Free The Empress's Tomb by Kirsten Miller

worried, squirrels were attacking innocent park-goers, and someone was inside the Shadow City. But worst of all, the map was in Luz’s hands—and out of my control.
    The next morning, I practically sleepwalked to school. By the start of first period, I had already left my geometry book on the subway, injured my pelvis by walking into a parking meter, and forgotten to turn off my cell phone. Just as I began to drift off in the middle of Mr. Dedly’s lecture on Dutch wall construction, it began playing the theme from
Jaws.
Cell phones were forbidden at the Atalanta School, and I would have rather been caught with a dead body in my locker than a ringing phone in my hand. I winced as every head in the classroom turned toward the purse that was hanging from my chair.
    â€œOut, Ananka,” Mr. Dedly bellowed. “Deliver your musical handbag to the principal’s office immediately.”
    A girl named Petra Dubois had the nerve to snicker as I stood up.
    â€œWonder if Principal Wickham would like to know who wrote your last essay?” I whispered as I passed by her desk, winking when she gasped. Gossip may be petty, but it certainly has its advantages.
    â€œOUT!” Mr. Dedly shouted.
    Once I was in the hallway, I quickly ducked into a bathroom and answered the phone.
    â€œThis better be somebody’s one and only call from jail,” I growled.
    â€œIt’s worse,” said the voice on the other side. “Did I get you in trouble?”
    â€œLet’s just say I may be looking at a very bleak future. What do you want, Betty?”
    â€œI just heard from Kiki. Luz got mugged on the way to school this morning.” There was a brief pause. “By the squirrels.”
    The idea that Luz Lopez had been the victim of a robbery, particularly one perpetrated by wildlife, was staggering. Her surly disposition usually succeeded in keeping most people and animals at a distance.
    â€œWhere?” I asked. “Is she hurt?”
    â€œShe’s a little scratched up, but she’ll survive. She said she was cutting across Morningside Park when three huge squirrels jumped her. A jogger pulled them off, but by that time her backpack was gone.”
    â€œThe squirrels have moved uptown? How much money did they get?” I asked.
    â€œThere wasn’t any money, Ananka.” Betty was trying to break the news gently.
    â€œNo,” I moaned.
    â€œYeah. They got the motion detectors. And the map.”
    My worst fears had come true. “What’s Kiki say?”
    â€œShe wants us all to meet at her house after school. We’re going to Morningside Park to get the map back.”
    â€œAre you kidding?” I asked. “There’s no way the squirrels will still be there.”
    â€œKiki said you’d say that. She told me to give you a message.”
    â€œWhat is it?”
    â€œShe wants to know if you have a better idea.”
    â€œI’ll try to think one up on my way to reform school,” I huffed and hung up.
    â€¢Â Â Â Â Â â€¢Â Â Â Â Â â€¢
    The walk to Principal Wickham’s office was known
as the plank
(as in “Jordan was forced to walk the plank yesterday, and nobody’s seen her since”). Her door sat at the end of a gloomy hall in a part of the school that most people avoided. It was a well-known fact that, back in the days when the building was a home for wayward children, the office had belonged to a doctor who enjoyed practicing his surgical techniques on hapless delinquents. While I’d always felt a certain fondness for Principal Wickham, there were plenty of Atalanta girls who swore she could be equally cruel.
    I knocked at the door before opening it a crack. Principal Wickham was paging through a stack of files, and she looked tiny and old behind her enormous oak desk.Judging by the stories floating around, one might have expected to find the heads of naughty students mounted like hunting