The Shadow Cipher (York #1)

“Hmmph,” Cricket said. Unlike her brother, Cricket was wearing a perfectly normal pair of denim shorts and a yellow shirt with a sparkly cartoon dragon on the front. Jaime had never seen her wear anything perfectly normal. She was usually wearing scuba gear paired with a tiara or rubber fishing boots that came all the way up to her armpits. Once, she “borrowed” her mom’s wedding gown and accessorized it with a hockey mask.

“So, your brother’s a ninja. What are you today, Cricket?”

Cricket’s mouth curled at the corners. “Guess.”

“You are a rich lady on her way to the beach.”

“Who likes all that sand everywhere?” said Cricket.

“You’re a movie star on her way to go shopping.”

Cricket sucked her teeth. “Movie stars have people to shop for them.”

Jaime guessed again. “A famous athlete on the way to a photo shoot?”

Little brows shot up over the frames of the glasses. “Seriously?” said Cricket.

“Hmmm,” said Jaime. “I’m stumped. Who could you be?”

“You tell me,” said Cricket, “I’ll wait.” She slid the heart charm on her necklace back and forth, zip-zip, zip-zip.

Just then, the elevator doors opened, and Mr. Stoop and Mr. Pinscher emerged pushing some kind of cart covered with a thick tarp. Next to him, Tess clenched her fists. Theo turned all the way around and presented the men his back. Otto sidled closer to Jaime. Cricket sat up straighter in the seat of her trike and . . . smiled, sweet as pie.

“Children!” said Mr. Stoop. “How lovely to see you all again.”

“Good afternoon!” Cricket sang. “How is your work going?”

Mr. Pinscher grunted. Mr. Stoop said, “Our work is moving along just fine, young lady. Thank you for asking. And how is your raccoon?”

Cricket smiled even more sweetly. “Karl is doing just fine as well. Do you need any help bringing things down from the roof?” She pointed at Jaime. “He is very strong.”

Mr. Stoop’s filmy, colorless eyes skated over Jaime, sliming him. Jaime resisted the urge to scratch at his skin.

Mr. Stoop looked back at Cricket. “No doubt Mr. Cruz is very strong for a boy his age. But I think Mr. Pinscher and I have things under control.”

“Okay,” said Cricket, in a sugary voice that belonged to some entirely different child. “You have a nice day!”

They watched as Mr. Stoop and Mr. Pinscher wheeled the cart through the lobby and out of the building. They pushed the cart to a white van parked—illegally—right in front. Two other men wearing dark suits hopped from the van and opened the back doors of the van. All four men rammed the cart into the back of the van, and the cart’s legs collapsed like a gurney’s, allowing them to slide it easily inside. Then they slammed the doors shut, leaped inside the van, and drove off.

“What was that about?” Tess said.

“They think the building is going to give them something, but they’re wrong.”

“Huh?”

Cricket didn’t answer. She tucked her necklace under the collar of her shirt, put her hand in the basket, and rooted around underneath Karl. She pulled out a notebook and a pencil. She licked the tip of the pencil and scratched a few notes. Then she shut the notebook and tossed it back into the basket.

“So,” said Jaime, “you’re just a regular kid today.”

“Am I?” said Cricket.

“A regular kid keeping an eye on certain people, maybe?”

Cricket lifted her glasses and peered up with big dark eyes. “The word is INCOGNITO.”

“That’s a big word,” said Tess.

“Maybe for you it is.” Cricket lowered her glasses. “Come on, Otto. Karl needs his snack.”

“I’m a ninja?” Otto said.

“Whatever,” said Cricket.

Once the kids were gone, Tess tugged at Jaime’s arm. “Did she say that those guys were bringing things down from the roof?”

“That’s exactly what she said.”

“What was up on the roof that could be loaded onto a cart and taken out of the building?”

They didn’t bother stopping at either Jaime’s or the Biedermanns’ apartment, they went right up to the roof. The elevator took a leisurely route, drifting sideways, then rising, then falling, then rising again till it reached the penthouse. Once they were on the penthouse floor, they had to climb a short set of cement stairs that led to the rooftop garden, a lush green space that mocked the ugly air-conditioning unit as well as the beat-up, graffitied water tank that loomed so large on the roof of the building next door. All of the tenants were welcome to plant things here, but the tomatoes, vegetables, herbs, and flowers mostly belonged to Mima and Mr. Biedermann, the only people who could be counted on to make things grow in places they weren’t supposed to.

To Jaime’s surprise, Mima was sitting in a lounge chair facing the Hudson. She nodded when she saw them but didn’t say anything.

Finally, Jaime said, “Mima, what are you doing?”

“Those men asked me to bring them up here. You know who I mean. The tall one and the short one. Those terrible people. I could have told them to come up here all by themselves. They didn’t need me. But I did it because I wanted to know what they were looking for.”

“What were they looking for?” Tess said.

“Do you remember that optical viewer that was in that corner? The one bolted down? Like the ones they have at the Empire State Building?” She gestured to the edge of the roof. “They took it. They tore it right out.”

“My grandfather used that all the time!” Tess said. “It’s been here since our family moved in. The left lens was always blurry. Why did they want that old thing?”

“Who knows? They ripped this seal right off the hallway window on the fifth floor.” She gestured to the small medallion in her lap, encrusted with old white paint. “The tall one said that I didn’t have to worry about the building or anything in it anymore, but I took this right back. I said this is my building until it is not. They didn’t care.”

Tess tugged at the end of her braid, and Nine nudged her fingers. “Are they allowed to do that? They shouldn’t be allowed to do that!”

Mima sighed but said nothing, which meant she was saying, Yes, those men are allowed to do whatever they want to do and who can stop them? She lifted her chin toward the river. “Do you know what kinds of things have been found at the bottom of the water around New York City over the years?”

Jaime glanced at Tess, who glanced at Theo, who shrugged. “No, we don’t,” said Jaime. “What kinds of things?”

“Shipwrecks,” she said. “No one official will tell you exactly where they are because these wrecks are considered archeological sites. There are also a lot of stripped cars in the water. A lot of rebar just lying around. A grand piano. A complete set of table and chairs sitting on the bottom as if someone were coming to tea. A giraffe.”

“A giraffe?” said Theo.

“It escaped a zoo and ran right off the island, probably trying to get back to Africa, and who could blame it? Some ice cream trucks, a bunch of slot machines, a whole train, more than a thousand silver bars that fell off a barge and got buried in the silt. A lot of dead bodies.” She took a deep breath, released it. “That is all very sad to me. What’s been lost.”

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