Labyrinth Society (15 page)

When I came to, I was lying on my back surrounded by a small group of people. A lady wearing an orange and black Princeton T-shirt helped me sit up

"Take it easy, sweetie. Are you okay?" I nodded.

"What's your name?" asked another lady, who was fanning me with her folded museum map. She handed me a bottle of water.

"Mia," I said, and then took a long sip from the water bottle. A quick peek around the room showed the paintings were back to normal. The redhead, whoever she was, was probably long gone by now. Once I was sitting up, I noticed some of the people in the crowd had started to leave.

"Where are your parents, Mia?"

It was on the tip of my tongue to say dead, but when I caught a glimpse of the Princeton lady's watch and saw I only had two minutes to get back to the hotel to meet Devon, I jumped to my feet and shoved the water bottle in her hand.

"I'm okay! Thanks!"

I raced through the Denon wing and out to the main lobby where I got on the escalator and rode it up to the exit through the glass pyramid. I was back on the busy Rue de Rivoli where I weaved around people on the sidewalk and almost knocked over a table at a sidewalk café. A waiter yelled something at me in French, and I'm glad I couldn't understand what he said. I crossed the street and was half a block away from the hotel, when a big black tour bus pulled up at the corner down the street from the hotel. I was expecting the bus to turn the corner and pull up in front of the hotel but the street the hotel was on must have been too narrow. I started running just as the bus's door opened and St. Albans students started getting off. When I got to the opposite corner down the street, I saw Devon wasn't sitting on the bench anymore. She was across the street, lurking near a large potted plant at the entrance to the hotel. She'd taken off her St. Albans blazer and was wearing dark sunglasses. She spotted me and I waved to her but she put a finger to her lips so I wouldn't call out. The students were too busy talking and laughing, probably about us, to notice as they filed past her. Sister Catherine was at the front of the line and talking on her cell phone and Devon ducked behind the plant when she passed by.

Sister Ruth was the last one off the bus and had her big purse, with Devon's phone in it, dangling from her forearm as she chewed out a student. It was iPod Girl. I couldn't tell what she was saying but could tell by the look on both their faces it wasn't anything good. I was happy Sister Ruth wasn't paying attention, because Devon had come out from behind the plant and was walking towards the nun ready to pounce. Unfortunately, neither of us was paying any attention to the guy in a grey hoodie, who darted out of the doorway of a shop next to the hotel, until after he jerked Sister Ruth's purse from her arm so hard it broke the strap, and jetted off down the sidewalk, knocking Devon on her butt in the process. Devon just lay there on the sidewalk with her mouth hanging open too stunned to move.

"Stop thief! Stop! Someone call the police!" yelled Sister Ruth. I ran over to Devon.

"Come on! Get up!" I yelled and grabbed her hand, pulling her to her feet, then took off after the thief, who'd ducked down a side street.

Devon and I ran the direction the thief had run for two blocks but didn't see anyone wearing a grey hoodie.

"He could be on the metro by now," wailed Devon. Her eyes filled with tears. The last thing I wanted to see was her crying again. It was embarrassing, like seeing someone naked.

"We can't give up now! We've got to find him!"

I took off down the street without even waiting for her reply, even though I knew she was right. The guy had probably already pocketed the cash and Devon's phone and ditched the purse. I'd gone a few more blocks when I had to stop to catch my breath. I was blocks away from the Rue de Rivoli. I searched the cafés and shops along the way and didn't see the guy in the grey hoodie. I finally gave up and started walking back the way I'd come. I was walking past a small playground filled with kids when a yellow ball rolled to my feet. A little blond boy was standing in the middle of the street holding his hands out for me to throw him his ball. He couldn't have been older than five. Where were his parents?

"Hey, little boy, you need to get out of the street!" I tossed him his ball.

He caught it and smiled just as a car flew around the corner and drove straight at him. I screamed and lunged forward but the car drove right through him. The kid was still standing in the street grinning at me. I finally noticed how old fashioned his clothes were. He was wearing a torn white blouse-like shirt, knee breeches and suspenders. His boots buttoned at the ankles. He clutched his ball to his chest with one arm and then turned and pointed to an alleyway behind him. I watched as he bounced the ball a few times and then vanished into thin air.

Another ghost? What was happening to me? And what was he pointing at? I followed his gaze down the alley. Someone was crouched next to a large dumpster. I hurried over and crept closer and saw a guy in dirty jeans and a grey hoodie hunched over something on the ground. It was Sister Ruth's purse. A purple cell phone was sticking out of his back pocket, Devon's phone. I hadn't thought about what I'd do if I actually found the guy. And since I was afraid he'd just run off again if I yelled for help, I did something pretty stupid. I ran up and snatched the cell phone out of his back pocket. But he must have heard me coming because he turned and grabbed my wrist before I could get away. I had thought he was a kid or a teenager because of his clothes, how short he was, and how fast he could run. But he wasn't. He was a grown man with a scruffy looking beard and wild eyes. He also smelled like funky armpits and his fingernails were long and dirty.

"Let go of me, you freak! This is my friend's phone!"

He snapped something at me in French, then shoved me face first against the alley wall, pulled my arm up painfully behind my back, and pried the phone out of my hand. When I tried to snatch it back he shoved me to ground. He was about to kick me when something whizzed over my head and hit him so hard in the stomach he let out a loud, "Oof!" went flying backwards, and slammed into the side of the dumpster. He was out cold. What had hit him was on the ground. It was a yellow ball. I searched around for the little ghost boy but didn't see him and when I turned back to the dumpster, the ball was gone.

"Thank you!" I called out before grabbing Devon's phone, which was still clutched in the thief's hand.

I retraced my steps back to the Best Western where Devon was sitting on the same bench across the street…waiting. When she saw me she jumped up. And when I waved the phone at her she did something I'd never seen her do. She smiled. Then the phone rang.

"Hello!" said Devon snatching the phone from my hand. "Morgan! Are you okay! Where are you?"

I could hear hysterical crying and reached out and hit the speaker button so I could hear too. The crying was replaced by an electronic voice.

"I take it, Ms. Sharp, you still have what I want?"

"Yes, I've got it!"

"Good. The Apollo Fountain in one hour." The caller hung up and Devon let out a sigh of relief.

"Uh, Devon," I said.

"What?"

"We don't have any money and our train tickets were only one way. How're we gonna get back to Versailles?"

"Well, we've got even bigger problems now," she groaned and handed me her phone.

Devon had a bunch of missed calls from a restricted phone number, probably the kidnapper, and a bunch of voice mail messages from Alex and Lily wanting to know where we were. There were also two text messages, an SOS text from Lily and a text: Necklace is an OSO. Come Home Now! It was from Mrs. T.

"What's an OSO?"

"I'll tell you later," she said, as she pulled up a map on her phone just like the GPS one she'd pulled up in the Internet cafe. There were two blinking red dots on the map in the exact same location, not at the Palace of Versailles but apparently a few blocks away.

"Whose GPS dots are those?"

"Alex and Lily's."

"What about Tomi?"

"Her GPS isn't registering, which means either she lost her phone, again, or her phone isn't turned on, which happens a lot, or something has happened to her." Devon tried calling all three and only got voice mail.

"They're in trouble. We've got an hour to get to them and we're stranded. What are we going to do?"

"I don't know!" She ran her fingers through her hair in exasperation.

"I know. We need a labyrinth."

"What are you talking about? You don't have a ring," she said.

"I didn't have one when I came through with Tomi. I'll just hold your hand."

"But it's too dangerous. Our rings protect us from any weird side effects from traveling through the portal. It isn't safe."

Like seeing ghosts? I wanted ask. "What kind of side effects?"

"I don't know," said Devon, shrugging. "Mrs. T. just told us to always wear our rings and we do."

"It's not like we have a choice, you know. I'll be fine. We can use the labyrinth to find the others and still have time to get back to the Apollo fountain in time to meet the kidnappers."

Devon thought about it for a moment while I Googled labyrinths in Paris on her phone.

"Looks like there's a labyrinth in a place called Jardin des Plantes. It's a botanical garden. Ugh. And it's a half-hour walk from here."

"We can take the metro. I've still got some tickets."

****

Once we were on the metro, I couldn't hold it in anymore. I had to know. "So what's an OSO?"

"You're not going to stop asking, are you?” sighed Devon.

"If you tell me I won't have to ask anymore."

"Alright. OSO stands for object of supernatural origin." She paused like she was waiting for me to burst out laughing, which I would have before I got sucked to France through a garden labyrinth and started seeing ghosts.

"Go on."

"They're objects with special powers, curses, or sometimes even spirits attached to them."

"Are they dangerous?"

"Sometimes. But we're pros. We've been trained how to handle them," she said matter-of-factly.

"So then what happened with Carter Brooks?" I asked. Devon's head whipped around.

"How do you know about him?"

"I overheard Alex and Mrs. T. talking about a job you did for him and whatever he hired you to find turning out to be an OSO," I said, mimicking Alex's accent.

"It's not funny, Mia, it was nightmare," she replied with a shudder. "Mrs. T. doesn't like working for private collectors, but Carter Brooks is billionaire who owns Brooks Labs Cosmetics. He told us he wanted to start a history museum of cosmetic arts going all the way back to ancient times."

"What did he hire you to find?"

"It was called the Urn of Alexandria. It's an ancient Egyptian relic used by Cleopatra to mix her cosmetics. It took us forever to track it down. But once we handed it over to Brooks, we found out he'd lied to us. There was never going to be any museum. He wanted the urn for his wife."

"But I read his wife was a supermodel? Why'd she want some old urn?"

"Fiona was popular about ten years ago. But she was getting old and was losing her looks. Her career was over. Cleopatra was not beautiful. According to Tomi, the movies got it all wrong. But Cleopatra was a pro at using make-up to enhance her looks and make people think she was much better looking than she actually was. In reality it was the urn she was using to mix her cosmetics. It was cursed by a priest loyal to her little brother Ptolemy the thirteenth in revenge for killing him so she could have the throne all to herself. Each time Cleopatra used the urn, it stole a little piece of her sanity."

"And this Brooks guy didn't realize the urn was cursed?”

"No," said Devon, shaking her head. "Brooks had been planning a new line of cosmetics inspired by Cleopatra. He found out about the urn and what it could do when he was researching ancient Egyptian cosmetic techniques. Since there was no way to make Fiona younger, and she was terrified of surgery, Brooks thought if she used the urn for her own make-up it would give her the same illusion of beauty Cleopatra had and revive her modeling career. He must not have read the fine print. Most people don't. All they ever see is the reward. They never pay attention to what it's going to cost them when they use a cursed relic."

"What happened to Fiona?"

"The same thing as Cleo," she said.

"You mean she killed herself?" I asked in amazement.

"Yep. The urn takes the best part of a person as payment for using it. Since Cleo wasn't beautiful it was her mind. And it took what was left of Fiona's beauty bit by bit until her face was completely unrecognizable. She jumped off the roof of their penthouse in Manhattan."

"What happened to the urn?"

"Brooks smashed it. But we retrieved the pieces and they're in our vault back home for safe keeping."

"You mean in those rooms up on the third floor? Isn't it dangerous to keep it in the house?" I knew I wasn't crazy. I did hear something moving around in one of those rooms.

"Don't worry. The vault is heavily armed and protected. Nothing in there can get out or hurt anybody. Dr. Tarpley personally designed it himself."

"So," I said, looking over at Devon and knowing what I was about to ask next was going to tick her off. "The kidnappers want something from the vault, don't they?"

"What makes you think that?" she asked without looking at me.

"You're only twelve, so I don't think you have any money to pay a ransom. But you have access to a vault full of supernatural objects. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out." Devon hesitated for a moment before pulling a small, black, velvet pouch from her backpack and handing to me.

Inside was a long, thin, fine silver cord. It wasn't a chain; it was very strong and flexible. I pulled it out and held it up to the light and it shimmered like moonlight on a lake.

"It's an astral cord," she said before I could ask. "Have you ever heard of astral projection?" I shook my head no.

"It's an out-of-body experience when your spiritual body separates from your physical body, usually when you're asleep. You loop this cord around your wrist before you go to bed and it connects your physical body to your spirit or astral body so the two won't get separated when you travel outside your body."

"And the kidnappers want this? Why?"

Devon sighed and rolled her eyes. "Think about it, Mia. If you could travel outside your body, think of all the things you could do and places you could go without ever getting caught. You find out all kinds of secret information. Information people would pay a lot of money for."

"You mean like being an invisible spy?" I whispered.

"Now you're getting it," she said. "We took this from a phony psychic who was using it to spy on her clients and find out all kinds of stuff about them before she did readings for them.” Devon stared at the cord and frowned.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing. I just remember this thing being a lot longer the last time I saw it." She took the cord from me and put it back in her bag and stood up. "I think this is our stop."