Inside the Shadow City (22 page)

As I made my way toward Chinatown, I daydreamed about the adventures that lay in store for the Irregulars. We could finish mapping the Shadow City. Luz could search for treasure and DeeDee could take all the scientific samples she wanted. But if we managed to catch Kiki quickly, I hoped I could convince the Irregulars to
take another case—one that had the whole city talking. A week earlier, a kidnapping had taken place. The victim was one of my classmates at the Atalanta School—a high school sophomore by the name of Melissa “Mitzi” Mulligan.

• • •

At the Atalanta School for Girls, kidnappings weren't as rare as they might be at other educational facilities. Over the years, several of my classmates had been abducted, then returned for record ransoms. Just a few years earlier, three women disguised as perfume samplers had snatched Dylan Handworthy from a department store. They kept her imprisoned in an abandoned sewage treatment plant until her music mogul father (a notorious penny-pincher) reluctantly exchanged five million dollars in unmarked bills for his only daughter. Dylan returned home unharmed, though somewhat poorer and smellier than before.

But Mitzi Mulligan's kidnapping was not the usual Atalanta abduction. Her father worked for the city as a subway engineer, and his salary could never pay for her freedom. What made her disappearance even more remarkable was the fact that Mitzi was the school's kick-boxing champion. Whoever had taken her must have wanted something badly, for they couldn't have done so easily. Mitzi's perfectly executed kicks had hobbled some of the country's best kickboxers and were said to be powerful enough to take down a sumo wrestler.

Although I was upset to hear she'd been kidnapped, Mitzi Mulligan and I had never been the best of friends.
She was a member of the wannabes—the scholarship girls who wasted their time sucking up to rich girls like The Five. As far as the Princess and her cronies were concerned, there was no lower form of life than people like Mitzi Mulligan. They snickered at Mitzi's less than fabulous footwear and told anyone who would listen that Mitzi's father trapped rats in the subway tunnels and cooked them for his daughter's dinner. Eventually, the rumor even reached Mitzi's ears. Had she decided to kick the Princess's scrawny butt, few people would have stopped her. But Mitzi couldn't learn her lesson. She just took her punishment and kept coming back for more.

Much to my surprise, Mitzi's social climbing had begun to pay off. On at least two occasions, I had overheard the Princess speaking to her in what passed for civil tones. It looked like Mitzi might finally be making some progress up the social ladder. It was her bad luck to be kidnapped just as she was starting to become popular.

I may not have cared much for Mitzi Mulligan, but her kidnapping intrigued me. On the night she disappeared, Mitzi had snuck out of her parents' house. The security cameras in her apartment building had captured an image of Mitzi dressed in a flimsy party dress and tottering on a pair of stiletto heels. The police questioned her friends and classmates, but no one knew where Mitzi had been going or whom she had set out to meet. She had been missing for two days before her parents received a cryptic note written on elegant stationery. It informed them that Mitzi had been kidnapped, but it didn't mention a ransom.

Hoping for a clue to the kidnapping, I listened to the
rumors that floated about the school like scraps of trash over a subway grate. One girl claimed that Mitzi had been taken by a band of subway-dwelling mole people who wanted revenge against her father—the man who had evicted them from their underground homes. A strange girl in my chemistry class tried to convince me that Mitzi had been abducted by aliens, but I doubted whether beings from an advanced civilization would have anything to learn from probing Mitzi Mulligan.

My guess was that Mitzi Mulligan's kidnapping had been an accident. Since Mitzi spent her days trailing after the Princess and her friends, I wondered if the kidnappers had mistaken her for a rich girl. It was even possible that the kidnappers had been after one of The Five. I suppose I could have warned them, but I didn't. After all the suffering The Five had caused, a week in a sewage treatment facility was exactly what they deserved.

• • •

As I drew closer to the Chinatown Savings and Loan, an image of the Princess held captive in the New York sewers flickered through my mind. I burst into laugher, forgot to look where I was going, and knocked over a barrel of fingerlike roots that stood in the middle of the sidewalk. Several other barrels containing hairy seedpods and foul-looking fungi formed an obstacle course that blocked my path. They belonged to a Chinese herbalist shop with yellowing posters of wild ginseng in its windows. A little white porcelain cat with one raised paw waved to me from the windowsill.

As I stooped to toss the roots back into the barrel,
I heard an angry voice inside the shop. I peered between the hanging scrolls and into a dim room. Dozens of antlers dangled from the ceiling, and an enormous wooden cabinet with hundreds of tiny drawers stood against the back wall. A batch of dried shark fins and what looked like the claw of a giant bird poked out of an open drawer. Standing in front of the cabinet was an elderly man who was shouting in Chinese and shaking his fist at a dark-haired girl in a black cotton dress.

The girl listened quietly, drumming her fingers on the shop's counter until the force of the man's rage began to dwindle. When at last he was quiet, she said something softly in Chinese. Her words had a magical effect on the man. He nodded curtly and turned to the cabinet. Opening a drawer marked with a Chinese symbol, he retrieved a small glass bottle. The girl dropped the bottle into a black pouch and started for the door.

In an instant, the girl was looking directly at me. A sly smirk spread across her lips and she raised an eyebrow high above one of her icy blue eyes. She spun around, whispered to the man behind the counter, and disappeared through the shop's back door. It all happened so quickly that I barely had time to think. I ran into the shop and out the back. The old man shouted ferociously and snatched at my T-shirt, but I barreled past him without even pausing.

I followed the girl through the cluttered backyard of the shop, under a clothesline filled with dripping men's underwear, over a small fence, and out onto the street on the other side of the block. I arrived just in time to see her toss her black wig into a trash can and slam a helmet
over her own long white hair. Then Kiki jumped on a black Vespa motor scooter parked on the sidewalk. As I watched her run a red light and turn the corner, it occurred to me that I had no idea what I would have done had I caught her.

• • •

That evening, Oona was the first to arrive for the emergency meeting of the Irregulars. She was still wearing her smock from the manicure shop when she knocked at the door.

“You look good, Ananka,” she said, examining me from head to toe. “No more pudge. And you got some new clothes. I always said you had potential.” She took off her smock, revealing a stunning dress that looked better suited for a cocktail party than a nail salon.

“Do you always dress like that when you're working?” I asked her.

“Sure,” she said. “It helps me remember why I'm there.”

“Why
are
you there?” I asked.

“So I can buy more dresses like this,” she answered.

Oona took a seat in the living room, and I handed her a drawing of the symbol I had seen on the drawer in the herbalist's shop.

“Can you tell me what this means?” I asked.

Oona examined the sheet of paper.

“Your calligraphy sucks, but if I squint my eyes and tilt the page to one side, it kind of looks like it says Devil's Apple.”

“Devil's Apple,” I mused. “Where have I heard that before?”

“It's wart remover, remember? We found a bottle of it in the Shadow City.”

I was just about to search my library for information on Devil's Apple when Luz barged through the door with DeeDee and Betty following close behind.

“Did you see the news?” Luz demanded.

“Nice to see you again, too, Luz. And yes, we've all heard about the robberies,” I said.

“I'm not talking about the robberies. They're ancient history by now.”

“What, then?”

“You don't know?” Luz smiled and pretended to brush at one of the oil stains that speckled the overalls she wore around her workshop.

“Know
what
?” I hadn't seen Luz in over a year, and she was already driving me crazy.

“You heard about Mitzi Mulligan, that girl who was kidnapped?” asked Luz.

“Sure, she goes to my school,” I said.

“Well, there was another kidnapping last night.”

“We'll talk about the kidnappings later,” I told her. “Right now we have more important things to discuss.”

“I doubt it,” said Luz, yawning annoyingly.

“What could be more important than the fact that the Shadow City wasn't destroyed?” asked DeeDee. “Did someone we know get kidnapped?”

“No, the girl goes to school at Bronx Science,” Luz said.

“Would you get to the point, Lopez?” said Oona.

“I know why they took her. And I don't think anyone else has figured it out.” Luz looked pleased with herself.

“Would you care to share?” I sighed.

“The girl's name is Penelope Young. Her mother works for the city—just like Mitzi Mulligan's father. But they mentioned one interesting fact in the news report. The new girl's mother works for the New York City Parks Department. I thought it sounded weird. Why would anyone kidnap two girls with no money? So I did some research on Penelope's family. Her mother was one of the original designers of the NYCMap.”

“You mean
our
NYCMap?” asked Betty as the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle began to come together in my head. “The map with the gas and water mains? The one we took from Con Edison?”

“Yeah, except we could only find the bottom layer. Penelope Young's mother has access to the middle layer— the one that shows everything at street level.”

“I remember,” said DeeDee. “You said that if someone put all the layers together it would be a terrorist's dream.”

“That's right. Anyway, Mitzi Mulligan's father must have access to the bottom layer. Penelope Young's mother can get the middle. I'd bet you a billion dollars that the NYCMap is what the kidnappers are after,” said Luz.

“You mean what
she's
after,” I said, more to myself than to the group. The other girls fell silent. “Don't you see?” I asked them. “It can't just be a coincidence. First someone finds a way inside the Shadow City and then someone else decides to steal the NYCMap? No. I think the same person's behind the robberies
and
the kidnappings.”

“Are you talking about who I think you're talking about?” asked Betty.

“Who else could it be?” I asked.

“Why would Kiki want to kidnap Mitzi Mulligan?” asked Oona. “She already has the bottom layer of the NYCMap.”

“We don't know that for sure,” said Luz. “Kiki's computer was destroyed by the people who raided her house. She could have lost the maps, too.”

“Wait a second,” said DeeDee. “Aren't we getting a little carried away? Isn't she supposed to be in Hong Kong?”

“That's why I wanted to talk to you,” I told the Irregulars. “Kiki Strike is back. I saw her in Chinatown this morning, less than three blocks away from the Chinatown Savings and Loan.”

Whether I'm crossing the North Sea on a luxury liner or spying on an enemy at the local Gourmet Garage, I always know what path I'll take should anything go wrong. But you don't have to wait for disaster to make use of an escape route. They also come in handy when you're avoiding an annoying suitor, evading the authorities, or running from a furious sibling.

Know Your Surroundings.
Take a moment and look around you. Find out where all the exits, lifeboats, or hidden trapdoors are located, and figure out how to get to them quickly. It's always best to have at least two routes planned in case one is blocked. You should also make a mental list of possible hiding places and know how long you'll need to reach them.

Prepare in Advance.
If you have time, practice your escape routes. That way, you'll be able to act quickly and confidently when you need to. (You should be able to escape from your own house in a matter of seconds.) And always know where you'll go once you've made it out.

Wear the Right Things.
Unless you're attending a ball, try to wear clothes that will allow you to move comfortably. In particularly dangerous situations, you may want to choose fabrics such as wool or silk that won't easily catch on fire or melt under extreme heat.

Have the Tools You Need at Hand.
If your escape route involves climbing out a window, it's always best to have a rope at the ready. A small flashlight can help you navigate in the dark, and a cell phone will allow you to call for help. But don't bother searching for unnecessary items. Take only what you need and get out fast.

Act Fast, but Move with Caution.
As any horror movie will teach you, running blindly won't get you anywhere. Listen carefully and, in case of fire, check doors for heat before you open them—if they're hot, choose another path.

Smoky Conditions.
If you find yourself in a real emergency, there may be smoke. Tie a wet cloth over your nose and mouth, and crawl on your hands and knees to an exit. Don't let your head drop too low, or you may breathe in toxic fumes.

Most people think of maps as simple tools that can guide them from one place to another. (Of course, these tend to be the same dimwits who will tell you that disguises should only be worn to costume parties and that all good stories come with a moral.) But for those who know the right way to read them, maps can reveal remarkable secrets. Even the most ordinary road map can show you where to find dusty ghost towns, dangerous mountain passes, and swamps blooming with rare orchids. But there are other kinds of maps as well—maps that can lead you to hidden gold mines, lost Mayan cities, or the caves in the Oregon forest where Bigfoot resides.