The Everything Book (the sequel to "Next Stop: Eternity")

In the light of the flashlight that Shiga held, the sign on the back door of the Library of Congress said that it was closed for the night. We were dressed in coats, shivering.

Behind us, 2^nd Street S.E. was eerily empty except for the occasional car or truck driving past. The huge bulk of the library above and ahead of us felt like a small granite or marble mountain to me. I could only hope that there weren't any surveillance cameras watching us.

I looked around us then down at what Shiga.

He was crouched sideways until he was eye-level with the doorknob. He was sliding an old credit card up and down in the crack between the door and the door frame. His eyes were half-closed as if he was listening for something.

I rolled my eyes. “I thought that that only worked in movies and on TV shows.”

“It isn't a Swiss Army knife, Pan, but sometimes it does the trick,” he said.

“And if it doesn't?” I asked.

“Then we go back to Boss and say that we need to do this during normal hours,” he replied. Then he smiled as the door unlocked and opened slightly. Standing up, he smiled at me. “Oh, ye of little faith.”

“What about the security system's alarms?” I asked.

“Do you hear anything?” Shiga replied.

I shook my head.

“Then I wouldn't worry,” he said. “Besides, if anyone asks, we can tell them that we're here on official Smithsonian Institution business.”

“In the middle of the night and acting like burglars,” I said. “That doesn't sound like something the Smithsonian would normally condone.”

“Unusual circumstances require unusual methods,” Shiga said.

“I just hope we don't get caught and arrested,” I said. “I'm not sure that Boss would bail us out.”

“Then be vewwy vewwy quiet,” he said, sounding like Elmer Fudd. “We're hunting books.” He chuckled.

I sighed. “Are you ever serious about your work?”

“Always,” he said, opened the door further. “Ladies first?”

Once we were inside, I asked Shiga, “How did you disable the alarms?”

He took a palm-sized blue box out of a jacket pocket. “I adapted it from a phone-hacking box.”

“Isn't it illegal?” I asked.

“Only if someone catches me with it on my person,” he said. “It'll keep the alarms from activating for about twenty or thirty minutes.” He took out the map that Boss had given us. “The book is upstairs. In the rare books room.”

“Not much of a hiding place,” I said. “Why hasn't someone found it before?”

“Maybe they did and it didn't want to be removed from the library,” Shiga suggested.

“Books don't think like we do, Shiga,” I said.

“Most books don't, Pan,” he agreed, “but this one is special. Very special. Remember what Boss told us about it?”

I nodded.

---------

Our suite on the upper floor of the Smithsonian Castle was one of the smallest. If it was only cramped, it would be an improvement. Shiga's desk and mine were pushed up against each other, front to front. Boss barely had more room in his office than we did.

We watched as he came over to us. He looked like we'd just given him an article for the National Inquirer. “Just read your report about the train graveyard. That was quite some trip.”

“That's putting it mildly,” I said and Shiga nodded agreement.

“Not sure what I expected to happen, but this exceeded even my wildest expectations,” Boss said.

“We were even given the chance to stay on the ghost train after it returned to the train graveyard,” Shiga said

.

Boss looked curiously at us. “Why didn't you? I mean, I'm glad you didn't, but –”

“Because we had to report back to you first,” I replied. “And, besides, I wasn't ready yet. Maybe in several decades when I'm old and gray-haired. But not now.”

“Same here,” Shiga said.

Boss looked thoughtful and bobbed his head a few times. “Can't fault you for a lack of attention to duty. Still, you wouldn't believe the looks I get when I submit your reports to the higher-ups. They even want to start calling you Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. I nixed that idea, though.”

“Why?” Shiga asked with a grin. “You aren't planning to send us to Area 51, are you?”

“Not yet,” Boss said. “For now, I have an assignment that won't require much travel at all. In fact, you'll stay right here in Washington DC. You're going to the Library of Congress.”

I tried not to stare. “You want us to look up some books?”

“Not just any book,” Boss said. “One book in particular. A very special book. It's called The Everything Book.”

I laughed. “The what?”

“The Everything Book,” Boss repeated. “Ever heard about it, either of you?”

We shook our heads.

“One visitor to the library swears he saw it,” Boss went on. “He was doing some research on something else a week ago and saw it. He tried to remove it from the bookshelf it was on but it wouldn't budge. Like it was stuck there with super glue.” He handed us a map. “He drew a map showing where he found it.”

“Then what good are we, if we can't remove it either?” I asked.

“Maybe it gets fussy about who can remove it and who can't,” Boss suggested.

“Be serious, Boss,” I said.

“I am,” Boss said. “This isn't a joke.”

“If we find it, what then?” Shiga asked. “Especially if it decides it doesn't like us either. Take a photo and email it to you?”

Boss nodded. “Considering the great age of the book, I find it difficult to believe that the visitor saw what they said they saw. Because the last report of it was in the private library of the Medici family in Florence, Italy, about five hundred years ago.”

“And before that?” Shiga asked.

“At a Medieval abbey in southern Germany,” Boss replied. “Where it was transcribed onto sheets of vellum from the papyrus scroll it had originally been written on and then leather-bound.”

“And before that?” Shiga persisted.

“Here and there across Europe and the Middle East, maybe even on Asia for a little while,” Boss said. “It was first listed as part of the collection at the Library of Alexandria before the library was destroyed.”

“That was almost two thousand years ago,” I said.

Boss nodded. “Like I said: a very special book. It supposedly includes everything that's ever happened since the beginning of the world and all human knowledge. It's possible that it even includes some information about the future.”

“I'm surprised that no one else has tried to find it,” Shiga said. “Or did they disappear after they came into contact with it?”

“Maybe,” Boss said. “So. Do you two want the assignment?”

Shiga looked at me. “I'm game. What about you?”

I sighed. “All right. I'm in.”

Boss nodded. “Good.”

“When should we be at the library, then?” I asked. “Tomorrow morning?”

“Tonight,” Boss replied. “After hours.”

“It'll be closed and locked for the night,” I protested. “How are we supposed to get in?”

Shiga smiled. “Leave that up to me. I have something that might help us out.”

“Wait,” I said. “What if we get arrested trying to break in?”

“Call me,” Boss said. “I'll take care of it. Even if it means bailing you out of jail.”

---------

The rare book and special collections room was on the 2^nd floor, on the same side of the library that we entered on. It was like entering a graveyard. Only this time filled with books instead of trains.

The entire building had been very quiet. Too quiet, to be honest. I kept expecting alarms to go off and security guards to yell at us to put our arms up. But there hadn't been any sign of them. Didn't they do any rounds at least once an hour when the library was closed for the night?

We sat down on the floor between two long rows of bookcases, staring at the map Boss had given us.

“We're in the right area,” Shiga said. “But the bookcase the visitor saw the book in doesn't seem to exist. Because if it did, it would be right between these two rows of bookcases. Right where we're sitting.”

“Maybe we're not approaching it from the right direction or angle,” I said.

“Literally or figuratively?” he asked.

“Literally,” I replied.

“Then how, Ms. Houdini, do you hide a bookcase in plain sight?” he asked. “Because if you know how, there are plenty of things I'd love to hide the same way.”

I frowned at him. “Boss said the book was good at defending itself. Maybe not just from being removed from a bookshelf but also from being found in the first place. Maybe that visitor got lucky because they weren't looking for it, but for something else entirely.”

“What do we look for instead, then?” Shiga asked.

“Anything and everything,” I replied.

He made a face. “There are over a million books in the Library of Congress, Pan. There won't be enough time before the library opens tomorrow morning.” He was about to go on, when I put a finger against his lips, shushing him.

He was about to get mad at me when he saw the look on my face and stayed quiet instead.

We weren't so alone here after all. Someone or something was walking around, shining around a flashlight like ours. Maybe the guards' rounds were less frequent after hours. After all, what could they possibly expect to come across in the middle of the night? Two Smithsonian researchers, sitting on the floor, trying to hide from view?

---------

“I can smell it,” a nasally male voice said. “We're close. Very close. Don't give up now.”

“You've been saying that for the last five minutes, Dougie,” a deeper male voice said.

“It's here, Johann, it's here,” Dougie insisted. “And when we find it, we'll have all the power and wealth we could possibly imagine! The Everything Book. We could even quit working for our stupid boss.”

“Sounds tempting,” Johann said. “All right. Find this needle-in-a-haystack and then get us out of here.”

“Don't you like libraries?” Dougie teased.

“No,” Johann snapped. “Anyplace as dead as a library isn't a place I want to be in.”

--------

Shiga gave me a look that all but said, “Now what?”

I gestured that we should stay low and crawl along. Anyone searching at eye level wouldn't be able to see us.

We crawled to the end of the row and looked around. No sign of anyone, but we could hear their footsteps. Sometimes coming closer, sometimes moving away.

There were several tables along the windows on this side of the room. We sneaked over to a nearby table and hid under it as best we could.

From here, we could see the legs and shoes of the two men also looking for The Everything Book. Then we heard them cry in triumph.

“We found it, we found it!” they yelled in unison.

Suddenly the security alarm systems went off, bright lights shining all over, alarms wailing loud enough to wake the dead. The sound of running feet, searching every inch of the room.

I expected them to run, but they didn't. They had their prize and they weren't leaving without it.

“It won't budge any further,” Dougie complained. “Help me, Johann.”

Johann grunted. “It's stuck somehow.”

“Hands up!” a guard ordered. “You're under arrest!”

“Run for it!” Dougie yelled and the two men tried to fly. The guards pursued them across the room until we couldn't hear any of them anymore.

I looked at Shiga. “Do you think it's safe to come out?” I whispered.

He held up a finger and looked out from under the table. “The coast is clear.” He stood up and helped me stand up. “No telling how soon they'll return. Not if that book is nearby.”

“Assuming it doesn't resist us as well,” I said.

“That's a chance we'll have to take,” Shiga said. “But first we have to find it.”

We quickly skimmed up and down the nearest bookcases. Then I spotted a book that was partially pulled out of where it had been shelved. That had to be it. We ran over to it. The title read: The Everything Book.

“I'll try first,” Shiga said and had to give up. “No good. And I don't think either of us is strong enough to haul an entire bookcase on our back.”

“Probably not even if we teamed up,” I said.

I put a hand on the spine of the book and thought: If only you weren't so defensive. If only you knew you could trust Shiga and me. If only I could pull you out and –

The book suddenly slid out easily and almost fell on the floor. I quickly grabbed it. How in the world?

Shiga stared at the book and then at me. “Do you walk on water as an encore?”

“Shut up,” I said, “and help us get out of here. ASAP.”

“The library staff will notice a missing book,” he pointed out.

“Maybe they won't check the title on the spine,” I said, grabbing a book from one of the tables and placing it where The Everything Book had been.

“It's not the same color,” Shiga said.

I sighed. “It's the right size. Maybe they'll overlook the difference in color. Get us out of here, I said. Now!”

We fled back the way we'd come. The guards were distracted by the two men they'd apprehended and handcuffed. One of the two men saw us, but before they could alert the guards, we were down a stairway and out of sight. With any luck, the guards wouldn't come after us next.

Down on the ground floor, we reached the doorway we'd first entered through. It was locked.

“Oh, you've got to be kidding,” I said. “We got what we came for and now we can't leave?”

“I'm not sure I can get us out how we got in,” Shiga said.

I sighed and looked down at the book. An idea occurred to me. “It's supposed to have everything in it, right?”

Shiga nodded in agreement.

“Then this should be in it as well,” I went on.

“But do we have time to track down the information we need?” he asked.

I opened the book and, as if I were doing it, the pages flipped past in a blur. They suddenly stopped on one page. The highlighted text said: Try the 1^st Street, S.E. exit.

“That's all?” I asked. “A lot of help you are.”

The line under it said: Alarms are off, lights are off. I'd start running if I were you. You've got about two minutes. Move it.

We ran down the not-exactly-straight central hallway, through a small hall with four support columns near its center, then across a corridor perpendicular to us, and then through two chambers that reminded me of foyers. There, ahead of us, was the exit we needed. Just one guard in sight.

Then the guard seemed to hear something and headed up the nearest set of stairs to the upper floors. Maybe they'd been asked to assist the guards on the 2^nd floor?

The third line of text said: Exit door unlocking and opening in … fifteen seconds.

No need to keep the book open any longer. I shut it.

We pushed against the door, not daring to hope that the book hadn't lied to us. The door opened and we fled outside. It felt cool and less claustrophobic.

From where we stood, we could see a police paddy wagon waiting outside the library. The two men were being walked to it. They ducked their heads as they stepped inside the paddy wagon.

“But who were they working for?” Shiga wondered.

“Maybe we should ask the book?” I suggested.

“When we get back to Boss' office,” he said. “Now we just need a taxi.”

A taxi pulled up alongside us and the driver rolled down the window. “Need a ride somewhere?”

“The Smithsonian Castle, please,” I said.

“Hop in, then,” the driver said. “Quite a night at the library. Never thought it would be a place where exciting stuff happened.”

“Appearances can be deceiving,” Shiga said.

“They sure can,” the driver agreed and drove away from the Library of Congress.

----------

“Here you go,” I told Boss, handing the book to him. “As promised.”

He looked at it, then at us. “Is there anything you can't do?”

“Why not ask the book?” I suggested. “I bet it knows the answer.”

“While you're at it,” Shiga said, “ask it who Dougie and Johann were. They were sent to find the book, too, by their boss.”

Boss opened the book. It flipped pages until it stopped. “Burglars. Sent by – hey! It blotted out the rest. Of all the impertinent – ”

“Maybe it didn't think you needed to know,” I said. “It does have a mind of its own, after all.”

“It sure does,” Boss said. “Why don't you two take the night off?”

“What's left of it, you mean?” Shiga asked.

“Or tomorrow,” Boss said. “Get going. I'll find somewhere to hide this. Somewhere safe and secure.”

“Maybe in a wooden crate in a warehouse?” I suggested.

“Maybe,” Boss said.