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"It was Irina Spaskys fault!" Dan said. "She tricked us into going there. The whole thing was a setup. "
"And we cant even pay you," Amy added miserably. "We dont have enough money for the flight home. Im . . . Im really sorry, Nellie. "
Nellie stood very still. Her glitter eye shadow was red today, which made her eyes look even angrier. Her arms were crossed over her T-shirt, which showed a picture of a screaming punk rocker. All in all, she looked pretty scary. Then she grabbed Amy and Dan and hugged them fiercely.
She knelt down so she was looking them in the eyes. "Ive got some credit left on my MasterCard. Well be fine. "
Dan was confused. "But . . . youre not going to kill us?"
"Im going to help you, stupid. " Nellie shook his shoulders gently. "Nobody messes with my babysitees. "
"Au pairees," Dan corrected.
"Whatever! Now get some sleep. Tomorrow were going to slap some people senseless. "
Maison des Gordons did not mean the house of gardens. Apparently, gardons meant roaches. Dan found this out because Nellie told him, and because he heard scuttling sounds along the floor all night long. He wished Saladin were there. The cat wouldve had a great time playing jungle stalker.
In the morning, everybody looked bleary-eyed, but they showered and changed clothes. Nellie came back from the corner café with coffee for herself, hot chocolate for Dan and Amy, and pain au chocolat for al of them. Dan figured any country that ate chocolate for breakfast couldnt be all bad.
"So," Dan said, "can I get some more grenades today?"
"No!" Amy said. "Dan, youre lucky it was only concussive. You couldve wiped out the whole Holt family. "
"And that wouldve been bad because . . . ?"
"Okay, knock it off," Nellie said. "The important thing is you guys are safe. "
Amy picked at her croissant. She looked pale this morning. Her hair was a tangled mess. "Dan . . . Im sorry about last night. I -- I panicked. I almost got us killed. "
Dan had pretty much forgotten that part. Hed been annoyed with her at the time, but it was hard to stay mad when Amy looked so miserable and apologized.
Plus shed done that cool thing with the battery, which had kind of made up for her freaking out.
"Dont worry about it," he said.
"But if it happens again -- "
"Hey, if we let Irina lure us into a trap again, were stupider than the Holts. "
Amy didnt look very comforted. "What I dont understand is the man in black. Why was he there last night? And if the Holts started the fire at the mansion and set up the museum explosion -- "
"Then what was the man in black doing in both places?" Dan finished. "And why did Irina have a photo of him?"
He waited for Amy to come up with one of her "oh-I-did-a-book-report-on-that-last-year" answers, but she just kept frowning at her breakfast.
"Maybe you guys should concentrate on where we go next," Nellie advised.
Amy took a deep breath. "I think I know where to go. Dan, can I use your laptop?"
He stared at her, because Amy didnt like computers. But finally he brought it over and Amy started searching the Internet.
In no time, she grimaced and turned the screen for them to see. The picture showed a pile of bones in a dark stone room.
"Ive suspected for a while," Amy said, "but I was hoping I was wrong because its risky. The Maze of Bones. Thats what Moms note said in Poor Richards Almanack. We have to explore the Catacombs. "
"Is that where they keep the cats?" Dan asked.
It seemed like a perfectly reasonable question to him, but Amy gave him a "youre-such-a-dummy" look.
"The Catacombs are an underground maze," she said. "I told you Paris is riddled with caves and tunnels, right? Al the limestone they used to build the city, ever since the Roman days, they dug from underground, and it left a whole network of empty spaces.
Some are just pits, like the one we fell in last night. "
"And some are networks of tunnels," Nellie said. "Yeah, I remember hearing about this. And theyre filled with bones, right?"
"I want a room decorated with bones!" Dan said. "Whered they come from?"
"Cemeteries," Amy said. "Back in the 1700s, the cemeteries were getting overcrowded, so they decided to dig up tons of old bodies -- all their bones -- and move them into the Catacombs. The thing is . . . look at the dates. See when they started moving bones into the Catacombs?"
Dan squinted at the screen. He didnt see what she was talking about. "Is it my birthday?"
"No, doofus. Look. 1785. They didnt officially declare it open until the next year, but they started planning the project, and moving the bones, in 1785. Which was also the last year Benjamin Franklin was in Paris. "
"Whoa. You mean -- "
"He hid something down there. " It got so quiet Dan could hear roaches scuttling in the closet.
"So," Nellie said, "we have to go underground, into a maze filled with bones, and find . . . whatever it is. "
Amy nodded. "Except the Catacombs are huge. We dont know where to look. The only thing I can think -- theres one public entrance. It says here its across from the Denfert-Rochereau Métro station, in the 14th arrondissement. "
"But if thats the only public entrance," Dan said, "then the other teams might head there, too. Everybodys been stealing that almanac from each other. Theyll figure out the Maze of Bones thing eventually, if they havent already. "
"Good enough for me. " Nellie brushed the chocolate and bread crumbs off her shirt.
"Lets go meet your family. "
Dans backpack was a lot lighter today, but before they left he made sure the photo of his parents was still safe in the side pocket. His mom and dad were right where hed left them: in their plastic photo album sheet, smiling from the top of their mountain like they hadnt minded sharing space with a Franklin battery and a grenade at all.
He wondered if theyd be proud of him for getting out of that pit last night, or if theyd be all protective like Amy: You almost got yourself killed, blah, blah, blah. He decided they wouldve been cooler than that. Theyd probably had tons of dangerous adventures. Maybe their house had an arsenal, too, before it burned down.
"Dan!" Amy called. "Get out of the bathroom and lets go!"
"Coming!" he shouted. He looked at his parents one more time. "Thanks for the note about the Maze of Bones, Mom. I wont let you down!"
He slipped the photo back into his pack and went to join Amy and Nellie.
They werent out of the Denfert-Rochereau Métro station two minutes before they spotted Uncle Alistair. He was kind of hard to miss in his cherry-red suit and canary-yellow ascot, his diamond-tipped cane swinging in one hand. The old man sauntered toward them, smiling with his arms out. As he got closer, Dan noticed he had a black eye. "My dear children!"
Nellie whopped him upside the head with her backpack.
"Ow!" Uncle Alistair curled over, cupping his hand over his good eye. "Nellie!" Amy said.
"Sorry," Nellie muttered. "I thought he was one of the bad guys. "
"He is," Dan agreed.
"No, no. " Alistair tried to smile, but all he could do was wince and blink. Dan figured his other eye was going to be black now thanks to that pop. Nellies backpack was not light.
"Children, please, you must believe me, I am not your enemy!"
"You stole the book from us," Dan said, "and left us for dead!"
"Children, I admit it. I thought you were lost in the fire. I barely made it out myself.
Fortunately, I found a latch that opened the door. I called for you, but you must have discovered another way out. I had the almanac, yes. I couldnt leave it behind. I admit I panicked when I got outside. I feared our enemies were still about, or that I would be blamed for the terrible fire. So I fled. Forgive me. "
Amys scowl softened, but Dan didnt believe this guy at all.
"Hes lying!" Dan said. "Trust no one, remember?"
"Should I hit him again?" Nellie asked.
Uncle Alistair flinched. "Please, listen. The Catacombs are right there. " He pointed across the street to a simple building with a black facade. White letters above the door read Entrée des Catacombes.
The street around it looked like a normal neighborhood -- townhouses, apartments, pedestrians on their way to work. It was hard to believe a maze of dead people lay right underneath.
"I must speak with you before you go in," Alistair insisted. "All I ask is ten minutes. You are in grave danger. "
"Grave danger," Dan grumbled. "That supposed to be a joke?"
"Dan . . . " Amy put her hand on his arm. "Maybe we should listen to him. Ten minutes. What do we have to lose?"
Dan could think of a lot of things, but Alistair smiled. "Thank you, my dear. There is a café just here. Shall we?"
Alistair was buying, so Dan ordered an early lunch -- a turkey-and-cheese sandwich with chips and a large Coke, which for some weird reason was delivered in a glass with no ice. Nellie spoke with the waiter in French for a long time and ordered some exotic gourmet thing. The waiter looked impressed with her choice, but when it came Dan couldnt tell what it was. It looked like gobs of Silly Putty in garlic butter.
In a sad voice, Alistair explained how the Holts had ambushed him outside de Gaulle Airport and taken the
Poor Richards Almanack.
"The barbarians hit me in the face and cracked one of my ribs. I really am getting too old for this sort of thing. " He touched his bruised eyes.
"But . . . why is everyone trying to kill each other over that book?" Amy asked. "Arent there other ways to find the clue? Like the invisible message we found in Philadelphia -- "
"Amy!" Dan said. "Keep secrets much?"
"Its all right, my boy," Alistair said. "Youre correct, of course, Amy. There are many possible paths toward the next clue. For instance, I found a message encoded in a famous portrait by -- well, here, see for yourself. "
Uncle Alistair reached into his coat and pulled out a paper. He unfolded a color print of a painting. It showed Benjamin Franklin as an old man in a red flowing robe, sitting in a thunderstorm, which seemed kind of dumb. A bunch of baby angels hovered around him -- two at his feet, working on batteries, and three more right behind him, holding up a kite with a key on the string. Lightning zapped from the key into Bens upraised hand. Ben didnt look upset by this. His long gray hair was wild and frizzed out, so maybe he was used to getting shocked.
"No way did it happen like that," Dan said. "With the angels and all. "
"No, Dan," Alistair agreed. "Its symbolic. The painter, Benjamin West, meant to show Franklin as a hero for drawing lightning out of the sky. But there is more symbolism than I realized -- signs hidden so deep only a Cahill could discover them. Look at Franklins knee. "
Dan didnt see anything except a knee, but Amy gasped. "That shape in the fabric!"
Dan squinted, and he saw what she meant. Part of Franklins knee was painted in a lighter shade of red, but it wasnt just a random blotch. It was a silhouette hed seen many times before.