The Door in the Alley

by Adrienne Kress

  “I’m so sorry,” said Evie. It was hard to know what to do in a moment like this. Catherine looked incredibly sad, but it didn’t seem as if she was the kind of person who liked hugs all that much. So Evie just sat there.

  “We still had a vial of the water from that waterfall. No one could agree who should get it, and no one wanted to destroy it. We decided to split it up. We each took a fifth.” Catherine reached into her shirt and pulled out a tiny vial on a chain. There was maybe a spoonful of water inside it at most. It didn’t look particularly special, but Evie still marveled at it.

  “Then we parted ways, to lead our own lives. We decommissioned the submarine and divvied up what remained of our tools. Only Alistair wanted to keep a proper record of our achievements. He created a puzzle box full of newspaper cuttings and pictures that only we could open.” Evie glanced at Sebastian, who was looking a little smugly proud at that revelation. She didn’t blame him. Catherine went on, “And he refused to destroy the map Benedict had made to the waterfall. It was his highest achievement, finding that waterfall, he said. I’d begged him to set fire to it, but Alistair wouldn’t. I could see then how precious the map was to him, and I agreed we shouldn’t burn it. But I said we should divide it up, like the water, cut it into six pieces, and then it would be safe.”

  “Six pieces?” asked Sebastian.

  “Yes,” replied Catherine, not seeming to understand the question.

  “Why, if there are five of you?”

  “The sixth piece was the ‘key’ to the map. The part of the map with explanations of what all the symbols meant…”

  “The key!” gasped Evie, and she turned to look at Sebastian. He too was wide-eyed.

  “Yes,” replied Catherine, who looked a little taken aback by their reaction.

  “The key! It’s not a key. It’s a ‘key’! It’s part of a map,” said Evie. She was completely floored by the revelation.

  “Correct. I thought you knew this.”

  “We didn’t. We thought it was a key,” said Sebastian.

  “Okay…” Catherine just looked at him for a moment like he was crazy. Finally she turned back to Evie and said, “May I go on?”

  “Oh yes, of course,” said Evie, though she still couldn’t get over it.

  “We felt none of us should have the key in case anyone was tempted to try to use their piece of the map to find the waterfall. I couldn’t imagine who would want to go back; it seemed a silly consideration after everything. Surely we were all done with it. But Doris was always the skeptic. And to be fair, she understands human nature far better than I do.”

  “What happened to the key?” asked Sebastian.

  “They gave it to the Andersons,” said Evie, suddenly understanding. All this time she’d thought the men had made a mistake coming to the house to find the key. That when Mr. Anderson had said “It’s not here,” he’d just been correcting them. But it wasn’t the case at all. They’d once had the key. But they had gotten rid of it.

  It was Catherine’s turn to look surprised. “Yes. Yes, we did.”

  “But why the Andersons?” asked Evie. Finally she would understand the connection.

  “The Andersons were our bankers,” replied Catherine. “They handled all our finances. They were among the few who knew what really happened; they wired us our money so we could give it to the people of that island. They were highly trustworthy. Still are, apparently. Good people, always looked out for us.”

  Evie felt a little ashamed in that moment. That was why they had cared so much about her. Why they’d invited her to dinner regularly. All this time they hadn’t been pitying her, as she’d assumed; they’d been looking out for her.

  “So,” said Sebastian carefully, “what you’re saying is that Alistair has a part of this map. And we know he wants us to protect the key. The men are after the key. We know this because they demanded it of the Andersons. And if they want the key, they must want the map. So the men want to find the waterfall.” Evie nodded along with each point.

  “Yes,” said Catherine. “That seems to be the case.”

  “And,” added Evie, “my grandfather is in danger and we have to rescue him. We don’t know why or where, but there are clues that he sent to each of you guys. And if you each also have a piece of the map, and the men are after the map, then you are all in danger too.” Yes, it all seemed just a little bit daunting, but Evie felt up to the task. She’d never felt more ready to prove herself worthy before. She would prove to her grandfather she was a Drake: brave, resourceful, and no stranger to adventure. She just would.

  “That’s a very accurate and terrifying summary of all we’re facing. But as with any challenge, it’s best to look at it piece by piece, and not as a whole. So. First things first, then,” said Catherine. “Let’s go to the Andersons’ and get the key.”

  “They don’t have it anymore,” said Evie.

  “They don’t?”

  “No, they said it wasn’t there. Which I guess is good, because those men burned the house down. But where it is…well, that’s the thing. That’s what Sebastian and I have been trying to figure out. That’s why we came to find you. Now that we know they had it once upon a time, though, that changes everything.”

  “They must have hidden it when they got this letter. They must have thought that was enough to protect it,” said Catherine.

  “Where would you hide a key if you were the Andersons?” asked Evie, of herself and to the others.

  Everyone thought hard.

  Come on, Evie, come on, you can do this. If all this time the Andersons had been protecting the key…What if what Mrs. Anderson had said in front of the tunnel was not about getting someone to help them find the key, but actually finding it itself? Evie looked up and stared at Catherine.

  “I think I know where the key is.” She turned to Sebastian, who stared back at her in wonder.

  “Where?” he asked.

  “It’s so obvious. The Andersons must have thought it was too obvious and so no one would ever think of looking there.”

  “No,” said Sebastian. Evie could tell he was putting it all together now. “No, you don’t mean…”

  “Yeah,” she said, laughing a little in disbelief. “I’m pretty sure it’s hidden at The Explorers Society.”

  “The Explorers Society?” asked Catherine, looking just as stunned as Sebastian felt.

  “Yes,” replied Evie.

  “But where?” asked Sebastian. “The key wasn’t in the box.”

  “What box?” asked Catherine.

  “The puzzle box you were talking about, with all the Filipendulous Five stuff in it,” replied Sebastian. “I found it. At the society headquarters. I work there, sort of. Or used to, anyway. That’s how we found out about you.”

  Catherine gave a laugh in what appeared to be complete disbelief. She looked at Evie and then at Sebastian and then back again. “Who knew children could be so resourceful?” she said.

  “I did,” said Sebastian, really not enjoying her constant digs at their youth.

  Catherine ignored his retort and turned to Evie. “So let’s say the key is at The Explorers Society. That hardly tells us where specifically it is.”

  Evie sighed. “Yeah. It’s a really big building with lots of rooms….”

  “And some rooms that haven’t even been discovered yet,” agreed Catherine.

  Sebastian was slightly shaken by that but chose to ignore it for the time being. Instead he racked his brain; surely there was a clue hidden somewhere in there. He went through shelves of memories, looking at pictures of things he’d seen, anything related to the Filipendulous Five.

  “I wonder if the president of the society or someone like that would know something,” Evie said.

  “Myrtle?” asked Sebastian, distracted by his own thoughts.

  “The Ice Queen?” said Catherine with a grim smile. “Oh dear. I doubt she’d help us.”

  “Why not?” Sebastian was still not really focused on the conve
rsation, tossing memories here and there, making quite a mess in his subconscious.

  Catherine laughed.

  “What is it?” asked Evie.

  “Oh, don’t get me wrong, I have a great deal of respect for her. But…well…when Alistair told her the truth about the earthquake, she was furious, and she expelled us from the society forever. She also removed any trace of our adventures, lest anyone get any bright ideas and be inspired by us. She wanted to destroy the puzzle box too, and the EM-7056, but she finally relented when Doris reminded her of the dangers of completely wiping out history.”

  Well, that explained why she had reacted so badly when Sebastian had questioned her. Wait a minute….Sebastian focused on that moment, the one in the tree house when she’d looked like she was about to explode: “The door is locked and the key hidden.”

  “I think Myrtle has the key,” said Sebastian, surprised. He stared at Catherine and Evie, who looked very much the way he felt.

  “Are you sure?” asked Evie.

  “Pretty sure. Not certain. It was something she said before she kicked me out. But it makes so much sense. You say she erased your existence from the society. The Andersons likely would have asked the president for help. She would have wanted to keep it secret. The only thing is…”

  “What?” asked Evie, sitting at the edge of her seat.

  “She might have destroyed it.”

  Evie’s face fell as Catherine nodded. “She might have,” said Catherine. “But maybe not. After what Doris said, I think she’s more respectful of artifacts.”

  “Plus,” added Evie, “maybe the Andersons explained how vital it was that she not destroy it.”

  “What do we do, then?” asked Sebastian. “We clearly can’t just ask Myrtle where it is.”

  Catherine shook her head. “No, considering I’ve been banished, I don’t think she’d like seeing me again,” she said.

  “And considering she kicked me out just because of who my grandfather is…,” added Evie.

  “And when I asked Myrtle about the team, she kicked me out too…,” said Sebastian.

  “Okay, so somehow we have to find the key without Myrtle’s help,” said Evie.

  Catherine looked at her. “Pretty much.”

  Evie sighed. “Well, this shouldn’t be challenging at all.”

  “Really? Because it seems very challenging to me,” replied Sebastian.

  “Indeed,” agreed Catherine. “In fact, I’d say it’s a monumental task.”

  Evie sighed hard. “Okay, so I wasn’t being serious there….Anyway, the point is, let’s go and find this key!”

  —

  They made their way out of the café and caught the local bus. It took half an hour to get to the stop near The Explorers Society, and on the journey they all decided the best course of action was to sneak in and head right for Myrtle’s private office. She was almost never there, and Sebastian thought it was worth the risk. If she caught them…well…they’d have to figure something out in the moment, they supposed. Sebastian at least still had his keys to the building, so they hoped to be able to slip inside without being noticed.

  “I haven’t been here in years,” said Catherine, staring at the sign for the society. She reached up and touched it delicately with her fingers and shook her head a little. “I used to love it here.”

  “It is pretty amazing,” agreed Sebastian.

  “Well,” Catherine said, pulling her hand back suddenly, almost as if she’d gotten a shock, “no more of this. Let’s go.”

  Sebastian unlocked the door and they all sneaked inside. They closed it and turned to see Hubert standing there looking at them. But he nodded happily, as if they were all supposed to be there, and wandered off.

  “He’s the one who let me in the first time,” whispered Evie.

  “Oh! That makes sense, then. He’s definitely pretty clueless. I bet he recognizes Catherine and assumes she’s still a member,” said Sebastian.

  “Very probably,” said Catherine.

  Sebastian pushed a few buttons on the wall and the elevator shot up to the sixth floor.

  “It’s just down here,” whispered Sebastian as they arrived at Myrtle’s office. He stood for a moment, worried that the door might be locked. But the doorknob turned and he was relieved that generally the people in the society were pretty trusting.

  The door opened into a room painted a pale blue. The walls were covered in pictures from Myrtle’s many expeditions to the Arctic—or they seemed to be pictures of her. They were, at the very least, pictures of a person in a bright orange snowsuit and goggles waving at the camera. The floor was covered from wall to wall in a plush blue carpet, and sitting in the middle was a white desk shaped like an iceberg. It was huge and took up most of the room, and it had numerous small drawers. Sebastian had never been in Myrtle’s office before, and to say he was impressed would have been an understatement.

  “Let’s not waste any time,” said Catherine, and each of them immediately chose a side of the iceberg and started riffling through the drawers. Sebastian was a little disappointed that he had to look through them so quickly. He really wanted to examine their contents, which were extremely well organized and labeled. Myrtle evidently was fond of collecting rocks, and drawer after drawer revealed flat dull gray stones, each with a printed label naming it, like SLATE, GRANITE, FRANK, and JOSHUA.

  “Anything?” asked Evie.

  “Just a bunch of rocks,” said Sebastian as he continued to open the drawers.

  “I’ve found snowflakes,” said Evie. “Well, I’ve found empty drawers with labels that say SNOWFLAKE on them,” she corrected herself.

  “Nothing here either,” said Catherine. They all stood and stared at the desk.

  There had to be something more, thought Sebastian. Then again, she could have hidden the key anywhere in the building, he supposed.

  “Where else would she have put it?” asked Evie.

  “I was just wondering the same thing,” replied Catherine.

  “What’s this?” asked Sebastian, and he pulled a small, well-camouflaged white lever disguised as an artistic iceberg-like outcropping in the desk.

  There was a sound from below as some kind of machinery turned on. All three of them took a step backward and looked at each other in surprise. “What did you do?” asked Catherine.

  “I pulled a lever,” replied Sebastian, a little louder, as the sound was growing along with his unease.

  “Without knowing what it did?” asked Catherine.

  Now that she put it that way…But at the time it had just been instinct. Gut instinct. Something he hadn’t realized until this moment he had. He glanced at Evie, who was still going through one of the drawers. “I guess so, yes.”

  Well, now he was feeling downright foolish, but…but…He lost his train of thought as he realized that the desk before him had suddenly started to grow taller and taller and taller. More iceberg appeared from within the floor and revealed itself to them. More drawers within the iceberg too. The three of them stood and watched it grow until the top of the desk was touching the ceiling. Then the mechanical noise stopped, as did the rising desk.

  “I guess that was just the tip,” said Evie with a shrug.

  The three of them wasted no time and frantically began searching all the newly produced drawers, but all Sebastian found on his side were tea things. Drawers full of exotic tea. Drawers full of teacups. Drawers full of teapots. It was quite the collection.

  “Anybody?” he called out.

  “Cat toys,” replied Catherine.

  “Biscuits,” said Evie.

  “This is getting ridiculous,” said Sebastian as he opened another drawer, this one full of spoons.

  “I wonder,” said Evie, sitting on the plush carpet to think, “if this even makes sense. If I had something I didn’t want anyone else to get hold of, I’d probably keep it with me. Like your vial.” She looked up at Catherine.

  “Good point. Maybe she has it on her,” replie
d Catherine.

  “Any thoughts, Sebastian?” asked Evie.

  Oh, he had thoughts, many thoughts, but none of them was useful. Most of them had something to do with “I shouldn’t be here.” There was one that went, “Wait, why am I still helping Evie when we’ve found Catherine?” Then there was another one that went, “Looking at all this tea is actually making me thirsty.”

  “Tea,” he said. And he looked at Evie. “She’s always serving tea.”

  “It definitely looks as if she likes to do that, doesn’t it?” replied Evie.

  “But I’ve never seen her actually pour the tea. It’s always just there. Ready to drink. I think…I think I know where the key is.” Sebastian turned and flew out of the office toward the elevator. He could hear Evie and Catherine following him, and sure enough, they stepped onto the elevator platform next to him.

  “Where are we going?” asked Evie.

  “To the tree house.”

  —

  They ran out of the elevator and up the stairs, bursting through the rooftop door and into the warm light of the setting sun. In the distance Sebastian could see Myrtle sitting in the tree with David Copperfield on her lap. She hadn’t noticed them yet.

  “What do we do?” asked Evie.

  “Let me talk to her,” replied Catherine.

  Before Sebastian could reply—because he certainly wondered if this was the best idea—Catherine was walking toward the tree. Sebastian and Evie followed slowly, and when they were making their way across the skylight roof, Catherine called, “Hi, Myrtle.”

  Myrtle turned and looked. Her eyes widened in horror. She stood quickly, David Copperfield falling onto the table.

  “I’m not here to make trouble,” said Catherine, holding her hands up. “I just want to talk.”