The Inventors at No. 8 by A. M. Morgen

Author:A. M. Morgen [A. M. Morgen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2018-05-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Still throwing glances behind him to search for Il Naso, George finally found Ada and Oscar near a stack of warm bread on the edge of the plaza. Or rather, they found him. He would never have recognized them in their new, preposterous disguises, which Ada had procured in the twenty minutes they’d been separated. She’d put on a white porcelain mask that covered the top half of her face and had twisted her hair up into intricate knots; Oscar now wore a towering plumed hat bursting with what appeared to be parrot feathers.

“It’s a pirate hat,” he said happily.

“I thought the point of a disguise was not to attract attention.”

In response, Ada draped Ruthie in a shawl and Oscar gathered her in his arms like a baby. The baker’s smock they had stolen (“borrowed,” according to Ada) for George was much too big, but Ada made him wear it anyway.

She led them through winding alleyways and over yellow- and gray-stoned bridges until they came to a wide canal the color of an overcast sky. Black gondolas shaped like peapods crowded the churning water. To Oscar’s delight (and Ruthie’s dismay, based on her grunting), Ada directed them into a boat. She whispered their destination to the gondolier and, with a long pole, he steered them away.

While George told them about Il Naso, Oscar gawked at all the people they passed. “Don’t you think this is the sort of place a pirate would live? Everything is next to the water. Maybe I can find someone who knows my father.”

“The Adriatic Sea used to be a nest of pirates. But I believe they were all beheaded,” George replied tersely. Once again, the urgency of the situation seemed to fly right over Oscar’s head. Ada’s bird had been wrecked. Despite what Ada repeated over and over, Frobisher was still in danger. They’d lost the Star. And now the police knew George’s face. His nerves felt as frayed as the rough, wiry hair that poked up from Ruthie’s head.

“Ada, where are we going?” George asked. “Have you visited Venice before? Are we going to find out where Roy might be hiding?”

“No, George, my mother won’t let me come here,” she said quickly. “But I have a lead.”

“A lead?” George’s heart thumped. “What is it? A secret message? A symbol? A clue?”

“Well, no. It’s more like an idea. If the Organization has been spying on me, it follows that they are spying on other brilliant scientists. I suspect that a few scientists may even be working for the Organization. I happen to know that a brilliant young scientist is in Venice on holiday. We might find a clue to the Organization’s whereabouts in his apartment. But be careful what you say around him.” She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t know whose side he’s on yet. And keep an eye out for Roy. He’ll probably be disguised.”

“Right,” George said, his head spinning with the speed of her thoughts. The mystery of the Organization continued to deepen.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.