Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9 Dan gaped, ignoring his sister, who opened and closed her mouth in a stunning imitation of a spotted blowfish. "Mrrp?" said Saladin. "Awwwweso-o-o-o-ome!" Dan didn't care who heard him scream. He scooped up Saladin and threw his arms around Nellie. Amy looked as if she'd just seen a ghost. But to Dan, Nellie felt real, all right. She felt all… spiky and leathery. And a split second later, Amy was all over her, too. Sobbing of course. Which made Nellie sob, too. Which almost ruined the whole thing. Even Alistair was a little teary. Saladin climbed into Amy's arms, and she smiled disbelievingly. "But how did you…?" "Find you?" Nellie laughed. "It was all over the

news— subway shut down, people on the tracks… I'm, like, ding! Amy and Dan, no-brainer!" "Where'd you get the cool car?" Dan added. "Where did those shots come from?" Amy asked. "Where's the duffel?" Dan prodded. "How did you escape the Kabras?" Alistair said. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," Nellie said with a laugh. "I need backup!" Behind her, two shadowy figures stepped out of the car. "She didn't escape us," said Ian Kabra. "Far frub it," said Natalie in a stuffed-up voice. Dan felt his blood run down to his feet. Amy gripped his arm. "We just survived a ninja attack," Dan reminded her. "Remember, there are two of them and four of us." "Mrrp," said Saladin. "Sorry, five," whispered Dan. "Ah-chooo!" Natalie sneezed. "I hate cats." "ATTACK!" Dan yelled.

Ian grinned patiently at him— and brandished a sleek stun gun. "Dan— duck!" Amy screamed. "You asked about the shots?" Ian said. "This is your answer. You survived the yakuza because of my handling of this weapon. And because I insisted on renting a swift precision car, not the beige Chevy Cobalt your babysitter wanted." "Id case you dod't udderstadt, you borons, we saved you," Natalie said. "Ah-chooo!" "But… why?" Dan said. "You hate us." "Dat's true." Natalie exhaled wearily. "Yo, Nat? Take your allergy meds, okay, so you're not spraying me in the car?" Smiling at Dan and Amy, Nellie grabbed the driver's door handle. "Get in, all of you." "But—" Amy said, glancing reluctantly toward the Kabras. "We have to move before the yakuza return," Nellie said. "I'll explain everything. Oh. And we squeezed your duffels in the trunk." Yes! Dan thought. That meant they had the

swords. Dan climbed into the soft leather backseat with Amy and Ian as the others squeezed into the front. "Whoa, this is street cred," Dan said. "Can we keep it?" "We left some… outer clothing near the subway station," Alistair said carefully. "Perhaps I can direct you there, Nellie." "Seat belts!" Nellie commanded. She started the car, pulled away from the curb, and floored it to get through a yellow light. Alistair pointed her to the right as she continued: "Okay, update. When I see Poindexter and Morticia on the plane? I freak. I'm, like, what happened to my kids? I think, they've, like, eaten you. Then they tell me what happened. Bragging. They're, like, fourteen and eleven, but they talk like they escaped from a Clue game. 'Forged the tickets, ho-ho!'— Anyway, they try to threaten me, yada yada, and of course I argue and I'm figuring in my head, 'Haha, the next thing is they put poison in the drink'— but I'm, like, 'Nahh, of course they're not that skeezy.' Then I see her actually doing it, like two inches away from me— uh, hello? So I get kinda mad—you know, act like I'm going to drink it, and

then zam, I spritz the stuff all over their faces. Well, I'm, like, 'Nyah nyah, this is really funny,' but they start to totally wig out and fall all over each other to get to their carry-on— they're, like, 'Eek our faces have schmutz on them!' And I'm, like, 'Dudes, grow up!' So I take their carry-on and sit on it. Um. Baad idea." "The poison was in a concentrated form," Ian spoke up. "In the amount that Natalie had used, it would have mutilated, perhaps blinded us." Amy squirmed away from him in disgust, nearly squeezing Dan into the side of the car. "And you were going to let Nellie drink it?" she said. "We meant to temporarily disable her," Ian said. "Just a drop. But Natalie slipped during air turbulence. Before we could warn your nose- ringed nanny, she drenched us. Luckily, she allowed us to retrieve the antidote from our carryon." "That's kindness," Amy said. "I made them agree to give me all their cash," Nellie explained. "That's bribery," Natalie grumbled.

Nellie jerked the car to the right, and Dan felt like he was going to carry an Amy imprint on him for the rest of his life. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Amy's hand brush accidentally against Ian's. She let out a yelp and pulled it away. "Mrrp!" said Saladin, arching his back and spitting at Ian. "Er, ahem," Ian said, leaning away from the cat, "the reason we are still here is that we'd like to propose a temporary alliance. As we explained to your porcine au pair, we have something you need." "Like, two plane tickets?" Dan said. "Too late. And we'd rather have an alliance with a bucket of slime than with a Kabra— if we could tell the two things apart." "Fine," Ian said. "We will use our artifact to find the clue ourselves—" Alistair turned around toward Ian. "Artifact?" "How refreshing, an open mind," Ian said with a sly smile. "As you well know, Mr. Oh, the Lucians have been collecting hints for years. So have the Ekats. And presumably so have… er, what branch