Nicholas Flamel 1 - The Alchemyst

CHAPTER FIVE

T he twins stood on the sidewalk outside the bookshop, glass from the broken

windows crunching under their feet, watching as Nick produced a key. But we

Can't just leave, Sophie said firmly.

Josh nodded. We re not going anywhere.

Nick Fleming or Flamel, as they were beginning to think of him turned the key

in the lock of the bookshop and rattled the door. Within the shop, they could

hear books sliding onto the floor. I really loved this shop, Flamel

muttered. It reminded me of my very first job. He glanced at Sophie and

Josh. You have no choice. If you want to survive the rest of the day, you

have to leave now. Then he turned away, pulling on his battered leather

jacket as he hurried across the road to The Coffee Cup. The twins looked at

each other, then hurried after him.

you've got keys to lock up?

Sophie nodded. She produced the two keys on their Golden Gate Bridge key

ring. Look, if Bernice comes back and finds the shop closed, sHe'll probably

call the police or something .

Good point, Flamel'said. Leave a note, he told Sophie, something

short you had to leave suddenly, some sort of emergency, that sort of thing.

Say that I accompanied you. Scribble it; make it look as if you left in a

hurry. Are your parents still on that dig in Utah? The twins parents were

archaeologists, currently on loan to the University of San Francisco.

Sophie nodded. For another six weeks at least.

We re still staying with Aunt Agnes in Pacific Heights, Josh added. Aunt

Agony.

We Can't just disappear. SHe'll be expecting us home for dinner, Sophie

said. If we re even five minutes late, she gets in a tizzy. Last week, when

the trolley car broke down and we were an hour late, she d already phoned our

parents by the time we got there. Aunt Agnes was eighty-four, and although

she drove the twins to distraction with her constant fussing, they were very

fond of her.

Then you ll need to give her an excuse too, Flamel'said bluntly, sweeping

into the coffee shop with Sophie close behind him.

Josh hesitated before stepping into the cool, sweet-smelling gloom of The

Coffee Cup. He stood on the sidewalk, his backpack slung over his shoulder,

looking up and down. If you ignored the sparkling glass littering the

sidewalk in front of the bookshop, everything looked perfectly normal, an

ordinary weekday afternoon. The street was still and silent, the air was

heavy with just a hint of the ocean. Across the bay, beyond Fisherman s

Wharf, a ship s horn sounded, the deep noise lost and lonely in the distance.

Everything looked more or less as it had half an hour earlier.

And yet

And yet it was not the same. It could never be the same again. In the last

thirty minutes, Josh s carefully ordered world had shifted and altered

irrevocably. He was a normal high school sophomore, not too brilliant, but

not stupid either. He played football, sang badly in his friend s band, had a

few girls he was interested in, but no real girlfriend yet. He played the

occasional computer game, preferred first person shooters like Quake and Doom

and Unreal Tournament, couldn t handle the driving games and got lost in

Myst. He loved The Simpsons and could quote chunks of episodes by heart,

really liked Shrek, though he d never admit it, thought the new Batman was

all right and that X-Men was excellent. He even liked the new Superman,

despite what other people said. Josh was ordinary.

But ordinary teens did not find themselves in the middle of a battle between

two incredibly ancient magicians.

There was no magic in the world. Magic was movie special effects. Magic was

stage shows with rabbits and doves and sometimes tigers, and David

Copperfield sawing people in half and levitating over the audience. There was

no such thing as real magic.

But how then could he explain what had just happened in the bookshop? He had

watched shelves turn to rotten wood, seen books dissolve into pulp, smelled

the stink of rotten eggs from Dee s spells and the cleaner scent of mint when

Fleming Flamel worked his magic.

Josh Newman shivered in the bright afternoon sunshine and ducked into The

Coffee Cup, pulling open his backpack and reaching in for his battered

laptop. He needed to use the caf s wireless Internet connection; he had

names he wanted to look up: Doctor John Dee, Perenelle and especially

Nicholas Flamel.

Sophie scribbled a quick note on the back of a napkin, then chewed the end of

the pencil as she read it.

Mrs. Fleming unwell. Gas leak in the shop. Gone to hospital. Mr. Fleming with

us. Everything else OK. Will phone later.

When Bernice came back and found the shop closed just before the

late-afternoon rush, she was not going to be happy. Sophie guessed that she

might even lose her job. Sighing, she signed the note with a flourish that

tore through the paper, and stuck it to the cash register.

Nicholas Flamel peered over her shoulder and read it. That'sgood, very

good, and it explains why the bookshop is closed too. Flamel glanced over

his shoulder to where Josh was tapping furiously at his keyboard. Let s go!

Just checking my mail, Josh muttered, powering off the machine and closing

it.

At a time like this? Sophie asked incredulously.

Life goes on. E-mail stops for no man. He attempted a smile, and failed.

Sophie grabbed her bag and vintage denim jacket, taking a last look around

the coffee shop. She had the sudden thought that she would not be seeing it

again for a long time, but that was ridiculous, of course. She turned out the

lights, ushered her brother and Nick Fleming Flamel through the door ahead of

her and hit the alarm. Then she pulled the door shut, turned the key in the

lock and dropped the key chain through the letter box.

Now what? she asked.

Now we get some help and we hide until I figure out what to do with you

both. Flamel'smiled. We re good at hiding; Perry and I have been doing it

for more than half a millennium.

What about Perry? Sophie asked. Will Dee harm her? She d come to know and

like the tall, elegant woman over the past few weeks as she came into the

coffee shop. She didn't want anything to happen to her.