Chapter 7

Disclaimer: see previous chapters.

Carter Kane

When we returned to our home nome, uncle Amos was already there, reading a scroll with hieroglyphs of some kind. I'm not as good with them as Sadie is, and I only caught a few of them – a hawk and several plant-like shapes, but then uncle Amos put the scroll away and looked at us.

"You're back," he said rather happily, "and you brought a friend?"

"Yes! This is senhora, I mean senhorita, Vasquez. She is the sister-" Sadie spoke up before I could.

"You brought a Vasquez here?" suddenly uncle Amos sounded much more like a Chief Lector and not a very happy one as well.

"Yes and why not?" even Sadie caught on that something was wrong.

"For several reasons," uncle Amos began, but senhorita Vasquez interrupted him.

"Why are you wearing the leopard pelt? What has happened to lord Chief Lector Iskander?"

"He, um, died. In his sleep. Some time ago, when Apophis tried to destroy the world," Zia explained before we could. "Then there was Michel Desjardins, but he also died, fighting Vlad Menshikov. Now Amos Kane – the man over there – is the Chief Lector."

"I see," senhorita Vasquez nodded and the silence was back.

"...Anyways," uncle Amos spoke up. "What has happened?"

"Nephthys is on a warpath, and if we do not appease her, people will get hurt." Walt – or perhaps Anubis – spoke for the first time since our disastrous interview with Nephthys. "Please, help?"

Uncle Amos exhaled and tension leaked out of the room. "Of course, Walt, Anubis. For that we need a boat."

"You could use mine," senhorita Vasquez spoke up. "Our parents... they wouldn't mind."

"We," uncle Amos grimaced, "need to make a special boat. Yours is slightly too modern for a magic ceremony." He paused and looked at her, askance. Senhorita Vasquez kept quiet, uncle Amos continued. "To build it, we need special magical tools...which are kept in two hundred and thirty-eighth nome, which is in Kamchatka."

"Where?"

"The heel of Russia, as father would say," senhorita Vasquez spoke up. "One of the least populated places in the world. What?" she added as we stared at her. "This is my father's homeland, you know, so I know things about it."

"But aren't you a Vasquez?"

"Father came to Mexico during the Caribbean crisis on a Party assignment and met my mother there. Love conquers all, and mother does not dislike communism either. They married and established a unit there, taking my mother's family name for different reasons. Now, since USSR is over and is not coming back, our family is staying in New World for good," senhorita Vasquez shrugged. "Anyways, if you're going to Kamchatka, I'm coming with you – there is no way I am letting my brother be saved by a group of children without adult supervision."

"Hey!" Sadie snapped. "We saved the world without any adult supervision, thank you very much?"

"Really?"

"Really! Well, uncle Amos helped, some – he is the Chief Lector, so he had to do something."

"Sadie," Zia interrupted. "That's unfair – Chief Lector did quite a bit, I can testify!"

"Thank you, Zia, for your support," uncle Amos said peevishly. "Look, miss-"

Senhorita Vasquez faced uncle Amos with a deliberate slowness. "No, you look. These children have saved the world – and being a part of the world that alone puts me in their debt. So there is no way I am letting you go on your own-"

"We didn't save the world to have anyone, including the world itself, to be indebted to us," I said quietly.

"I know," for the first time since we met senhorita Vasquez smiled quite warmly at me. "That's why you were able to do it, BTW. However, I am still coming with you – I promise to hang in the back and not embarrass you too much. Who knows? I might even be useful!"

"Fine," I relented, "you can come."

"Carter?" uncle Amos now sounded really unhappy. I looked at him:

"Yes?"

I am not sure what happened next – possibly, some manly posturing or a staredown; in any case, uncle Amos backed down first.

"Very well," he said, still sounding unhappy, "miss Vasquez can go with us."

"Thanks," I nodded, feeling rather unhappy myself for some reason – as if I won and lost something at the same time, before turning and facing senhorita Vasquez. "Ok, you can go."

"Thank you," she said with a small smile. "How exactly can we go there? Brother dear said that you had limits."

"But I don't," Walt – or rather Anubis – said suddenly. "Behold!"

And we beheld. One moment we were back in the home nome, the next – in the frozen tundra.

Only it was not frozen, but quite melted – into a giant swamp, complete with Russian blackflies and mosquitoes that began to buzz around us with a predatory look on their faces.

"Wonderful," senhorita Vasquez muttered. "Does anyone have anti-mosquito repellent-"

"I do!" Zia suddenly said. "Behold!"

And we beheld. All of the local mosquitoes abruptly decided that Zia is their version of chocolate cake and charged at her in a single solid dark mass that was bigger and heavier than Zia herself was. Zia, seeing this, shrieked.

"Stop!" senhorita Vasquez yelled, and the mosquito mass stopped. So did we and looked at the senhorita. The latter was holding a ball of mud that was glowing bright white. And as the mosquito mass rotated to face this ball, senhorita Vasquez threw it away from us.

The mosquito mass charged at that glowing ball of mud as if it was Zia-cake. (Do not tell that to Zia, Sadie!) In several moments they enveloped it completely.

"Um," said someone (probably me).

Then the mosquitoes were ambushed by a large flock of birds, from sparrow-sized songbirds to ducks and geese. The birds were hit by various meat-eaters – weasels, wolves, wolverines, arctic foxes and even a polar bear or two. The meat-eaters...

It was then I realized that I was being led away by Sadie and Walt (senhorita Vasquez was taking care of Zia).

"Kids," she said sternly, "I understand, really, that you like to use high-profile solutions to your problems. Sometimes, though, they have side effects, such as channeling too much positive energy, as we have seen."

"Yeah, we've seen," Sadie muttered.

"Anyways, where are we going?"

"Right there," Walt muttered and cast a spell. "You see?"

And we saw. A lodge, similar to the one that we have seen in Brazil. Only the one in Brazil did not have a shadow serpent crawling around it.

"Oh dear," somebody said. Probably, it was I.

TBC