The Alchemyst by Michael Scott Page B

field to discover the existence of the new species of small hominids that were now commonly called Hobbits in Indonesia. Josh always said that their parents lived five million years in the past and were only happy when they were up to their ankles in mud. The twins knew that they were loved unconditionally, but they also knew that their parents simply didn’t understand them…or much else about modern life.
    “Mr. Fleming is taking Perry out to their house in the desert and they’ve asked us if we’d like to go with them for a little break. We said we had to ask you first, of course. Yes, we spoke to Aunt Agnes; she said so long as it was OK with you. Say yes, Mom, please.”
    She turned to her brother and crossed her fingers. He crossed his too; they had talked long and hard about what to say to their aunt and their mother before they made the calls, but they weren’t entirely sure what they were going to do if their mother said they couldn’t go.
    Sophie uncrossed her fingers and gave her brother a thumbs-up. “Yes, I’ve got time off from the coffee shop. No, we won’t be a bother. Yes, Mom. Yes. Love to you, and tell Dad we love him too.” Sophie listened, then moved the phone away from her mouth. “Dad found a dozen
Pseudo-arctolepis sharpi
in near-perfect condition,” she reported. Josh looked blank. “A very rare Cambrian crustacean,” she explained.
    Her brother nodded. “Tell Dad that’s great. We’ll keep in touch,” he called out.
    “Love you,” Sophie said, cutting the conversation short, then hung up. “I hate lying to her,” she said immediately.
    “I know. But you couldn’t really tell her the truth, now, could you?”
    Sophie shrugged. “I guess not.”
    Josh turned back to the sink. His laptop was perched precariously on the draining board next to his cell phone. He was using the cell to go online because, shockingly, there was no phone line or Internet connection in the dojo.
    Scatty lived above the dojo in a small two-room apartment with a kitchen at one end of the hall and a bedroom with a tiny bathroom at the other. A little balcony connected the two rooms and looked down directly onto the dojo below. The twins were standing in the kitchen while Flamel brought Scatty up to date on the events of the past hour in her bedroom at the other end of the hall.
    “What do you think of her?” Josh asked casually, concentrating on his laptop. He’d managed to get online, but the connection speed was crawlingly slow. He called up Altavista and typed in a dozen versions of
Scathach
before he finally got a hit with the correct spelling. “Here she is: twenty-seven thousand hits for Scathach, the shadow or the shadowy one,” he said, then added offhandedly, “I think she’s cool.”
    Sophie picked up on the too-casual tone immediately. She smiled broadly and her eyebrows shot up. “Who? Oh, you mean the two-thousand-year-old warrior maid. Don’t you think she might be a little too old for you?”
    A wash of color rose from beneath the neck of Josh’s T-shirt, painting his cheeks bright red. “Let me try Google,” he muttered, fingers rattling across the keyboard. “Forty-six thousand hits for Scathach,” he said. “Looks like she’s real too. Let’s see what Wiki has to say about her,” he went on, and then realized that Sophie wasn’t even looking at him. He turned to her and discovered that she was staring fixedly through the window.
    There was a rat standing on the rooftop of the building across the alley, staring at them. As they watched, it was joined by a second and then a third.
    “They’re here,” Sophie whispered.
             
    Dee concentrated on keeping his lunch down.
    Looking through the rat’s eyes was a nauseating experience. Because of their tiny brain, it required a huge effort of will to keep the creature focused…which, in an alleyway filled with rotten food, was no easy task. Dee was momentarily grateful that he had not used the full force of