Addison Cooke and the Treasure of the Incas

by Jonathan W. Stokes

  Addison’s team ducked under the tables and scrambled on all fours. They burst free of the tent and into the bright afternoon light.

  Addison turned to watch the tent sagging like an accordion’s bellows, muffling the screams from inside. Gunshots—popping like fireworks on the Fourth of July—erupted from the tent, followed by more shouting. “I love a good wedding,” Addison said one more time. And he really meant it.

  Molly tugged on his sleeve and together they ran.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Casa Azar

  RAJ EXPLODED FROM THE flaps of the tent, covered head to toe in cake frosting. Every inch of him was plastered in whipped cream except for his eyes . . . He looked every bit like a vanilla-flavored ghost.

  “Good work, Raj,” said Addison. He moved to shake Raj’s hand but thought better of it.

  “What kind of cake is it?” asked Eddie, sniffing him.

  “Coconut with vanilla frosting.”

  “Can I try some?”

  Raj shrugged.

  Eddie scooped a handful of frosting off Raj’s neck and tasted it. He nodded his head profoundly. “It’s excellent.” Eddie went for a second scoop.

  “We’ve got to keep moving,” said Addison. “We can’t have our cake and eat it, too.” He dashed for the parking lot, the team in tow, Raj leaving a trail of footprints with sprinkles.

  Fresh gunfire crackled from the wedding. Limo drivers drew guns from their holsters, cast odd glances at Raj, and raced to duck inside the collapsed tent.

  “We need wheels if we’re going to make it past the bridge guards,” called Addison. He sprinted among the parked cars until he saw something spectacular. He froze in his tracks. This caused Molly to smack into his back, followed by Raj, who managed to shellac Molly in cake frosting. Molly did not appreciate this.

  Addison was staring at a black limousine. A very special limousine. One with bulletproof glass and armor plating. Professor Ragar’s limousine, to be specific.

  He checked the limousine door. It was unlocked. Addison opened it and called inside. “Aunt Delia? Uncle Nigel?”

  But the limousine was empty.

  “Where are they?” asked Molly.

  “Elsewhere,” Addison grumbled. “We have more immediate problems.” He looked anxiously at the deflated tent and spotted the first of Ragar’s men popping out, covered in buffet food and looking more red and steamed than the lobsters.

  Addison slid into the driver’s seat of the limo. “Guadalupe, can you hot-wire a car?”

  “Can a fish swim?” Guadalupe poked her head inside the car. She reached out one hand and flipped down the sun visor.

  The car keys fell directly into Addison’s lap. He broke out in a wide grin. “Ragar took our keys, so we’re taking his.” He turned the ignition, and the stretch limousine roared to life.

  “Addison,” asked Eddie nervously, “what exactly are you doing?”

  “Slowing Ragar down.”

  “Really?” asked Eddie. “Because it kind of looks like you’re stealing his car.”

  Addison chose his words carefully. “I’m not not stealing it.”

  Molly spoke Addison’s language and clarified for Eddie: “He’s borrowing it on a permanent basis.”

  Ragar’s men gathered outside the collapsed tent and spotted Addison’s group. With a shout, they sprinted toward Addison, reloading their guns on the run.

  “Get in, chop-chop,” Addison called to his team.

  Molly, Raj, and Guadalupe piled into the enormous backseat of the stretch limousine.

  “Eddie, hurry up!” urged Addison.

  But Eddie refused to get in. “I’m not going to get into a top-tier college by becoming a car thief.” He turned and trotted for the bridge.

  Addison sighed and released the parking brake. He shifted into reverse, backing out of the parking spot. Grinding the transmission, he managed to slip the car into first gear. He lowered his window, leaned an elbow out, and coasted alongside Eddie.

  “How’s it going, Chang?” he asked casually.

  Eddie looked over his shoulder to see Ragar’s men pointing at him and shouting. They sprinted down the driveway, catching up quickly.

  “I’ve been better.”

  “Eddie,” said Addison, “I have one more car than you do. Get in.”

  “You’re stealing a limousine. “That’s like stealing two cars.”

  “I’m not stealing, I’m borrowing. I have no intention of keeping this car, Eddie. Where would I park a limo in New York City?”

  Professor Ragar’s men bounded toward the moving car. They opened up deafening gunfire. Bullets whizzed past Eddie’s head, their low-pressure wakes ruffling his hair.

  Eddie’s eyes bulged in terror. He saw no alternative. “Open the door!”

  Addison sprung open his door and slid over to make room.

  Eddie dove in headfirst.

  • • •

  For a few seconds, the limousine drifted, driverless. Addison had crawled over to the passenger side. Eddie, to his immense horror, found himself behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.

  “Addison, what are you doing!” screamed Eddie.

  “Navigating,” said Addison calmly. “You’re driving.”

  “Me?” shouted Eddie, his pupils dilating in animal panic. He made a desperate bid to crawl into Addison’s passenger seat, but Addison had already buckled himself in.

  “Eddie, you have to drive. Your legs are the longest.”

  “But I don’t even have a driver’s license!”

  “We’re stealing a limousine in Ecuador!” said Addison, at the edge of his patience. “We don’t need a driver’s license!”

  “I knew we were stealing!” said Eddie.

  Addison found the chauffeur’s hat under his seat and clapped it on Eddie’s head. “¡Vámonos!”

  Eddie slammed his door shut, clicked on his turn signal, and checked his mirrors. The rearview mirror revealed armed gang members racing up to the car.

  Addison pressed the door lock just in time.

  Professor Ragar’s men pounded on the bulletproof windows with their fists. Two gunmen climbed on top of the moving car and opened fire, bullets slamming the reinforced windows. Cracks spiderwebbed the windshield. The gunmen kicked at the weakening glass with their boots and riddled the car with bullets.

  “Anytime, Eddie!” Molly shouted from the backseat.

  Eddie saw the wisdom in her words. His feet reached for the pedals. He stomped on the gas as if to stamp out a fire.

  The limousine rocketed forward like it was shot from a cannon. Men flew from the roof with startled cries.

  “Steer!” Addison cried, reaching across to grab the wheel.

  “Oh yeah!” Eddie clutched the wheel in both hands.

  The limousine careened back and forth across both lanes of the stone bridge. Molly, Guadalupe, and Raj screamed from the backseat. The crashing waves of the ocean were drawing all too near.

  The gate guards at the end of the bridge waved their hands for the car to halt. Addison leaned over and blared the horn. The gate guards got the message, diving for cover. For a split second, Addison swore he could hear one of the guards shout, “Put in a good word for me with Héctor Guzmán!” The limousine flew past the gatehouse and spun onto the main road in a wild cornering skid.

  Eddie gunned the accelerator so that the limousine engine sat up and barked. The massive car bolted down the highway like a racing greyhound at the starter pistol.

  • • •

  Eddie drove at breakneck speed, struggling to see over the dashboard. The limo wound its way along the cliff-side highway. Only a flimsy wooden guardrail stood between the speeding car and a rather unhealthy-looking hundred-foot drop.

  Molly clutched her overhead handgrip as Eddie took each curve in the road at a tire-squ
ealing pace. “We would have been better off with Ragar’s men. Eddie’s going to kill us for sure!”

  Addison did not disagree.

  Guadalupe explored the back of the limousine. She picked the lock on the minibar and filched some candy bars, a soda, and a sterling silver bottle opener.

  Raj sat in a melting puddle of his own frosting, smiling peacefully. “I’ve always wanted to ride in a limousine.”

  Addison rolled down his window and checked behind them. “Here comes Ragar!”

  Six black Jeeps roared up the highway, closing fast.

  “What if he shoots at us?” asked Eddie.

  “Let him. We’re driving his car.”

  The lead Jeep gunned its engine and rammed the back of the limousine. Molly screamed. Eddie lost control of the limo, the steering wheel spinning in his hands, the tires smoking across the highway. The limousine scraped against the cliff-side guardrails, sparks shooting off the armored body. Somehow—white-knuckling the steering wheel—Eddie managed to swerve the car back onto the road.

  Without seat belts in the back of the limo, Raj slid around everywhere, getting cake frosting all over Molly and Guadalupe.

  “You’re lucky you’re so delicious!” shouted Molly.

  Underneath his white cake frosting, Raj blushed.

  The lead Jeep pulled alongside the rushing limo and tactical-rammed the bumper. Once again, the limousine skidded across the highway. Eddie countersteered so hard the limo rose up on two wheels. Two hubcaps burst from the tires, spinning over the edge of the cliff. For a few breathless seconds, Addison feared the limo would follow, toppling over the guardrail and into the ocean.

  “I’m too young to die!” Eddie shouted.

  The heavy limousine righted itself, landing back on four wheels. Eddie’s eyes bulged out of his head, his entire body wet with sweat. He weaved the car back and forth, trying to occupy both lanes.

  “Honestly, Eddie. Who taught you to drive?” shouted Molly from the backseat.

  “Nobody!”

  “Well, it shows!”

  Black Jeeps sped forward, surrounding the limousine. Gunmen peppered it with bullets. Lead struck the vehicle with deafening thuds.

  “We’re surrounded!” shouted Molly.

  “Do something!” hollered Guadalupe.

  Eddie swerved the limousine, lightly tapping one of the speeding Jeeps. The maneuver accomplished exactly nothing.

  “Don’t be precious with the limo, Eddie,” cried Addison. “Drive it like it’s stolen!”

  “It is stolen!”

  “Borrowed!”

  Eddie gritted his teeth. He’d had enough of this whole business, and it was time to take charge. He ripped the wheel hard to the right, smashing a black Jeep into the guardrail. He ripped the wheel hard to the left, sideswiping the second Jeep into the third Jeep.

  Molly cheered.

  “Bacán,” said Guadalupe, impressed.

  The Jeeps were no match for the heavy stretch limo. Eddie punched the gas, and they shot forward.

  Addison checked the rearview mirror. Three police cars raced up behind, joining the pursuit, their sirens blazing. “We’ve got more problems.”

  Professor Ragar’s Jeeps regrouped and bore down on the limousine.

  “Great!” said Eddie, his voice rising in panic. “What else can happen?”

  “The highway can end!” cried Molly, pointing straight ahead.

  Eddie looked up to see emergency roadblocks where a landslide blocked the highway. But it was too late.

  Addison reached across to yank the steering wheel. The tires screamed, burning their rubber, as Addison willed the limousine directly for the landslide.

  Eddie shut his eyes and screamed.

  The limousine raced up the mound of dirt like a ramp and went airborne. For a few seconds, Addison’s heart did not beat. The limousine sailed through the air and crashed down onto the far side of the dirt embankment, its bumper shooting sparks across the asphalt. The limo continued blasting down the highway.

  Eddie stared straight forward, his eyes blank with shock. “Harika,” he whispered.

  Addison checked over his shoulder. Ragar’s four-wheel-drive Jeeps slowed to maneuver around the embankment and then kept right on coming.

  “Those guys are better drivers than we are,” said Addison. “We’ll have to lose them in town. Eddie, we’re taking the next exit.”

  Addison yanked Eddie’s steering wheel one more time. Fleeing faster than a cat flung into a dog park, the limousine roared into the zigzagging maze of downtown Casa Azar.

  • • •

  The quiet seaside village of Casa Azar had never encountered anything quite like Eddie Chang. For hundreds of years, the village had patiently endured monsoons, hurricanes, forest fires, and the occasional mudslide. But this was Casa Azar’s first encounter with Eddie, and the town was wholly unprepared for the devastation that can be wrought by a panicking seventh grader at the wheel of a three-ton vehicle, on the run for his life.

  Eddie’s immediate strategy was to crash into everything. Terrified fruit vendors leapt out of the way, yelping as their pushcarts were punted into the air. Papaya, kiwi, melons, and passion fruit were smashed against the windshield in a delicious yet blinding smoothie.

  Addison flicked on the windshield wipers. He rolled down his window and scraped gobs of fruit away with his hands.

  A street vendor hollered in Spanish as they passed. “¿Qué estás haciendo? Where did you learn how to drive?”

  “We’re from New York,” shouted Eddie in Spanish. “This is how we drive!”

  Eddie slung the giant limousine through increasingly narrow alleyways, constantly fearing the car would get stuck. He struck a cart full of squawking chickens, freeing them from their cages. He obliterated a coconut stand, sending an avalanche of coconuts rolling into the street. But through it all, Ragar’s Jeeps maintained their close pursuit, followed by the wailing sirens of the Ecuadorian policía.

  Eddie sped through an alley so narrow it clipped off both side-view mirrors.

  “It’s okay, Eddie,” said Addison, “you weren’t using those anyway.”

  Eddie jerked the wheel and gunned the limo down an even narrower alley. The brick walls shredded the paint from both sides of the vehicle. Sparks flew from the metal doors. The limo burst out of the alley and into a public square. Ragar’s Jeeps formed a line to the right. The policía barricaded the left.

  “Find a shortcut!” cried Addison.

  “I’m on it.” Eddie promptly plowed directly through a supermarket.

  The limousine smashed through the front windows and into the cereal aisle. It crashed through frozen foods and baked goods before blasting out the rear wall of the store, onto a new street.

  “Eddie, that was a grocery store!” called Molly from the backseat.

  “So?”

  “So, the only type of building you’re supposed to drive through is a car wash!”

  Eddie kept his foot glued to the gas. His wipers scraped broken eggs and banana peels from the windshield.

  He emerged at a large intersection and steered the limo onto a roundabout. Professor Ragar’s Jeeps chased him around, followed by the policía. Round and round they went. Soon Eddie caught up with the last police car. They formed a sort of merry-go-round around the roundabout. It was no longer clear who was chasing whom.

  Molly fought her dizziness in the backseat. “I think I’m going to hurl.”

  “Save that for later,” suggested Addison. “We have more important things right now.”

  Eddie finally pulled off the roundabout, smashing postal boxes and public telephones as he struggled to steer the limousine.

  A dozen more police cars joined the chase.

  “Wow,” said Guadalupe, “I can’t believe I went a whole day without being chase
d by the police.”

  Eddie sped into the town square before realizing it was a trap. Policía barricaded all the streets ahead.

  “Where do I go?” Eddie hollered.

  “Right!” called Addison.

  “Left!” yelled Guadalupe.

  “Faster!” shouted Raj.

  “Stop!” Molly screamed.

  Eddie tried to do all four things at once. The limousine spun out of control and crashed spectacularly into the town fountain. Their enormous splash sent a flock of terrified pigeons fleeing for the suburbs.

  The limousine was suspended half in the fountain and half out. It teetered as if bobbing for apples, the rear wheels spinning uselessly in the air.

  “Benedict Arnold!” said Molly.

  “Guy Fawkes!” cried Addison.

  “The police!” yelled Eddie.

  Sure enough, the policía skidded to a halt, leapt out of their cars, and surrounded the limousine at gunpoint.

  • • •

  Hands over their heads, Addison’s team sloshed through the fountain to stand dripping in the cobblestone square. The jefe de policía, or chief of police, folded his arms and glared at them angrily. Except for his oversize mustache, the jefe did not look like a man with a sense of humor. He ordered the group to get down on their knees and place their hands behind their heads.

  Guadalupe sized up the situation and decided she wanted no truck with it. She took off running. Before the policía could give chase, she was across the square, a blur of arms and legs. She scaled a drainpipe the way a monkey climbs a banana tree. She dashed across a rooftop and disappeared.

  Addison stared after her, his mouth open in shock.

  “Traitor!” shouted Molly, though Guadalupe was too far away to hear.

  “Addison, I told you we couldn’t trust her, but you just had to go and call a Code Blue,” said Eddie, bitterly.

  The words rang in Addison’s head, but he was too upset to speak. He turned his full attention to Professor Ragar, who parted the gaping crowd. On his right was Don Miguel and on his left was Zubov. They approached the jefe de policía. The jefe saw Don Miguel and bowed low in greeting.