Touch the Sky (Young Underground #8) by Robert Elmer Read Free Book Online

you to the moon and back if you want. ”
                  Peter and Henrik both jumped when they heard the sound of a chair scraping the floor inside. Henrik motioned for Peter to follow him, and they both rushed down the deck, away from the door.
                  “ Come on! ” whispered Henrik. It sounded as if Matthias was suddenly out on deck, and another group of loud sailors seemed to be coming from the opposite direction. This time, there was no convenient dark doorway to hide in. The boys looked from side to side, hearing footsteps from both directions.
                  “ This way, ” Henrik finally pointed over the side.
                  For a moment, Peter thought Henrik was going to jump into the harbor, and he dug in his heels.
                  “ No! ” Peter replied as Henrik disappeared over the side. Peter looked over to see his friend sliding down a thick rope toward the pier. He followed, holding tightly to the rope like a fireman sliding down a pole. In the process, though, one of his shoes slipped off and clattered to the pier below. The rope was slippery, and Peter lost his grip for a second and ran into Henrik. The next moment, they were tumbling down, landing in a heap on the dock.
                  “ Do you think they heard us? ” asked Peter under his breath.
                  Henrik handed Peter his lost shoe as they rolled behind a small tractorlike truck. “ Of course they heard us. Your parents heard us all the way back home. ”
                  Peter looked around Henrik ’ s shoulder to see two men at the top of the boarding ramp. One of them, he was sure, was Matthias. The other was much shorter and much rounder.
                  “ If this old tub gets us where we ’ re going, it will be miracle enough, ” said Matthias. The men both laughed as Matthias walked quickly down the ramp.
                  “ We ’ re off at dawn, then, as you say, ” replied the round man. He pushed a captain ’ s cap off his forehead and looked down from the deck, then turned around and disappeared back into his ship.
                  For several minutes, the only sound Peter could hear was the water below the pier and his own breathing. And from where they were hiding, Peter and Henrik could barely make out the faded lettering on the stern.
                  “ A - C - R, ” Peter began to read.
                  “ O - P - O - L - I - S, ” finished Henrik. “ Acropolis . It says it ’ s from Athens. ”
                  “ Greek. That ’ s what I thought. ” Peter was about to stand up when another man slipped down the boarding ramp and hurried off in the same direction as Matthias. Peter caught sight of the man ’ s curly black hair.
                  “ That ’ s the guy we saw spying on Matthias! ” Peter whispered once the man disappeared.
                  “ You mean the one who was listening through the door when we first walked up? ”
                  Peter nodded as they slipped away from the pier. “ I wonder what he heard. ”
                  “ I ’ m not sure, but I think we heard enough. ”
                  “ Did you understand what that was all about? ”
                  “ Simple, ” replied Henrik. He led the way back through the harbor to the city streets. “ I hate to say it, but you were right about him. It has to be some kind of smuggling operation, the way they were talking about cargoes and payment and all that. ”
                  “ And eleven o ’ clock at night. ” Peter shook his head. “ People don ’ t do regular business this late. The only thing is —”
                  “ I know. Matthias. It ’ s like he ’ s two different people. And we just saw the other side of him that no one else knows