The Legacy Chronicles_Up in Smoke by Pittacus Lore

Author:Pittacus Lore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2018-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

SIX

POINT REYES, CA

“WONDERLAND?” SIX SAID.

“It’s the name of a mansion,” McKenna replied. “It was built in nineteen twenty-two by Harlin Pearsall, a famous silent film actor.”

It was twenty-four hours after the events on the ship. Six, Sam and McKenna were in Nine’s office. Nine was seeing to the processing and settling-in of fourteen of the kids rescued from Bray’s floating prison and brought back to California. Parents needed to be notified. Statements taken.

An additional twelve kids—the ones who had sided with Dennings—were in lockdown. They were a bigger problem. Most wouldn’t reveal their real names. A few had been identified through the DNA registry set up for those with Legacies, but the majority were kids who had slipped through the cracks and had never reported to the authorities in the first place. Figuring out who they were would take some time. Deciding what to do with them would take even longer.

That was Nine and Lexa’s problem. Bray was Six and Sam’s. Cutter had given them the name: Wonderland. In return, they had agreed not to introduce him to the sharks that had taken care of Dennings. Instead, he was sitting in a cell three doors down from Drac’s, worrying about what they would do to him. And that’s how they wanted it for now.

“And it’s in Argentina?” said Sam.

McKenna nodded.

“Why?” Six asked.

“Partly because of Prohibition,” McKenna explained. “It was illegal to make or sell alcohol in the United States at that time. That didn’t stop people from doing it, of course, especially in Hollywood. But Pearsall had a reputation as a clean-cut fellow. His nickname was America’s Son, because he always played good guys. In reality, he liked to party hard. He also had ties to organized crime. He built Wonderland as a place where he and his friends could go and live it up away from the prying eyes of the gossip magazines and the government. You could do that back then, before the internet made a private life impossible.”

“But why Argentina?” said Six. “Why not Mexico, or someplace closer?”

“The distance was part of the appeal,” McKenna said. “Also, South America was considered exotic. And it was cheap. He built Wonderland for well under a million dollars.”

“And Cutter says this is where Bray is hiding out?” said Sam. “It seems kind of, I don’t know, ostentatious for someone trying to keep a low profile.”

“Wonderland changed hands in nineteen thirty,” McKenna continued. “Pearsall likely owed the wrong people a great deal of money and gave it to them to save his neck. Whatever the reason, it was subsequently owned by a man named Thiago Godoy, better known by the nickname the Butcher of Tucumán due to his habit of cutting up his enemies and feeding them to his dogs.”

“Charming,” said Six.

“Indeed,” said McKenna. “He had a number of other bad habits, including being a big fan of Adolf Hitler. Following the war, Wonderland became a refuge for high-ranking Nazi officers escaping prosecution. There are also reports that a number

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