmured against her cheek.