Inside the Shadow City (27 page)

“I heard people talking about them at school. Only the most popular people get an invitation.”

“Wow. Dumb
and
deluded. Your parents must be so proud.”

“You don't know what you're talking about,” Tyler said. “For your information, I'm an honors student.”

“Who isn't? A talking monkey could make the honor roll at most schools. Now, we're going to leave and let you get dressed. I recommend you keep your mouth shut until we're gone. Otherwise, my genius friend, this little slip of paper will find its way into your mother's hands, along with a suggestion that she keep a closer eye on her little girl.”

“Go ahead. Take the invitation. You'll never get in,” taunted Tyler with her last bit of moxie. “There will be people I know at the party, and you don't look anything like me.”

“Oh, right. That reminds me,” I chimed in.

“What?” snapped our half-naked friend. I pulled out a camera I had borrowed from Oona.

“Say cheese,” I told her.

By the time we hopped on the Vespa, the clock on the dashboard read 1:30. Betty was expected at my house for coffee at 2:00. She was the second Irregular on our list, and now she was the most important person to convince. Without the use of Betty's unusual skills, we would have little chance of attending the next Bannerman Ball.

Not two minutes after we'd parked in front of my building, Betty arrived at the door dressed as a sultry
flamenco dancer. When she saw Kiki Strike standing behind me in the hallway, she froze. For a moment, I thought she might turn around and leave, but instead she walked up to Kiki and gave her a hug.

“I knew you'd come back,” she said. “I never believed you were an assassin.”

“What? In less than twenty-four hours I've been accused of being a thief and a kidnapper, and now I'm an assassin?” Kiki arched an eyebrow and looked to me for an explanation. But if she wasn't going to tell me everything, I certainly wasn't going to open up to her, either.

“It's a long story,” I said.

“I bet. I'd love to hear it someday,” said Kiki.

It took only a few minutes to fill Betty in on what we had learned so far. The kidnappers were after the NYCMap and had already gotten part of it from Mitzi Mulligan's father. And we believed that Mitzi and Penelope Young may have been lured to the Bannerman Balls and drugged with Devil's Apple.

“How are we going to find out where Penelope's hidden?” asked Betty.

“One of us is going to the next Bannerman Ball disguised as one of the guests,” said Kiki.

“This is Tyler Deitz,” I told Betty, handing her the camera with Tyler's picture. “She may be the next victim.”

Betty studied the screen for a moment. “There's only one of us who could pass for this girl.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Me,” said Betty.

“Thanks for offering, but that wasn't what I had in mind,” said Kiki. “I've learned my lesson. I'm not putting
any of you in danger if I can help it. I'll be taking all the risks this time.”

“Wait a second, Kiki. How tall was this girl? Five six? Five seven?” asked Betty. Kiki nodded. “There's only so far that a disguise will go. I'm really sorry, but I just don't think you're tall enough. And the other girls would require a lot of effort. It's always best if a disguise doesn't have to work too hard.”

“In that case, you've got the job,” said Kiki. “And it'll be our duty to make sure you don't get drugged and kidnapped.”

“I'm not worried. I trust you,” said Betty.

Kiki grinned.

“Okay, then. Get to work,” I told Betty. “We'll all meet here at eight o'clock tomorrow night to make the final arrangements. But first Kiki and I need to pay a visit to DeeDee.”

• • •

We found DeeDee alone in her bedroom laboratory, sitting on a stool surrounded by beakers that belched foulsmelling smoke and Bunsen burners that never rested. Clothes had been flung randomly about the room, and most were covered in substances that no detergent could banish. A month-old bowl of cereal left behind on a windowsill had begun the fermentation process and was bubbling like a witch's cauldron. And one corner of the room was dominated by a heap of rotten apple cores tossed aside by someone too busy to locate a trash can.

When she saw us, DeeDee dropped a test tube on the
floor, where it burst into flame. A thin stream of water shot from a system of pipes attached to the ceiling and doused the fire. The targeted sprinkler system had been a gift from Luz and had saved DeeDee's laboratory on more than one occasion.

Once the fire was out, there were no hugs or words of forgiveness. DeeDee pushed her safety goggles back on her head, showcasing the ugly scar that marred her pretty face. She invited us to take a seat, trying very hard to assume the character of a sober scientist. Kiki took her through the facts of the case one by one. As she finished, her voice grew softer.

“There's one more thing I have to say,” Kiki told her. “I'm very sorry for what happened to you in the Shadow City. I let things get out of control.”

“You weren't the only one to blame,” sighed DeeDee. “I should have listened when Ananka said we were too close to the mains. You gave the order, but it was my decision to set the explosion.”

“It won't happen again,” said Kiki.

“That's not what concerns me,” said DeeDee pensively. “We've all gotten older and wiser. We won't make the same mistakes. But before I risk my life again, I want to know one thing. Why are you doing this? Last time you didn't tell us what you were after. We deserved to know.”

Kiki fixed DeeDee with her best snake-charming stare. “I still can't tell you what I was after the last time. I wish I could, but I can't. But believe me when I tell you that this time, my motive is simple. By keeping the NYCMap out of the wrong hands, we could be saving New York from a terrible fate.”

“That's it?” asked DeeDee.

“That's it,” Kiki assured her.

“If Ananka's going to give you a second chance, I'll support her. But if it turns out you're just using us again, I will personally dedicate my life to making you suffer.”

Coming from DeeDee, it sounded serious.

“Fair enough,” said Kiki.

“All right, then. What do you need me to do?”

Kiki Strike handed DeeDee the bronze dragon, along with the vial of Devil's Apple she had taken from the herbalist's shop in Chinatown.

“Two things,” Kiki said. “First, we need to know if the substance inside the dragon matches the Devil's Apple. If it does, we'll have solid proof that the robberies and kidnappings are connected. Second of all, when we send Betty undercover into the Bannerman Ball, there's a good chance she's going to be drugged. We need an antidote for Devil's Apple.”

“I don't know about an
antidote,
but I think I may have something that will work. I'll do a few tests to make sure,” said DeeDee. “When do we need it?”

“Eight o'clock tomorrow evening,” I told her. “The Irregulars will be meeting at my house.”

• • •

Kiki and I had saved the hardest task for last. Convincing Luz to help us would not be easy. Leaving DeeDee's townhouse, we rode east, traveling along the wild northern border of Central Park. I was not looking forward to the encounter, and I hoped we didn't run into Luz's new
boyfriend, Attila. According to DeeDee, his personality was every bit as challenging as Luz's, and his arrest record much lengthier.

We stopped in front of a building with a fresh coat of paint and a lovely little garden. A label on the buzzer simply read:
The Shop
. I pressed the button and Luz's voice called down.

“It's Ananka,” I shouted into the speaker, and the door popped open. Luz's workshop was on the third floor, and we walked up a staircase that had been decorated with colorful paintings of tropical landscapes. The door to the workshop was open, and we entered without knocking. The former living room of the apartment was filled with appliances in various stages of dissection. The silicon brains of several computers lay exposed upon a workbench. In one corner of the room sat a half-assembled robot. Luz had been working on it when we arrived. Her welding equipment lay hastily discarded nearby and the room smelled of molten metal. Luz was nowhere to be seen.

“Luz?” I called, taking a few steps toward one of the bedrooms and leaving Kiki standing alone in the middle of the living room. A flash of light nearly blinded me, and I spun around to see Kiki trapped by a net of lasers that issued from a device planted in the ceiling. Luz emerged from the kitchen, a remote control device in one hand and a cell phone in the other.

“I wouldn't move, if I were you,” she informed Kiki. “Those lasers can cause some nasty burns.”

“Luz, turn that thing off,” I demanded.

“And let a dangerous fugitive go free?” she asked menacingly. “I don't think I could live with myself. It's a good thing I have the FBI on speed dial.” She held up the phone for us to see.

“Don't even think about it,” I warned her. “Aren't you curious to hear what she has to say?”

“Nope,” said Luz. “Once a liar, always a liar.”

“True,” said Kiki. “And once a juvenile delinquent, always a juvenile delinquent.”

“
You're
insulting
me
?” demanded Luz. “You've got
some
nerve.”

“All I'm saying is that you can call the police if you like, but they'll probably be more interested in you than me.”

“What do you mean?”

“You own this apartment?” asked Kiki.

Luz nodded.

“Well, I can count at least a dozen serious fire code violations just standing here. Really, Luz, you're not supposed to be welding in your apartment. You're putting everybody in the building at risk. The police don't usually like that sort of thing.”

“I've got a sprinkler system to deal with any problems.”

“Of course you do, Luz. But as you and I both know, the law's the law. And I don't think you're going to be able to convince anyone that this laser device is safe.”

Luz pressed a button on her remote control and the laser net vanished in an instant.

“You win,” Luz said. “But if you want me to help you with one of your schemes, you can go ahead and leave right now.”

“Luz,” I pleaded. “We're here because you were right about the NYCMap. That's what the kidnappers are after, and nobody seems to know it but us. I don't care whether you ever forgive Kiki. But this is serious. It's not just the Shadow City that's in danger this time. Who knows what these people can do if they get all three layers of the NYCMap? You're the one who said it was a terrorist's dream. We could wake up one morning and find out that they've looted the Guggenheim Museum or bombed the Empire State Building.”

“Where's the gold?” Luz asked Kiki.

“Lost,” she responded. “But if you agree to help us, I'll pay you back every last cent.”

“That's all you care about?” I asked.

“Of course not,” Luz snapped. “But this is a matter of principle.”

“I know it is. I know you had something stolen before.” Kiki's voice was soothing and patient. “When your family left Cuba, everything they had was taken by the government. I can understand why you're angry about the gold.”

“How do you know that?” snapped Luz.

“How
do
you know that?” I asked.

“I have my sources,” said Kiki. “But I promise that I will make sure that what's rightfully yours is returned to you.”

“It better be,” said Luz, who looked on the verge of tears. “Now what do you want?”

I explained the situation, adding in as many hard facts as I could.

“We're going to need a tracking device that we can
plant on the kidnappers. That way they'll lead us back to their hiding place,” Kiki said once I had finished.

“I guess I can do that,” said Luz, already rummaging through a box filled with wires and microchips.

“Good,” I told her. “We'll go and let you get started. There's a meeting of the Irregulars at my house. Tomorrow night at eight.”

Kiki Strike and I left Luz's apartment and jumped on the Vespa that was waiting for us at the corner. As we cut through Central Park on our way downtown, I caught sight of a man in a dark suit standing on a boulder at the top of a hill, looking down at the traffic below. From a distance, he resembled Bob Goodman, the overdressed FBI agent. As we sped past, his sunglasses caught the afternoon sun, and his eyes seemed to burst into two balls of fire. I saw him raise a cell phone to his ear, and I had the impression he had been watching us. He disappeared from sight as the Vespa dove beneath the trees of the North Woods. I closed my eyes and hoped I was doing the right thing.

Some people are born with a gift for getting what they want. They always know just what to say, and other people seem desperate to please them. Unfortunately, most of us don't have the power of persuasion. But winning people over isn't always as hard as it seems. Follow these six simple rules, and you may find it remarkably easy to convince anyone of anything.

Rule One: Know What You Want

This sounds simple, but you'd be surprised how often people lose sight of what they're after. So always have a specific goal in mind (whether it's a boyfriend or bail money) and don't settle for anything less.

Rule Two: Know What Scares the Other Person

Figure out why the other person may hesitate to give you what you want. Once you know what her fears are, it will be easier to convince her that she has nothing to worry about.

Rule Three: Let the Other Person Think She's in Control