The word that comes is loud and fast and (I’m pretty sure) dirty. It’s also in Portuguese.
Noah throws his hand to his chest then doubles over, breathing hard. “You scared me!”
“I scared you?” I say, slapping at his arm. “What are you doing down here?”
“Following you,” Rosie adds from behind him, entirely too cheerful. “Wow, I’ve never been down this way before.” She pushes Noah through the doorway, then steps into the basement herself. Her eyes go up to the ornate ceiling before turning to the lavish pool.
“Cool,” she says.
“Yeah. But why are you …” I trail off as my gaze settles onto Megan, who stands just on the other side of the door. Of course she’s here. I’m starting to learn that Megan is always around to see too much, hear too much. Know too much. And that makes something inside of me snap.
“Go!” I shout, pointing back to the tunnels. “Rosie, Noah, go home. Now. You, too, Megan.”
“We don’t even know where we are,” Noah says.
“No.” I shake my head. “I know where we are. And you need to go.”
“How do you know?” Megan asks.
“Because I’ve been here before.”
“You’ve been here before?” Noah asks. “So that means …” He looks like he’s doing math in his head. “That means this is —”
“Iran,” I say.
“Iran!” Noah finishes at the same time. He turns and reaches for Rosie’s hand. “Come on. We’ve got to get out of here.”
But Rosie pulls away. “Cool,” she says again, walking toward the water that is part pool, part hot springs.
Amazingly, Megan doesn’t run away either. Instead, she leans down and runs her hand through the water that is surprisingly clear. “Awesome.”
“Awesome? Are you three trying to kill me?” Noah shouts.
“Ooh, we should get in,” Megan says. “Next time I’ll bring my bikini.”
Noah stumbles back like he’s been shot. “You are trying to kill me.”
“Noah’s right,” I say. “The three of you should go. Get out of here before you —”
“Before we what?” Noah says. “What’s going to happen to the three of us that won’t happen to you?”
“This isn’t your fight, Noah,” I snap.
“Yeah, well, it became my fight the moment I …” He trails off and, suddenly, I’d give anything to know what he was going to say.
“The moment you what?”
“I …”
“The moment you met me?” I guess. “The moment you heard about the man with the scar?” That still isn’t it — I can tell. So I go back further. “Or was it the moment Ms. Chancellor asked you to keep me out of trouble? She didn’t just ask you to show me around, did she?”
Bingo.
Noah is busted, and he’s actually stumbling backward, trying to find a way out of the proverbial corner.
“Great. My brother got Alexei to spy on me. Grandpa and Ms. Chancellor have you. I am covered!”
“Grace, don’t —” Noah reaches for my arm, but I push him away.
“How did you find me?” I ask.
“We followed you,” Rosie says, matter-of-fact.
“No.” I shake my head. “Not good enough. I’ve been wandering these tunnels for hours. I wasn’t even sure where I was, so how did you find me?”
I look from Noah to Rosie and then, finally, I let my gaze settle on Megan.
“We might have put a tracker on you,” she says.
“You might have what?”
Megan holds up a tiny device. “GPS location receiver. I put a transmitter in your sweater.” She eyes the ratty cardigan that I’ve been taking with me everywhere these days. “You really should clean that sometime, you know.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Well, for starters, there’s a stain on the sleeve that’s been there since —”
I cut Megan off. “Why were you following me?”
“Oh. That,” Megan says. For a moment, the three of them are silent.
“Well, see …” Noah starts slowly. “Last night, Megan called me.”
“And Noah called me,” Rosie interjects.
“We were sort of …” Noah is struggling for words.
“You’re freaking us out,” Megan says bluntly.
“You’re worried about me?” I ask.
“Well, yeah,” Noah says, as if it should be the most obvious thing in the world.
“I don’t need your worry,” I snap. “And I don’t want your pity.”
I’m pushing through them, starting back toward the door and the tunnels and the answers I’m no closer to finding.
“Maybe not,” Megan yells. “But you need our help.”
I freeze. And then slowly — very slowly — I turn. “Well, maybe I don’t want it.”
There’s something that comes from being the girl who is always left behind. I could only watch Jamie and Alexei disappear without me so many times before I got really good at convincing myself that I was better off alone.
But I wasn’t left alone, I realize now.
I was left with Megan.
“He’s going to do it again,” Megan says. “That’s what you said last night, isn’t it? That the man who killed your mother is going to kill somebody else?”
“That’s none of your business,” I say, then glare at Noah so hard that he actually pulls Rosie in front of him, a human shield.
“You think you’re the only one who’s ever lost someone?” Megan snaps. There is ice in her voice. “Do you think you’re the only one who has ever wanted to make somebody pay?”
I’ve never heard her talk like this, seen her look like this. She is nothing like Lila now. And she’s nothing like the little girl who used to bring over her Barbies, either. It’s like everything else has been camouflage. This is the Megan she has spent her whole life hiding. And for the first time in all the years I’ve known her, I realize that I have never heard Megan talk about her dad.
“Besides,” she says flatly, “you do need us.”
“I don’t need you,” I say.
“Says the girl who has wasted an entire day wandering around in circles down here,” she says.
“I know these tunnels better than anyone.” Rosie sounds almost hurt. “Maybe if you’d asked me, I could have saved you a day.”
“I have the resources of two embassies behind me,” Noah says. “You really think you’re better off without me?”
I roll my eyes, look at Megan. “I’m a genius,” she says. Everyone turns to her. “Well, I am. No use trying to soft-pedal it. Plus, my mom’s a spy. Any of you pick up covert-operations training in summer camp? Yeah. I didn’t think so.”