by Emma Otheguy
“Going somewhere, Paperstar?”
Carmen savored Paperstar’s shock. She was frozen in place, with her mouth in the shape of a very round O.
“Thought I was broken into sixteen pieces by now, huh?”
Paperstar straightened up. “I would be careful if I were you, Black Sheep—wouldn’t want to injure yourself again after that kind of fall. Only an amateur takes a slip like that.”
Carmen put her hand on her hip. “I tricked you, Paperstar. You know I did. So why don’t you hand over the silver castle I know you’re carrying now, before I embarrass you again.”
Paperstar’s eyes narrowed. “How sweet. Black Sheep thinks she can steal the silver castle from me. How would you do that when you couldn’t even find a dollar bill to pass a final exam.”
Carmen swallowed. The absolute worst moment of her time on Vile Island had been when she failed her final in stealth and discipline. Each VILE student had to find a dollar bill hidden somewhere in the professor’s clothing. Carmen had watched the older students pass the final, one by one. She remembered how she had judged each of them, how they all missed obvious opportunities that she saw a mile away. Carmen had grown up on Vile Island, and she had been trained from birth to spot the kind of things VILE operatives needed to look out for. She had noticed when the other students missed a chance to lunge, or to duck and attack from behind. She had thought she was quicker and stealthier.
But when Carmen’s turn had come, no matter how hard she tried, she hadn’t been able to find the dollar bill. She did everything right—but she kept missing the dollar bill. The knowledge of her failure had haunted Carmen. There had been nights when she had woken up in a cold sweat after a nightmare about the exam day.
Paperstar edged past Carmen in the stairwell, and Carmen let her pass. “I didn’t think you wanted to repeat that particular disaster,” she said. “Good choice, Black Sheep. Ta-ta!”
Clearly, Paperstar was hoping that Carmen would be disarmed by the memory of her failures—and for a second, it worked. Carmen watched Paperstar retreating down the stairs. She took a deep breath.
And she remembered that there was more to the story. There were parts of the story that Paperstar didn’t know, and would never know.
Carmen had realized that there never was a dollar bill—she hadn’t found one because it was never hidden. The professor had failed Carmen on purpose. For a long time, knowing that didn’t help Carmen get over the shame of failure. But she had spent the past year on caper after caper, using information she had gathered from VILE’s stolen hard drive to stop their plans to steal treasures from around the world and make themselves richer. She had triumphed over VILE again and again.
Carmen squared her shoulders. She had been the best in her year. She knew that not because of some silly test, but because of what she had done after leaving VILE. Because of the evil she had managed to stop. Carmen had practiced all her life, and she had the stealth to find anything—and take it from anyone. With a furious roar, Carmen charged down the stairs after Paperstar.
Paperstar rounded the corner of the last bend in the stairwell, and Carmen leaped forward and latched onto her back just as Paperstar reached the ground-floor naval museum. Paperstar swung right and left, trying to shake Carmen, but Carmen clung tightly to her.
While Paperstar shook and jumped, trying to get Carmen off of her, Carmen methodically searched the pockets of Paperstar’s jacket, hoping to find the silver castle. The silver was much too thick to be hidden in Paperstar’s tight shorts, but Carmen wanted to be sure. She patted down Paperstar’s thighs. Nothing.
“Get OFF of me!” Paperstar shouted, swinging so sharply that Carmen’s grip loosened and she flew across the room, landing on her back near a display of brass barometers.
Carmen jumped to her feet and raced toward Paperstar. As Paperstar ducked to the right, Carmen tucked and rolled, grabbing Paperstar’s platform boot as she slid across the floor. Paperstar tumbled to the ground with Carmen, and before she could retaliate, Carmen had pulled her left boot off her foot.
Frantically, Carmen turned the boot upside down, hoping the silver castle would shake free from the toe. Nothing.
Undeterred, Carmen tapped the rubber platform sole. It was certainly thick enough to hide a silver inlay. She peeled back the bottom layer of rubber, and Paperstar shrieked as if Carmen had ripped off a limb—but there was nothing in the platform of the boot.
Paperstar was now limping across the ground floor, trying to compensate for the difference in height between her bootless foot and her leg that was still raised by a three-inch platform. It only took Carmen two strides to catch up with her and yank off her jacket—she would deal with the other boot later—in the meantime, Paperstar couldn’t get too far.
While Carmen searched the lining of the jacket, hoping to find a secret pocket or a patch sewn to the inside, bulging with silver, Paperstar leaped back to pick up her boot and jam it back on her foot. Carmen rolled her eyes. Let her have her boot, if it was that important to her. Carmen was determined to find the silver castle. She kept searching the jacket, but all she found were piles of folded paper.
The return of her left boot seemed to have a positive effect on Paperstar. Where she had been wretched and angry a minute ago, her smug calm was back. “Keep looking, Black Sheep. But I told you already—you’re no good at this. You couldn’t graduate from VILE Academy because you are just no good at stealth and discipline.”
Carmen crouched on the ground, mentally searching every spot Paperstar could have hidden something. Paperstar always dressed in sleek, posh outfits—there wasn’t a lot of room for concealment.
“You thought just because you were the faculty’s little baby Black Sheep—”
Carmen stood up suddenly. Something Paperstar had said—little baby Black Sheep—had just triggered a memory of a game Coach Brunt had played with her once when she was very young. They had been taking turns hiding a small doll—smaller than Carmen’s palm—and finding it again. Then Coach Brunt had tried to hide it in Carmen’s hair. Carmen remembered shrieking and giggling, because of course she could feel Coach Brunt’s thick fingers pushing it under her ponytail. But it had also occurred to her then that tied-back hair could make a very good hiding place, indeed. Especially for something relatively flat and palm-shaped.
Carmen sized up Paperstar, whose signature two buns stuck out from her head like horns. They looked a little worse for wear after all the jumping and shaking and spinning they had done. Carmen looked for lumps or bulges, but Paperstar’s hair was thick. The silver castle could well be hidden there, too deeply to see. Carmen would have to be deft.
“I actually was the faculty’s little baby Black Sheep for a while,” Carmen said. “You’re right about that. But then I learned what they were really like, and I was done with that life.” She moved gracefully toward Paperstar. “But you chose to stick around.” Carmen leaned over Paperstar, resting her left arm on the doorframe.
Paperstar jerked her head away, and Carmen noticed for the first time that Paperstar had been holding her head a little to the left the entire night. It had blended in well with Paperstar’s overall cocky, constantly questioning attitude, but it occurred to Carmen that maybe there was something heavy under Carmen’s left bun. Something silver.
Carmen knew she would only have one guess. Pretending she was about to flick something off of her own shoulder, she raised her arm—and in one stroke she jammed her hand under Paperstar’s left bun.
Paperstar yowled as Carmen’s fingers closed around the silver castle. With her other hand Carmen loosened Paperstar’s elastic, sending the hair on her left side of her head cascading over her shoulders—Wow, her hair is long when it’s not up in a bun, Carmen thought—and freeing the silver shape. Carmen punched it into the air triumphantly, and while Paperstar whipped around, unable to see through the tangle of her own hair swinging in front of her, Carmen escaped the Torre del Oro and raced to meet her friends.
Chap
ter 18
CARMEN EXPECTED THE PLAZA near Salvador de Burgos’s house to be deserted. Even the latest of night owls had gone home, and she was hoping for a few moments to make a plan with Zack and Ivy before Paperstar showed up, probably with Le Chèvre and El Topo. Paperstar wouldn’t have waited long before pursuing Carmen.
But instead of a quiet, deserted plaza, Carmen found a horse and an old-fashioned carriage decorated with flowers and lamps. The horse neighed hello when Carmen appeared.
“Evening, Carm,” said Zack. “What do you think of our getaway vehicle?”
“It’s, um, creative.”
“That’s what I said!” Ivy jumped down from the carriage and patted the horse’s neck while Zack held the lead. Ivy was dressed all in black, ideal for skulking and blending in, while Zack was dressed like a carriage driver in a white button-down shirt. “What’s the plan, Carm?” Ivy asked.
Carmen held open her trench coat so Zack and Ivy could see the silver castle, securely fastened in place.
“Wow, Carm!” Ivy said. “Good work!”
“I managed to slow Paperstar down a little, but she won’t be far behind, and Le Chèvre and El Topo are with her.”
The horse neighed and Carmen bit her lip. “Don’t you think the carriage draws attention?”
“Not at all,” Zack said. “Just watch.” He tipped his hat to an imaginary passerby. “A ride, milady? This carriage just dropped off the one and only Salvador de Burgos—he knows how to travel in style.”
Carmen and Ivy burst out laughing.
“Okay,” Carmen said, “I see your point.” She turned to Ivy. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
Carmen and Ivy crept toward the door. By Carmen’s estimate, they had only a few minutes’ lead on the VILE operatives, but if they could get inside and secure the door behind them, they would have time to locate the throne.
The door was not easy. It had one of the most sophisticated security systems Carmen had ever seen, with multiple sensors and locks.
“Definitely a job for Red Drone,” Ivy said.
Carmen pulled the small red orb from her jacket, and together she and Ivy directed the drone to interact with the mansion’s security system.
There was a lot more flashing and whirring than usual—Red Drone darted through the air from one part of the door to another, as if it were distracted or unfocused.
Ivy frowned. “Maybe Salvador de Burgos’s house is Red Drone-proof?”
“Doubtful.” But Carmen crossed her fingers just in case. She looked over her shoulder. Let’s get moving, she thought.
“Red Drone disarmed the security system!” Player announced triumphantly, as the drone flew back toward Carmen, who caught it in her hand and tucked it back inside her jacket.
“We’re in!” Ivy exclaimed. “I can’t wait to look around without that guide boring us to death.”
Carmen turned the knob, and the door opened easily. She and Ivy paused just inside the marble entry, but everything was silent and still. Red Drone had worked quietly, and no one knew they were there. Carmen shut the door behind them and turned the thumb lock. Ivy slid a deadbolt into place.
“We need something else to slow them down,” Carmen whispered. “Now that we’ve turned off the security system.”
Ivy tapped her temple as if to say, One step ahead of you. She lifted a heavy marble statue and set it down in front of the door. “That oughtta stop them.”
Carmen leaned forward and checked the museumstyle label on the pillar of the statue. “Made by a master sculptor in the seventeenth century. Fitting.”
The doorknob turned, and outside Carmen and Ivy heard someone curse loudly. Le Chèvre.
“At least the lock is stumping them,” Ivy whispered. “But let’s get going!”
They ran through the elegant foyer, up the marble staircases, and through the grand rooms and hallways. When they reached de Burgos’s study, they stopped to catch their breath. There was still no sign of VILE, and Carmen wondered whether they had figured out how to break through the deadbolt yet.
The study appeared empty. The velvet carpet sucked in all the sounds, giving the study an eerie, all-too-silent feel. The portrait of Salvador de Burgos looked stern and foreboding. His painting gave her an icy feeling all over—here was a man willing to cheat and lie for a few pounds of silver and a piece of furniture he liked.
“It’s just past that bookcase.” Carmen nodded toward the trick door.
“You think there’s someone inside there?” Ivy asked.
“Hopefully Salvador de Burgos is sound asleep—”
“And hopefully his bodyguards stay in his bedroom,” Ivy finished.
Carmen ran her fingernail along the groove in the bookcase and ping! open it swung.
The only problem was that de Burgos wasn’t asleep, and his bodyguards weren’t in his bedroom. All three of them were wide awake, standing in the private vault, and glaring angrily at Carmen and Ivy.
But that wasn’t the bad part. The real problem was jumping down from the window ledge and into the vault: Le Chèvre.
“Did you forget my name, Black Sheep?” he asked delightedly. “I am The Goat, and I can climb anything I choose!”
Ivy and Carmen groaned. By disarming the alarm system, they had given VILE a chance to sneak into the mansion without either of them noticing.
One of the bodyguards reached back and gave Le Chèvre a hand. He then leaned out the window and hurled up a rope carrying El Topo, with Paperstar close behind. The three of them scrambled over the window ledge and faced Carmen and Ivy.
De Burgos cleared his throat. “Señorita Paperstar, the silver castle, please.”
One of the bodyguards was ripping the tape off the refrigerator box with a box cutter, and Carmen watched his movements as she calculated their options.
“I don’t have it,” Paperstar said snarkily.
De Burgos did a double-take. “You don’t—pero, I gave you unprecedented access to the Archivo! You would have never broken through their security without the insider knowledge I gave you, to say nothing of the equipment!”
“She has your silver castle.” Paperstar pointed one of her deft fingers at Carmen.
Everyone swiveled in Carmen’s direction.
Carmen’s eyes narrowed. “The silver castle wasn’t yours to take, Señor de Burgos. Neither was the throne.”
“But—” Salvador de Burgos squinted at Carmen, as if he wasn’t quite seeing her right. “You’re my new servant! The señorita my dog Petra likes so much!”
The bodyguard finished ripping the tape off one side of the box, and through the gap in the cardboard, Carmen saw the sheen of the mahogany throne.
Carmen tipped her fedora. “Well, de Burgos, give back that throne and I’ll be at your service.”
“Héctor! Gonzalo!” de Burgos yelled sharply.
The bodyguards set down their box cutters and inched nervously away from Salvador de Burgos.
“How is it that a thief broke into my house? What do you think I’m paying you for!”
Being called a thief by someone who had just arranged for an international criminal heist was too much for Carmen. She fished the silver shape out of her jacket and held it high overhead. “Were you looking for this?”
Ivy gave her a puzzled look, but Carmen didn’t actually have a plan. She was fueled by adrenaline and anger at Salvador de Burgos, at VILE for ruining everything for Milly—and all she knew was that she was sick of talking and ready to confront everyone in the room.
Woof-woof! Petra trotted into the room, carrying a bone in her mouth.
“Here, doggie,” Ivy said, crouching down and holding out her hand.
Salvador de Burgos’s eyes grew wide. “You . . . you bewitched my dog . . . and I won’t let you lay a hand on her! Héctor! Gonzalo!”
Carmen thought fast. She grabbed Petra by the collar, reached into her jacket for a bandage, placed the silver castle on Petra’s back, and wrapped it up snugly. “Fuera, Pe
tra,” she called. “Outside!” She loosened the bone from Petra’s mouth and threw it down the hallway as hard as she could. Petra yapped wildly and took off running toward the bone.
Carmen straightened up and faced the VILE operatives and de Burgos’s crew, all of whom were closing in on her and Ivy. “I would never hurt a dog,” she snarled. “It’s your thug friends you have to worry about.”
There was a pause of only a few seconds, then, as if what they had seen was just dawning on them at that moment, Salvador de Burgos, his two bodyguards, Paperstar, Le Chèvre, and El Topo raced out of the private vault, through the study, and down the hallway.
“Here, girl!” shouted El Topo.
“I’ve got a treat for you!” Le Chèvre wheedled.
“Um, Carm?” asked Ivy when they were alone. “Aren’t we worried they really do catch up with Petra? She’s a pretty small dog?”
A wide smile spread across Carmen’s face. She opened her jacket to reveal the silver castle, resting snuggly in its place.
Chapter 19
IVY’S MOUTH HUNG OPEN. “If you still have the silver castle, then what was . . .”
Carmen shrugged. “Silver paperweight off the desk out there.” She jerked her finger in the direction of the outer study. “Come on, this won’t be easy to move.”
After a lot of grunting, they tipped the refrigerator box, with the throne inside, onto its side.
“Good thing de Burgos carpeted so well,” Carmen said. “That’ll pad things a little.”
They rolled the box across the carpeted outer study. From down the hallway, they could hear everyone yelling to the dog, offering her treats, and cursing at her in turn. Now Carmen really owed Petra an extra-large bone.
At the top of the staircase, Carmen and Ivy locked eyes.
“We’re going to have to lift it,” Ivy said point-blank.
Together they tore off the cardboard box, scattering packing peanuts onto the stairs. The throne was wrapped tightly in Bubble Wrap, but it would be easier to lift if Ivy grabbed the legs, so they tugged the Bubble Wrap down to expose the base and legs. The silver arrow shone, and on either side of it were the empty wooden spaces where the lion and castle belonged.
