CHAPTER TWENTY

The Night Before

Vita had sat on the bed, in her room, high up above New York, and told them the truth. She had spread out the book in front of them.

‘There’s one last thing I have to do,’ she said.

‘What?’

‘I have to get this book to Sorrotore. I have to give him The Plan.’

Three sets of eyes, aghast, bewildered, stared back at her.

‘But then he’ll know where to find the emerald!’

‘No,’ said Vita. She sighed so hard her ribs creaked, and the sigh had all the secrets she had been keeping in it. ‘He won’t.’

‘He will!’ said Arkady. ‘Look, right here! The book says—’

Vita looked out across the city, towards the Dakota. ‘The book is a lie.’

The eyes watching her widened, then narrowed.

‘What?’ Silk edged away from Vita. ‘You’ve been lying to us?’

‘The emerald isn’t in the fountain,’ said Vita. ‘But I need him to believe it is. I need him to put all his attention, all his men, all his focus, on that fountain.’

‘So where is the emerald?’ said Samuel.

‘It’s in the house.’

‘But you said the house can’t be—’

‘Can’t be broken into,’ said Vita. ‘Exactly.’

‘It said so in the newspaper!’ said Arkady.

‘I know,’ said Vita.

‘So it’s impossible!’ said Silk.

‘Impossible doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. What I need to do is get caught.’

‘Get caught?’ Silk and Samuel spoke together.

‘There are no houses for miles. If I get caught, there’s only one place where they could keep me until the police arrive.’

Samuel’s mouth formed an ‘O’ of sudden comprehension. ‘In the house?’

‘Exactly. I can’t break in – but they can let me in.’

‘But the red book!’ said Arkady. ‘It had all the plans in it – all the detail! The blueprint! Everything said it was in the fountain!’

‘That’s because I didn’t write it for me. I wrote it for Sorrotore.’

‘But if the house is impossible to break into, it’s impossible to break out of! So we’ll all be stuck there!’ said Arkady.

‘No!’ said Vita. ‘No – twice no! It’s not impossible to break out of. And no, you won’t be stuck there – because you’ll run. You won’t be there.’

‘No we won’t!’ said Arkady.

‘You will. You have to promise you will. You’ll run out and away. I need you to help me get as far as the walled garden, and I might need you to help me start the hole, so it looks real – but then I need you to run. You can get the cab to wait and take you back to the station, and be home in time for breakfast. And I’ll search the house alone.’

‘Why didn’t you tell us this before?’ said Silk. Her eyes were still and wary.

‘I was afraid to,’ said Vita, and she could feel her eyes burning. ‘I thought … I thought, once I said it out loud, it would be over. I thought you might all say it’s ridiculous. Too difficult – too stupid – too dangerous.’ Then she drew a breath, and told them the shameful, selfish truth. ‘I thought if I told you right away, you’d say no.’

Arkady let out a snort of indignation. ‘I would never say something’s too dangerous!’

‘I know,’ said Vita. It was an effort to speak. ‘I didn’t know you then. I do now.’

‘So all of it – you’ve had this planned, all along?’

She nodded. ‘Planning – watching, thinking – it’s what I do.’

Samuel looked at Vita; at the longing written in her hands and feet, at her frown.

‘All right,’ he said. ‘I’m still in, if the others are.’

Silk took one slow, hard look at Vita. Then she nodded. ‘It was always crazy. It’s still crazy. I’m still in.’

‘So you’ll run, when the guards come? You swear you’ll run?’ said Vita. ‘Like Samuel said – when one of us says run, we have to run. It’s the pact.’

And they had all nodded.

‘I’ll get some more cocoa,’ said Vita, and set out towards the kitchen.

Arkady looked at Silk, and Silk looked at Samuel.

Arkady held out his left hand: the fingers were crossed. ‘I’m not running,’ he said.

Samuel nodded. He took his hands out of his pockets. All of his fingers were crossed. He smiled his half-smile. The two boys turned to Silk.

‘I didn’t cross my fingers,’ she said, and grinned. ‘I just lied. I’m not running anywhere.’