ALL AROUND THEM, Manhattan stretched out in rowhouses, great majestic cupolas, church steeples, and glowering government domes. The fierce July sunlight streamed in over a gray cloud bank and lit up the New York Harbor like a fire was rising from its depths. Magdalys took it all in with a sigh. It was beautiful, this city, but the weight of all she was about to do heavied up her thoughts and sent her heart racing.
Louis Napoleon had led them up a flight of stairs, down a corridor past a room alive with the thunk, hum, and tremble of a printing press, then up another flight and then another.
“There’ll be a few dactyls up there,” he’d said, opening a door to the bright rooftop. “We made sure of it. Aren’t many of the bigger ones on this side of the river, but they’re around here and there. You shouldn’t have a problem getting from building to building.”
Magdalys and Mapper thanked him and headed out into the sunlight.
“And remember, eyes open,” Louis called before closing the door.
“Shall we start?” Mapper asked, walking up beside Magdalys and taking in the rolling rooftops around them.
“Which way is Mulberry?” Magdalys asked.
“Huh?”
“893 Mulberry, Mapper. That’s where we’re going.”
“I thought —”
Magdalys hit him with her this-is-not-a-joke glare.
“You didn’t just insist on me coming with you because we’re friends, did you, Mag-D?”
“I mean, that was definitely part of it!”
Mapper shook his head. “David said no messing around! No unnecessary risks!”
“Mapper, look —”
“We sposta watch the docks. That’s it. Sweep the chimneys and watch the docks. How you gonna have a whole address you planning to go to and you didn’t even tell no one?”
“Mapper.”
“Don’t Mapper me, Magdalys. The whole thing is we supposed to trust each other. We a squad. You think that was a joke?”
“No, I —”
“How I’m supposed to trust you when you can’t even tell me what the super secret side mission we on is about?”
Magdalys blinked. Mapper didn’t want to disrupt the scheme, he just wanted to be in on the scheme. And anyway, he was right: They were a squad now, and she was going to have to start taking that seriously. Super secret side mission or not, it wasn’t fair to make people come along on some shenanigans they didn’t even know they were signing up for. She nodded, making a face. “You right, Mapper. I’m … I’m sorry.”
Mapper stared. “And?”
“And I’m trying to bust into the house of a man named Harrison Weed who brought me to the orphanage and took my sisters back to Cuba so I can find out more about my family.”
Mapper pumped his fist in the air. “That’s what I’m talking about!”
“Whoa. I wasn’t expecting that response.”
Mapper was already heading for the nearest dactyl. “What are you waiting for? The 800 block of Mulberry Street is this way!”
“Whewee!” Mapper yelled as they landed their dactyls on a tar rooftop a few blocks away. “These Manhattan dactyls don’t mess around.”
“You really think that was any different than the Brooklyn ones?” Magdalys asked, cracking her neck and stretching her arms out.
“Maybe it’s just a different feel because the city’s so much denser and doesn’t have all that open space like in Brooklyn. I dunno. Anyway, should be” — he closed his eyes, took a few steps in one direction, stopped, walked over and then forward a few more steps — “right about … here!”
“So, that chimney?” Magdalys asked, her heart rate kicking up again.
“I think so … Yeah. Definitely. I’m sure of it.”
“Okay, I’m going in.”
Mapper held up both hands. “Hold up, sis. We need, like, a … a plan or something, right? I mean, we’re not only breaking and entering into some random rich guy’s fancy Manhattan apartment, we’re doing it against the direct orders of the awesome club of awesome folks that we just joined. So, like, let’s not mess this up?”
“Right,” Magdalys conceded. There she went again already, not thinking like a team player. She would have to do better. “Okay. I go in, snoop around, find what I need, and if I’m not back out in, let’s say, twenty minutes, you come in too. Yeah?”
“No offense, but that’s a really basic plan, Mag-D. I mean, do you know what you’re looking for?”
“Info … about … my family?”
“Right, but like, a file? A map? A guy who you’re going to hang out the window till he tells you what you wanna know?”
“I mean, all of the above?”
“And secondly, what if you go down there and someone shoots you, and then what? I go down and get shot too? Bad plan.”
“You got a better one?”
It was Mapper’s turn to concede the point, but he did so as if he’d somehow won the whole argument. “Nope! But I’ll figure one out while you’re down there, I promise!” He flashed a winning grin.
Magdalys just shook her head as she climbed into the chimney. “I just hope you don’t actually think you make any sense, Mapper. That’s all.”
“Good luck!” Mapper called as she lowered herself into the darkness.