Can't think of a title

“That’s not true!” Sadie snapped, her voice trembling with rage.

“Dear, please,” Gran told me, “the inspector is only doing his job.”

“Badly!” she said.

“Let’s all have some tea,” Gran suggested.

“No!” Carter and Sadie yelled at once, which made me feel bad for Gran, as she practically wilted into the sofa.

“We can charge you,” the inspector warned, turning on me. “We can and we will—”

He froze. Then he blinked several times, as if he’d forgotten what he was doing.

Gramps frowned. “Er, Inspector?”

“Yes...” Chief Inspector Williams murmured dreamily. He reached in his pocket and took out a little blue booklet—an American passport. He threw it in Carter’s lap.

“You’re being deported,” the inspector announced. “You’re to leave the country within twenty-four hours. If we need to question you further, you’ll be contacted through the FBI.”

Carter’s mouth fell open. He looked at me, and Sadie knew she wasn’t imagining how odd this was. The inspector had completely changed direction. He’d been about to arrest us. She was sure of it. And then out of the blue, he was deporting Carter? Even the other police officers looked confused.

“Sir?” the policewoman asked. “Are you sure—”

“Quiet, Linley. The two of you may go.”

The cops hesitated until Williams made a shooing motion with his hand. Then they left, closing the door behind them.

“Hold on,” Carter said. “My father’s disappeared, and you want me to leave the country?”

“Your father is either dead or a fugitive, son,” the inspector said. “Deportation is the kindest option. It’s already been arranged.”

“With whom?” Gramps demanded. “Who authorized this?”

“With...” The inspector got that funny blank look again. “With the proper authorities. Believe me, it’s better than prison.”

Carter looked too devastated to speak, but before Sadie could feel sorry for him, Inspector Williams turned to me. “You, too, miss.”

He might as well have hit me with a sledgehammer.

“You’re deporting me?” she asked. “I live here!”

“You’re an American citizen. And under the circumstances, it’s best for you to return home.”

She just stared at him. She couldn’t remember any home except this flat. Her mates at school, her room, everything she knew was here. “Where am I supposed to go?”

“Inspector,” Gran said, her voice trembling. “This isn’t fair. I can’t believe—”

“I’ll give you some time to say good-bye,” the inspector interrupted. Then he frowned as if baffled by his own actions. “I—I must be going.”

This made no sense, and the inspector seemed to realize it, but he walked to the front door anyway. When he opened it, Sadie almost jumped out of her chair, because the man in black, Amos, was standing there. He’d lost his trench coat and hat somewhere, but was still wearing the same pinstripe suit and round glasses. His braided hair glittered with gold beads.

I thought the inspector would say something, or express surprise, but he didn’t even acknowledge Amos. He walked right past him and into the night.

Amos came inside and closed the door. Gran and Gramps stood up.

“You,” Gramps growled. “I should’ve known. If I was younger, I would beat you to a pulp.”

“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Faust,” Amos said. He looked at Carter and Sadie as if we were problems to be solved. “It’s time we had a talk.”

Amos made himself right at home. He flopped onto the sofa and poured himself tea. He munched on a biscuit, which was quite dangerous, because Gran’s biscuits are horrid.

I thought Gramps’s head would explode. His face went bright red. He came up behind Amos and raised his hand as if he were about to smack him, but Amos kept munching his biscuit.

“Please, sit down,” he told us.

And we all sat. It was the strangest thing—as if we’d been waiting for his order. Even Gramps dropped his hand and moved round the sofa. He sat next to Amos with a disgusted sigh.

Amos sipped his tea and regarded Sadie with some displeasure. That wasn’t fair, she didn’t look that bad, considering what we’d been through. Then he looked at Carter and grunted.

“Terrible timing,” he muttered. “But there’s no other way. They’ll have to come with me.”

“Excuse me?” Sadie said. “I’m not going anywhere with some strange man with biscuit on his face!”

“He is no stranger, Sadie,” I said. “Don’t you remember?”

I looked at Carter, but he seemed just as mystified as Sadie was.

“No, Amos,” Gran said, trembling. “You can’t take Sadie. We had an agreement.”

“Julius broke that agreement tonight,” Amos said. “You know you can’t care for Sadie anymore—not after what’s happened. Their only chance is to come with me.”

“Why should we go anywhere with you?” Carter asked. “You almost got in a fight with Dad!”

"It's the only way for you two to survive." I said

Amos looked at the workbag in Carter’s lap. “I see you kept your father’s bag. That’s good. You’ll need it. As for getting into fights, Julius and I did that quite a lot. If you didn’t notice, Carter, I was trying to stop him from doing something rash. If he’d listened to me, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

Sadie had no idea what he was on about, but Gramps apparently understood.

“You and your superstitions!” he said. “I told you we want none of it.”

I pointed to the back patio. Through the glass doors, you could see the lights shining on the Thames. It was quite a nice view at night, when you couldn’t notice how run-down some of the buildings were.

“Superstition, is it?” Amos asked. “And yet you found a place to live on the east bank of the river.”

Gramps turned even redder. “That was Ruby’s idea. Thought it would protect us. But she was wrong about many things, wasn’t she? She trusted Julius and you, for one!”

Amos looked unfazed. He smelled interesting—like old-timey spices, copal and amber, like the incense shops in Covent Garden.

He finished his tea and looked straight at Gran. “Mrs. Faust, you know what’s begun. The police are the least of your worries.”

Gran swallowed. “You...you changed that inspector’s mind. You made him deport Sadie.”

“It was that or see the children arrested,” Amos said.

“Hang on,” Saide said. “You changed Inspector Williams’s mind? How?”

I shrugged. “It’s not permanent. In fact we should get to New York in the next hour or so before Inspector Williams begins to wonder why he let you go.”

Carter laughed incredulously. “You can’t get to New York from London in a hour. Not even the fastest plane—”

“No,” Amos agreed. “Not a plane.” He turned back to Gran as if everything had been settled. “Mrs. Faust, Carter and Sadie have only one safe option. You know that. They’ll come to the mansion in Brooklyn. We can protect them there.”

“You’ve got a mansion,” Carter said. “In Brooklyn.”

Amos gave him an amused smile. “The family mansion. You’ll be safe there.”

“But our dad—”

“Is beyond your help for now,” Amos said sadly. “I’m sorry, Carter. I’ll explain later, but Julius would want you to be safe. For that, we must move quickly. I’m afraid I’m all you’ve got.”

That was a bit harsh, I thought. Carter glanced at Gran and Gramps. Then he nodded glumly. He knew that they didn’t want him around. He’d always reminded them of our dad. And yes, it was a stupid reason not to take in your grandson, but there you are.

“Well, Carter can do what he wants,” Sadie said. “But I live here. And I’m not going off with some stranger, am I?”

She looked at Gran for support, but she was staring at the lace doilies on the table as if they were suddenly quite interesting.

“Gramps, surely...”

But he wouldn’t meet her eyes either. He turned to Amos. “You can get them out of the country?”

“Hang on!” Sadie protested.

I stood and walked to the patio doors and stared out at the river. “The police will be back soon. Tell them anything you like. They won’t find us.”

“You’re going to kidnap us?” Sadie asked, stunned. She looked at Carter. “Do you believe this?”

Carter shouldered the workbag. Then he stood like he was ready to go. Possibly he just wanted to be out of Gran and Gramps’s flat. “How do you plan to get to New York in an hour?” he asked me. “You said, not a plane.”

“No,” I agreed. He put his finger to the window and traced something in the condensation—another bloody hieroglyph.

“A boat,” she said—then realized she’d translated aloud, which she wasn’t supposed to be able to do.

I peered at her. “How did you—”

“I mean that last bit looks like a boat,” she blurted out. “But that can’t be what you mean. That’s ridiculous.”

“Look!” Carter cried.

She pressed in next to him at the patio doors. Down at the quayside, a boat was docked. But not a regular boat, mind you. It was an Egyptian reed boat, with two torches burning in the front, and a big rudder in the back. A figure in a black trench coat and hat—possibly Amos’s—stood at the tiller.

“We’re going in that,” Carter said. “To Brooklyn.”

“We’d better get started,” I said.

Sadie whirled back to our grandmother. “Gran, please!”

She brushed a tear from her cheek. “It’s for the best, my dear. You should take Muffin.”

“Ah, yes,” Amos said. “We can’t forget the cat.”

He turned towards the stairs. As if on cue, Muffin raced down in a leopard-spotted streak and leaped into my arms. She never does that.

“Who are you?” she asked me and Amos. It was clear she was running out of options “We can’t just go off with some strangers.”

“We're not strangers.” I smiled at hey. “We're family.”