Uncle Press then said, "Let's go find the Lost City of Faar."

Boom!Like an exclamation point on his sentence, a water missile ripped through the door to the corridor. The raiders were coming after us. But Spader was with the program now. He knew what we had to do.

"C'mon!" he yelled, and bolted down the stairs. We all flew down, taking three stairs at a time. I thought I was going to take a tumble and break my neck, which would have been a really stupid thing to do at this point. But speed was everything now, so I kept going.

We blasted out a side door to the apartment building and went on a dead run for the ca.n.a.l and the skimmers. As we rounded the building, I saw that Yenza and the two aquaneers were backing out of the front door, still firing their water guns at the raiders. I really hoped there were no innocent bystanders in the way.

"Yenza!" yelled Uncle Press.

The chief aquaneer looked up and saw that we were out of the building. She immediately gave a command to the other aquaneers. They gave up on the fight and joined the sprint for the skimmers. As we ran across the gra.s.s toward the ca.n.a.l, small water bombs kicked up the dirt at our feet. I didn't have to turn around to know the raiders were now out of the building and after us. I could only hope that we were far enough away that their guns wouldn't be accurate enough to do any damage.

We all hit the ca.n.a.l at about the same time and jumped on the skimmers to make our escape. n.o.body had to say a word. Uncle Press and I were on one, Spader and Yenza on another, the two aquaneers on a third.

The skimmers all whined to life. We were seconds away from blasting off. Then Spader turned around and actually gave me a smile.

"Last one back to the speeder buys the sn.i.g.g.e.rs." For a second, the old Spader had returned. He gunned the engine and took off. Uncle Press gunned ours, too, and the aquaneers were right behind. With the water around boiling from the incoming rain of water missiles, all three skimmers blasted off and away from the raiders.

The dash back to the dock was hairy, but not because of the raiders. As I wrote before, the ca.n.a.ls were busy. But this time n.o.body cared. With Spader in the lead, we all flew over the water, dodging other skimmers like gates in a ski race. I wondered if there was a Panger City highway patrol that would pull us over for reckless skimming. Luckily, there weren't any accidents, though we had a ton of close calls.

It wasn't until we made it back to the ca.n.a.l near the docks that we could all finally take a breath. Or at least a half breath because this race was only just beginning. We tied up the skimmers and headed for the dock.

"How did you know to follow us?" Uncle Press asked Yenza as we ran.

"It was Na.s.si," she answered. "I never trusted that woman. As soon as you left to follow Spader, she went after you."

"You saved our lives, Yenza," he said. "Thank you."

Yenza then stopped on the side of the busy street and faced the three of us. The aquaneers stood behind her, ready for anything. Yenza was used to calling all the shots and I didn't think she liked being out of the loop, especially when it meant having to battle raiders. "You were talking to Zy Roder like you knew him. What is going on?"

The three of us exchanged looks. How could we possibly explain any of this to her? It was Uncle Press who took a shot at it.

"Po Na.s.si was working with Zy Roder," he explained.

Technically, Po Na.s.siwasZy Roder, but Uncle Press made the wise decision not to go down that road. Good thinking.

"She knew exactly what she was doing," he continued.

"She knew the fertilizer was poison. Spader's father was working with me to investigate this horrora until he died."

"Po Na.s.si was deliberately trying to poison Cloral?" she asked in shock. "Why?"

"That's tougher to answer, but it's true. We've got to leave Panger City right away. Where is Manoo?"

"I'm right here!"

The little elf-man hurried to us from the building that led to the docks. He looked all sorts of angry and upset.

"Where have you been?" he demanded.

"Did you get to the Agronomy Society?" Yenza asked, ignoring his question.

"Yes," Manoo answered nervously. "But it's too late!"

"What do you mean?" Yenza demanded.

"The fertilizer," whined Manoo. "It's been sent all over Cloral. Almost every underwater farm is using it right now. Our entire food supply is going to be poisoned! It's a total disaster!"

How'sthatfor a horrifying news item? Saint Dane's plan had kicked into high gear and Manoo was out of his mind with worry.

Welcome to the party, Manoo and I've been out of my mind for a while now.

"Get back to the Agronomy Society," Uncle Press ordered Manoo. "Make sure they track down and stop every shipment. Can you do that?"

"I suppose," answered Manoo. "But who are you to tell me - "Just do it, Manoo!" barked Yenza.

She called to the two aquaneers, "Make sure this man gets back to the Agronomy Society safely."

The aquaneers both offered a crisp salute and stood ready to go with Manoo. Yenza took Manoo by both arms in a warm gesture of trust and friendship.

"Do what you can, Manoo. Hobey-ho."

Manoo stood up straight as if the entire fate of Cloral were now resting on his shoulders. He was now on a mission, and he took it seriously.

"Let's go!" he shouted to the aquaneers, and the three took off.

Yenza then turned back to Uncle Press and said, "And why must we leave Panger City?"

Uncle Press looked to me and held out his hand. I knew exactly what he wanted and handed him the two pieces of map.

"Ever hear of the Lost City of Faar?"

In minutes we were back on the speeder boat, blasting away from Panger City, bound for, well, the plan was to head for the Lost City of Faar, but at the time it seemed like we were chasing a fairy tale.

When we put the two pieces of the map together, this is what we saw: The horizontal solid line that was a third of the way up from the bottom on the left half of the map continued on to the right half of the map all the way to the far side. The curved line that began at the lower left corner formed a complete semicircle with another curved line on the other half. It was now a wide, upside-down smile beneath the horizontal line. The spray of dots that was above the horizontal line on the left half of the map was also on the right half. Finally, the series of numbers from the left half continued on to the right.

We had no idea what the horizontal line or the semicircle beneath it or all the dots meant, but Spader and Yenza knew what the numbers meant. They were map coordinates that marked a very specific point in the ocean. We now had a location, but it was a long way off from Panger City. Their best guess was that it would take us all night to get there, even with the speeder boat throttled up to the maximum. Spader set the course and locked it into the speeder's automatic pilot to make sure we wouldn't stray. When traveling that long of a distance, even a minor error could have sent us way off course. Unless something bizarro happened, by morning we would be at the exact spot where the map said we would find the Lost City of Faar.

I was excited, but also pretty doubtful. The idea of finding a lost, sunken city seemed pretty far-fetched. But as Loor said, after all we'd seen, nothing was impossible.

I also hoped that Saint Dane had a lousy memory. He had only looked at the map for a few seconds before Yenza and the aquaneers came in with their water-guns blazing. Hopefully he'd forget a number in the coordinates, or switch two, or mess up something else that would send him in the wrong direction. That's what I hoped for, but I didn't think for a second that it would happen. I knew that Saint Dane now had the same information we did. The real question was how quickly he could catch up. It was going to be a race, but a race to what?

It was a beautiful night and the water was so calm that the stars were reflected in the water in front of us. I was standing on the bow looking out on this awesome sight, when I sensed that someone was behind me.

It was Spader.

"Tell me about where you come from," he asked.

"That's a lot of ground to cover," I answered.

"It's called Second Earth. Don't ask me if there's a First Earth or a Third Earth because I don't know. I live in a town called Stony Brook. We have big cities and farms and small towns just like Cloral, the only difference is they don't float on the water. I think something like four-fifths of the planet is covered with water; the rest is dry land."

"So how do you get around if you can't use skimmers and speeders?" he asked.

"Well, we have carsa vehicles that can go long distances on land, and big trains that travel on rails. And, oh yeaha we can fly."

"What?" he asked in shock. "You can fly?"

I laughed. "Sort of. We have vehicles that fly. Some are small and hold only two people, others are big enough to carry four hundred."

"Hobey, that's magic!" Spader said in awe.

I guess to someone from another territory that didn't have airplanes, the power of flight was pretty amazing. It was almost as amazing as being able to breathe underwater with plastic globes that molded to your head. Every territory was unique in its own way and believe it or not, I was beginning to like the idea that I was going to see more of them.

"And you have a family?" he asked me.

"Yeah. Mom, Dad, and a little sister named Shannon."

We both fell silent for a while. We knew what we were both thinking. What had happened to our families?

"You know something, Pendragon?"

"What?"

"I believe Press," he said with confidence. "We're going to see them again. But not before some amazing adventures come our way."

I had to smile. Maybe he was beginning to accept our fate.

For the rest of the night Spader and Yenza took turns at the controls and keeping watch. We all tried to get some sleep, but it wasn't easy. We went below to the cabin, where there were some bunks. As excited as I was, I really needed some sleep, and konked out as soon as my head hit the pillow. I planned to sack out for only an hour or two, but as it turns out I slept through the entire night!

What finally woke me up was the sound of the engines slowing. I immediately sat up in the hammock, banged my head on a beam of course, swore to myself, then headed topside.

Uncle Press, Spader, and Yenza were already standing on deck. We must have made some pretty good time because the sun hadn't come up yet. It was still pitch dark and the stars still shone off the water. It was very quiet, especially now that the engines were killed and we weren't moving. I did a complete three-sixty and saw nothing but water.

"Are we here?" I asked.

"Right on the spot," answered Spader.

"It's strange," Yenza said. "According to the charts we're over a huge trench, one of the deepest on Cloral. But my instruments show it to be fairly shallow. I don't understand."

"Could we be in the wrong spot?" I asked.

Spader answered the question. "Not a chance."

I walked up to the bow of the speeder and looked out onto the water. It was so calm that it was tricky to find where the horizon stopped and the water began. Especially since the stars reflected off the water.

The stars. The stars reflected off the water. That's when it hit me.

I ran to the others and shouted, "Give me the map!"

Spader had it. He had glued it together using some kind of, well, glue. I held it up toward the horizon. Then I slowly turned, still holding the map out in front of me until everything lined up and - "That's it!" I exclaimed.

"What's it?" asked Uncle Press.

"Look," I said, pointing to the map. "The horizontal line represents the horizon. And all these dots above it are - "

"Stars!" shouted Spader. "Hobey-ho, look!"

It was incredible. The dots on the map lined up perfectly with the constellations in the night sky. There was no mistaking it. We were in the right spot.

"Good thing we got here at night," Uncle Press added.

"So then what's this big half circle below the line?" I asked.

I think it hit all four of us at the same time because we all looked at one another cautiously. We knew exactly what that semicircle was supposed to be. If the straight line was the horizon, then anything below it was water. And there was only one thing that was supposed to be below the water in these parts.

"Could it be?" Spader asked in awe.

"I've heard about Faar since I was a girl," said Yenza with reverence. "It's supposed to be the most wonderful place that ever was. It's where Cloral was born. To think that it could be reala" She couldn't finish the sentence. The idea was too incredible to her.

"One way or another, we're going to find out," said Uncle Press.

I could tell from his tone of voice that he wanted to treat this as any other expedition. He probably wanted Spader and Yenza to get rid of any childhood fantasies and fears that might get in the way of our solving this mystery.

"Let's all eat something," he said. "Then get ready to dive. As soon as it's light enough to see, we'll have a look at what's down there."

There was a stock of dried fruits and vegetables on board. The thought crossed my mind that these might be poisoned like the rest of the food on Cloral. But since they were dried, they had probably been here for a long time and were safe. So we all sat on deck and ate breakfast. To be honest, it was disgusting. That stuff tasted like shoes. Not that I've ever eaten shoes before, but if I had, I'm sure they would taste like this. But we had to eat something so I pretended like they were Pop-Tarts. Shoe-flavor Pop-Tarts.

Gradually, the sky grew brighter and then the sun began to peek up on the horizon. Soon we were bathed in its warmth and light.

It was time to start our mission. Since this was an aquaneer speeder boat, it was well equipped. There were air globes and spearguns and water sleds. It was decided that Yenza would stay on board while the three of us went sunken city hunting. So Uncle Press, Spader, and I got geared up. We each popped on an air globe and strapped on spearguns.

I didn't have my watch, but I was pretty sure we were past the twenty minutes that you're supposed to wait to go swimming after you eat. I had to laugh to myself. Here I was about to search for a mythological underwater lost city on the other side of the universe, and all I could think about was some old wives' tale my mother told me about getting cramps at a picnic. It was times like this that I really missed her.

"If we see something, we'll surface and let you know," Uncle Press said to Yenza. "But understand one thing. Zy Roder has the same information we do and I guarantee he'll be headed this way. Whatever you do, do not take him on yourself, understand?"

"You're talking to a chief aquaneer, Press," said Yenza with a little bit of an att.i.tude. "I can handle things."

Uncle Press smiled in apology. "Sorry, my bad. Just be careful. Please."

"I'll say the same to you," she said with a little smile.

I was beginning to think that Yenza was developing a "thing" for Uncle Press. Bad idea for her. He wasn't the kind of guy you'd want to start a relationship with. He was on the road a little too much.

"Spader, take the lead," Uncle Press said. "We'll follow on either side of you." He then smiled and said, "Look for a really big city."

"Hobey-ho," said Spader with a laugh.

"Hobey-ho," I echoed.