by Jude Watson
"Her last flight was right around that time." One of Amy's childhood heroes had been Amelia Earhart. Grace had given her a biography of the flier when she was eight years old. "She was amazing. She was the first woman to fly solo over the Atlantic.
She broke records for speed and altitude. She didn't let anything stop her."She flipped to the index and looked up "last flight." Then she turned to the page and read through the itinerary. "Look," she said, pointing to the page.
"She was in Darwin, Australia, on June 28, 1937. She was trying to become the first woman to circumnavigate the world, and by the longest distance. And Dan, look at the rest of her stops!"
She placed the paper with her parents' itinerary next to Amelia's journey. Her parents had hit many of the major stops."They match," Dan said. "But why would Mom and Dad be following where Amelia Earhart went about a bazillion years before?""About sixty years before," Amy corrected. She tapped the paper. "Isabel said something to me about the Lucian stronghold in Karachi. I bet all these cities are strongholds for other branches, too.""So what happened after she left Darwin?"
"She flew to Lae, New Guinea, for refueling. Then she took off for Howland Island which is basically a speck in the middle of the Pacific-- but she never made it. Her plane was never found. There were all sorts of rumors that she survived, but basically everyone believes that she and her navigator couldn't locate the island and ran out of gas. But before that happened, it looks like she had a secret agenda.
Do you realize what this means? She was a Cahill!""So who was GP?" Dan asked.
Amy searched through the book.
"It must be George Putnam, her husband. They shipped the parachutes back because they would be useless over water.
But whoever she trusted to ship the jacket didn't do it. Even then, it would have been valuable as a souvenir. It must have just stayed in Darwin. Mom must have had some kind of lead to it....Our assassin H,'" Dan read. "Do you think it could be Bob Troppo? Maybe she's using the word assassin in a funny way because he hit Mark Twain with his cane. She says he has scars, just like the photograph."
"It has to be!" Amy said.
"The Cahills have been looking for him for a long time, I guess. I wonder why." She reread the letter. "I wonder where Bandung is."Shep overheard her from the kitchen, where he was transferring grilled fish onto a platter.
"It's on the island of Java, not far from Jakarta," he said. "Indonesia."
"It was Earhart's stop before she flew to Darwin," Amy said."They fear us,'" Dan read. "Who is 'they'?" Amy looked up and met his gaze.
"Who does every branch fear?""Madrigals," Dan said.
"Isabel said that Madrigals might be rogue Cahills-- they left their own branches and formed a new group.
They're like a secret society. That would explain why nobody really knows who they are....They're just afraid of them." Amy frowned.
"But Amelia Earhart couldn't be a Madrigal. She just couldn't. She was a hero. An explorer. And not only that, she wasn't ... sneaky or mean. I can't believe she'd betray her branch just to get power." Or that she could belong to a group that would one day kill our parents ...if that part of the story is even true.
"Maybe she was just really good at hiding things," Dan said, frowning. "Okay, we've got Amelia Earhart, branch strongholds, and some crazy dude with no name - maybe he's H, maybe he's Bob, but he's definitely a few Lucky Charms short of a bowl," Dan summarized.
"I still don't know what we're doing in Australia. And what were our parents doing here? And why did they come to Sydney? Amelia Earhart didn't."
"Well, they probably flew here so that they could meet up with Shep and have him take them on his own plane.
Less chance to be followed that way."Amy turned back to Shep and raised her voice. "Shep, why did our parents go to Adelaide? Do you know?"
"Sure," Shep said. "We needed a refueling stop before Darwin. We had a couple of choices, and they picked Adelaide."He put down the platter of fish on the dining table.
"I don't want to be nosy," he said, "but I have a feeling I don't have the whole story here. So far today we've been attacked by very large American surfers, Amy disappears for hours and then shows up looking like death warmed up, and now apparently Amelia Earhart is speaking to you from a watery grave.
Do you want to fill me in on what's going on? Since I'm flying you over half of Australia and I happen to be your cousin, I think I have a right to know."
"Absolutely," Dan said. "The truth is that we're part of a gang of master thieves who broke into the US Mint and stole one billion dollars in gold. Amy and I are small enough to climb into AC ducts. We took off with the gold, so they're chasing us.
But what they don't know is that we're working directly for the president.""And Amelia Earhart...""... was on a secret mission to find a place to hide the world's gold in a top secret underwater fortress.
We're looking for that, too."Shep nodded.
"O-kay. Glad we got that straightened out. Now it's time to eat."* * *
Amy couldn't sleep. Every time she closed her eyes she saw Irina's fierce gaze, blue as a flame in the darkness.
Do you think your mother left you alone and raced back into a burning house just for her husband?Remember that night, Amy.
Think about that night. You were there. You were old enough to see.
All this confusion, all this tightness in her chest made her feel like she couldn't breathe.
Why was she so afraid? Why did Isabel seem so familiar to her, and why did that fill her with dread?
Nellie snoozed next to her, and Dan was just a lump wrapped in a quilt on the sofa by the window.
Amy slipped out of bed. The leather jacket was lying on the armchair near Dan, and she put it on and wrapped it around her.
The thrilling thought that it had belonged to Amelia Earhart had been replaced by the simple need to touch something her mother had touched. She lay her cheek against the collar."I miss them." Dan's voice was sleepy. "How can you miss people you can't remember?"
"I miss them, too," Amy said softly.
"Being here is so weird. Because they were here, too.""Yeah. It feels like they could just walk in the door any second. I don't know why."Amy realized that she felt the same way. She felt closer to her parents here. Closer than she'd felt in a long time. And they were half a world away from everything they knew.
Dan yawned. "They left us for a whole month." His voice was drowsy, and she could tell he was close to sleep. "That's a long time to leave your kids."
"It must have been super important," Amy whispered.'I’m glad they were searching for the clues, just like us," Dan said. He yawned again.
"Wouldn't it be great95if after this is over ... Shep could maybe be our dad? We could move in with him....""Dan, I don't know. He's not the dad type.""People don't know they're the dad type until they're dads. Besides, can you imagine going back to Beatrice the Bloody?"
Amy couldn't. She couldn't imagine what the end of this would be like at all. But as soon as Dan said it, she realized he was right.
She couldn't imagine going back to Aunt Beatrice. She couldn't imagine going back to school, or Boston.
They didn't belong there anymore.
They didn't belong anywhere.After a minute, Dan's breathing was deep and regular. Amy went back to the foldout couch she shared with Nellie. She climbed back under the covers and she fell asleep, clutching her mother's jacket around her.* * *
She dreamed. Her mother's hand gripping hers.
A fire crackling in the fireplace. And then a fire out of control... ash falling like snow on the lawn.
"Get the children out!"She woke with a start. It was still dark. She could hear Nellie's soft breathing next to her.And then memory lit up her brain, and the shadows went away.
She hadn't gone to sleep after her bath.
She'd turned on her little green glass lamp and picked out a book. Sometimes she read herself to sleep. It was a secret she kept from her parents. Grace knew. Grace a
lways let her.
So she heard the sound of visitors arriving.
Heard a murmur of voices. Then suddenly the voices were raised. She got up and listened. She was dressed in her nightgown, the one with the koalas her mother had brought back from her long trip. Her parents' voices sounded different. There was something hard in their voices, something that glinted and clanked like coins.
She crept down the stairs and then down the hall to her father's study. She couldn't see her parents. Strangers surrounded them. The lights were low, but the fire blazed in the hearth.She heard bursts of words, and Amy closed her eyes, trying to remember.
The violation of the strongholds...Where did you go ...And her father's voice: Our travels are our business, not yours.
Let's all calm down. We only want what is ours.
Where did you go... Tell us or...Or what? You are standing in my home and you dare to threaten me?
Her mother's voice was hard and cool. It scared Amy. She burst through the circle. "Mommy!"
But before her mother could scoop her up, someone else did. Someone who smelled of perfume and makeup.
A beautiful lady with big eyes the color of honey. In Amy's mind, she'd seen the flicker of fire reflected there."And who is this? What a pretty nightgown! Such cheerful teddy bears.""Koalas," Amy corrects, because she's proud to know the word.
The lady's fingers tighten, just a bit. She looks over Amy's head and smiles at Mommy and Daddy."Did your mommy and daddy bring it back for you from their trip?"The lady holds her too tightly. Amy starts to squirm, but the grip doesn't loosen.
And her mother looks so afraid...Amy sat up in bed.
The truth brought a rush of horror.
The facts pounded her like body blows.The lady holding her had been Isabel Kabra.
Who else was there? She strained to remember. A bunch of people, strangers to her at the time. She'd been too shy to look at their faces.
They knew her parents had come back from a trip but they weren't sure where they'd gone. For some reason, they had to know. Her parents had hidden the destination from them... until a seven-year-old girl had run downstairs in her nightgown and said the word koalas.
And then her parents' enemies had their answer.
She had betrayed them.
CHAPTER 14
"Rise and shine, mates," Shep called cheerfully. "I'm going to make a pot of coffee and a bit of brekkie, and then we're off to the field. Everybody sleep okay?"It was still dark out. Shep had switched on the lights.
"Mmmfff," Nellie said, her head in the pillow."Great," Dan said, sitting up in a tangle of quilts.While Nellie put the pillow over her head and Shep started the coffee, Amy rose woodenly and went to the bathroom.
She splashed cold water on her face and looked at herself in the mirror.
They had all come to find out where her parents had been. That was crucial. Finding that out told them something. Something that made one of them start the fire.
Her fault.She remembered the flush of triumph on Isabel's cheeks as she held her. The way she held her even as she squirmed ... that had been a threat.
Isabel was saying I can get to your children.
Amy closed her eyes, remembering the flash of fear and anger on her mother's face. She held on to the sink and leaned over while the words beat inside her....My fault my fault my faultDan banged on the door.
"Are you asleep in there?"Amy opened the door and walked over to the couch. Mechanically, she began to pack.Nellie shot her concerned glances but Amy always turned away.
She couldn't talk about it. If she talked about it, she would crack wide open. She would cry and cry and never stop.
My fault my parents are dead.
Research. That always helped her. If she could get her mind going on a problem, she could forget what she didn't want to remember.
While Shep made pancakes, Amy opened Dan's laptop and searched for anything involving Amelia Earhart and Darwin, Australia.
Amy clicked through photographs and found one taken of her at the Darwin airport. She was climbing steps to a building, holding her jacket and a notebook.
It could be the very notebook she'd written the letter on! Amy peered closer.
Visible on Amelia's pinkie finger was a ring with a white stone. She clicked back to a photograph of Amelia in Bandung.
No ring. It must be the ring she'd described, the one the strange man had sold to her.
She tried to magnify the image, but it just became blurry. Dan came over and peered at the screen.”What are you doing?"
"I'm not sure," Amy admitted. "Do you see the ring on Amelia's finger? It must be the one she bought in Darwin. I'm trying to see it up close. I'm wondering why this guy tried to sell her a ring."
"Well, it sure wasn't a good luck charm," Dan said. He made a noise like a plane spiraling down and crashing. Amy winced."It looks like a white stone," she said."Probably an opal,"
Nellie said with a quick look at the computer. She was on her way to the bathroom.
"Most likely," Shep agreed. "Australia has more than ninety percent of the world's opals. Even back then, there was a pretty solid mining trade going on, I'd imagine."
"He said they were in a hole but not to worry," Amy quoted.
Shep grinned. "In a hole? Sounds like Coober Pedy. It means 'white man in a hole' in Aboriginal language."
"Coober who?"
"Name of a town, love," Shep said. "Most of the buildings are underground because it's so freakish hot. Even for Australia. And it's the number one town in the world for mining opals.""Where is it?" Dan asked."Oh, a bit north of Adelaide.
About nine hours' drive."That didn't sound like a bit, but maybe it was for Australia. Amy felt her excitement growing. They were getting close to something, she could feel it. She knew Dan could feel it, too."How long did our parents stay in Adelaide?"
Dan asked."Let's see ... I picked up some tourists in Perth and flew them to Alice Springs and Uluru ... or was it Shark Bay and Ningaloo ... can't remember, but I think I was gone three or four days. Then I swung on down to Adelaide to pick up Hope and Arthur for the Darwin trip."Amy and Dan exchanged a glance.
They didn't have to say it out loud. They knew it. Their parents had gone to Coober Pedy. They'd driven up from Adelaide. They just hadn't wanted to involve Shep more than they had to. It could have put him in danger. Amy and Dan nodded at each other.
Shep pointed the spatula to Amy and then to Dan. "How did you just do that? You two just had a conversation without saying a word!"They looked at each other again. It's not that we don't trust him. It's that our parents were right-- the less he knows, the better off he is."You just did it again! What are you saying?"
Shep put his hands on his hips. "Wait a minute. Hold the phone. You want me to fly you to Coober Pedy, don't you."Dan smiled innocently. "Your pancakes are burning," he said.
After a breakfast of slightly charred pancakes, they loaded their gear into Shep's Jeep and took off for the airfield. The sun was rising as they left the outskirts of Sydney and took a smaller road, snaking up into the hills.
Finally, Shep pulled up to a wire gate and punched in a code. The gate opened and they roared in."Congratulations," Shep said. "You just passed through airfield security."
He parked the car and pointed out the plane."Um, it looks kind of ... small?" Amy offered."Small? I can fit fourteen in that baby," Shep said.
"You're a good pilot," Nellie said. "Right?"Shep shrugged. "Except for those crash landings." Chuckling, he headed off to the office."Funny cousin you've got there," Nellie said with a yawn."C'mon, let's check out the plane,"
Dan said.They circled around it, and Nellie climbed inside the cockpit. Dan followed. Amy stood outside, trying to imagine being high above. She'd been in a high-speed helicopter at night and that was terrifying; she'd been swept up by a paraglider, but somehow this small plane made her feel even more nervous.
Maybe because she had time to think about how small it seemed and how wide the s
ky was in Australia.
When Shep headed out of the office and ambled toward them, it only increased her nerves. Shouldn't a pilot be wearing a uniform? It was just Shep, in his khaki shorts and a syrup stain on his T-shirt."Are, um, w-we sure about this?" she asked, climbing in.
"Are you kidding?" Dan said, bouncing in his seat.
Nellie was staring out of the cockpit window. She didn't answer. "Nellie?"Amy followed her gaze. She saw a plume of dust, rising straight beyond the scrub bushes.
Shep climbed into the plane, instantly making it feel smaller."It's a willy willy!" Dan called, pointing at the column of dust.
"A who?" Amy asked."A kind of harmless tornado," Shep said, sliding into the pilot seat. "And that isn't one. We don't get willy willys around here. I think it's just a truck going fast on a dirt road. Strap in, everyone.
We've got clearance to take off." He put headphones on.
Dan looked disappointed as he strapped into his seat. Nellie buckled in, still peering out at the dust. "It's not a truck," she said. "It's a Hummer.
Can we get going?" she asked with sudden impatience in her voice."Got to finish the preflight check," Shep said amiably. Just then the speeding Hummer crashed through the metal gate. Shep didn't hear it over the noise of the engine whirring to life.
"Can you hurry?" Amy asked. Shep couldn't hear her, but he gave her a thumbs-up from the cockpit.
Isabel Kabra was at the wheel of the Hummer. She screeched to a halt. Amy saw her head swiveling, squinting through the bright sunlight, trying to see inside the cockpits of the planes.
Slowly, the propeller of Shep's plane started to turn."All righty, here we go," Shep said. The plane started to swing toward the runway.
Isabel's head snapped back. She was wearing big black sunglasses, but Amy almost thought she could see the glint of her eyes.The plane taxied toward the runway.
Amy, Dan, and Nellie watched as Isabel jerked the Hummer with a squeal of tires. To their surprise, Isabel sped off in the opposite direction.
But when Shep turned onto the runway, they saw Isabel pull into the field near the runway."What's that blasted car doing there?" Shep asked."Sightseers?" Nellie suggested.
