Disclaimer: Thanks so much for reviewing and putting me or the story on your favorites! For anyone who's read Vespers Rising I used some of my favorite lines in Vespers Emerging. I don`t own the 39 clues.
Nobody's P.O.V
It was 6 A.M. sharp and Amy, Dan and Uncle Fiske were waiting in the hallway of their home. Amy was sitting on the bottom stair reading a book and Dan was leaning against a wall staring into space looking bored. He wished he had his laptop. But Fiske, who was also leaning on a wall, had confiscated Dan's laptop for the next two days after he had raided the kitchen and eaten basically everything edible in the pantry.
Suddenly his face light up and he grinned crookedly. Amy wondered what he was up to. Fiske had gone back to wearing a black suit with a black tie, black shoes, and a black bowler hat. He stood silent, leaning against the door with an amused expression. That was when they heard it. To be exact, Dan heard it.
He opened the wardrobe door, accidentally whacking himself in the face with it, and let a group of people in the hall. All of them had on identical black jackets, black trousers and shoes. They pulled the hoods of their jackets low, got into groups of three, opened the door and marched over to the three black cabs that were waiting for them.
The cabs were identical. They were all black and had tinted windows. Each group got into a different cab and they sped off. As they neared the end of the road they separated. One drove to the train station, the second cab headed for Logan Airport, and the last went to another airport.
[Page break]
Amy was sitting in the back of the taxi, squished in between Dan and the wall. She hadn't realized that she'd been holding her breath the whole time. She let it out with a sigh and allowed herself to smile for the first time. The Madrigals had invented a clever plan to ditch shadows and loose tails before going to any top secret location.
Dan and Amy had practiced it hundreds of times. After the hunt they had gone back to their normal lives; going to school every day, spending time on making plans for the mansion and so on. Amy had gone back to school and, sadly, was already getting teased.
Every time someone said something mean she'd wanted so badly to tell them off or say something scathing in return but her voice would never work. And if it did she knew it would come out in stutters. During the hunt they had looked forward to going back to their boring, 'normal' lives. Unfortunately they had made one major miscalculation: they'd forgotten just how boring it really was.
Yesterday morning, though, everything had changed. Fiske had tried to let them live like this as long as he could. But after interpreting the message Amy and Dan knew they had to help. They were trying so hard to fit in but every time a suspicious looking person wearing sunglasses or a hat pulled low over their face lingered around the mansion their first thoughts would be that he/she could be a Cahill.
Or worse: a Vesper.
Once on the bus a little, old lady wearing glasses was sitting next to Amy and Dan. Ever since the incident in Australia when Isabel had dressed up as an old lady and had stolen Amy's necklace, she have been suspicious of little old ladies, especially on buses.
She kept 'accidentally' hitting Dan's leg with her umbrella. Then her phone rang. Amy and Dan noticed at the same time that she had an extremely low, almost manly, voice. They glanced at each other and quickly looked away as the old lady turned around. Some of Amy's classmates were sitting in the back of the bus.
As the bus pulled up at a bus stop, the old lady hopped off the bus. Amy and Dan got out the other door and quickly mixed into a crowd of French students. They watched carefully as she sat down on a bench and started talking on her phone again.
As she turned around Dan grabbed Amy's wrist and pulled her into a flowerbed. The only problem was there were no flowers- just prickly cactuses. They yelped and tried to stand up.
"Ouch! My bum's full of spikes!" Dan exclaimed. Amy rolled her eyes. He`s starting to sound like Ian Kabra, she thought.
Luckily, the old lady didn't seem to have heard them. Judging by the loudness of Amy's scream as she hit the cactuses the people in China could`ve heard. They got up and quietly moved to behind a trash can. Amy looked at Dan.
What are we going to do?
Amy and Dan could communicate by just looking at each other. It wasn't telepathy or anything. They could just tell what the other was thinking. Dan stared back.
Wait here.
He got out from behind the trash can and started walking casually down the sidewalk. When he got to the bench he made a big show of tripping over an invisible crack and as he fell he grabbed onto the old lady`s hair for support and pulled. It didn't come off. Yup, it was definitely real. Amy came out of her hiding place and glared at Dan before blushing.
"Uh, sorry, t-there was a s-spider in your hair and well, um, it's from my brother's s-spider collection. I-it must of e-escaped," Amy lied.
The lady looked like she wanted to beat Dan with her umbrella but her expression softened slightly as Amy apologized... if you call glaring daggers at him soft. Amy grabbed him by the arm and started pulling him behind her. A few of her classmates had gotten off at the same stop and started giggling when Dan tripped.
Now some of them were laughing will others looked bored. Among them was Evan Tolliver the supercomputer, Amy's dream crush. He just stood there and shot them an odd look. Amy went from summer rose to summer tomato. (A/N: Hey, this is Amy Hope Cahill`s beta, Evanescenc456. Let me just say, I hate Evan! Grrrrr… I need a gold club.)
With a start she realized that Uncle Fiske was talking to her. She noticed that she had been cringing and blushing at the memories.
Next to her Dan sniggered, "Amy's dreaming about Evan again. Or was it Darth Vader? Amy and Evan sitting in a tree k-i-s-s- ouch!"
He got cut off as Amy jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.
"I am not, you dweeb!" But her ever so quickly reddening face suggested otherwise.
"What I was saying?" Uncle Fiske asked hastily before a fight broke out.
"Is that…" Dan thought it was a terrific time to hit the mute button that stood ready when adults started droning on about.
The taxi pulled up at the airport and let the trio off (who were, by the way, wearing normal clothes under the black cloaks which they had taken off).
[Page break]
As the driver came around to open the doors for them Dan noticed the name tag was upside down. The man's suit was also missing a little gold button. Most people wouldn't have noticed this but Dan had an eye for detail. Something about his trousers doesn't look right, he thought.
He shook off the uneasy feeling that was rising in his chest and walked into the airport with Amy and the man in black. They let an attendants take their baggage while they looked around in the airport shops. Amy, of course, went straight to the bookstore and when Dan looked at her she was already engrossed in a book.
He sauntered over to a little electronic shop with video and computer games of every kind. Normally he would have loved this but since the hunt his passion for video games and comic books had shrunken and seemed so unimportant next to the adventures he and Amy had had.
Still he browsed through the games and made a mental calculation how much it would cost if he bought all of them. They had found out that Grace had left the rest of her estate to them and were now like gazillionares. Buying the whole shop would be like buying a lollipop.
[Page break]
Amy was so engrossed in the book she was skimming through that when the loudspeakers crackled to life she nearly jumped out of her skin.
Thirty minutes until take off for Flight Number 8. Please go to your gates and board your planes immediately.
Luckily, they were travelling by private jet so they wouldn't have to check in the normal way. She peeked into a few shops looking for Dan. She finally found him at the video game store. Together they found Uncle Fiske resting on a bench. They walked outside in silence as they were escorted over the airplane docking area to where a huge private jet was standing. It was completely black with something written on the outside.
Stairs were lowered directly before them. As the three climbed them and stepped into the plane Amy's mouth dropped open and Dan stared in shock. They'd never before been inside a private jet.
The walls were pristine white with a cream marble floor. There was snow white carpet in the middle and a giant black glass table. The seats were white with brown on the inside and a sofa on the far side. The whole plane looked space age and there were brown wall and glass partitions with a huge picture hanging in the middle. Dan heard Amy gasp as she realized who the person in the painting was: it was Madeleine Cahill.
"You call this normal?" Amy asked Fiske incredulously. He simply shrugged.
Dazed, Amy and Dan continued to walk through the plane and admired the rooms. It had everything: a computer room, a dining room, two kitchens, a few rooms with seats that could be adjusted so they were like beds all with seatbelts, of course.
Finally they got to the last room at the rear of the jet. It was a ginormous cream colored room with pale green sofas and lime green cushions lining the gently curved walls. There was a table for each sofa with magazines a laptop and a bit of stationary on each of them. Dan noticed there were two large plasma TV screens on each side and an emergency door on one.
"There you are!" a voice said making Dan jump. Fiske had come in so quietly neither of the two had heard him.
"This is awesome!" Dan said excitedly. Amy nodded but stayed silent.
"We'll be taking of in five minutes so we should go to our seats and join Mr. McIntyre," Fiske went on. Suddenly, Dan remembered that they were supposed to meet the old lawyer at the airport. He'd been so excited he had completely forgotten. Amy glanced around the room one more time and followed him and Fiske to their seats.
[Page break]
Amy gasped as they got to their section of the plane. They basically had a whole room to themselves with jade green armchairs facing each other. It looked beautiful. The curtains the carpet and the cushions were also green. It was like Amy had designed this room. On the table stood a vase of the most beautiful flowers she had ever seen. There was a kind of bookshelf against one wall with doors so the books wouldn't fall out.
Feeling a little overwhelmed she sat down on one of the armchairs and fastened her seatbelt. Dan plopped down on the armchair next to hers and fumbled with his seatbelt while Fiske sat down opposite them. She looked and smiled up as Mr. McIntyre came in wearing a slightly worried expression. He took the seat next to Fiske also opposite of them and cleared his throat.
"Good morning, Amy and Dan. We, um, Fiske and I have something to tell you." Amy and Dan tensed.
"We should have told you this a long time ago but you deserved a break from all this Cahill business."
"But we just wanted you to have a normal life and…" Amy could tell Mr. McIntyre was stalling.
"Stop s-stalling and tell us!" Amy demanded. He paused and Amy tuned a little pale. Next to her Dan held his breathe.
"Gideon Cahill owned a ring which held incredibly dangerous powers. When Gideon died Olivia found it and gave it to Madeleine to protect. The last person that held the ring to my knowledge was-"
"Grace!" Amy and Dan cried in unison. Mr. McIntyre nodded.
"What does it do? What're its powers? That sounds so cool. And why do the Vespers want it?" The questions came pouring out of Dan.
This time Fiske answered. "We have no idea why the Vespers are after it. If only we knew what its secret was. That's for you and Amy to find out."
"But-" Dan interrupted. Amy jabbed him in the ribs, causing him to shut up.
"Unfortunately, we have no idea what Grace could have done with it. As you know she travelled the world and visited almost every major landmark in the world. Our only hope is to stumble over it by accident. Knowing Grace, she wouldn't be that obvious."
He smiled sadly. They sat in silence for a while each remembering their happy memories of Grace. Mr. McIntyre excused himself and left the trio to make some phone calls. Fiske stood up and strode over to the cockpit. He stood to the side somewhat shyly as he talked to the co-pilot. Fiske was hard to get to know. He was very shy after years of hiding and keeping to himself. At least he doesn't stutter like me, Amy thought dejectedly.
She sighed as she tipped back her seat so it was almost parallel to the floor. Changing her mind she got up and peeked in the bookshelf. It was filled with ancient looking books, mostly biographies. She browsed through them. They were the biographies of famous Madrigals like William Shakespeare and such. Fascinated, Amy picked up a few and finally settled for 'The Life of Anastasia Romanov.'
She had long suspected that Anastasia had been a double agent for the Madrigals sent to spy on the Lucians. She lay down in her seat and flipped open the book. It was very old like the rest of the books and had a very delicate cover. As she turned the page a little photograph slipped into her lap. Amy picked it up and gasped.
In shock and surprise she dropped it and tears welled up in her eyes. It was a photo of her mom. She had beautiful, long reddish brown hair and the same amazing jade green eyes as Amy and Dan. Dan had fallen asleep in his seat. Amy didn't blame him; she'd had a tortured night herself, tossing and turning till she finally fell asleep. When she did, she had the same nightmare over and over again and woke up in cold sweat every time. But, exhausted, she too fell asleep in her seat.
(In Amy`s dream)
She was standing on the beach in Jakarta. Something behind her shifted. She whirled around and her eyes widened with horror and recognition.
It was Isabel Kabra. In the distance over the noise of falling bricks someone gave a blood curdling scream. Amy couldn't see anything but she knew who the scream belonged to: Irina.
In the eerie silence she looked at Isabel. Her lips were moving but not a sound came out. Then from behind a tree came Ian Kabra dragging a blonde haired boy. The latter had rips and tears in his clothes and a swollen lip.
His face was covered in blood and his eyes were glazed. With a start she realizd it was Dan!
"Sorry, love." Ian whispered as the sand swung up to meet her.
"I-I c-can`t… I-I…" Amy mumbled.
"I… I… I…" Isabel and Ian echoed in an almost hypnotizing way.
(Out of Amy`s dream)
Amy jerked awake and looked around. She was still in the jet, thank goodness, lying next to Dan's seat. Looking at her brother who looked so vulnerable curled up in a little ball, she decided not to wake him. He would probably kill her for that but if it meant he could catch up on his sleep it would be worth it.
She slinked over to the kitchen she'd seen earlier and ordered breakfast for herself, Uncle Fiske, and Mr. McIntyre. Then she went back to her seat, snuggled into her blanket and started reading her book.
She jumped up and ran to the cockpit were she knew she would find Fiske. To her surprise the co-pilot was gone and Uncle Fiske had taken his place. Fiske had obviously seen Amy coming because he turned around so fast it startled her. The pilot muttered something into his mouthpiece and the co-pilot appeared almost immediately. He and Fiske switched places and Fiske drew Amy aside into the empty dining room.
She gasped. She didn't understand how they had missed this room. It had beautiful cream colored walls, a polished wooden floor, grand paintings on the wall, and gorgeous chandeliers that sparkled in the light. Remembering her idea she turned to her Uncle who had been watching her with an amused expression.
It quickly turned serious and after a whispered conversation he hurried away to make some phone calls. When Amy got back to their cabin she found Dan sitting up in his 'bed' rubbing his eyes and yawning. She tried to look less excited but failed miserably. She went to her seat and sat beside Dan.
Suddenly the jet did a sharp turn and Amy and Dan just managed to grab their armrests.
"Where are we going?" Dan asked.
"Karachi."
A/N: Oooh, a cliffie… kinda. I`m planning on making it really long so it may take me a while to update. Also, later on there's going to be a mystery Amy and maybe Dan have to solve, sort of like a whodunit. Don't worry, this won't be a cliché plot. Though it will have some Iamy and maybe Amy x OC. Sorry, I can't say anymore…
Ciao,
Amy Hope Cahill
*Be heard, be strong, be proud*
*Evanescence456