ordinary citizen would do. If we re stopped, I ll do the talking. We ll be
fine. He saw the skeptical look on the boy s face and his smile widened.
Trust me, I've been doing this for a very long time. The trick is to move as
if you have every right in the world to be here. The police are trained to
look for people who look and act suspicious.
don't you think we fall into both categories? Josh asked.
We look like we belong and that makes us invisible.
A group of three policemen didn't even look in their direction as they walked
past. Josh noticed that each was wearing a different type of uniform, and the
men seemed to be arguing.
Good, Nicholas said when they were out of earshot.
What s good?
Nicholas inclined his head in the direction they had just come. You saw the
different uniforms?
The boy nodded.
France has a complicated police system; Paris even more so. There is the
Police Nationale, the Gendarmerie Nationale and the Pr fecture de Police.
Machiavelli has obviously pulled out all the stops to find us, but his great
failing has always been that he assumes that other people are as coldly
logical as he is. He obviously thinks that if he puts all these police
resources on the streets, they will do nothing but search for us. But there
is a great deal of rivalry between the various units, and no doubt everyone
wants the credit for capturing the dangerous criminals.
Is that what you've made us into now? Josh asked, unable to disguise the
sudden bitterness in his voice. Two days ago, Sophie and I were happy,
normal people. And now look at us: I barely know my own sister. We ve been
hunted, attacked by monsters and now we re on a police most-wanted list.
you've made us criminals, Mr. Flamel. But this isn't the first time you've
been a criminal, is it? he snapped. He shoved his hands deep into his
pockets and closed them into fists to prevent them from shaking. He was
scared and angry, and the fear was making him reckless. He d never talked to
an adult like that before.
No, Nicholas said mildly, his pale eyes starting to glitter dangerously.
I've been called a criminal. But only by my enemies. It seems to me, he
added after a long pause, that you've been talking to Dr. Dee. And the only
place you could have encountered him was in Ojai, since that was the only
time you were out of my sight.
Josh didn't even think about denying it. I met Dee when the three of you
were busy with the Witch, he admitted defiantly. He told me a lot about
you.
I m quite sure he did, Flamel murmured. He waited by the curb as a dozen
students on bicycles and mopeds sped past; then he strolled across the
street. Josh hurried after him.
He said that you never tell anyone everything.
True, Flamel agreed. If you tell people everything, you take away their
opportunity to learn.
He said you stole the Book of Abraham from the Louvre.
Nicholas walked for half a dozen steps before nodding. Well, I suppose that
is true too, he said, though it s not quite so straightforward as he would
like to paint it. Certainly, in the seventeenth century, the book briefly
fell into the hands of Cardinal Richelieu.
Josh shook his head. Who s that?
Have you never read
Nope. Didn't even see the movie.
Flamel shook his head. I ve got a copy in the shop , he began, and then
stopped. When he d walked away from the bookshop on Thursday, it had been a
trashed ruin. Richelieu appears in the books and the movies, too. He was a
real person and was known as the l Eminence Rouge the Red Eminence so named
after his cardinal s red robes, he explained. He was King Louis XIII s
chief minister, but in reality he ruled the country. In 1632, Dee managed to
trap Perenelle and me in a part of the old city. His inhuman agents had
surrounded us; there were ghouls in the earth beneath our feet, Dire-Crows in
the air, and Baobhan Sith were tracking us through the streets. Nicholas
shrugged uncomfortably at the memory and looked up and around, almost as if
he expected to see the creatures appear again. I was beginning to think that
I was going to have to destroy the Codex rather than see it fall into Dee s
hands. Then Perenelle suggested one last option: we could hide the book in
plain sight. It was simple and brilliant!
What did you do? Josh asked, curious now.
Flamel s teeth flashed in a quick smile. I sought an audience with Cardinal
Richelieu and presented him with the book.
You
Of course he did. The Book of Abraham is famous, Josh or maybe
might be a better word. Next time you go online, look it up.
Did the cardinal know who you were? he asked. Listening to Flamel talk, it
was easy so easy to believe everything he said. And then he remembered how
believable Dee had been back in Ojai.
Flamel smiled, remembering. Cardinal Richelieu believed I was one of the
descendants of Nicholas Flamel. So we presented him with the Book of Abraham
and he put it in his library. Nicholas laughed softly as he shook his head.
The safest place in all of France.
Josh frowned. But surely when he looked at it, he saw that the text moved?
Perenelle put a glamour over the book. It s a particular type of
spell astonishingly simple, apparently, though I could never master it so
when the cardinal looked at the book, he saw what he expected to see: pages
of ornate Greek and Aramaic writing.
Did Dee catch you?
Almost. We escaped down the Seine on a barge. Dee himself stood on the Pont
Neuf with a dozen musketeers and fired scores of shots at us. They all
missed; despite the musketeers reputation, they were terrible shots, he
added. And then, a couple of weeks later, Perenelle and I returned to Paris,
broke into the library and stole our book back. So I suppose you could say
that Dee is right, he concluded. I am a thief.
Josh walked on in silence; he had no idea what to believe. He
believe Flamel; working in the bookshop alongside the man, he d grown to like
and respect him. He
for putting Sophie in danger.
Flamel glanced up and down the street; then, putting his hand on Josh s
shoulder, he guided him through the stalled traffic and across the Rue de
