AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You don’t know what Bruce Springsteen looks like?”
“I’m not really into music. I could probably pick him out of a lineup if you showed me pictures, but I couldn’t begin to describe him, and I can’t do an illusion without having a specific mental picture of what I want to look like.”
Now that I thought about it, I wasn’t sure I could describe Bruce Springsteen well enough to create an illusion. “Well, then, just do something that makes you not obviously Owen, in case Nita gets involved personally. You don’t need to fool the enforcers, just Nita.”
“What is she doing?”
“I have no idea, but apparently she had contingency plans.”
There was a knock at the door, then a voice called, “Housekeeping. Nita at the front desk sent me.” I opened the door to find a hotel maid and a large laundry cart. She gestured at the cart. “Hop in and cover yourselves.”
Owen and I exchanged glances, then he shrugged. “After you.” He gave me a boost into the cart and then swung himself over the side. We pulled a layer of sheets on top of ourselves as the maid got the cart rolling.
I heard elevator doors open and close, and then had a sinking feeling as we went down. The cart was a bit cramped with the two of us in there, but there were enough towels at the bottom to cushion us. “I had no idea celebrity life was so glamorous,” I whispered to Owen.
The elevator came to a stop, then the doors opened and the cart moved again. A moment later, it stopped and the maid’s voice said, “You can come out now.”
We threw off the sheets and climbed out of the cart to find ourselves in the hotel’s laundry room. The laundry staff applauded us, and I hoped Owen had thought to put up some kind of illusion because Nita was there, too. “Yay! It worked!” she said. “Now, we’ll go out through the kitchen. There’s a service entrance there.”
She guided us out of the laundry area and down a dark, narrow hallway. “I don’t think they’re on to us,” she said as we ran. Then we crossed another corridor, and I saw men in black at the other end.
“They’re on to us now,” I said, and we picked up speed.
We hit the swinging doors into the kitchen at a full run, Nita shouting, “Code red!”
The people nearest us immediately threw white chef’s coats over our clothes and bustled us deeper into the kitchen. I eyed a rack of knives and wondered if it would come to that, but Nita’s plan apparently covered this sort of situation. When the men in black entered the kitchen, an angry chef was on them in an instant, berating them for violating his inner sanctum. Meanwhile, the kitchen erupted into chaos, with people running back and forth carrying knives, pans of hot food, and dirty pots. Under cover of this mayhem, Nita hustled us out another door and into a small alley.
“The gate to the service entrance is open, and there’s a car waiting there for you,” she said as we handed her the chef’s coats.
“Thanks so much, Nita,” I said.
“Glad to be of service.” She gave Owen a saucy wink. “I’m a huge fan. Not that I have any idea who you are, of course.” With another wink, she was gone, and we ran to the metal gate at the end of the alley.
A limousine waited there, the driver holding the door for us. We dove inside, he shut the door behind us, and then he went around to the driver’s side and got in. “City Hall,” I called out through the window to the driver’s compartment. “And make sure we’re not followed.”
“In this traffic, that may not be easy, but I’ll see if I can confuse them,” he said. “Now sit back and enjoy the ride.”
I collapsed against the seat back and caught my breath. Owen took off his cap and sunglasses and rubbed his forehead. “I’ll have to be sure to leave a huge tip when I check out,” he said. “That was hotel service above and beyond the call of duty. Do they really have contingency plans for sneaking celebrities out?”
“I don’t know if the hotel does, but Nita’s been living for this, I’m sure. I’m impressed that she’s already got the whole hotel working with her on it. Her dad may be right. She’ll be running the place before long.”
He found a bottle of water in a cooler and handed it to me, then opened one for himself. After a long drink, he said, “You’ve got to admit, this beats taking the subway.”
“And it may be harder to track us this way. How will they know we’re in here?”
The limo wove in and out of traffic on the way downtown, making a few abrupt turns along the way. Finally, the car stopped. “City Hall,” the driver said. “I haven’t noticed anyone following us, and there doesn’t seem to be anyone here waiting for us.”
Owen paid him for the ride while I scoped out the area. The fact that the driver didn’t see anyone didn’t mean anything. I wouldn’t feel safe until I knew no one was there. But there was no one to see—no men in black, no Mr. Bones. We might stand a chance.
As the limo drove away, I turned to Owen. “Do you have any idea which monument the stuff is in?”
“None whatsoever, but this is supposed to lead me to it.” He took his mother’s key out of his pocket and drew the tip of it across his thumb, drawing blood, which he then smeared on the key. The key began glowing softly in his palm. “Let’s hope this works,” he said. He closed his hand around the key and paused, like he was listening for something, then said, “This way.”
While he followed whatever signals the key was giving him, I kept an eye out for any possible pursuers. “I’m glad your mother thought of sending you a magical divining rod because there are dozens of monuments to everyone and his or her dog in this park. And wasn’t the park renovated not too long ago? Things have probably been moved.”
Instead of answering, he moved faster, and I had to hurry to keep up with him. Soon, he was on his knees in the grass, next to a brass plaque on a stone base. He touched the key to the plaque, then the plaque popped open. In a cavity underneath was a manila envelope. Owen reached in and pulled it out, then the plaque slid back into place. He hurried to open the envelope, and I leaned over his shoulder to see what was in it.
“There you are, Palmer,” a voice said. “Turn around with your hands up.”
