The Emerald Key - By Christopher Dinsdale Page 0,50
its web. In only a few minutes, Jamie had disappeared from sight. All alone, she jumped in fright when a coil of rope suddenly thumped onto the ground next to her. She quickly tied the bag to the end of the rope, then gave the rope a tug. The bag jumped off the ground and raced skyward. It was only another minute before the rope fell to the ground a second time. She spied the loop that Jamie had put into the rope. Taking a deep breath, she put her boot into the loop, gave the rope another tug, and held on. The rope tightened and, before she knew it, she was rising off the ground.
She tried not to look down as the building slid past her body. Above, she watched the rope running past a thick stone protrusion that jutted out from the top of the wall. Her fingers were just about to get crushed by the edge of the stone overhang when she desperately made a grab with one hand over the stone lip. Thankfully, she was able to grab on to the rope once again before she lost her balance. As Beth continued to rise, she bent her body around the stone lip then threw her free leg up over the edge of the roof, allowing her body to roll onto its flat surface.
Jamie grabbed Beth by the shoulders. Concerned, he looked down at her still body, her eyes tightly closed.
“Are you hurt?”
“Please tell me going down is a lot easier than going up.”
He laughed. “Much easier. Come on. We don’t want to be up here any longer than we have to be.”
Beth managed to get to her feet. As she stood up, she caught her breath at the sight of Montreal from up high. The entire town twinkled magically as if lit up by the light of a million tiny fireflies.
“Oh, Jamie. Montreal is beautiful! I didn’t know things looked so different way up here.”
“It is impressive,” he said, glancing over the edge. “Now don’t forget the rope.”
The roof was unimaginably huge. They jogged perhaps a city block, or what Jamie guessed to be a third of the roof’s entire length, before they came to a metal hatchway. Jamie lowered the bag and waited for Beth to catch up.
“So what are we doing here?” asked Beth, dropping the rope.
“I don’t have time to wait for Canada to sort out all of their rebellion issues before I retrieve my book. Plus, I don’t have the paperwork to prove the book is mine. So this is the quickest way I know to solve the problem.”
Beth watched Jamie put a crowbar to the hatch. “You mean we’re going to steal it?”
He glanced up, smiling. “Well, it’s not really stealing if you already own it. I’m a priest you know. That would be breaking one of the Ten Commandments.”
“But we’re breaking into the parliament building! Surely that’s in the commandments somewhere!”
“I’m doing this for the greater good.”
She put her hands on her hips. “You are the strangest priest I have ever met.”
“Can you lend me some of your muscle, Beth?” Jamie grunted. “This hatch is tougher than it looks.”
Reluctantly, Beth grabbed on to the crowbar with Jamie and pulled. Suddenly, the hatch sprang open with a metallic snap as they tumbled backwards onto the roof’s cold black tar. Lying together on their backs, trying to catch their breath, she glanced at him.
“We could go to jail for this.”
“You’re too young to go to jail, and I’ll tell them I forced you to help me. I’ll tell them that I wouldn’t give you back the peppermint stick I took from you until you helped me break into the most important building in all of Canada.”
She giggled. “With a story like that, I’m sure the judge will be very understanding.”
Jamie jumped to his feet and helped her up. They peered down into the gaping hole in the roof. It was dark inside the vacant building, but Jamie and Beth could make out stacks and stacks of books.
“The library,” Beth whispered.
“Hats off to Mr. Kessler. His drawing was right on the money. Hmm. Unfortunately, I don’t see a ladder up here that we could lower down to the floor. It looks like I’m going to need your help again.”
He quickly took the specially rigged poles he had brought with him and arranged them into a pyramid above the hatch. He then took two pulleys out of the bag, hooked one up to the