“You’re claustrophobic?” Jesse asked.
“I didn’t know that until just now,” she said. “Are the walls moving? I feel like they’re moving.”
“Easy, darlin’,” Ames said. His voice sounded so kind when he talked to her. I had never heard anyone speak to Roux that way before, and it was nice to hear. “We just need to go down this grate.” He pointed at a small set of iron bars in the ground, a pool of water splashing underneath.
Roux looked at it for a bit. “Nope,” she finally said. “I’ll just wait here. If I see Dominic, well, it was a good run and I had some fun and—”
Ames bent down and moved the grate, only he didn’t just move the bars, he moved the entire thing, water and all. It was an illusion, I realized, simply a tray of water designed to look like a normal hole in the ground.
“Rolling tray,” he said. “It keeps others from finding our secret passageways. Not to brag, but I invented this contraption.”
“Aren’t they all secret passageways?” Jesse asked as relief crossed Roux’s face.
“Some more than others,” Ryo said. “Ladies first.”
Roux and I followed Élodie down the rabbit hole and dropped into a much drier tunnel. This one had electric bulbs lining the ceiling and while it was still dirty, it felt almost civilized. “These are our tunnels,” Élodie said. “Or I should say your tunnels. Your parents are the ones who found them.”
“We are going to have such a serious talk when I see them again,” I said, but the thought of when I would see them again made my heart twist and I shoved the thought out of my mind. They must know where I am, I thought. This is as much my history as the Collective is. Home is where your family is, and my parents had once been here.
We walked along, Jesse sometimes reaching up and tapping at the lightbulbs. “I didn’t think there’d be light down here,” he admitted. “I was picturing mining caps or like when we went down into that secret platform at Grand Central Station.”
Ames turned around, his eyes wide. “You saw that? I thought that was just an urban legend.”
“It’s the real deal,” Roux said. “We were there.”
“What’s it like?”
“Dirty.”
Ames smiled at her and reached out to ruffle her hair, but Roux ducked away. “Careful,” I said. “She knows tae kwon do.”
“I’m missing my class today, actually,” Roux said. “But this is way better.”
“Ryo put in the lights,” Élodie said, taking his arm and finally answering my silent question of whether or not they were a couple. “He’s the electrician of our group.”
“And what do you do?” I asked, tucking my hand into Jesse’s hoodie pocket as we walked along.
“Cartography,” she said. “Mapmaking. I help map out the tunnels for everyone. Well, not everyone. Just a select few.”
“And you?” I nodded at Ames.
“Your local horologist, at your service,” Ames said, bowing a little.
“Your local what?” Roux said. “What did you just say?”
“H, not wh, darlin’,” Ames said, but there was a twinkle in his eye. “And it’s a fancy word for clock maker. I fix gears, get things going again.” He wiggled his eyebrows at Roux, and she burst out laughing
“That’s what they call clock repair people?” She giggled. “That’s the worst name ever! That sounds like the scientific name for a pimp!”
Ames’s cheeks had gone red all the way to the tips of his ears. “We can’t pick the names of our calling,” he said. “Unfortunately.”
“I think I’ll call you Gear Man,” Roux said, patting his shoulder and making Ames go even redder. “That’s much more flattering.”
“A lot of people like to use the tunnels for partying or drinking, things like that,” Ryo said. “Which is great and all, but we use them as a means to an end. The partying helps give us a nice cover, though.” He shot a grin over his shoulder at us. “You should know something about blending in.”
I grinned back. “All too well,” I said. I had to admit that it was nice to talk to other people who knew about the Collective, who also had secret lives. I never got to discuss my life with near strangers before. “This is sort of a new experience,” I said, “talking about spying and the Collective with you. I like it, it’s different.”
“In French, the word ‘experience’ means both ‘experience’ and ‘experiment,’” Jesse said, and Élodie nodded in agreement. “I never really got that until now. We’re experiencing an experiment.”
“So you don’t talk to this one, Maggie?” Ames said, pointing at Roux as she frowned at him and pretended to shove his hand away.
“Pointing is rude,” she told him.
“So is breaking a man’s nose, love, so don’t go launching those stones out of your glass house just yet.” He caught her hand in his and Roux smiled, hiding her face behind her hair.
“Of course I talk to her,” I said. “Jesse, too. But they weren’t supposed to know about all this.”
Élodie, Ryo, and Ames all looked at me. “You know you have to tell the story now,” Ryo said. “How did they find out?”
Jesse and Roux looked at each other, both of them smiling. “Go ahead, Mags,” Jesse said. “Tell them how we met.”
“Jesse was my assignment,” I admitted. “Only it got a bit complicated and the case was corrupt and I needed his and Roux’s help to solve it. So I kind of broke the rules a bit. Well, a lot, I guess.”
“It’s good to break the rules,” Ryo said. “I met Élodie because we were in detention together one afternoon.” He took her hand and kissed it. The affection ran deep between them, that much was obvious. “Rules were made to be broken, anyway.”
“It sounds like it worked out well for Jesse, too.” Ames grinned at us. “Am I wrong?”
“Not at all,” he said, and I smiled despite myself.
“Jesse’s a trooper,” I said.
“Yes, I am,” he agreed with a laugh. “Maggie likes to keep it exciting.”
“Speaking of excitement,” Élodie said. “We are here. You do not argue with the mapmaker about these things.”
We left our coats down in the tunnel and climbed back up through the rolling tray (which, I had to admit, was sort of a genius invention) and out a side door onto the Paris streets. “Just a few minutes,” Ryo warned as we went outside. “That’s all.”
The air was much warmer than in the tunnels and as we rounded the corner, I saw the Jardin du Luxembourg ahead of us. I had only been in it a few times, mostly when I was younger as we traveled through Europe, but I heard Roux gasp in surprise. “Wow,” she said, her voice hushed almost like she was in church. “Paris is really beautiful.”
Ames smiled at her and Jesse raised an eyebrow at me. I just shrugged, our secret language firmly in place. I knew we’d be discussing Roux and Ames later.
Roux and Ames. Even in my head, it had a nice ring to it.
“Looks like another locked park,” Jesse said to me, nudging his shoulder against mine. “Is this our thing now? Locked parks?”
“Could be.” I shrugged, then wrapped my arm around his waist. The sun had nearly set, and I could just make out my friends’ features in the dark. Roux was smiling, saying something to Ames as we walked, and even in the near dark, I saw him grin back at her, his hands stuffed into his pockets.
I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but I was glad we were together.
All of us.
Chapter 31
By the time we climbed through the tunnels and back into the apartment (“Seriously,” I told Ames as he undid the lock, “you need to show me how you do that”), we were all exhausted, especially those of us suffering from jetlag. Jesse and I fell into bed almost immediately, my head resting on his shoulder as we started to drift off, but I could hear Roux’s and Ames’s voices floating down the hall, soft as whispers.
“Do you think he’s a good guy?” I asked Jesse, my eyes already closed. “Because if he?
??s not, I’ll rip his balls off.”
Jesse ducked his head and I could feel him smile against my arm. “I think so,” he murmured. “I’m pretty sure Élodie would have already kicked him out if he wasn’t good.”
“You can be a good thief and a terrible person,” I pointed out. “Look at Dominic.”
“I don’t think it’s quite the same thing,” Jesse said. “Can we sleep now, please? Roux is fine. Roux can take care of Roux. If anything, Ames should be scared of her.”
“She’s not tough, she’s gooey,” I said, but my words were already slipping away as sleep pulled me under. The last thing I heard before I fell asleep was Jesse’s amused voice saying, “You are so weird sometimes.”
When I woke up, it was nearly three in the afternoon. The clouds had parted by this point, leaving some hazy sunshine through the window, and I showered and went into the kitchen.
“Coffee’s right there,” Roux said, pointing at the French press on the table. “It’s fresh.”
“You know me well,” I said, reaching for it.
“Well, it’s not like you keep it a secret or anything.” Roux smirked. Her eyes were tired but she looked at ease in her skin, which was something I hadn’t seen on her, well, ever.
“You look … happy,” I finally said.
“Are you accusing me of being happy? How dare you.” Roux smiled at me over the rim of her coffee cup. “Be nice to me. I was up late last night.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? And what were you doing?”
“We were talking,” Roux said. “Only talking, dirty birdy. He’s nice.”
“I don’t think you’ve ever described anything as ‘nice’ in your life,” I said.
“Well, it works on him. He’s different. He’s a clock maker.”
“I thought it was technically a horolo—”
“Yeah, no, that word is never crossing my lips. But we just talked. He was raised outside of Dublin. His family still lives there.”
The question hung between us. For all the times that Roux loudly brushed off her parents’ absence, I knew it cut right through her, leaving her heart exposed. “Did you tell him about your family?” I asked, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.
“I did,” she said, her voice soft. “I told him about everything.”
“Your parents?”
“My parents, or lack thereof, about Jake and Julia and everyone else at school, about how I met you. Ames knows everything.”
“Wow,” I said. “I’m surprised. You don’t usually talk about it.”
Roux just shrugged. “I talked because he listened. Most guys don’t listen to me. They just want to hook up. But he listened.”
I was about to say something when the front door started to open. My eyes shot to the hallway, then back to Roux. “Is everyone here?” I asked. “Did Ryo go to the store or—?”
“We’re all here,” Roux said. “I swear, all of us. Ames and Jesse are talking and Élodie and Ryo are—”
Élodie suddenly came running down the hall, her eyes wide and frightened. “Who is that?” she demanded. “Who is—?”
“Wait!” Ryo called after her. “Élodie, wait, it’s—!”
The front door opened.
“So sorry for the disturbance, my loves,” said a familiar voice. “I hope I didn’t frighten anyone!”
No one moved for a second and then—
“Angelo!” Roux screamed, launching herself at him. “Oh my God, you’re alive and they didn’t kill you and try to use the body as a bribing tool with Interpol or anything!”
Jesse and Ames both came running at the sound of our cries. I was right on Roux’s heels and I threw my arms around Angelo’s neck as Roux continued with her half hug, half strangulation. “Angelo.” I sighed, so glad for his familiar voice and face that I could have cried.
“It’s me, it’s me,” he said, trying to disentangle Roux so he could hug her properly. “Here and in the flesh, I’m afraid. Sorry I couldn’t give you any warning. Our communication is a bit compromised. But I am alive. Although I’m not sure for how much longer. Um, Roux, my love …” He coughed a little.
“Sorry,” she said, immediately releasing her hold around his neck. “Sorry, I just get excited sometimes.” Roux was wriggling like a puppy, but I still hadn’t let go of Angelo yet. I hadn’t really thought I would never see him again, but now that he was here with us, I realized how close I had come to losing him.
“I’m fine, love,” he whispered into my hair as he patted my back. “Everyone is fine and I’m here now. Are you all right?”
“I’m okay,” I said. “I’m just glad you’re here.” I looked over his shoulder as I pulled away. “My parents, are they here—?”
“I’m afraid not, no,” Angelo said. “It’s not quite safe yet, and they are both working hard. You did hear that they were all right, yes?”
I nodded and tried to hide my disappointment. Roux was still hopping up and down and when Ames came into the room, she grabbed his arm. “It’s Angelo!” she cried. “Angelo, the guy who taught me how to play chess!”
“Yes, I know.” Ames laughed as Roux nearly tore his arm off. (Ironically, the happier she gets, the more dangerous she becomes.) “We’ve met before, remember? I’ve probably known him longer than you have.”
It took a while for everyone to say hello to Angelo: he hugged Élodie and Ryo and Jesse, who looked as happy to see him as I did. “You’re all right?” Angelo asked Jesse, clapping a hand onto his shoulder.
“Just a scrape, I’m fine,” Jesse reassured him. “I’m tough, don’t worry.”
Angelo laughed. “Well, you should be, if you’re going to continue dating Maggie.”
We settled around the dining room table, just next to the nonfunctioning fireplace. I rested my legs over the armrest of the chair so I could put my feet in Jesse’s lap. Across from us, Roux and Ames sat as close as their chairs would allow, and I reminded myself to quiz Angelo about Ames. If he was as good a guy as Jesse claimed, Angelo would know.
“So this is where we are,” Angelo said by way of introduction. “Dominic is in Europe, but not Paris, and he is very angry with you, Maggie, to say the least.”
“He’s angry with me?” I cried. “He’s the one who tried to kill me! And us! He doesn’t get to be angry!”
Angelo held up his hand. “Yes, I am aware. I’m just reporting the news. But as I’m sure we all know by now, Dominic quite enjoys revenge and it makes him decidedly less happy when things do not go according to his revenge plan. We arranged a truce, though, at least until Wednesday.”
“A truce?” Ryo repeated. “You called a truce with him?”
“He wants those gold coins quite badly,” Angelo said. “Bad enough that I think someone else might want them even more.”
“He owes someone money,” Élodie said as she realized. “It’s not revenge; he needs those coins to pay someone off.”
“The research points in that direction, yes,” Angelo nodded. “We don’t know who, but we can always bluff if need be. But I told him that if anything happens to Maggie or any of her friends, the coins would be melted down immediately and destroyed. So he has quite conveniently agreed to a sort of cease-fire.”
“Until Wednesday?” I asked. “Then what? You dangle me on a stick out the window?”
“We could rig up a sort of pulley system,” Ames said, which made Jesse laugh.
“Oh, thanks, loyal boyfriend,” I said. “That’s nice of you.”
“Vive la révolution!” Jesse replied, but he squeezed my ankle so I decided to let him live.
“On Wednesday, we need to give the coins back,” Angelo said. “Or what he thinks are the coins. That’s why I’m here in Paris. Not only to see you all, of course, but to rustle up some facsimiles. Or make them, time permitting.”
“Forgeries, I love it,” Roux said, rubbing her hands together. “My passport was a work of art, Angelo, really. I could probably travel with it tomorrow.”
/> “Well, I’m glad, my love. And keep it close; you very well may need it.” Angelo looked tired, and I wondered where he had traveled from, how much he had been worrying. “I told Dominic that we would say where and when on Wednesday. Any thoughts?”
We all fell silent as we thought. Paris was vast, both above and below ground. “Let’s keep it on this side of the tunnels,” Angelo said, reading my mind. “Having Dominic underground with us could be quite disastrous, especially if some hapless tourist stumbled into our path.”
“Well, that narrows it down to one of three thousand different tourist sites,” Élodie said, but she sounded thoughtful. “We’ll figure it out, Angelo. You just get the coins.”
“I have to admit, though,” Angelo said, “that’s not the only reason I’m here. I would be bereft if I missed our Roux’s birthday.”
Every head at the table swiveled to Roux’s direction.
She looked both shocked that Angelo knew and embarrassed that we had found out. “Um, surprise,” she said, waving her hands a little. “I’m eighteen. Woo.”
“Were you going to say anything?” I cried, immediately leaping out of my seat so I could run around the table and give her a hug. “It’s your birthday and I didn’t know? I’m a terrible friend, oh my God!”
“It’s your birthday?” Ames looked aghast. “Oh, no, no, this will not do at all. At all. We have to celebrate with something. Fireworks or balloons or—”
“No balloons,” Roux said.
“—or something,” Ames continued. “Stay here, all right? I’ll be back.” He grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair and started to run out of the room, then ran back and gave Roux a quick kiss on the cheek. “Happy birthday,” he said, then hurried off.
Roux startled, her hand on her cheek as if to keep the kiss on her skin, and a slow smile spread across her face as the door clicked shut behind Ames. “Iiiiinteresting,” Jesse said as he came around the table to give her a hug. “You and Ames, huh?”
“Oh, go away,” Roux said, then slugged him in the arm. “It’s my birthday so you have to be nice to me. That’s the rule.”