by Aimee Carter
“Not yet,” she said. “No need, when we’re letting them in and treating them like guests now.”
“I don’t know why anyone ever would,” said Winter, making a face. “It’s the kind of place you escape from, not escape to.”
“Good. Hate it all you want, if that means you’ll stay away.”
“It’s not that bad,” said Jam quickly. “You’re only seeing the parts of it that strangers are supposed to see. It isn’t supposed to look inviting on the outside. That’s the whole point. But you saw the rooms in the compound—they’re full of art and color.”
“Your rooms, maybe,” muttered Winter under her breath. Jam either didn’t hear her or ignored her.
“Most of the other kingdoms think we’re cold or heartless or—or soulless,” he continued. “But that’s because they never look long enough to see who we are beyond the military. Like—here.”
He moved toward a door that blended in seamlessly with the gray building beside them. There was a small unadorned sign beside it reading WHITE SHARK CAFÉ. Just as he reached for the handle, Simon hesitated.
“Are you sure we can go in there?” he said.
“Trust me,” said Jam, and he pushed open the door.
Inside was nothing like the sterile eating hall Simon expected. Instead, the small café was crammed with worn armchairs, sofas, and rickety tables shoved into every nook and cranny, with a colorful chalkboard displaying the day’s specials—along with a handful of shark jokes—hanging behind the counter. A woman in a blue apron greeted them warmly, and as Jam ordered them all hot cocoas, Simon lingered in the background.
Every inch of wall space was covered in art. Not the kind of fancy, expensive art the reptiles might have hung, but rather homemade drawings, cartoons, even some graffiti. There was a small stage, and Simon spotted a schedule advertising open mic night, a poetry slam, and an acoustic singer.
“This is incredible,” he said, gratefully accepting the hot cocoa Jam handed him. The ceiling was dominated by a large painting of the Pacific Ocean, and he spotted various sea creatures—real and mythical—among the waves. “Are you sure this isn’t part of the reptile kingdom?” he joked.
“We’ve got some color, too,” said Jam proudly, looking around. “No one’s on duty all the time.”
“Except maybe the General,” said Nixie, glaring at them from over the rim of her drink.
Jam cleared his throat. “The point is, our kingdom is like the ocean. You don’t really see us unless you look beneath the surface. We’re not robots. Not everyone here likes art or music or reading, but there’s other stuff hidden away that they like. The gardens, the planetarium—”
“You have a planetarium underwater?” said Simon as half a dozen uniformed men and women strode into the café. At first he felt a pang of fear at the possibility that they were after him and Winter, but they all headed to the counter to order.
“Something like that,” said Jam with a surprising grin. “Want to see it?”
Seeing the sights was the last thing they should have been doing, but Simon couldn’t very well bring up their real mission in front of Nixie, Nolan, and Pearl. So, with more reluctance than he should’ve been showing when faced with the prospect of an underwater planetarium, Simon nodded while Pearl squealed and hugged Nolan’s arm.
“You’ll love it there. It’s the best place in the whole city.”
Nixie rolled her eyes. “You really think it’s better than the gardens?”
“Just because you’re weird and like gardening rocks doesn’t mean the rest of us do,” said Pearl nastily. But when she turned back to Nolan, any trace of agitation was gone. “And maybe after, we can come back here and share a cupcake.”
How Nolan managed not to burst out laughing baffled Simon, but he was careful not to look Jam’s way, lest he accidentally lose it.
The planetarium wasn’t far from the café, and as they headed toward the center of the city, Simon looked around at the buildings surrounding them. Maybe it wasn’t so bad here after all. As dull and gloomy as it might have seemed inside the dome, they were still underwater—actually underwater—and as Simon looked up, he saw a gray whale lazily making its way through one of the tubes that served as highways through the dome.
“Look,” he said, nudging Winter. She glanced upward, and while he thought he saw a flicker of interest in her eyes, it disappeared almost immediately, replaced by the bored look he’d seen her wear so often.
“Let me know when you see a narwhal,” she muttered.
Simon didn’t let her bad mood sour his. He still would have rather been on the surface, but as they walked down the street, he asked Jam what each building held. Most were offices or places where members of the underwater kingdom lived, but Jam also pointed out his favorite bookshop and an art studio one of his sisters frequented.
Finally they reached the squat stone planetarium. At this early hour, it was practically empty, and as Jam paid the entrance fee for them all, Felix poked his head out of Simon’s pocket. “This is your big tourist attraction?”
“It gets busy after morning drills are done,” said Jam as he handed out their tickets. “Lots of people come here to eat lunch, or to relax during their free hour.”
“You get a whole free hour?” said Winter.
“Every day,” said Pearl, apparently oblivious to her sarcasm. She and Nolan led the way down a sloping passageway that seemed to lead under the city itself, while Winter followed, looking about as disgusted with their handholding as Simon felt. Behind her trailed Nixie, and while Simon’s interest was now piqued, he joined Jam at the rear and let their pace slow as they fell farther and farther behind, until at last the others had disappeared around a corner.
“We need to look for the piece,” whispered Simon as soon as he was sure he and Jam were alone. “Do you think your father would have hidden it in Atlantis?”
“I don’t know,” said Jam. “It’s possible, but I don’t think so. The compound is too obvious, and it wouldn’t be secure anywhere else in the city. At least in the ocean, there wouldn’t be much of a chance of anyone accidentally finding it.”
“Do you think he would have left some kind of record of where he put it?” said Simon.
“I—” Jam squirmed. “I don’t know.”
“If you’d left me behind, I could have looked for you,” said Felix casually, cleaning his whiskers. “But no, you couldn’t trust me not to get into trouble.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s that I don’t trust everyone else not to eat you,” said Simon, glancing around the narrow corridor. “Is there any way out of here?”
Jam hesitated. “There’s a tunnel that leads out past the edge of Atlantis. It’ll get us into open water far away enough that none of the patrols will catch us. But what are we going to do out there, Simon? Scour the whole ocean?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “We have to at least look. Maybe my mother left a clue in her postcards, and something we see triggers it. Or maybe there’s a trail we have to follow. We won’t know until we get out there.”
Jam grimaced. “If you go missing even for a minute, the General will—”
“What? Throw me out of Atlantis?” said Simon. “I’ve been in trouble before. If we get caught, we’ll figure something out, but we have to at least try. This might be the only shot we have.”
Gripping a handful of his blond hair, Jam began to pace. “Okay, all right. We’ll look. But what about Winter?”
“We have to ditch her,” said Simon. Jam’s eyes widened behind his glasses, and as he started to protest, Simon hastily added, “I don’t like it, either, but we don’t have a choice.”
“But—she’ll murder us if we leave her behind.”
“No, she won’t. Your sister won’t let her out of her sight, and she knows how important this is—”
“How important what is?”
Nixie appeared from around the corner, a devious look in her eyes. Simon clammed up.
“How important it is for this summit to happen,” lied Jam smoothly—so smoothly, in fact, that Simon nearly did a double take. “And with the way you’re treating Winter, we’re worried she’s going to throw a fit and leave, taking Malcolm and Ariana with her.”
His sister stared at them, and Simon couldn’t decide if she believed Jam or not. “It’s not my fault she’s delicate,” she finally said.
“After the summit falls through, make sure to phrase it exactly like that when the General asks why you were torturing her,” said Jam.
Nixie’s expression darkened. “I’m not torturing her—”
“You’re being rude and bullying her for being a reptile. She gets enough of that at the L.A.I.R., and if you keep this up, they’ll all be gone before dinner.”
She took a threatening step toward them. “You’re not the boss of me.”
Jam squared his shoulders, rising to his full height—which was still several inches shorter than Nixie. “I will be one day,” he said, his voice trembling slightly. “And I don’t care if you’re my sister. If you treat my friends badly now, you’ll regret it later.”
Nixie hesitated, and although she rolled her eyes a split second later, Simon thought she didn’t look as certain as she had before. “Fine. I’ll try to remember she can’t take a joke.”
That was, as far as Simon could tell, the best they would get from her, and Jam nodded. The boys exchanged a look as the three of them headed down the dim hallway. The tunnel would have to wait until no one was watching. But how long would that take? They couldn’t count on luck. Even if they managed to scour the ocean floor every waking hour for the next two weeks, their chances of finding the piece were practically zero.
He would have to examine the postcard his mother had sent him as soon as they returned, Simon decided. Maybe there was a clue he’d missed. Maybe—
Lost in his thoughts, Simon almost didn’t notice when they entered the planetarium. It was only the change in temperature that alerted him, and as soon as he realized where he was, he stopped dead in his tracks.
They’d stepped inside a cool, damp cavern that was at least two stories high. There was no artificial light, as far as Simon could tell—instead, the walls and soaring ceiling emitted a soft blue luminescent light that seemed to come from the rock itself. Dumbfounded, Simon craned his neck to get a good look and walked toward the center of the cavern. “What is that?” he said. “It looks like someone opened a giant glow stick and—”
“Stop!” cried Pearl, and Simon froze at the edge of a shallow pool of crystal-clear water. Looking down at where he’d been about to step, he gulped and carefully he set his foot back down on the shore. He’d come within half an inch of crushing a starfish.
It wasn’t the only starfish, either. Hundreds of them lounged in the pool, clinging to rocks and submerged in the water. While Simon couldn’t see their eyes—wasn’t even sure they had them—he could practically feel them all giving him dirty looks.
“Oh.” He blinked. “Starfish. Planetarium. I get it now.”
Jam cleared his throat. “They prefer ‘sea stars,’ actually. Get a little touchy about not being fish.”
“Right,” said Simon, and to the shallow pool he added, “Sorry. Sea stars.”
“The General created this sanctuary for them after the population started to dwindle around Atlantis,” chimed in Pearl. “They’re free to go whenever they want, but most of them spend their days here, safe from predators, and we feed them.”
“They can push their stomachs out of their bodies,” added Nixie, nudging one of the five-legged creatures with her toe. “It’s really cool to watch.”
Winter made a face while Nolan said, “Why is the ceiling glowing?”
“Bioluminescent bacteria,” said Pearl cheerfully. “Isn’t it beautiful?”
“Pretty sure that’s the first time anyone’s ever called bacteria beautiful,” said Winter, plopping down on a long, flat rock that served as a bench, but her eyes were focused on the blue glow. Even she couldn’t hide her awe.
Simon sat beside her and waited until the others had gone over to the other side of the cavern to inspect a particularly colorful sea star. Once they were out of earshot, he wrapped his arm around her, figuring she needed it about as much as he did right now.
“Jam and I are going to look for the piece,” he said quietly. “We’d take you with us, but—”
“I can’t breathe underwater, and Nixie won’t let me out of her sight,” muttered Winter, slumping her shoulders.
He bit his lip. “Jam told Nixie to lay off. If she tries to bully you again, act like you’re going to take the first submarine back to the surface, okay?”
She nodded warily. “Do you know where it is?”
“Not yet. Do you think you could distract them long enough for us to sneak out?”
They bent their heads together and whispered until the others returned to their side of the cave. Simon’s arm was still around Winter, and Nixie stopped a foot in front of them, snorting.
“Figures. You two are perfect for each other.”
Simon dropped his arm, and Winter stood, going toe to toe with Nixie, who was a good six inches taller than her. “What’s your problem? Are you so miserable you can’t stand to see anyone else happy?”
Nixie’s eyes widened for a split second, but her scowl snapped back into place as quickly as it’d disappeared. “You’re my problem, snake breath. Your grandfather’s done nothing but make our lives miserable. I’m one of the deadliest predators in the ocean, but I can’t leave Atlantis without an escort because there are birds on the beaches and reptiles like you in the ocean. If anything happens with another Animalgam, the General swears it will be enough to start a war, and—”
“And you think that’s my fault?” said Winter, standing on her tiptoes and shoving her face in Nixie’s. “You think that somehow, I can wave my magic wand and fix it for you? Maybe if your General weren’t such a jerk, your relationships with the other kingdoms would be better, and you wouldn’t have to worry about starting a war just because you’re an idiot who snacked on the wrong turtle, chum breath.”
Nixie let out a shriek that echoed throughout the cavern, and she shoved Winter backward. Simon caught her before she could fall, and rather than thank him, Winter screeched and charged straight for Nixie, tackling her.
With a splash, the pair fell into the shallow water, and Simon heard the murmur of angry voices as the sea stars scattered, moving faster than he knew they could. From the edge, Nolan and Pearl gaped at the wrestling pair, and Simon couldn’t blame them. Winter was definitely prickly, but considering her small stature, she usually had the good sense to stay away from physical arguments. He’d never seen her get this confrontational before.
But in the middle of the fight, their eyes met, and Winter jutted her chin toward the door. Then it dawned on him. This wasn’t for her benefit. It was for his.
He inched toward Jam. “Come on, while she’s distracting them,” he whispered, and as Winter let out another enraged scream, he and Jam slipped out through the exit and back into the hallway.
They ran only a few dozen feet before Jam stopped and shoved open a door that blended into the walls. “Through here,” he said, and Simon ducked inside. They stumbled into a low-lit storage room that reeked of fish, and while Felix made gagging sounds in the pocket of his sweatshirt, Simon covered his mouth with his sleeve and followed Jam.
“The exit’s right over here, I think.” Jam bent down and felt around a dark wall. At last a small square door popped open. “It’s a tight fit, but it connects to the tunnel the sea stars use to come and go.”
Simon pulled off his sweatshirt. “Felix, you should stay here.”
“What?” Despite the putrid smell in the feeding room, the little mouse launched himself out of Simon’s pocket and onto his shoulder. “First you make me come with you, and now you’re going to abandon me in a room that smells like rotting shark excrement?
”
“Can you breathe underwater?” said Simon patiently. Felix sputtered.
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Because we’re going into the ocean,” he pointed out. “And if you can’t breathe underwater, then you’ll drown.”
Felix huffed. “That still doesn’t mean you have a right to abandon me here.”
“Go hang out with the sea stars for a while,” said Jam. “They probably won’t eat you. We’ll be back by eleven hundred hours anyway. We’re on a schedule.”
“See?” said Simon. “It won’t be long.”
Felix sulked, but Simon didn’t feel the least bit bad for him, not this time. Felix could complain all he wanted, but he had been the one who’d wanted to come to Atlantis with him in the first place.
Jam went first into the narrow opening, which expanded into a wet and slippery cave that angled sharply downward. The only light along the steep path was that same bioluminescent glow splashed across the walls, and Simon shivered. Without his sweatshirt, it felt much cooler.
“Watch your step,” said Jam as he deftly navigated the slope. Simon followed at a much slower pace, gingerly testing each step before he put his full weight down. Even though they had no time to spare, Jam didn’t complain, and after what felt like an hour, they finally reached the point in the tunnel where the ocean had seeped in, flooding the last hundred feet.
“Ready to go?” said Jam, grinning. “This is the first time you’ve swum, isn’t it?”
“In an ocean,” said Simon, eyeing the dark water. “I’ve swum in pools before. And the moat at the L.A.I.R.” But all of those times had been as a human.
“Take a deep breath and follow my lead. And don’t say anything to Al and Floyd. I’ll handle them.”
“Al and Floyd?” said Simon. “Who are they?”
But Jam was already shifting. His skin turned smooth and gray, his arms shrank into flippers, and his feet fused together to form a tail. A dorsal fin sprouted from his back, and his face elongated into a snout, until finally Simon wasn’t looking at his human friend anymore, but a dolphin.