She needed a minute, she thought, to review the plan in her head. She and Elsbeth were going to dress all in black, break into the school library, and steal a book.
That was the plan.
"My life," she muttered.
Then she slipped off her shoes and stripped to her underwear.
The pullover went on like a light-touch massage, and the leggings were looser than ballet tights, but still clung. The ankle-length slipper socks had a little pocket for the big toe, and the gloves had three holes each – so her thumb, index and middle fingers were exposed. Ash checked herself in the mirror. Her body seemed to swallow the light. It was eerie. But at a glance, she was almost a girl in a black unitard.
The mask consisted of two pieces. They were fine, delicate, and as black as the rest.
The first was a neck-warmer thing, and the second was a sort of knit cap – but not – that covered her ears and rode low on her forehead. It was instinct: she pulled the cap down to her eyebrows and fit the neck-warmer over her nose, so only her eyes showed through the crescent-like gap. The pieces seemed to settle into place.
She stared at herself in the mirror.
There was a ninja in her bedroom.
There was something offensive about standing like this in a lit room – the outfit seemed to crave darkness. Ash flicked off the room light. For an unsettling moment, she couldn't find her own reflection.
Then she noticed her eyes, staring at her from a vague shadow in the shape of her body.
She placed her arms over her head, the backs of her hands lightly touching. The clothes gave no resistance at all. She lifted one knee, then the other.
Elsbeth appeared in the doorway. "Well... look at you."
Ash didn't speak. The light pressure of the fabric on her mouth made her hesitant to try it. More than that, she reveled in silence. Like the dark, it felt right. It felt strong.
"The last ninja to wear it," Elsbeth said softly, "was a young woman named Agnes Martin. Before her, Maria Amparo Muñoz y Borbón, and before her, Daini no Sanmi, for whom it was made."
"They must have been little. Like me." Speaking turned out to be easy.
"Your size was more common in centuries past."
"Wait. How old are these?"
"Quintessent weave. The material does not age. It can't be cut or torn. When you are old, it will go to someone else. Feel the small of your back."
Ash did. The material was layered there. Elsbeth held up the throwing star. "You can fit this in a pocket there. Be sure to have it with you tonight."
"Don't you want to carry it?" Ash asked.
"It's for you. I'll be carrying one or two other things."
25
Ash lay in bed, lights out, staring at the clock.
2:58 AM.
After giving Ash the star, Elsbeth had said they wouldn't move for the library until three in the morning. So Ash might as well get some rest until then.
Rest? Sure. She'd changed into her pajamas and climbed under the sheets, and started her alarm clock stare down.
2:59 AM.
She felt the nagging of fatigue in her eyes, but that didn't keep her heart from its relentlessly energetic beat.
She was going to break into her school. A night-time raid. Past security cameras. She told herself: no problem, piece of cake for a ninja.
But that was just the voice in her head, and it didn't sound convincing.
3:00 AM.
"It's time," said Elsbeth, her voice coming from somewhere in Ash's bedroom. Ash sat up. Elsbeth wasn't here... but the window was open.
"Change," said Elsbeth's voice. "And meet me on the roof."
Ash slipped back into her silky black outfit, piece by piece, thinking of her father asleep downstairs. At last, she fit the star into the pocket in the small of her back. She flexed, rolling at the hips, wondering if any of its four points would poke her. They didn't.
As she pulled the cool material over her mouth and nose, narrowing the slit for her eyes, her heart kicked into high gear. At the window, her fingers felt jittery as she leaned over and reached for the old rain pipe. She caught it, though, and her body relished burning some energy as she clambered to the roof.
Elsbeth crouched here, fully ninjaed out. Ash panicked for a second when she saw this anonymous shadow, without the soft brown hair and eyeglasses. Where was her sweet, bossy auntie?
"Look at you," Elsbeth whispered. "How far you've come." Only Elsbeth's eyes and three fingers on each hand were exposed. The rest of her body was a dark, featureless blur that followed the lean outline of Elsbeth's body.
She wore something sticklike on her back that jutted above her shoulder.
Ash gasped. "Is that a sword?"
Elsbeth reached back for the handle and drew it free. She held a blade that shone with the same silvery moonlight as Ash's star.
"Wow." Ash could barely breathe. She kneeled in front of Elsbeth for a closer look. "You had this stashed in the hallway trunk all this time, didn't you?"
"Listen." Elsbeth ran a fingertip along the flat of the sword, near the edge. "The blade is quintessence. It will cut anything." She touched the long handle, bound tightly in some sort of dark cloth. "This is the grip." She touched the handle's end, opposite the blade. "This is the pommel." She touched the dark ring between the handle and the blade. "This is the guard."
Ash nodded. "You're not going to cut anyone's head off with that, are you?"
Elsbeth's eyes narrowed. "I hope not."
"Can I..." Ash swallowed. "Can I hold it?"
"Someday. When you are ready. Tonight, you just need to know that it's among our assets." Elsbeth gripped the sheath on her back with her free hand. "This is the scabbard." She touched the scabbard's end, where the opening was. "This is the throat." She fit the blade in the throat and slipped the sword back into its home.
Elsbeth placed her hands on her knees and faced Ash. "Now. Do exactly as I tell you. And do not be seen." She stood. "Follow, please." And she leapt to the house next door.
Ash grinned, and felt the cool fabric on her lips. "No problem," she whispered, and walked to the roof's edge. Her new footwear held the shingles as well as the grippiest ballet slippers. She drew in a slow breath and held it, counting. She crouched, coiling like a spring, and let the breath out.
The wind fell silent. Ash let her body loose with a snap! and sailed to the next house. As she flew, no wind pulled her hair or tore her clothes, or tried to yank her shoes off. She almost let out a whoop on the way down.
She thumped hard on the neighbor's roof.
Elsbeth was waiting. "Ash, quietly!"
"Elsbeth... the suit!"
"What?"
"The clothes, the black pajamas, whatever... they're slippery in the air!"
"Aerodynamic? Yes."
Ash suddenly wondered how fast she really was. "Let's go!"
"Hush! Stay with me." Elsbeth leapt house to house at a cool, measured pace. Ash followed, holding herself back.
After jumping a few intersections, they came to the house across the street from the front of the school. They had covered a couple of miles without ever touching the ground. Ash leaned against the chimney, exhausted, feeling herself slow down. A grouchy old lady lived here, who griped at students who crossed her lawn. The place got wrapped in toilet paper every Halloween.
Elsbeth watched the campus, and Ash followed her gaze. The lights were out, and the concrete facade that proclaimed MAGNOLIA HIGH SCHOOL in brushed steel was unlit.
"I was afraid of this," Elsbeth said.
"What?" Then Ash spotted the cop car. It sat, lights off, in the faculty parking lot. "The police are here?"
"Alexander has ordered some extra security. He must be expecting trouble."
"Why would the police help him?"
"They use the police, Ash. They can fabricate evidence. If Alexander suspected you, he could invent a crime for you and forge a warrant for your arrest."
Ash searched for any police office
rs, but there was no movement. "What would he say? Be on the lookout for armed and dangerous ninjas?"
"Our Cloak makes that impossible. More likely, reports of gang activity. Vandalism. Something believable. Their first weapon is the system. That's what makes them so hard to fight."
"That's playing dirty." Ash had a disturbing image of herself behind bars in a juvenile detention facility. "Hey! Mr. Graham, the old principal. He was busted for heroin. Do you think–"
"Later, Ash. Now I need your help."
Ash cooled it at the thought of Elsbeth needing her. "I'm ready."
"The cameras. You have to get us past them."
"To the library." Ash nodded. "I can do that."
"Not the library."
"Huh?"
"To the breaker box in the main building. We'll cut power. That should take care of the cameras."
Ash grinned. She hadn't thought of that. "Wicked!" It would be easy, too, if they stayed on the rooftops. Ash mimicked Elsbeth's tone: "Follow, please." Then she wound herself up and jumped for the roof of the main building.
Airborne, she saw the top of the school's flagpole racing straight at her. She squeaked and curled into a ball, missing it by inches, feeling the swoosh as it went by. She uncurled and landed on all fours on the building's whitetop, snarling. Who puts a flagpole right in the front of...?
Elsbeth landed daintily beside her. "You need to watch where you're going, Ash."
Ash had to be quiet, so she bit down on her urge to grumble. The breaker box was a set of slate gray metal cabinets in the main office, between the Falcons' trophy case and Journalism's broom closet.
They'd have to break in to cut the power.
Ash crept to the edge of the whitetop and peeked down. Two police officers, with blue uniforms and mustaches, waited by the entrance... guarding this building, not the library? Why?
Because Principal Alexander expected them to try to cut the power.
What now? Fight the cops?
Police had guns. Guns had bullets. And she couldn't even break Punchy the ping-pong paddle. She wasn't ready! And that left Elsbeth's sword–
But they were cops, not bad guys. And even bad guys didn't deserve to get cut to pieces. God, no... Ash would puke.
Elsbeth's fingers slipped around the back of Ash's neck and pulled her close. Elsbeth took hold of Ash's face and pressed her forehead to Ash's.
Can you hear me?
Ash freaked. What the hell?
Good. New plan. We go to the library and work around the cameras. The police will never see us.
Ash's mouth hung open, against the silky fabric. Wow, it was some kind of ninja telepathy.
Or Elsbeth was whispering really, really softly. Ash couldn't tell.
Move. Now. Quietly!
Ash nodded, and they parted. She crept to the far side of the main office's roof and hopped to the whitetop of the neighboring building. In a moment, she stood where she had met Bond and James Bond. Candy wrappers had gathered in the corner like a snowdrift, and the smell of weed seemed to seep out of the concrete blocks at the roof's edge.
She scampered down the tree, using the handholds and footholds they had shown her. And, for the first time since leaving home, Ash touched the ground.
This path between the buildings had no cameras, as Bond and James Bond had told her. She circled around the next building, evading two cameras, Elsbeth right behind. They darted down another unmonitored walkway and reached the side of the library building.
Getting close.
They crept to the corner. Ash eased her way around toward the entrance, but Elsbeth pulled her back and held her. Isn't there a camera on the entrance?
Ash shook her head. Not on the outer doors. Just on the inside.
Oh, she had done it! She was a mind-reader. How had she managed that?
She'd think about it later. Now, she wondered how – once they got past the locked outer doors – they'd sneak by the interior cameras.
Using our strengths, that's how. Elsbeth released her.
Ash scowled. Hey, keep out of my–
But Elsbeth was already slinking up to the library doors.
The front doors? Not very stealthy. Ash would have preferred coming down through a skylight... if only the library had skylights.
Ash followed. Together, they peered through the glass. It was dark in there. She scanned the room out of the corner of her eye, using her peripheral night-vision... and saw nothing interesting. Empty of people, full of books.
Ash checked behind her, scanning the quad for police. All quiet. She looked at Elsbeth, pointed at the locked doors, and shrugged, turning up her palms.
Elsbeth crouched, eye-level with the lock. From the small of her back, she withdrew a tiny bundle and unrolled it. Ash saw what looked like dentist's tools, but smaller.
Lockpicks? Seriously?
Ash sighed, waiting. She wondered if Elsbeth could kick through the glass, or if that sword could cut through a steel door frame.
Elsbeth fit a lockpick into the keyhole and probed. Ash leaned in a little, observing. It could be a handy skill to pick up...
Elsbeth fit two more picks in the keyhole and wiggled all three simultaneously. The lock turned with a click. She put away her bundle and they slipped inside.
"Nice work on the door," Ash whispered.
Elsbeth pointed up. They stood directly under the camera. It aimed across the length of the library's main room. If they moved a few feet farther from the doors, it would see them.
The library lay under a spell of silence and darkness. Ash had never seen the place like this. Shadows lurked under the tables and between the stacks. She didn't mind the dark the way she used to, but still, this place at night put the creep to her.
Slowly, the ticking of the wall clock came to her, like a faint robotic heartbeat. In all her hours here, in the bright light and noise of day, she had never noticed that sound before.
Elsbeth hopped onto the librarian's desk, reached up, and with a twist, disconnected the cable from the back of the camera. She hopped down and crossed the main floor like a shadow herself, clinging to dark spaces. Ash could barely keep track of her. At last, she disappeared between the stacks.
Ash started after her, not feeling especially stealthy. With the entrance camera disconnected, the only other camera in the library watched the row of computers beyond the last of the bookshelves. If Ash and Elsbeth stayed out of that area, they should be safe.
Ash found Elsbeth down low, tracing her finger along the books on the bottom shelf. Her finger stopped, and she pulled out a hardcover about an inch thick. The library was too dark for Ash to read the spine. Elsbeth held the book out to Ash and opened it to the title page. Ash stared, but averted her vision, and made out the title, letter by letter.
"Art in Our Warring World." She tried the smaller print below that. "Nineteen-forty. With Eleanor Roosevelt?" Ash looked at Elsbeth.
"Not a ninja," Elsbeth whispered.
Ash turned back a page. There was no card slot on the inside cover. This book had sat here, uncatalogued, unnoticed, for over seventy years.
She took the book from Elsbeth and flipped through it. Text. Some poems. No sign of the page of the Mutus Liber. "Are you sure this is the book?"
Elsbeth took it back and flipped through it to about halfway. She tilted it and looked along its bottom edge. Holding it open, she reached into the gap in the book's spine... and pulled out a piece of paper about six inches long, rolled up and flattened.
That's it. It looked soft and old. Ash wished Elsbeth would unroll it, but there wasn't enough light to see what it said. Elsbeth slipped the book back into its space on the bottom shelf. The paper disappeared into the pocket at the small of her back.
Ash let out a sigh. They had done it. And it had been pretty easy. Now they just had to vanish–
Reflected white light danced on the ceiling.
Elsbeth belly-crawled to the end of the stack and peeked out. Ash followed beside her.
Beyond the glass doors, flashlight beams wobbled, flashing back and forth.
The cops. "They heard us," Ash whispered.
"They're just patrolling."
They walked a slow course along the front of the library, flashlights panning. What if they'd been told to expect trouble at this building specifically? One of the officers stopped at a window. Ash and Elsbeth recoiled as the white circle of his light crawled across the stacks.
26
"Be patient, Ash." said Elsbeth. "We'll wait them out."
But they didn't leave. They clicked off their lights and stood by the entrance, facing each other. Gruff conversational tones came softly through the doors, as if the cops were killing time on a dull beat.
Ash's heart started to pound. "What if they don't leave until sunrise?"
Elsbeth’s eyes narrowed. "I need to reconnect that camera."
The minutes dragged by. Ash felt cornered. "Elsbeth...?"
"All right," Elsbeth said. "New plan." She crept to the back of the bookshelves and into the narrow space behind them, continuing to the last stack. Ash followed, and together they peeked through the books at the work tables and computers, three steps up and around the corner from the entrance.
"Cameras on this side?" Elsbeth asked.
"One," Ash said. "In that corner." She pointed toward the far wall, where the camera hung suspended and waiting. There was no way they could get to it without it seeing them.
"Does it cover those windows?"
The far wall held a row of panes of glass. The buzz among the students was that the second library camera covered the computers and the tables, but came short of covering the far wall. "No," Ash said. "But it covers everything between here and there."
"All right. We'll try getting out through a window."
"Elsbeth... those don't open."
"One thing at a time."
"We can't even reach them. The camera will see us."
Elsbeth looked up from the gap in the books. "We can get past that camera."
"How?"
"We'll outrun it."
How could you outrun something bolted to the ceiling? Unless... "Wait, wait."
Ninja Girl: The Nine Wiles Page 13