May Secret Agent #28

TITLE: Bookfinders
GENRE: MG fantasy/adventure

In the inkiest, most hair-tingling hour of the night, Jasmin Punk crept towards the house and whipped her dagger from its sheath on her calf. She settled her feet in the flowerbeds beneath a low sash window and see-sawed her blade between the sill and the frame. Her nose twitched in satisfaction as the lock shifted with the faintest of clicks.

Jasmin dropped the knife and left it there, its handle sticking up like a cross in the soil, while she probed the bottom of the frame. Her fingers found purchase and she slid the window up. There was a nasty whine as the old wood shifted. She stole a look over one shoulder but nothing moved in the shadows. The real threat was inside. With the ease of long practice, Jasmin pushed on her hands and hoisted herself up. She hooked one leg over the window ledge and slid in through the narrow gap.

Inside were the books: shelves, piles, towers of books everywhere, rising up like giant poplar trees. They grazed the high ceiling in places, stacked so close together that even a slim girl like Jasmin Punk had to turn sideways at points and take care walking between the shelves and tall ladders, so as not to send the whole thing crashing like dominoes. That had nearly happened last time, but there would be no mistakes tonight. There was something here that she wanted. But also something she had to check on first.

Or rather someone.