“Oh, sorry. Mr. Parker.”
Once the pair had gone on their way, Josh asked, “So, what’s their story?”
“I’ll explain later.” Aiden pushed through the door.
Josh glanced back at the two mismatched figures as they made their way up the sidewalk then followed Aiden inside. Lindsay and Britney were already peeking over their cubicles, one looking pleased and the other disappointed.
“Hey, Cleo,” Aiden said.
“He’s already waiting for you.” Cleo pointed toward the conference room. “Do I get to hang out with Josh today?”
“Nope,” Aiden answered. “He’s a necessary part of this meeting.” Josh felt himself swell with pride.
“Well, then, you’d both better get in there.” Cleo gave them a strained smile.
As they walked to the conference room, Josh whispered to Aiden, “How’d he know we were coming? Does he have ESP or something?”
“No,” Aiden answered with a trace of amusement on his face. “I called him while you were getting dressed.”
They entered the conference room to find Siegfried staring out the window, looking at what Josh guessed were the dwindling figures of the mismatched partners.
“So,” Siegfried barked. “What was so important that we had to meet ASAP?”
“Josh can explain that in a second,” Aiden answered. “But first, what were Parker and Nichols doing here?”
Siegfried looked at Aiden in annoyance. “We’ll get to that in a second. I want to hear what the boy has to say. You said he uncovered some important information.”
“He has,” Aiden said with a sigh. He turned to Josh, handing him the slip of paper from earlier that morning. “Go ahead and show him.”
Josh took a nervous step toward Siegfried, quite terrified of this imposing figure. “I, uh, found out some information about Monster Mashers, you know, that video game with the wraith and, uh, Lord Wallachia? Where he wants to take over the world?”
“I know the game,” Siegfried barked.
“Well, I, uh, looked it up online, trying to figure out some cheat codes—”
“Cheat codes?” Siegfried interrupted with a frown. “Cheating is for cowards, boy.”
“It’s just, like, a video game term,” Josh explained. “Anyway, I didn’t find any ch—uh, any codes, but I did find out that this company made the game.” With a trembling hand, he held the small piece of paper out to Siegfried, who snatched it up and studied it silently. When enough time had passed for Siegfried to solve the puzzle and he still said nothing, Josh continued, “It’s an anagram. That means the letters are—”
“I know what an anagram is,” growled Siegfried.
Josh fell silent, backing up until he bumped into the wall.
“Well, this changes things, doesn’t it?” Siegfried said, his expression dark.
“What do you mean?” Josh asked, looking from Siegfried to Aiden.
Siegfried continued to stare at the name on the paper, his expression growing darker by the second.
“We’d been hoping someone was trying to frame Larry,” Aiden explained, his voice flat. “But now, it looks like Larry really is in league with Mr. Midnight.” He looked depressed.
Although he felt bad for Aiden, Josh wasn’t as surprised as the others were at this turn of events. He’d never really trusted Larry. With his suave manner and big ego, Larry had always reminded Josh of a certain group of jocks at school. Those guys were full of themselves, bullied boys like Josh, and always got the attention of the prettiest girls.
“All right,” Siegfried said, his voice grave. “This just confirms what I was already planning to do. Aiden, we’re taking things to the next level.”
“That’s why Parker and Nichols were here?”
“Affirmative.”
“Okay,” Aiden said, his air of depression lifting, at least for now. “So…what’s the next level?”
Siegfried sat in the chair at the head of the conference table and leaned forward, partially obscured by a large wooden box sitting on the table in front of him. “Parker and Nichols have been looking into Larry’s current whereabouts. They were also looking for Steve Lickerman. They found no leads in either case. In the Lickerman disappearance, all signs pointed to an abduction by Mr. Midnight, which would be an escalation on his part.”
“So what does all that mean?” asked Aiden.
“I’ll tell you what it means if you’d keep your trap shut for two seconds,” shot back Siegfried. He opened the box and withdrew a short, golden dagger, one that matched the Sunguard gauntlets perfectly. “They’re no longer insisting that Mr. Midnight be taken alive. They approved use of a Sunblade for lethal purposes if necessary.”
Josh felt a shiver pass down his spine. From the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Aiden tremble, as if he’d just experienced the same sensation.
“Um, who are ‘they,’ exactly?” asked Josh.
“The Imagine Nation Security Council,” said Aiden at the same exact time that Siegfried said, “Nobody.”
Aiden’s hands stayed at his sides when Siegfried held the dagger out toward him. “You can’t be serious,” he said.
“You think I’m not serious?” barked Siegfried. His right hand reached into the box as he said, “It gets a lot more serious than that. They were waiting for more evidence of a connection between Larry and Midnight.” Siegfried nodded to Josh and said, “And I think we just got it. So…”
His hand came out from the box holding a wooden stake.
Chapter Twelve
All About Larry
For the next four days, Josh was sure that Aiden was shirking his nightly search duties. Over the past few weeks, Aiden had looked, sounded, and acted more like a zombie (the typical movie and video game kind, not the classy Cleo kind) than a werewolf. Now the chronic bags were gone from under his eyes, and he spoke clearly rather than mumbling. To top it all off, he stopped dozing off if he sat still for more than thirty seconds.
It was Friday night. Josh sat at the kitchen island with his brother, sister, Aiden, and Mrs. F-G. In their midst was the most elusive of dinner guests, at least in the Cooper household: the delivery pizza box. This was, Josh suspected, Mrs. F-G’s way of apologizing for what she kept insisting was sub-standard food as of late.
Not that Josh had complained or anything. She hadn’t lost her ability to cook, just her vision to predict what would be the perfect meal on any given night. So he might score her as ninety-five out of one hundred, but to her, anything less than perfection was a failure.
After dinner, Rosemary went into the great room to construct a couch-cushion fort. Jackson sat in his high chair, shoveling the last few bite-sized pieces of pizza into his mouth with his chubby fists, while Josh helped Aiden clean up. Due to the pizza dinner, this was his favorite time to help clean. There were plates and glasses to put in the dishwasher, but no pots and pans to scrub. You got points for being helpful while doing a minimal amount of work.
“So, Aiden,” said Mrs. F-G, sitting at the island and supervising the cleaning, “you’re looking much more rested the last few days. Have they taken you off the night shift?”
“Um, no,” Aiden answered, not meeting her gaze as he rearranged glasses on the dishwasher’s top tier. “It’s just a bit easier going right now. Fewer hours. More chance to nap.”
Looking from Mrs. F-G to Aiden, a thought occurred to Josh. It was a question best left for a more private moment, but he couldn’t wait. “What happens to Mrs. F-G if you kill Mr. Midnight? Will she get her oracle thing back?” From the scathing look Aiden shot him, he regretted asking.
Before Aiden could answer, though, Mrs. F-G said in a shocked voice, “You’re going to kill him?”
“Well,” explained Aiden, “not if I can help it. They gave me a Sunblade, just in case I can’t capture him. He’s been deemed too dangerous.”
“No, Aiden, it’s not worth it. Not for me or Cleo or anyone else he’s attacked.”
“It’s
not that, Ann. There’s no sign of Steve. Nobody knows if he’s dead or alive. Even though there’s no hard evidence that Mr. Midnight took him, they’re not taking any chances. If Midnight progresses to killing people and we didn’t do all we could to stop him…”
“What about Larry?” asked Josh.
“What about Larry?” echoed Mrs. F-G.
“Some council gave Aiden a wooden stake.”
“They gave him what?”
Aiden gave Josh another “I wish you hadn’t said that” look and said, “It’s another ‘just in case’ thing. There are some suspicions about Larry’s role with Mr. Midnight. If these suspicions turn out to be true, and he won’t come with me peacefully…” Aiden shrugged. “We’ll see what happens.”
“Are you saying that Larry is in league with Mr. Midnight?” Mrs. F-G looked like she couldn’t wrap her mind around the concept.
“They’re not sure,” Aiden answered. “But it’s looking that way.”
“I never trusted him in the first place,” Josh put in. “He’s kinda creepy, if you ask me.”
“Larry? Creepy?” Mrs. F-G asked, bewildered.
“Do you really think so, Josh?” Aiden asked.
“Yeah,” Josh felt a bit more defiance in his voice than he’d intended. “I know he’s your friend and all—at least, he was your friend—but Larry Fancypants is a total creepazoid in my book.”
At that moment, the kitchen door burst open and Rosemary yelled, “He is NOT a creepazoid!”
“Rosemary, calm down,” Aiden soothed.
“Not until Josh takes it back!”
“I’m not taking it back,” Josh said, almost yelling back at his sister. “He’s a jerk.”
“He is not!” Rosemary cried, her face going red.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Josh said, not even trying to keep the scorn out of his voice.
“Aiden,” Rosemary whined, turning on the waterworks. “Make him take it back!”
“Uh, Rosemary, he kind of has a point,” Aiden said. “I can’t tell you the whole story, but we think that Larry might be involved with some bad stuff that’s been going on.”
“I don’t care!” Rosemary yelled. “I don’t care what anybody thinks! He could never do anything bad! Larry Fancypants is a good guy!” She ran out of the kitchen and down the hall, Aiden following at a brisk walk. Josh wandered out into the hall to watch the show.
By the time Aiden got to Rosemary’s bedroom door, she’d already locked it. “Rosemary, open up please,” Aiden said.
“No!” She yelled back. “Go away!”
“If you’ll just listen—”
“I said go away!”
Aiden took a deep breath. Josh guessed that he was counting to ten. “Okay. I’ll check on you in a little while.”
The two of them went back to the kitchen to find Mrs. F-G still sitting there, wide-eyed, and Jackson still in his high chair, his face smeared orange with pizza sauce.
* * * *
An hour later, Aiden knocked on Rosemary’s door yet again. He had tried every few minutes, each time rebuffed with ridiculous yelled insults such as “You big-brained-nose-picking alpaca” and what sounded like a stuffed animal thrown against the door.
Following the knock, Aiden said, “Rosemary, we’re just about finished making the ice cream if you want the first scoop. We found some more of your edible glitter and everything.” Homemade ice cream was Rosemary’s favorite treat, and it had been Mrs. F-G’s idea to entice her out with it. Aiden listened, curious to find out what he’d be called this time, but nothing came. She didn’t even bother to throw anything.
Aiden went back to the kitchen and reported, “I think she wore herself out with that tantrum. Sounds like she’s asleep. I’m just going to let myself in and make sure she’s settled in bed and not on the floor.”
Mrs. F-G reached into a nearby drawer and took out a large ring of keys, tossing it to Aiden. “They’re all labeled. Her room is number four, I believe.” She then went back to stirring tiny bits of bacon into their freshly churned vanilla ice cream.
Aiden nodded. “Thanks.”
When he opened Rosemary’s door, he expected to find her on the bed, buried beneath a heaping pile of blankets. He wasn’t prepared for what he did see: nothing. Well, not exactly nothing. The bed was in its usual place, blankets intact. The dresser was there. The shelves still held all the usual toys and books. What was missing was Rosemary. Aiden did a quick check of potential hiding places. Under the bed, in the closet, even the little nook between the wall and her dresser. She wasn’t in the room.
Like both Aiden and Josh, Rosemary had an en suite bathroom. Like the bedroom, it was empty. Aiden walked back out to the bedroom, spotting the one thing that was out of place, the sight of which made his stomach drop. The balcony door, always kept shut and locked from the inside, was ajar.
Aiden rushed onto the balcony. Looking left and right, he saw that she wasn’t hiding out there. There was only one place left to look. He walked to the railing and looked straight down. The streetlamps far below cast enough light to show that the sidewalk was clear and empty.
Hurrying back inside with panic rising in his chest, Aiden stepped on a piece of paper. Somehow he hadn’t noticed it his first time through the room. Picking it up, he saw a scribbled note in familiar handwriting.
Took Rosemary rainbow riding.
XXOO,
LFP
Chapter Thirteen
The Big Boss Battle
“What does that mean, ‘rainbow riding’?” asked Mrs. F-G, fast approaching hysterics.
“It’s something Steve and Larry and I used to do. We’d find someplace up high, Steve would make a rainbow, and we’d slide down it,” said Aiden as he paced through the kitchen.
“Well, how’d he get in her room? Why did he take her? And where did he take her?” Mrs. F-G shot the questions off in rapid-fire succession, not giving Aiden a chance to answer one before the next came flying his way. He held up a hand to stop her.
“Let’s deal with one question at a time,” he said, “starting with your last one. Where are they now?”
“Someplace high. The roof,” said Josh, running out of the kitchen and heading for the door.
Aiden glanced at Mrs. F-G, who said, “Go.”
“You’ll get Jack into bed?”
“Of course. And I’ll call the Twenty-First Precinct to let Detective Bernie know what happened.”
Aiden nodded. “That’s a good idea, but ask for Parker. Or Nichols.”
“All right,” Mrs. F-G replied, not bothering to ask who Parker and Nichols were. A single tear slipped from her eye and down one cheek, unchecked. “Oh, Aiden, do find her,” she choked out.
“I will.” Aiden went to his room, threw the Sunblade and the stake into a bag, and hurried after Josh, who was already out the door and waiting for the elevator, a pair of binoculars in hand.
* * * *
“I gotta hand it to you, Josh,” Aiden said as he scanned the horizon, looking for any sort of a clue as to Rosemary’s whereabouts. “This was a darn good idea.”
“Well, if they’re rainbow riding, they’re someplace high.” Josh could hear worry in his own voice. “And you can see almost the whole city from here.”
Standing atop their apartment building, the city spread out below them like an elaborate toy train layout. Josh raised the binoculars to his eyes and looked for the tallest buildings. The Empire State Building, the Bank of America Tower, the Chrysler Building, all of them had their normal lights on. There was no sign that there was anything rainbow-ish going on.
“Here, let me see those,” said Aiden.
Josh made no motion to hand them over. He continued to walk along, sweeping the binoculars over the skyline. “No. I grew up in this city. I’m more likely to see something out of the ordinary.” A low growling noise told Josh that Aiden wasn’t happy with this, but he didn’t insist on taking them.
As Josh walked
along, his steps became quicker. Glancing down every so often to make sure he wouldn’t trip over anything or get too close to the edge, he felt panic starting to rise. Each step meant another second his sister was out there somewhere with a crazy vampire. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Aiden walking in the opposite direction, also looking off into the distance.
Then, without warning, something caught his eye. It was a splash of color lasting a fraction of a second in a part of the sky that should be dark.
He focused the binoculars. Observable by the bright lights running along its steel girders and up its supporting cables was the skeletal structure of the George Washington Bridge. Atop the tower on the New York side, periodically visible behind the bright aviation beacon there, was something else. There was a small, multi-colored streak. A rainbow, visible only if you were looking in the right place.
“Aiden, come here!” shouted Josh. In less than a second, Aiden was at his side. Josh handed over the binoculars and pointed. “There. On top of the GW.”
“Yeah,” Aiden said. “Yeah, that’s it. Okay, you go down and wait with Mrs. F-G. I’ll go get your sister.”
“No.”
“What?”
Josh planted his feet solidly. “I’m coming with you.”
Gritting his teeth, Aiden said, “No, Josh, you’re not. You’re going downstairs and waiting for us to get back.”
“No.” Josh stood his ground.
Aiden pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes and grunted, “I don’t have time for this, Josh.”
“I know you don’t. But I’m ready to stand here arguing with you all night. Do you want to keep wasting time?”
“Go downstairs and wait for us.” Aiden’s voice was slow and low, losing patience.
Josh began walking back to the door. He didn’t want to keep wasting time either. The discussion could continue on their way. “You told me that sometimes you have to stand up for the people we love. No matter what, you said. In my case, ‘no matter what’ means no matter that I’m just a kid, and they’re freaky monsters.”
Shadows of New York Page 14
