by Jude Watson
Amy turned and put her hands on the pole. She looked up at Irina, who was lying flat on the roof, steadying the pole with both hands. Irina winced, and Amy saw a red and swollen finger."Wait. Before you go," Irina said. "Take this."
She held out one hand. Amy reached up. Grace's necklace dropped into her palm."Isabel did it again," Irina said.
"The first time, I walked away. Not this time. This time, I will not let her succeed.
Now ... everything is up to you and Dan. Go!"The force of Irina's words propelled Amy into action. She grabbed the bamboo pole. It felt hot against her hands, but she slid down.
She looked up at Alistair. He saluted Irina, then grabbed the pole and winced. Amy saw smoke curling up.
The pole was starting to burn. Alistair quickly shimmied down, jumping off the last few feet.The pole burst into flame. Slowly, it toppled down. Amy, Dan, and Alistair leaped out of the way as it crashed inches away from them."We need to find another pole!" Alistair shouted.
They wrenched their eyes from the burning building. They scanned the area frantically, moving through the debris.
Dan headed to search in the grove. Somewhere, they had to find something to save her.
* * *
From high above, Irina watched them. The roof was so hot now it was agony to stand on it. The smoke rolled across her and cleared.
She felt so far away from them. How hopeful they were. They didn't know yet that it was too late.
Half the roof collapsed in a shower of sparks.
Fire was roaring, eating up the wood beams. She inched away.
She had only seconds. That was all right. She'd saved him. She'd saved her beloved boy.
No, not Nikolai. Dan. Dan and Amy.
She struggled to keep her mind clear. The smoke was burning her eyes, her throat. It was a great effort to keep standing. She would keep standing.
She would die a better person than she'd lived. That wasn't too bad, for an ex-KGB spy, not to mention a Cahill.
Look, they are still searching for a pole, hoping to save me. How nice to see that.
Poor Alistair, he never liked me, but there was that one night in Seoul when he let down his guard and I let down mine, and we shared a bowl of bibimbap.
One bowl, two spoons. Every time I clinked against his spoon by accident he would accuse me of flirting with him.
Finally, he got me to laugh....Sudden panic seized her. Was she really ready to let go of life? There was a way to live that was not her way-- she'd had glimpses of it.
With Nikolai and ... a few others. What agony it was to let it go! It was letting go of possibility. Of a dream.
I hope they know it was worth it to me, she thought, staring at the Cahill children. Remember what I said, children. Fear her. In your hands it all lies now.
The roof gave a great crack and roar -- and collapsed. Irina cried out as she felt herself fall, and she looked up. She wanted her last sight to be the stars.
CHAPTER 26
Amy and Dan sat on the beach the next morning, looking out at the calm tropical waters. They had spent the longest night of their lives, unable to sleep, just sitting, waiting for dawn. Now they stared with bloodshot eyes out at the horizon.
Their white T-shirts were gray from smoke and soot, and their throats still felt dry and scratchy despite the water they'd drunk.
They knew Nellie would be here soon on a launch. It was important they leave before the authorities arrived. Alistair had ordered them to stay on the beach. He didn't want them to see what remained at the house. They didn't want to think about it.
He had wandered off, and they knew he wanted to be alone. Irina had been his enemy, but he'd known her a long time.
Maybe he wanted to mourn her.
Irina had been their enemy, too. Last night, she had saved their lives.
Amy touched the jade dragon on her necklace. Why? How could someone she'd thought of as pure evil have the goodness inside to sacrifice her life for them?
Last night someone had stolen the poem. Alistair knew that much. He had awakened, smelled smoke, and immediately checked for the paper. They all knew it had to be Isabel. Alistair had heard the sound of a motor out on the water, but he hadn't been able to see anything.
This morning they'd found the vessel that no doubt Irina had used, a small fishing boat she'd probably paid someone to borrow back at the harbor.
They had the facts, or most of them. What they couldn't sift through was their feelings.
The only thing Amy knew for sure was that it was time to tell Dan. She had to tell him now, before Nellie showed up. She couldn't go through another day like yesterday. She could face anything, but she couldn't face it without Dan.
She'd been so wrong, and he'd been so right. He'd been so scared last night, but he'd never lost his nerve. He'd been like that all along. Times when she was frozen with fear, he'd kept on moving. In so many ways, he was braver than she was.
He could face anything."There's a reason I didn't tell you about Mom and Dad being murdered," she said haltingly. "And it wasn't because I didn't trust you. It was because I remembered something I did. I didn't want you to know. I-I didn't want you to blame me."
He shot her a questioning look."That night... the night of the fire... I was still awake when the strangers came. I heard them downstairs.
I listened at the door. They were asking Mom and Dad where they'd been. They asked over and over." Amy paused, and then the words rushed out.
"I was scared. S-so I ran inside the room. A woman picked me up. Isabel. She talked about the teddy bears on my nightgown and I corrected her. I said they were koalas. So that's how they all knew."Dan shook his head. "Knew what?"
"That Mom and Dad had gone to Australia in search of Robert Cahill Henderson. And they must have figured that they'd brought something back. Because later, when they were outside, Isabel said, They traced him to Australia, didn't they? This has to be taken care of tonight."
"Do you think that they did bring something back? And that's what Dad was looking for?"
"What do you do when your house is on fire?" Amy asked."You run for the most valuable thing. So Mom ran for us, and Dad ran for whatever it was."
"Maybe somebody set the fire so they could watch what happened. Maybe things went wrong. But the fire wouldn't have happened if I hadn't told them that Mom and Dad were in Australia! If I hadn't been such a ... know-it-all!"
Amy buried her face in her hands. Her shoulders shook with sobs. She felt as though she could cry forever. She could cry out her grief and her shame but it would keep welling back up, and it would never stop.
Dan squirmed. "Amy. Wigging. Totally."
She lifted her head, swiping a hand across her eyes. "What?"
"Let me get this straight. Because you had koalas on your pajamas, our parents died?" "Well..."
"That's just dumb. Our parents died because our house caught fire. You didn't light the match. One of our dear, devoted relatives did.
You dweeb. You think that because you said the magic word, you changed everything? We're talking Cahills here. They would have done it no matter what."
The scorn in Dan's voice took away Amy's fear. If Dan had been soothing, if he'd tried to reassure her, she would have lost it again. Soot still streaked his pale face. He looked tired, worn out, sad. And honest."You are one awesomely weird sister-dude," Dan said.
She wanted to hug him, but she knew it would totally freak him out. She hugged her knees instead. She felt a little of her shame begin to lift. Dan saw things clear. If he didn't think she was to blame... maybe she wasn't. She had said the words out loud, she had dredged up every memory, and she hadn't shattered.
Instead, Amy realized, the opposite had happened. She was stronger."Irina said something else in the tunnel," she said. "She asked me why Mom ran back into the house. Was it just for Daddy? What could be more important than their children?"
"The fate of the world?" Dan joked. But his grin faded as he met Amy's serious gre
en eyes."The fate of the world," she repeated.
They didn't say anything for a minute. It seemed impossible to think about right now, with the smudge of pink on the horizon and the lightening blue of the sea.
Impossible to think of the great, wide world around them ... depending on them."I think I know what they were looking for," Dan said.
"The poem.""Alistair stole it," Amy said. "It all makes sense now. Last night I remembered him standing by the fireplace. While everyone was looking at me, he was looking at the books."
"Where they'd hidden the poem."
"I bet Mom and Dad thought the poem could lead to lots of clues,"
Amy said. "And they sacrificed themselves to save it."
"If Alistair was there that night, he could have been in on the plan to start the fire," Dan said."Not Alistair!"
"Why not?" Dan asked. "Remember what he said to you yesterday? That when so much is at stake, it's okay to be ruthless? We can't say it wasn't him."
"If only we could figure out the poem," Amy said. "There's got to be a clue hidden in it. I wish the answer would thunder down on my head. Like last night, during the storm ..."
Dan frowned and looked out at the sea. Suddenly, he slapped the sand and began to laugh."Have you gone troppo?" Amy asked.
Dan jumped up and down in front of Amy. "It's just like Mrs. Malarkey said."
Don put on a falsetto voice. "Class, don't be scared by the fancy language. Find the meaning."
"So?" Amy waved her hand in the air. "Mrs. Malarkey? I still don't get it.""The poem! The dude is feeling bummed out, and he's sitting on the beach, and it starts to rain, okay? And rain comes down on his head."
"I got that much.""But it also makes him think. The very waves sang the song I knew. What does he keep talking about?" At Amy's blank look, Dan pointed. "Water!"
"Water is the clue?" Amy asked. "Could it be that easy?"
"That's why the dude was so happy and so mad at himself at the same time," Dan said. "It is that easy."Amy frowned. "We promised to tell Alistair."
"Even though we know he was at the house that night and could have murdered our parents?" Dan asked. "I'd call that a deal breaker."
"Last night he was willing to jump off that ledge to save us," Amy said."Or himself,"
Dan said. "I say we wait until we know for sure what happened that night.""Shhh," Amy said, because she saw Alistair heading toward them.
His silk pajamas were stained with soot and dirt, and tufts of hair stood out from his head.
He faced the rising sun. "It's a good day," he said. "We're alive."He looked sad and funny, Amy thought, in his pink pajamas and his cotton candy hair.
How could he be a murderer? But Dan was right. They couldn't just hand him a Clue. Not yet.They heard the faint sound of a motor.
Out beyond the reef, a boat was approaching. They could see an arm waving frantically. Nellie.
Alistair waved back. He walked to the edge of the sea.
They watched as Alistair stood, the cuffs of his sooty pajama bottoms getting wet, the breeze blowing his gray hair. The man they were fond of, whom they couldn't trust, was waving at the au pair they were learning to love ... and whom they couldn't trust."Things are getting complicated," Dan said."I wish I could remember who else was there!"
Amy burst out. "Maybe more flashes will come back to me. I can't stand not knowing."Dan's face hardened.
"We have to find out who did it for sure. Isabel set the fire, but we need to know who else was there.""And then what?" Amy asked. "What do we do? Call the cops?"
She gave a weird strangled laugh."I don't know yet," Dan said. "But they have to pay."
"Revenge sounds so ... Cahill," Amy said.
"Not revenge," Dan said. "Justice."They looked at each other.
Amy felt the presence of her parents, closer than they'd ever been, and the ghost of Irina saying, It's all up to you now.
She and Dan were together again. There were no secrets between them. There never would be again. She could see that he knew it. Behind his eyes, trust was back.
And on this sad morning, sitting on a tropical beach with ruins smoking behind them, with Irina's last cry still ringing in their ears, they made a promise to each other without speaking.
A vow. They wouldn't rest until they had exposed who had murdered their parents.
They had started on the hunt for the 39 Clues for Grace's sake.
Now they would win it for Arthur and Hope."Justice," Amy agreed.
