James Ponti - City of the Dead

City Spies

City of the Dead

New York Times Bestselling Author

James Ponti

A cinematic and well-crafted start to a new spy series for middle grades.

SLJ, on City Spies

Ponti writes a well-paced story laced with suspense, wit, and entertaining dialogue. Events unfold within colorful Parisian settings that include the Eiffel Tower, the Catacombs, and a deceptively shabby-looking hotel run by British Intelligence.

Booklist, on City Spies

Plotted with an enjoyable amount of suspense, Pontis story features a well-drawn cast of kids from around the world forming a chosen family with sibling-like dynamics. A page-turner suited to even the most reluctant readers.

Publishers Weekly, on City Spies

Like any good spy thriller, this second adventure with MI6s young secret agents begins in the middle of a perilous mission. The thriller is well paced, the characters animated, and the adventure engaging. A winner.

Kirkus Reviews, on Golden Gate

An appealing mixture of espionage, action, and personalities in a contemporary setting.

Booklist, on Forbidden City

A smashing success.

Kirkus Reviews, on Forbidden City

The Dead City trilogy

Dead City

Blue Moon

Dark Days

The Framed! series

Framed!

Vanished!

Trapped!

The City Spies series

City Spies

Golden Gate

Forbidden City

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the authors imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ALADDIN

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Childrens Publishing Division

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First Aladdin hardcover edition February 2023

Text copyright 2023 by James Ponti

Illustrations copyright 2023 by Yaoyao Ma Van As

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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Jacket designed by Tiara Iandiorio

Interior designed by Tiara Iandiorio and Ginny Kemmerer

The illustrations for this book were rendered digitally.

This book has been cataloged with the Library of Congress.

ISBN 9781665911573 (hc)

ISBN 9781665911597 (ebook)

FOR KRISTIN,

AKA MANHATTAN,

WHO MAKES THE WRITING AND THE WRITING PROCESS SO MUCH BETTER

VALLEY OF THE KINGS, NEAR LUXOR, EGYPT

NOVEMBER 4, 1922

THE TWELVE-YEAR-OLD BOY SLOWLY RODE a donkey into the desolate Egyptian landscape known as the Valley of the Kings. He had bare feet and wore a white headscarf and a tattered linen tunic called a jellabiya. His name was Hussein, but to the workers toiling in the desert sun, he was simply al sakka, or water boy.

Twice a day, he filled two large clay jars with water from a well, loaded them into a harness strapped across the donkeys back, and took them to the excavation site where crews were searching for the elusive tomb of a pharaoh named Tutankhamen. King Tuts final resting place had sat hidden and undisturbed for more than three thousand years, so long that most experts believed it was only a legend.

The heat was already stifling when Hussein reached the site at just past ten. Because the jars had rounded bottoms, he had to scoop out some sand for them to stand upright, and as he did, he felt a smooth stone just beneath the surface. He dug to reveal a step leading down into the ground.

Fittingly, the tomb of Egypts boy king had been discovered by an Egyptian boy.

Hussein excitedly rushed to tell Howard Carter, the British archaeologist in charge of the excavation. Workers began clearing the area, and by the end of the next day, theyd uncovered a stairwell carved directly into the bedrock. At the bottom, a doorway had been plastered shut and marked with the hieroglyphic seal of the jackal Anubis above nine captives. Carter beamed, his eyes open wide with amazement as he ran his fingers across it.

It was the symbol of the royal necropolisEgypts ancient City of the Dead.

LONDON, ENGLANDPRESENT DAY

ON A SLATE GRAY NOVEMBER day, one hundred years after the discovery of Tutankhamens tomb, a group of five young people converged in a part of London known as Bloomsbury. Like Howard Carter, they were looking to recover treasures of Egyptian antiquity. Except they werent going to dig a tunnel in the desert. They were going to sneak through one in an abandoned section of the London Underground. And the artifacts they sought werent concealed in some long-forgotten tomb. They were on display at one of the busiest museums in the world.

This was no excavation. It was a heist.

Testing comms, one, two, three, Kat said into the microphone hidden in the red remembrance poppy pinned to her lapel. Can everybody hear me?

Loud and clear, said Paris.

Perfectly, answered Rio.

All good on my end, Brooklyn replied.

There was a pause as they waited for a final voice to check in.

Sydney, are you not responding because you cant hear me? Kat asked. Or is it because youre still pouting?

After a moment, Sydney replied, Im sorry. I was under the impression nobody cared what I had to say.

So, pouting, Paris commented.

Im not pouting, Sydney said defensively. Im just disappointed. All I asked was that we slide the break-in a couple hours so we could see the fireworks at Battersea Park. You know how much I love Bonfire Night. Its going to be huge and everyones going to be there.

Which is exactly why were going to be here, Kat said. The police will be spread thin, and there are no celebrations scheduled for Bloomsbury. That means theyll be elsewhere, which dramatically improves the probability of us not getting caught.

Kat was the alpha on this mission, which meant she had to come up with the plan to break into the British Museum. Shed studied dozens of famous robberies and noticed that many took place on holidays or during special events, when police and security altered their normal patterns and were understaffed. She picked this date because of its connection to one of the most infamous figures in British history.

On November 5, 1605, a soldier-turned-radical named Guy Fawkes was captured before he could execute his plan to use thirty-six barrels of gunpowder to blow up Parliament. Ever since, Britons had marked the occasion with raucous public displays that included bonfires, burning effigies, and fireworks.