Vespers Rising (The 39 Clues #11)(48)

Something so precious she would go to any length to protect it.

“This way.”

They followed Frau Bodner into another room, this one like an enormous safe. The guard followed. She punched in a number on a screen, and a wall of numbered boxes slid silently aside. Another wall of boxes slid forward. Frau Bodner walked to one of the boxes and motioned to Fiske. She placed her key in the lock, and Fiske placed his. They both turned the keys, and the box slid outward.

It was bigger than Amy had imagined, the size of a small overnight case, only narrower. It was made of metal. Frau Bodner carried the box to the far wall. A series of steel doors ran down its length. She swiped her card outside one of them.

They followed her inside the small room. There was a table, several chairs, and bottled water and glasses on a silver tray.

“You may take as long as you like,” Frau Bodner said. “When you are finished, press this button. The security officer will alert me, and I’ll usher you out.”

Fiske thanked her, and she nodded and left, the door clicking shut behind her.

The box sat in the middle of the table. They stared at it.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if it was full of priceless jewels?” Dan whispered. “Or gold bars?”

Amy eyed the box. “What are you, a pirate? We already have plenty of money.”

“There’s nothing like a couple of gold bars for authenticity, though. I could make one into a necklace. Jonah Wizard would be soooo way jealous….”

Amy looked over at Dan. Was he babbling because he was nervous or because he was excited? It was almost like he was enjoying this. Didn’t he want to be back in Attleboro, sitting in their living room? She sure did.

Fiske sat down in a chair, grabbed the box, and slid it toward himself. He took a breath, then opened it.

Amy leaned forward. The only thing in the box was an envelope addressed to Fiske in Grace’s handwriting.

Fiske picked up the envelope, opened it, and took out a sheet of paper. He placed it flat on the table so that they could all read it at the same time.



“Amy,” Dan said, poking her. “Do us a favor? Don’t go all emo on us.”

“I’m not crying,” Amy said, dabbing at her eyes. “But the note … it’s so sad.”

Fiske looked in the box again. He tapped at it. “But where’s the ring?”

They bent over the paper again. Amy reached out and touched it. Seeing Grace’s handwriting always made her choke up.

“‘The circle of devotion,’” she whispered.

Suddenly, Dan snorted.

Amy looked up, annoyed. “Don’t get all sarcastic. It’s beautiful.”

“It’s sappy,” Dan said. “And Grace wasn’t sappy.”

Amy opened her mouth to protest, but Fiske looked at Dan, his blue eyes keen. “He’s right. Go on, Dan.”

Dan stared down at the paper. “This is a code. Grace didn’t write like this, all poetic and sentimental. She said what she meant. ‘All my yearning’? Give me a break!”

“It’s the ring!” Amy burst out. “The circle of devotion!”

“Look at the first letters of ‘all my yearning,’ ” Fiske said. “They’re slightly darker.”

” ‘A M Y,’ ” Dan read. He looked over at Amy. “Oh, no, not again!”

Amy sniffed as a tear rolled down her cheek. ” ‘Amy now comes to this,’ ” she read. “That’s what she meant.”

“You’re the next Madrigal to protect the ring,” Fiske said.

“Yeah,” Dan said. “We just have to find it.”

” ‘Compass points,’ ” Fiske murmured. “Why —” Suddenly, he stopped when a light flashed red and began to blink. A siren wailed behind the door.

They heard a brisk knock at the door, and it opened to reveal the security guard. “Excuse me,” he said with a German accent. “Armed gunmen have broken into the bank. We must leave immediately!”

Thieves … or Vespers?

Either scenario wasn’t good, Dan decided.

“Hurry!” the guard said as Fiske stuffed the paper in his pocket and closed the box.

When they reached the corridor, they turned toward the elevator, but the guard spoke quickly. “No! There is another elevator that can bring us to the underground garage.” He spoke rapidly in German into his radio.

They ran down the corridor. Dan felt his heart banging against his chest. It was like a weird flashback to the Clue hunt. Only they weren’t being chased by Cahills but by strangers with guns. He wasn’t sure if it was incredibly cool or just incredibly scary.

All he knew was that he wasn’t bored.

And that was a weirdly satisfying feeling.

The security guard moved quickly and efficiently. He swiped his card at the elevator bank but his eyes darted back down the corridor. He checked his belt, nervously touching the gun holster and a device that might have held pepper spray. Dan hoped it wasn’t his first day.

The elevator doors opened and they hurried inside. The guard reached out to hit the button for the garage. As he did, his cuff slid up, and Dan saw part of a tattoo on the inside of his wrist.

Something fluttered in his memory. As the elevator whooshed downward, he searched for it. The inked image was a symbol of something … but what?