CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Uchenna and Elliot moved fast, crawling from table to table and ultimately into the hallway that led to the kitchen. There, they leaned against the wall to catch their breath.

Uchenna, between inhales and exhales, asked Elliot, “Where could you even keep the Madre de aguas in a hotel? She’s enormous! Or at least, she can be when she wants to be.”

“And she makes water,” Elliot went on. “I mean, look at this carpeting.” He shifted his weight over the deep plush carpet in the hallway. “If I spilled even a teaspoon of water on a carpet like this, Bubbe would murder me.”

Uchenna punched Elliot in the arm.

“Ow!”

“Elliot, you’re a genius.” Uchenna peeled herself off the wall and marched down the hallway to the elevator, where a hotel directory hung next to a stairwell. “There’s only one place you could keep that much water in a hotel.”

Elliot came up next to Uchenna as she ran her fingers down the list of different locations.

Roof Deck—Roof

Spa—Sky Lobby

Anti-Balding Center—Sky Lobby

Money Counting Chamber—13th Floor

Ballrooms—Mezzanine Level

Diamond Rooms—Upper Mezzanine Level

Lobby—Ground Floor

Fancy Private Lobby for the Embarrassingly Wealthy—Ground Floor, Other Side

Elliot’s finger stopped.

Pool—Basement

“There,” said Elliot.

Uchenna nodded. She pointed at the bright glow of the emergency exit sign, right above the stairwell beside them. They pushed open the door and broke into a run down the stairs, plunging deeper and deeper into the bowels of the Schmoke Hotel, Jersey squeaking every time his backpack bounced against Uchenna’s back.

The farther down they went, the more the smell of chlorine filled their nostrils. It smelled way worse than a normal hotel swimming pool. It was so strong that Elliot felt his eyes burning, and Uchenna thought she might gag.

They reached the basement and pushed through enormous glass doors that opened onto a bigger-than-Olympic-sized swimming pool below an arched brick ceiling.

And in that bigger-than-Olympic-sized swimming pool was a huge scaly creature with ornate horns, midnight-blue eyes, and a body like the biggest snake that’s ever lived.

Except this time, the Madre de aguas didn’t rise to meet them. She didn’t even raise her head. She wasn’t moving at all.