Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15 A panel of wall swept back to reveal a Plexiglas chamber filled with water. With a loud thrumming noise, the water was sucked away. An airtight hatch hissed open. There was no hesitation. This might be a trap, and a deadly one at that. But with enemies coming at them from both sides, it looked like escape. Dan in the lead, they scrambled up a metal ladder. He was mystified. "Where did all this water come from?" "You're in Venice, dweeb!" Amy's arms and legs worked like pistons. "The canals, remember? Keep climbing!" "Look—" he exclaimed. "Daylight!" The late afternoon sun shone down through the grill of a sewer grating. Amy knew a brief moment

of panic. Manhole covers were iron and weighed hundreds of pounds. What if they were trapped? Her fear disappeared as Dan easily flipped the grating aside. "Plastic!" he chortled. He scrambled out of the shaft and pulled his sister up beside him. They took stock of their surroundings. They were on a narrow stone dock along one of Venice's famous canals. Dan looked around in amazement. "Whoa — it's like the road is the water! And people drive boats instead of cars!" Amy nodded. "Some Venetians hardly ever set foot on the street. They can get everywhere they need to go on the canals." Their tourist moment was cut short when they heard the echo of a shoe on the metal ladder, and Jonah's voice called, "This way!" They fled down a narrow walkway that joined their dock to another one. "Whoa!" Dan pulled up short and just in time. The path ended abruptly. He had nearly given himself — and Nannerl Mozart's diary pages — an

unexpected bath in dirty canal water. "What are we going to do?" Amy squeaked. They watched as a motor launch pulled alongside the small pier they were standing on and tied up to a pylon. A young woman jumped out and ran into the row house that abutted the dock. She was obviously on a quick errand because she left the keys in the ignition and the motor idling. Amy took in the inspired look on her brother's face. "That's stealing!" Dan was already stepping into the boat. "It's borrowing, and it's an emergency!" He pulled his sister aboard, steadying the two of them as the small craft pitched under their weight. "Hang on!" he ordered, and brought the throttle forward. With a deafening roar, the launch churned about eighteen inches from the dock and lurched to a stop, unmuffled engine protesting. "You forgot to untie the rope!" Amy stooped to release the mooring line, and they plowed into the narrow waterway. Behind them, the fake manhole cover flipped

open again, and out climbed Jonah, his father, and the man with the ponytail. They ran to another dock and jumped into a motorboat. Several Janus were hot on their heels. Two more craft took to the murky waters. Dan accelerated, steering toward the closest thing the canal had to a passing lane. Slender gondolas bobbed like corks in their wake. Gondoliers shook their fists and cursed. "Dan, this is crazy!" Amy quavered. "You can't drive a boat!" "Says who? It's no different from Xbox!" Wham! The port-side rubber bumper at the launch's bow slammed into the end of an ancient cobblestone wharf. The small craft spun like a top, pitching Amy to the deck. Only an iron grip on the wheel saved Dan from a similar spill. He hung on for dear life. "Okay, scratch Xbox — think bumper cars! I rock at those! Remember the carnival?" His sister was on her hands and knees, clinging to the gunwale. "Forget the carnival! Get us out of here!"

He followed her gaze. It was the Janus — gaining on them. The Wizards were in the lead, weaving between slow-moving gondolas. Dan took a tight corner too wide. With a crunch, the launch bounced off a moored skiff and ricocheted into the middle of the canal. Amy was terrified. "You're going to drown us both!" "You want me to stop and give the Wizards a chance to do it?" he shot back. Dead ahead, the passage split off in three directions. The leftmost path was skinny, jagged, and inhospitable. Perhaps the Janus would avoid it. Dan headed for it. "Am I ever glad those old- time Venice guys put in these canals!" "I don't think anyone built the canals," Amy panted. "Venice is really a bunch of tiny islands so close together that the space between them forms waterways." "Yeah, well, they rule. I just wish this dumb boat would go faster." Amy glanced nervously astern. "Maybe we've

lost them." Her brother was skeptical. "Not for long. Listen, if Jonah catches us, those diary pages had better not be here. We've got to ditch them." "Ditch them?" Amy echoed. "We nearly got killed breaking them out of the stronghold!" "That's why we have to stash them in a very safe place. Then we can wait till the heat's off and come back for them." She was nervous. "We don't know Venice! If we hide those pages, we might never find them again!" "All the more reason we have to find a place that's impossible to forget." "Like what?" "Like that." They passed under a low street-level bridge by a modest church — San Luca. A small pleasure craft was moored there, partially concealed underneath the span. The name was painted on the stern: Royal Saladin. He cut the motor, allowing the launch to glide