The Copernicus Legacy: The Forbidden Stone (14 page)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

D
arrell had expected this from the beginning.

Ugly guys with ugly guns and thick accents. “Come viss us.” It was playing out like the bad screenplay of a cheesy foreign spy movie. He knew it would be this way. He was only surprised it hadn’t happened sooner. This was Germany, after all. The capital of spies and murder and death and foreign movies and spies.

The tree-size men pushed them into an empty corridor. Naturally, it was empty; all the other passengers had already found their cabins and were making themselves comfortable eating warm snacks. If people had been moving in the corridor, the kids could have made a scene and the bad guys might have been arrested. Or, wait. Not arrested. The bad guys were working with the police. Or fake police. Whatever. They were all spies, and spies with accents were always bad news.

“Zis vay,” the red-faced spy said. His hair shone like a jet-black bowling ball. It was probably crusty and sticky.

Never mind his hair, plan our escape!

The men marched the kids roughly down the narrow corridor, through the heavy connecting door and onto the platform between the cars. The wind was strong and nearly blew them off the train.

No escape plans came to him there.

The city had long disappeared behind them, and they were speeding through the last stretch of suburbs dotted with trees and houses, until finally there were no houses and just forest.

A good place to dump our bodies.

“Into ze next car!”

Darrell wished he had the sort of brain that would look at their situation and come up with an instant foolproof plan for escape. A movie once showed into the mind of the hero, and it buzzed like a computer, an electronic head. That would be so cool right now.

“Hurry alonk,” Redface said. “Ze next car.”

The train began to slow. The next station appeared in the distance. Two black SUVs were idling on the street outside the station. Not good. Sliding their guns into their pockets, the two giants nudged the children toward the end of the next car to the stairs that lowered to the platform, while their boss got on his phone again.

Checking with Mommy?

Then he had a thought. It was a small thought, but he’d seen enough movies about trains to know what happens when a train pulls into a station. He poked his fingers into Lily’s and Wade’s backs and whispered, “Get ready to run.”

“They have guns!” Lily whispered.

“Silence!” Redface spat. “Keep movink to ze door.”

Darrell took a chance, and purposely stumbled to the floor.

“Get up—”

It was a short delay, but what he expected to happen, happened. Even before the train stopped, several compartment doors swung wide and passengers plowed into the corridor.

“Run!” said Darrell. He lurched to his feet and pushed his friends forward into a tangle of passengers.

“Hey!”
“Ach du lieber!”
the passengers yelled, but the kids rammed their way through them, past the connecting door and into the next car, bounding down that corridor to the end. The train jerked once. Becca stopped short and pointed out the window. “Look!”

Two more extra-large men in suits quickly climbed aboard.

“Now there are five of them!” Lily said.

“Keep moving!” said Wade, pushing them farther away from the men. Darrell realized soon enough that they were going to run out of train, and they did. The door to the final car was locked.

“It’s the baggage car,” said Becca.

Lily pounded on the door with her fists. “Let us in!”

“
Eine
minute!” shouted a voice behind the door. Two bolts were shoved back. The door opened a crack.
“Was ist das?”

As the train picked up speed, Darrell heard the thugs crashing into the car toward them. “We need to—”

Becca rattled off a couple of sentences that sounded like she was coughing. But apparently that’s what German sounded like, because the mustached man behind the door let them into the baggage car, then bolted the door behind them.

“I told him I needed medication from my suitcase—”

The door shook.
“Lassen Sie Uns rein!”
grunted a voice. “
Die Kinder sind Ausreisser!
Runavays!”

The security guard growled. “Vhat now?”

“They’re lying!” said Lily.

They jumped over bags and suitcases to the door at the far end of the car. Pushing it open, they found themselves staring at the receding tracks. The train was racing quickly over the miles now, approaching top speed.

Unlocking the far door, the baggage guard reluctantly let the four thick men and Redface into the car. They pushed him aside, but he snagged one of the goons and started arguing his head off. Redface and his thugs simply pushed through to the rear and trapped the kids on the outside platform.

“No more runnink!” Redface grunted. “Giff us ze key.”

The wind tore icily around them. The guard inside was ranting in a high-pitched voice now.

Darrell’s brain scanned their options when he suddenly came up with a second amazing idea. He dug into his backpack, pulled out the pitch pipe, and held it out over the tracks. “You want the key? Here’s the key. It belonged to Vogel. One more inch, I toss it overboard.”

The men froze. “No, do not,” said one of them.

“Zey know nussing!” said Redface.

“Oh yeah?” Darrell snarled. “Well, this is what was in the safe at the tomb. The secret you’ve all been looking for. That pretty lady told you to get it, didn’t she?” Nice detail, he thought, and it seemed to work. The men mumbled at one another. As quickly as the train had gained speed, it slowed again. They were approaching a bridge. The lead car clattered onto it, slower still.

“Zey know nussing!” Redface repeated, his face getting redder and puffier. “Get it before ze next station!” The thugs lunged forward like the front line of the Texas Longhorns, pinning all of them to the back rail.

The space was too cramped to hold them. Lily kicked out, while Wade squirmed in front of Becca. Darrell managed to wrestle his arm free and fling the pitch pipe. One of the men shouted as it sailed through the air, and clattered onto the tracks. Redface responded by shoving the shouter right off the platform. “Find it! Get it!”

That left Redface and three goons. His thoughts popping one after another, Darrell pushed forward, and Redface fell back through the door into the baggage car, where the guard was yelling on the phone.

Wade moved to whip the dagger from his pack but settled for kicking one guy sideways in the knee. He fell headfirst on the platform. Becca and Lily took turns slapping another on the ears, while he cursed at them. Darrell jumped at the remaining guy, pushing him off balance on his way past, and the kids found themselves back in the baggage compartment.

Redface fumbled in his coat for something, but Wade and Darrell together pushed him back outside, where he fell over the others on the platform floor. Together, Lily and Becca slammed and barricaded the door.

The guard hustled over, his mustache flapping in anger. “I hev called ze conductor!”

Wade pushed his hand into his pocket and pulled out the wad of bills his father had given him. “Help us. I’ll give you euros. Just go away and leave us the key.”

The men battered on the door. “Open or ve’ll shoot!”

Leaning hard against the door, Wade peeled off a couple of bills, but the guard snatched the whole wad of cash. “Sank you!” He locked the platform door, then rushed away, tossing the key to Wade as he slipped into the forward car.

“Hide behind the bags!” said Becca.

Wade quickly opened the far door halfway, then joined the others behind a wall of baggage just as the three gunmen and Redface broke down the rear door and burst into the car. Seeing the far door open, they raced through it without looking. After the men had gone through, Darrell rushed over and double bolted the door behind them.

“I can’t believe we’re still alive,” Becca breathed.

Lily burst out with something between a laugh and a scream.

“Just wait!”

Chapter Thirty

W
ade knew they had only moments before the creeps battered their way back in. “We need another plan.”

“Don’t ask me,” said Darrell. “I’m all planned out.”

“Plus you just threw away one of our clues,” Lily grumbled. “What if we need a pitch pipe again?”

“We won’t,” said Darrell. “I have perfect pitch.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I don’t know exactly what that is, but you’d better have it!”

“Guys, we need to get off the train before it stops at another station,” Wade said. “Or worse, a border checkpoint. How soon will we reach Austria? Anybody?”

“I’m looking,” Lily said, tapping her tablet.

The train rolled through forests and valleys surrounded by mountains dotted with the occasional castle, mile-wide rivers, and twisting highways.

“Probably less than an hour,” Lily said.

Wade paced the length of the car. “We can’t depend on being lucky again. We’ll wait for the train to slow down and since we’re at the end of the train, we can just jump off and hide before anyone sees us.”

Darrell tilted his head at Wade skeptically. “That’s your plan? Jump off the train?”

He knew he could try to bluff it, but after crossing that bridge, the train hadn’t reached top speed again, which probably meant a station was not far, so he just said, “Yep. That’s it.”

He opened the rear door and stepped onto the platform. As slowly as the train was going compared to the distant trees, it was speeding swiftly relative to the ground. He was pretty sure Einstein had a name for that phenomenon, but he didn’t have time to search his memory for it. “Who’s first?”

“You’re first,” Lily said instantly. “If you don’t die, we’ll send Darrell. If
he
doesn’t die, Becca and I will go. Right, Bec?”

“Yeah, sister,” she said.

Wade grumbled. “Fair enough.”

The train slowed more as he lowered himself to the bottom stair. The ground on the left side of the tracks was a ridge of tufted grass. Gripping his backpack strap with one hand, he jumped, slamming hard on the ground, then rolling over twice. He looked back. The train slowed even more.
Hurry!
Becca wrapped her arms around her bag and dropped off the platform. A little gawkily, but she rolled smartly. Lily and Darrell went at the same time. Darrell landed nearly on his feet, while she rolled on the ground and came to a stop in a heap.

Pushing himself to his feet, Wade’s forearm ached sharply, but not as badly as when he’d fractured it playing baseball. He turned it gently and it felt better, so he ignored it. “Everyone okay?”

They all mumbled something and wobbled toward him, which was good enough. The train rolled for a half mile or so down the rails before it disappeared behind the trees around a curve in the tracks. It whistled twice, and the brakes squealed.

“As soon as they discover we’re not on the train, they’ll comb the area,” Becca said. “We need to be long gone.”

“Comb the area,” Darrell said with a smile. “Official spy talk.”

“Shh.” Wade listened for the sound of the train leaving the station. It didn’t come. “Stops are usually shorter than this. I think the train is still there. We should see what’s going on.”

Lily gave him a look. “That seems risky.”

“It is, but right now they don’t know where we are,” he said. “The more we find out the better off we’ll be.”

“You’re saying we should spy on the spies?” said Darrell.

“Yes.” Without waiting for them to argue, Wade darted off through the tall grass, hoping his friends would follow him. He’d feel pretty stupid if they didn’t. Thankfully, they did.

Staying close to the shelter of the trees, they made their way stealthily around the bend in the track toward the station. A black SUV and two police cars were parked and idling next to the platform. Three thugs and Redface had exited the train and were standing near. The man who had jumped after the pitch pipe hobbled out of one of the police cars. He pointed both up and down the tracks with his one good arm, which also glinted with the silver pitch pipe. The others seemed to agree with whatever he told them. Finally one of the tree-size men reentered the train while the others drove away. The train started up again.

“So,” said Lily, “what did we learn, Professor Wade?”

He released his breath. “That by keeping a guy on the train, they’re not sure we’re not still hiding on it. This is good. They know we’re heading to Bologna because I stupidly told them—”

“We all would have done the same thing,” Becca said.

Wade half smiled. “Thanks. But as long as they don’t know that we found a dagger in the crypt, they don’t know about Achille Marozzo or any fencing school. If we’re smart, we can get there without them finding out. Plus we have Dad’s friend to help us get him back.”

“Fine, we learned a lot,” said Lily. “Good work.”

“But no way are we done with them,” Darrell said.

Becca nodded. “So what’s next. How do we get to Italy?”

“For starters, we’ll have to find a ride that keeps us off the grid,” said Lily. “Darrell, come with me. You two stay here. Two kids aren’t as suspicious as four.”

“Good,” Wade said. As he watched the two of them head into town, he was pretty sure he heard Darrell humming. Even better.

Becca stared down the tracks long after the train had vanished. “Wade, did we do the right thing? Leaving without your dad? I mean, I know we didn’t have a choice then, but we do now. Part of me thinks we should go back and just tell everyone what we know. Go to our embassy or the newspapers, and ask for help. I don’t know. It’s kind of crazy to be going farther away.” Her eyes were dark with worry, as Wade imagined his own were.

“Yeah, I don’t know, either,” he said. “Except that Dad said not to trust anybody. He’d want us to stay free.” He drew out the dagger. It glinted in the waning sunlight. “This is some part of the Legacy and the reason at least two people are dead. Those creeps wanted it. I think keeping the dagger safe and away from them is the only leverage we have right now.” It was quite a speech, and he wondered if it even made sense.

Becca searched his face. She was quiet for a long minute, then said, “All right. We’ll try to get to Bologna and Isabella Mercanti. But at the first sign of a black suit, we’re heading for the embassy.”

Wade laughed. “Black suit? We’re going to Italy, don’t forget.”

“You know what I mean,” she said, cracking a dimply smile.

Wade wanted to keep talking like this to her. It was surprisingly comfortable and comforting, and it kept him from thinking too deeply about what his father was going through in Berlin. He really hoped the men on the train were bluffing when they said, “If you ever want to see your father alive again . . .”

In fact, he
needed
to believe it was an empty threat. Or else he wouldn’t be able to go on another minute.

There was a sudden pop from the end of the street as a truck rumbled toward them, snorting and coughing up a cloud of blue smoke. It gained speed, then suddenly slowed down and swerved to the roadside.

Instinctively, he took Becca’s arm. “Into the trees—”

“Wade!” Darrell poked his head out of the truck cab. “Wade! Here’s our ride. A supermarket truck!”

The driver howled with laughter as he pulled up and hopped down from the cab with Darrell and Lily.

“He said we have kind faces,” Lily said. “Which, of course, we do.”

“I go Bologna,” the driver said. “Two times week. Come.”

Becca wrinkled her nose at Wade. “What about ‘don’t trust anyone’? Do you think—”

“Come, come!” The driver opened the back flap for Darrell to climb in, thrashing the canvas when the others hesitated. “I no bad. I hev family. Chiddren. Two. Come. Is good truck!”

When neither he nor Becca moved, Lily marched over to them. “He has a nice face, don’t you think?”

“I know, but . . .” Wade started.

“You can tell a lot about a person from his face. And his Facebook. He’s posted the cutest pictures of his kids. Look.” Lily showed them her tablet. A boy was giving a girl for a ride on his shoulders. He wore a fake mustache. “I know it’s crazy, but he looked okay. He had a truck, he sounded Italian, so Darrell and I made a leap. Plus he has
chiddren
. Two. And now we have our ride. Come on, guys. Darrell’s already made himself at home in the back.”

The driver did have a pretty good face, after all. Mostly one big smile. Not all that different from Uncle Henry’s. “Okay,” he said. “Thanks a lot, sir.”

“Ticky tocky!” the driver replied, laughing and flapping the canvas for them to hurry. “You hide. You sleep. We be Bologna for lunch!”