Chapter 1 Alfie Hazard had taken about seven zillion plane rides in his life. He hadn''t liked a single one of them. "Please buckle your seat belts for landing," the captain announced. Alfie''s seat belt was already buckled. He held on tight to the armrest for good measure. He really, really hated flying, especially in a storm. He held his breath as the plane dipped and bounced through the rain clouds. His stomach dipped and bounced too.
He tried to distract himself by focusing on his two best friends in the whole world: Baxter and Bonnie. Baxter and Bonnie were Alfie''s cats. Being with them always made him feel better. Even just looking at them helped calm him down. Baxter was curled up in his carrier, which was tucked alongside Alfie''s seat. Most of Baxter''s fur was black, but he had four white paws and a white belly. Unlike Alfie, Baxter seemed quite calm. He might have even been asleep.
Baxter could nap anywhere, anytime. Bonnie''s carrier was right next to Baxter''s. She was orange all over. And she was wide awake. She looked as nervous as Alfie felt. She peered through the bars and let out a tiny meow. Alfie didn''t speak Meow fluently, but he knew she was asking, " Are we there yet? " Alfie tried to smile. He wanted her to know it would be okay.
And it would be okay. He was sure of it. He had taken seven zillion flights in his life, after all. But sometimes his nerves still got the best of him. Alfie needs me , Bonnie thought. She could tell his nervous smile from his happy one. She stuck two of her claws through the bars and squeezed the latch, freeing herself. Alfie smiled for real as Bonnie jumped into his lap.
"You''re not supposed to do that," he whispered. "We''ll get in trouble." Bonnie simply curled up in his lap and purred. Alfie was grateful for the comfort of her presence, so he didn''t say anything else. No one else on the flight seemed to notice her. Alfie''s big sister, Mika, was asleep in the aisle seat beside him. Their mother and father sat side by side in the row in front of them, deep in conversation. The other four adults in the cabin were focused on other things, too.
Two of his mother''s security guards were in another row. Alfie''s mother was a diplomat with a very important job. She was Ambassador to the United States from Mbai, the small country in West Africa where she had grown up. Her job was to help Mbai and the US stay strong allies through political cooperation, economic trade, and cultural exchanges. Behind the kids, two staffers from the embassy chatted in low voices. "The ambassador''s schedule is too full already," said his mother''s senior assistant, Indira. She had a calendar open on her lap. "She''s finalizing the COCOA Project agreement this week.
" "I wish the COCOA Project wasn''t such a big secret," complained Molly, the junior assistant. "If we were allowed to sit in on those meetings, we could help her review the documents." "National security is more important than the two of us being in the know," Indira reminded her. Molly sighed. "Yeah, but aren''t you curious?" The plane dropped suddenly. It wobbled to and fro. Gusts of wind swirled around the wings, and raindrops splattered the windows. Alfie closed his eyes and gripped the armrest so hard his knuckles turned white.
Then, suddenly, he felt a warm and gentle pressure on his fingers. Mika was holding his hand. Alfie glanced over at her. Her eyes were closed. Her head lolled down toward her shoulder. It still looked like she was asleep. If she hadn''t moved her hand, he would have had no idea she was awake. How had she even known he was scared? Mika''s fingers squeezed his.
Alfie squeezed back. He suddenly felt a whole lot better. Alfie opened his mouth to say thanks, but before he could speak, Mika''s grip tightened. He closed his mouth and simply held on instead. It had been a long time since they had flown anywhere together. Mika was practically a grown-up. She was nineteen, almost twenty. She had been a junior in college until about a week ago, when she''d arrived at their hotel in Boston and announced that she was dropping out of school.
Well, to be fair, Mika had called it "taking a gap year." But "dropping out" was what Dad had called it when he started yelling. There had been quite a bit of yelling. Dad was a teacher, and school was the most important thing to him. He''d tried to convince Mika to stay enrolled at MIT, but he hadn''t succeeded. They had argued all week, in between attending the Mbai Scholars Exchange Program events that had brought the ambassador to Boston. Alfie was the only one in his family who did not like to argue. His father taught political science and debate.
Dad thought disagreement was basically a sport. Alfie''s mother was a diplomat, so she had to argue in a polite way, but she knew how to win. You could lose an argument with Mom before you even knew you were having one. And Mika could go toe-to-toe with either parent. Alfie gripped his sister''s hand as the plane steadily lost altitude. Secretly he was glad she was coming home. The embassy felt big and lonely without her. Without Bonnie and Baxter to keep him company, it would have been unbearable.
The pilots released the landing gear and adjusted the wing flaps. The plane broke through the clouds, and Alfie could see the city lights out the window. He gazed at the skyline of Washington, DC, full of monuments and historic buildings. The trees and roads gradually grew bigger in his view. Then he spotted the control tower, the airport, and the runways. Finally, the wheels touched down. Alfie breathed a big sigh of relief. He preferred to have his feet on the ground.
"Home sweet home," Alfie''s father said. Dad always said this whenever they landed on US soil, even though they hadn''t even left the country on this trip. Dad was American through and through. For Alfie, who was a dual citizen of Mbai and the US, the idea of home was more complicated. Yes, their family had lived in DC for over a year now, but thanks to his mother''s career as a diplomat, they had lived all over the world before that. In front of him, his father gazed out the window, so Alfie did too. Usually he enjoyed watching the airport bustling with work, but today the view was gray and blurry with rain. Alfie''s mom reached over and tapped Mika''s leg.
"Time to wake up," she said. Mika jolted as though startled out of a sound sleep. She stirred and glanced around. She stretched her arms and shook them out. "Wow, that went by fast," she said. She wiped at the corners of her mouth as if checking for drool. Strange , Alfie thought. He glanced down at Bonnie and raised his eyebrow.
Bonnie raised hers back. Mika had not been asleep just now. But she was pretending she had been. Why? Alfie did not say "Why?" out loud. But Mika acted as if she had heard his question. She caught his eye and winked. Then she shouldered her backpack and scooted down the aisle. Bonnie jumped down and returned to her carrier.
Alfie latched her inside, put on his own backpack, and picked up the cat carriers. "Meow," said Baxter, waking up as Alfie carried them to the door. "Meow?" "No, you can''t come out," Alfie answered. "We''re getting in the car. We''ll be home soon." Alfie smiled to himself. Home, he suddenly realized, was wherever his cats were.