Read Online We Sled With Dragons by C. Alexander London - Free Book Online

Her eyes narrowed. She wiped her thumb under his eye, and once again his teardrop freckle rubbed away.
    â€œErnest!” she groaned. “We’ve been tricked!”
    â€œIt’s worse than that,” said one of her men. “We’re trapped!”
    Dinka warriors, more than Bonnie could count, appeared atop the wall all around them. Their faces popped up from the projection booth. They rushed in from the side doors and the front doors, their spears poised. The pirates were surrounded. They dropped their weapons and put their hands up.
    Well, all but one of them.
    â€œCowards!” yelled Bonnie. “I am your captain! Fight with me!”
    â€œPass,” said one the pirates.
    â€œNo thanks,” said another.
    A third answered in Dutch and a fourth in Chinese, but their meaning was clear enough.
    â€œWell, you’ll never take me alive!” Bonnie yelled at the warriors.
    Sam, standing beside his elders on the high wall, shrugged.
    â€œIf that’s what you want!” he called down.
    The other pirates took a few steps away from Bonnie.
    â€œWe’re fine with being taken alive!” one of them called. “We surrender! Take us! Take us alive!”
    Bonnie crouched in an attack position.
    â€œMrrrm!” Ernest groaned as she stepped on his hand, stumbling backward and hitting her head on the ground.
    When she woke, she and her men were tied around the old rusty Odeon sign for all the city to see, as the Djibouti police argued about how best to get the pirates down and take them to prison. Ernest was tied up with them, but his gag had finally slipped from his mouth.
    â€œI’m not with them!” he shouted. “I’m innocent! I’m Corey Brandt!”
    â€œWhere’s your freckle?” one of the police officers demanded and Ernest had no answer to that. He sighed as he saw a small plane take off in the distance, lifting over the city and taking a hard turn over the ocean.
    â€œI thought so,” the officer called. “You are all under arrest for piracy, destruction of property, and disturbing the peace of Djibouti!”
    In spite of everything, Ernest cracked a smile.
    Djibouti.
    It really was a funny name for a city.

11
WE ARE AND ARE NOT

    â€œSO TELL ME about Santa Claus,” their mother said over the roar of the jet engines as they flew away from Djibouti aboard a private plane Corey had chartered in the desert. Being rich and famous had its advantages.
    Oliver looked over at his sister. She looked back at him. Neither of them wanted to go first, because they were starting to wonder if they’d imagined the whole thing. It was too crazy to be real, right?
    â€œWell,” Oliver started. “I was looking through the old explorer’s journal we found in the Amazon and I saw these drawings of, like, Atlantis and stuff. And there was this guy in all of them who looked a lot like . . . you know . . .”
    â€œSanta Claus?” said Corey Brandt.
    â€œYeah. And then we were in that movie theater, hiding from the pirates, and I, like, saw these visions of, you know . . .”
    â€œSanta Claus?” said Corey Brandt.
    Oliver nodded. “Celia saw them too. She also thought the guy looked like . . . you know . . .”
    â€œSanta Cl—” Corey started.
    â€œI did not,” said Celia. “It was just some bearded guy doing explorery things. It wasn’t, like, a guy in a red suit with presents and stuff. I mean, he had a sack and white hair, but he could have been anyone.” She didn’t want Corey to think she was totally nuts.
    â€œThat’s totally nuts,” said Corey.
    Celia sighed.
    â€œYeah, I guess it is kind of stupid.” She blushed. “But he did look a lot like—”
    â€œNo, no,” Corey interrupted her. “It’s totally nuts because I was just thinking about making a TV Christmas special called
Saint Nick