The Empress's Tomb (24 page)

“What did her kidnappers look like?”

We waited impatiently for Oona to translate. “They were mostly Chinese. She says she saw their boss only once.” Oona hesitated and looked around at the rest of us.

“Go ahead. Ask her,” Luz demanded.

Siu Fah spoke for two full minutes before Oona began to translate. “She says he was a pale man with black hair. He was always dressed in a suit. She thinks he spoke Russian with some of the men.” I couldn't tell from the look on her face if Oona was relieved or disappointed.

“Molotov,” Kiki spat.

“What were they painting?” I wanted to know.

“Painting?” Oona repeated pensively before posing the question to Siu Fah. “She says she doesn't know what the other kids were painting. She was never allowed to look. But she was ordered to copy a work she'd never seen before. It was a picture of a fat lady looking into a mirror that was held by a little boy. She finished it a couple of days ago and they took it from her. She thinks it's been sold.”

Kiki's brow furrowed. “Sounds like a painting by Peter Paul Rubens.
The Toilet of Venus.
I think they were copying famous works of art.”

“Ask her if she has any idea where they took the other kids,” said DeeDee.

Siu Fah's voice grew sad. “She doesn't know. She was trying to save them, but she failed,” said Oona.

I felt a tug on the back of my jacket. Mrs. Fei waved me into the kitchen. I waited until no one was looking and slid inside.

“The building you talked about. It belongs to Lester Liu,” Mrs. Fei whispered.

“How do you know that, Mrs. Fei?”

“We lived there when Wang was a baby.”

“Does she remember?” I asked.

“I don't know,” said Mrs. Fei.

“Where's Ananka?” I heard Betty ask in the hallway. Mrs. Fei put a finger to her lips.

“Just getting a glass of water,” I called.

•     •     •

Five of us left Oona's apartment and filed out onto the sidewalk. A few blocks away we stopped for a quick consultation.

“I guess we didn't get the goods on Lester Liu,” Luz said.

I had to tell them. “He owns the abandoned building. Don't ask me how I know that. I just do.”

“Just what we need—more secrets.” DeeDee sniffed.

“But Siu Fah described Sergei Molotov,” said Betty.

“Do we really know that for sure?” DeeDee asked solemnly. “How do we know our translator was trustworthy?”

“You think Oona was lying?” The possibility hadn't occurred to me, and I chided myself for being so gullible.

“I'm just saying that none of us speak Hakka,” said DeeDee. “We have no idea what that girl really said. She could have described Lester Liu to a T and we wouldn't have known the difference.”

“Oona's definitely up to
something,”
Luz insisted.

“That fur she was wearing cost a fortune,” Betty added.

“Do you think Yu and Siu Fah are safe with her?” asked DeeDee.

“Shut up! All of you.” It had been a while since I'd seen Kiki lose her temper, and I'd forgotten how terrifying she could be. Her eyes were wolflike and her hair wild. Bright blue veins throbbed beneath the skin of her forehead. “Is this how you talk about your friends? None of you have any idea how hard this has been for Oona. Do any of you know what it's like to grow up without a family? Of course you don't. Maybe Oona
is
tempted. Maybe she wants to have a father like everyone else. As far as I'm concerned, there's only one thing that matters. Right now we don't have a single shred of evidence that she's done anything wrong. So what if she's Lester Liu's daughter? I knew that when I invited her to join the Irregulars, and in the past two years she's done nothing to make me question her loyalty.”

“I was just trying to be logical,” DeeDee defended herself.

“This is
life.
It isn't a science experiment. People don't always act
logically.”

“They don't tend to change, either,” DeeDee said. “Don't forget—Oona's spent a lot of time on the wrong side of the law.”

“She's right,” I added softly.

Kiki stared at us all with disgust. Then she spun around and marched toward Canal Street, leaving us standing in shock on the corner.

“Somebody's
a little sensitive,” said Luz.

“Kiki doesn't have parents either,” DeeDee pointed out. “She thinks she knows how Oona feels. She can't see what's really going on.”

•     •     •

That night, I received two urgent e-mails. Both were addressed to four of the Irregulars. Oona's and Kiki's names hadn't made the list. The first message came from Betty and contained a link to the
New York Society Journal
Web site. There I found three pictures taken at a posh party the previous Saturday night. They showed Lester Liu arm in arm with Oona. Both were smiling for the cameras. The caption beneath the photos read
Philanthropist Lester Liu and his stunning daughter.

Luz had sent the second e-mail. According to her surveillance equipment, at exactly 8:00 p.m., all the bugs in Lester Liu's mansion had stopped working. Fifteen minutes later, the pigeon cameras had gone dark.

At seven o'clock the next morning, the bitter odor of burning coffee wafted into my bedroom. I threw on my robe and tiptoed to the kitchen to investigate, expecting to find a bushed burglar or an undersized princess. Instead, I discovered my mother sitting at the table, sipping from a PBS mug. She said nothing when I offered a hoarse “good morning,” but continued to study a copy of the
New York Daily News
that lay open in front of her. Even with the paper upside down, I had no difficulty identifying the woman whose picture graced page two. It was Livia Galatzina, the exiled Queen of Pokrovia and Kiki Strike's aunt.

Adrenaline pumped through my system. My hands quivered as I poured coffee into the last clean dish in the house and took a seat at the table. My mother pushed the paper toward me and stood up to refill her cup. The headline read
Assassin at Large in Manhattan.

AUTHORITIES HAVE CONFIRMED that a woman sought in connection with the fourteen-year-old murder of Crown Princess Sophia of Pokrovia has recently been seen in New York. In early November, a sixty-year-old woman was admitted to St. Vincent's Hospital, where she was treated for an infected bullet wound. In accordance with New York City law, nurses fingerprinted the patient and reported the incident to police. The fingerprints were later identified as belonging to Verushka Kozlova, a former member of the Pokrovian Royal Guard who allegedly poisoned the country's royal family more than a decade ago, before vanishing without a trace.

According to police reports, Ms. Kozlova disappeared from St. Vincent's before her arrest could be secured. Witnesses claim she was in the company of a small, unusually pale girl who gave her name as Trixie Drew. Some have suggested that the teenager bore a strong resemblance to the now legendary Kiki Strike. Unfortunately, the hospital's security cameras show no sign of Kozlova's companion, and a nurse who photographed the girl with a cell phone camera later discovered that the image had been mysteriously erased.

While the teenager's identity remains unknown, one remarkable possibility has been suggested. Reached for comment in St. Petersburg, Russia, the exiled Queen of Pokrovia rejoiced in the news that her sister's murderer has finally surfaced. Queen Livia also speculated that Ms. Kozlova's companion might be her niece, Katarina, Sophia's only child.
Though it has long been thought that the child was murdered along with her parents, Queen Livia now admits that Princess Katarina disappeared the day of the assassination. “If my beloved niece is still alive, I urge her to return to her family. I will treat her as my own daughter and ensure that she is recognized as the rightful heir to the throne of Pokrovia.”

Queen Livia has offered a $100,000 reward for any information leading to the capture of Verushka Kozlova.”

On the opposite page, I spotted a short article about the mysterious disappearance of New York's giant squirrels, but there was no time to read it. I glanced up to see my mother staring at me, and I knew my acting skills would determine my fate. I tried to look bored as I tossed the paper back across the table.

“So every pale girl in the city is Kiki Strike now? This is nuts, Mom. I've got to get ready for school.”

“Then you won't mind if I phone Principal Wickham this morning and check that you've made it there?” my mother asked. I was ready for my close-up.

“Be my guest.” I sniffed sarcastically. I took one last swig of my coffee and headed for the bathroom.

•     •     •

Of course, I had no intention of going to school. I turned on the tub faucet and tried calling Kiki, but only got through to her voice mail. I took the fastest shower on record, and as soon as I was a reasonable distance from my house, I bought all the New York newspapers and
hailed a cab. When I rang Kiki's bell, she answered immediately. For the first time since I'd known her, I saw real fear in her face.

“I thought you were Dr. Pritchard,” she said. “He should have been here ages ago. Verushka's had a rough morning.”

“Haven't you heard?” I felt my first rush of panic and my heartbeat pounded in my ears. Kiki read the newspapers religiously, and I'd expected her to be ready with a plan. My cell phone rang. Betty's number flashed on the caller ID. “I'll call you back in a minute,” I told her. As soon as I hung up, Luz's number appeared on the display.

“Heard what?” Kiki asked. I passed her a copy of the
Daily News.
Her eyes flew over the type. “Where did that old hag get a hundred thousand dollars?” she scoffed. “Call the Irregulars and ask them to get over here. We need to clean the place out. Tell them to leave the weapons. Just take our personal belongings. I'm going to get Verushka.”

“What about the doctor?” I asked. “How will he know where to find us?”

“The doctor's a rat,” Kiki shouted as she sprinted for the bedroom. “I bet he's already spent Livia's reward.”

“What are we going to do with Verushka?” I called, though I already knew there was only one option. But if Lester Liu and Sergei Molotov were connected somehow, it didn't seem wise to take Verushka to Oona's house. “Kiki, do you really want to—” I started to say.

Kiki barged back into the living room like a gunslinger entering a saloon. “I thought I made myself clear last
night, Ananka. Whatever you're thinking right now, you should keep it to yourself.”

•     •     •

Luz, DeeDee, and Betty arrived as we were rolling Verushka's wheelchair out of the bedroom. They took to their work like professionals, moving efficiently and talking little. It wasn't the previous night's argument that was still on their minds. Behind their vacant expressions, I could see they were hurt. They were cleaning up the consequences of a secret that no one had shared with them. Luz and DeeDee silently dumped clothing and papers into plastic trash bags. Betty pulled two wigs from her oversized purse, along with a nurse's smock, a pair of glasses, and a fake nose. In less than a minute, she transformed Kiki and Verushka into an elderly African woman and her private nurse. With Verushka mumbling incoherently, we couldn't risk public transportation, so Kiki and I swaddled her in blankets and speed-walked the mile to Chinatown. Not far from Fat Frankie's, I spotted two policemen eyeing us from across the street. If Dr. Pritchard had gone to the authorities, the NYPD would be on the lookout for an elderly woman with a blue tinge to her skin. Even with makeup on, Verushka's appearance remained remarkably odd. As the cops crossed over to question her, I sprayed the three of us with a mist of Fille Fiable. Whether it was the disguises, the perfume, or the foul stench of body odor that saved us, I'll never know, but the police let us by without any hassle.

•     •     •

When we reached Oona's building, Kiki and I hauled Verushka's limp body up the stairs to the second floor. Kiki had phoned in advance, and all four grandmothers stood ready for action. They had transformed the dining room into a makeshift hospital and helped us gently lay Verushka down on a cot. Then Mrs. Fei began barking orders, and the younger women scattered in three directions.

“Is she your mother?” Mrs. Fei inquired as she checked Verushka's pulse.

“She might as well be.” Kiki didn't seem surprised to hear Oona's grandmother speaking English. “She's taken care of me since I was a baby.”

Mrs. Fei's expression quickly hardened. “If you care so much you should have come earlier. Cyanide, right? The poison is eating her. Your friend could die,” she scolded.

“I thought I'd found a good doctor,” Kiki explained.

“American doctors.” Mrs. Fei grunted. “They know machines and chemicals. They don't know the human body. I make you a deal. I save your friend, and you save Wang.” It wasn't hard to see where Oona got her bluntness.

“What makes you think Oona needs to be saved, Mrs. Fei?” Kiki asked.

“Because I listen to her when she speaks to her father. She thinks he wants her back, but I know he is going to break her heart. I tried to go see him and beg him to leave her alone, but he won't talk to me.” She pointed at a beautifully wrapped package sitting by the door. “See that? Every day something new comes. Wang thinks presents are the same thing as love. Every day she goes to
his house. Sometimes she don't come home till late at night.”

Mrs. Fei's warning meant more to Kiki than anything I could have said. “I promise—we'll watch out for Oona,” she assured the old woman.

“Please.
Or one day Wang will never come home.”