“Yes, we’re in Kings County. My goodness!” Priya said, when she saw Ono. “Who is this?”

“Ono, Priya. Priya, Ono,” said Jaime.

“Kings,” said Ono.

“Is that all he says?”

“Oh no,” said Ono.

“That’s the other thing he says.”

“Ah, simple but cute, your Ono,” said Priya.

Ono made a buzzing sound that could have been annoyance or approval; Jaime couldn’t tell.

They parked the van under a copse of trees some distance from the gate and walked the rest of the way. Outside, the spires seemed taller and spikier and even more vampire-castle-like. If he’d had the time, he would have sketched it, but the Cipherists were too excited to wait. Before they’d left the society, Jaime and the twins planned out their reconnaissance. Jaime had looked up the location of Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s grave, but the Cipherists were focused mostly on the larger structures, mausoleums and the like all around the graveyard. He and Tess and Theo figured that they could split up once in the cemetery and find the next clue before the Cipherists were the wiser. It wasn’t a foolproof plan. The Cipherists might have lost their entire minds, too, but they were the farthest things from fools. One or two or maybe even all of them might wonder where the kids had wandered off to. Or why the kids came back with dirt all over them. Or the Cipherists could stumble upon them right in the middle of the dig. But they would have to risk it. And even if they had to reveal their secrets to the Cipherists, Tess said, these people weren’t like Edgar Wellington. They wouldn’t turn on them, no matter what.

Jaime hoped Tess was right.

But Jaime didn’t think any of them had counted on how dark the cemetery would be, how very much like the setting for a scary movie, maybe even more than the ruins at North Brother Island.

When they got to the gate, strange screeching overhead made Jaime and Tess and Theo jump.

“Don’t worry,” whispered Imogen. “It’s just the monk parrots. They live in a nest on the highest spire. See?” She pointed. In the darkness, Jaime could just make out an enormous pile of twigs. Parrots, just parrots, he told himself, but his heart hammered.

“How did the parrots get here?” Tess asked.

Imogen shrugged. “Some people say a shipment of the birds escaped the airport. But nobody really knows. Could be pet owners who freed their birds.”

“Or maybe the birds freed themselves,” said Jaime.

“That too,” said Imogen.

“If we get split up, we meet here at the front gate at three a.m.,” said Gino. “Everyone okay with that?”