NEITHER PLAYER NOR CARMEN could think of anything to say. It had been a long search, only to come up empty.
Carmen was gathering herself to leave when a sound caught her attention. It was quiet at first, and far away. Some kind of ringing, buzzing noise. Carmen flattened herself against the wall of the vault, just to the right of the door. She was using an important trick from VILE Academy—this way, she would be hidden if the door was to swing open. She clutched the squiggle document in one hand and crossed her fingers with the other that the noise would move away. But the sound only grew closer, and the closer it came, the more Carmen recognized it as humming. A sweet, childlike tune.
There was only one person Carmen knew who would hum like that in an underground maze.
The door clicked open, and Carmen held her breath.
Through the crack in the hinges of the door, Carmen watched as Paperstar surveyed the stacks of papers and picked up a document to read. Carmen personally thought the VILE operatives should have to read all of León Mondragón’s writing so they would understand how much work had gone into the throne they had so cruelly stolen, but if Paperstar spent as much time reading as Carmen had, it would be difficult to sneak out unnoticed. Carmen hoped she would move quickly.
Now Paperstar was dragging her fingers along the shelves. She picked up one of the charts, fingered the heavy paper, and in an instant folded it into a weapon, which she slipped into her pocket. Carmen tensed. She might have been frustrated that León Mondragón didn’t leave any clues, but she still thought his words were important. She thought it mattered how hard he worked on his craft, and how angry he was about how the mine owners treated Indigenous people. She didn’t want to see his words turn into nothing but tools for Paperstar’s evil rampages, likely to end up in a gutter—or worse, slicing someone open.
Then suddenly, Paperstar lunged for something. Carmen’s jaw dropped.
She had left her cellphone on the ground. Unlocked. With the image of the squiggles and the typed words still open.
Please don’t speak Spanish, Carmen thought.
“Interesting,” Paperstar said aloud in her singsong voice. “That must mean my little friend is around here somewhere.” She slipped the phone into her pocket.
This was not the time for hiding. “Player,” Carmen hissed. “Wipe my phone’s memory! Now!”
She jumped out from behind the door, slamming it shut. “What do you want, Paperstar?”
Paperstar shrugged. “Well, I already have your phone.” She held it up, smiling sweetly. Carmen could still see the photo Player had sent on the screen.
“I’m working, Red!” Player said frantically into her earring. “There’s a lot of data on that phone—it’ll take a few minutes to back up and clear!”
Carmen had no choice but to distract Paperstar. “So,” she said, hoping to get Paperstar talking. “I see you found my hiding place.”
Paperstar waved a glow stick in front of Carmen’s face. “You didn’t exactly make it hard. Amateur hour—didn’t even cover up your tracks.”
Carmen laughed. “I think my tracks are going to come in pretty useful when I’m trying to find our way out of here.”
“Oh, you’re not leaving anytime soon!” Paperstar remarked cheerfully. She lunged for the door and locked it. “Tell me everything you know about the silver lion.”
Carmen almost breathed a sigh of relief. However much time she had wasted reading León Mondragón’s papers, at least VILE hadn’t gotten the silver lion in the meantime. Then she had an idea. She crossed her arms.
“What do you want to know?”
“Where it is and how I get it from you,” Paperstar growled.
Carmen balled up the document in her hand—sorry, León, she said to herself—and opened up her coat, giving Paperstar a one-second glimpse at the tools inside. “Too bad I can’t help you. The silver lion has been moved to a secure location.”
Paperstar’s eyes narrowed. “And you’re going to tell me where that secure location is, right?”
“Now, why would I do a thing like that?”
“Because if you don’t—” Paperstar lunged toward Carmen, who ducked and rolled to the other end of the vault. She jumped up and paced around Paperstar, ready to pounce. Eyes locked, the two made a circle. Carmen’s phone glowed in Paperstar’s hand, still clearly unlocked and loaded with Carmen’s information. Carmen sprung toward Paperstar, who tossed the phone up and caught it as Carmen fell past her.
“Here’s a deal. Tell me where the silver lion is, and you get back your phone. Don’t tell me and—hooray! I’ll have a new toy all to myself.”
“As if I would tell you,” Carmen said, trying to buy time. “But here’s the thing, Paperstar. There’s a clue about the silver lion. You can find it all by yourself if you look. You don’t need me at all.”
“And what is that?” Paperstar crossed her arms.
“In those papers.” Carmen nodded toward the shelves. “That’s where the clues are. Sit down and read those, and you’ll know everything I know about the silver lion.”
Paperstar turned for just a second and Carmen made another desperate grab for her phone, but Paperstar yanked it away. In that moment Carmen saw her phone flash with these words:
Carmen breathed a sigh of relief. “Actually,” she said cheerfully, “I never knew anything about the silver lion. I don’t have it at a secure location.” If Paperstar didn’t have her phone’s memory, Carmen sure didn’t need to keep her here talking. “See ya!” Carmen jumped, flipped the lock, and kicked open the door. She tore down the maze, picking up glow sticks as she ran. This time, she would definitely be covering her tracks.
Unfortunately, Paperstar was close behind, following Carmen’s footsteps instead of the glow sticks. Carmen looked up, as if a way to shake Paperstar would somehow appear out of nowhere, but the narrow maze didn’t give her many options. All she could do was run, staying a step ahead of Paperstar.
They reached the stairs and Carmen took off, desperate to reach the trapdoor and not be overtaken. Carmen climbed and climbed. A square of reddish light appeared above her, and she almost cheered. It was the Archivo, illuminated that night only by the glow of an emergency exit sign. Carmen threw herself upward, wriggled through the trapdoor, and shut it behind her as quickly as she could. A closed door wouldn’t stop Paperstar for long, but it would buy her a few minutes.
She raced out of the museum and onto the street. The plaza was softly lit by streetlamps, and a couple was kissing on a bench. Carmen picked a direction and dashed off just as the museum door swung open and shut behind her—Paperstar was on the chase again.
The night was warm and breezy, and Carmen noticed a tall tower gracing the skyline of Sevilla. “Player,” she asked breathlessly. “What’s that tower thing?”
Player was only too glad to play tour guide, even in the middle of a chase. “That would be La Giralda, Red. It’s one of Sevilla’s most well-known monuments. When this part of Spain was ruled by Islamic people, it was a minaret—then later, when Christian rulers took over, they used the same structure as a bell tower for the cathedral.”
Carmen was impressed. It was like an interfaith Muslim-Christian monument rolled all into one. “Looks like it’ll make a good Paperstar escape plan,” she told Player. “Scaling the tower should slow down those darts of hers.”
Luckily, La Giralda had lots of uneven spots that made good footholds for climbing, and Carmen had a head start on Paperstar. She was several stories up before she heard Paperstar’s humming creeping up below her. She looked down—it was lucky Carmen wasn’t afraid of heights—and Paperstar growled at her like an angry dog. Carmen kept climbing, but Paperstar was on her tail.
Suddenly Carmen felt a sharp tugging at her ankle, and she knew Paperstar had reached her. She shook her ankle loose, hoping to knock down Paperstar in the process—maybe climbing up this high hadn’t been such a great idea after all, but it was too late now. There was a very narrow balcony at the top of the tower, and Carmen scrambled onto the rail, balancing precariously. She wasn’t afraid; heights were a hazard of her job. She just hoped Paperstar couldn’t throw and balance at the same time. Below, the city of Sevilla twinkled, and the water of the Guadalquivir River looked black and shimmery, slinking like a snake toward the coast.
Unfortunately, Paperstar could throw and balance at the same time, and now Carmen was ducking and jumping out of the way, all while balancing on a two-inch strip of rail. She fished in her coat for something to throw back at Paperstar when her fingers grazed a piece of paper, shoved into her pocket. She pulled it out and looked at it.
Paperstar saw her look. “Give me that!” she shrieked. Five paper darts assailed Carmen, who stepped backwards on the rail like a tightrope walker to get out of their way in time. “I hate to break it to you, Black Sheep, but I’m not leaving until you tell me where you’ve got that silver lion!”
Carmen muttered into her comm-link earring as she backwards-balance-walked around La Giralda, “Talk about a white lie that got out of hand!”
“She really thinks you know where the silver lion is, huh?” Player said.
“Not a good time to talk!” Carmen replied, jumping backwards and grabbing the rail with her left hand just in time. She swung herself around and jumped back up.
Meanwhile, Paperstar was clutching the rail with all fours like a possum and scooting toward Carmen.
“Um,” Carmen said. This was a new tactic.
“That paper is mine!” Paperstar said. “You’re obviously hiding the location; I can see the writing from here!”
Something clicked. Carmen glanced down at the crumpled paper. She smoothed it out. Paperstar thought the paper contained an important clue. It did contain a clue, but all the clue told them was that the silver lion was gone, probably lost forever. It didn’t do Carmen any good to keep hanging on to it, as much as she liked having a little piece of her long-gone-almost-friend León Mondragón in her pocket.
“Hey, Paperstar,” Carmen said casually. “You want this?” She waved the document in the air.
Paperstar straightened up, inches from Carmen.
“Let’s make a trade. You tell me where VILE has the stolen silver castle, and I’ll give this clue to you.”
“Not a chance.”
“How about you tell me where VILE is keeping its headquarters in Sevilla?”
“Are you kidding me?” Paperstar’s eyes didn’t leave the document clutched in Carmen’s hand. Carmen kept moving her body and the paper around, trying to keep Paperstar’s focus.
“But you want to show your other VILE friends this clue, don’t you, Paperstar?”
“I will show them that clue!” Paperstar shouted, pouncing toward Carmen.
That was all Carmen needed to hear. Paperstar grabbed the document from her. While Paperstar roared triumphantly, Carmen lost her footing, slipped, and tumbled off the tower.
