All Fall Down Read Online Free PDF Page B

voice.
    Noah laughs. “Just you wait.”
    “Wait for what?”
    “Until you see this .”
    He pushes aside one last branch and steps from the moss-and-leaf-covered ground onto solid stone. Overhead, the canopy of the trees disappears, and I look out onto a plateau that stretches for thirty yards in front of us. Beyond that, there is nothing but the deep-blue sea and the largest moon that I have ever seen. It’s as bright as any of the streetlights, there at the top of the city.
    “Welcome to the secret side of Embassy Row,” Noah tells me as I ease forward to take in the scene. The music is louder, but so is the crashing of the waves against the rocky shore. I inch forward and look straight down over a cliff that is at least a hundred feet high. Probably higher.
    “Easy, there,” Noah says, taking my arm and pulling me gently back.
    I feel the mist in the wind coming off the water. The air is damp and salty. My hair clings to my forehead, and even though I haven’t slept in two days, I am wide awake in the middle of the night, standing on a cliff with a boy who, technically, broke into the US embassy and absconded with the ambassador’s granddaughter.
    “Bet you didn’t see that when you were a little girl,” Noah says with a smirk. He seems entirely too pleased with himself. He doesn’t know the half of it. I look back to the overgrown path, waiting for my mother to follow, but, for once, she’s not there.
    I scan the cliffs and the sea and then let my gaze fall onto the land beneath us, the massive wall that encircles the city, the flags that rise above the mansions on the row, waving through the spotlights that streak through the night sky. And then a cold chill seeps into my bones.
    “Wait, if that is the US” — I point toward the familiar flag that flies in the distance — “then that’s Russia, Japan, Italy, and” — I look down at the embassy closest to the cliffs — “that makes this …”
    I shift my gaze onto Noah, who shoves his hands deep into his pockets. He rocks back on his heels. “Iran.”
    “We’re in Iran!” I don’t even try to hide the terror in my voice, but Noah pushes my fear aside.
    “Technically, Iran sold this land back to the city at the same time they gave up diplomatic relations with Adria. Iran still owns the building, of course. But the land is fair game.” He points down to the base of the cliffs, the small stretch of beach that reaches from the sea to the back of the abandoned building.
    “It’s a shame. It’s the only embassy with private beach access. I tried to talk our ambassador into buying it, but for some reason the Israelis didn’t think the Iranians would be up for a real estate swap.”
    “Fancy that,” I tell him.
    Noah gasps in mock surprise. “I know!”
    “So the local teenagers come up here to party … in what used to be Iran?”
    “What can I say? We’re resourceful. But, Grace —” He steps closer to me. “We do not go past the fence. I mean, we could. But we don’t. Because none of us are superexcited about starting World War Three. So we do not go past the fence .” He stares at me, as if waiting for a protest that never comes. “Say it with me, Grace. We do not go past the fence .”
    “Noah.”
    “Say it.”
    “We do not go past the fence,” I tell him.
    “Because we do not want to start World War Three.”
    “We do not want to start World War Three,” I add.
    “Good girl.”
    Noah smiles and takes a few steps closer to the party. For a second, he can’t quite meet my gaze. It’s a look (or, rather, a non-look) that I know well.
    “So what did Ms. Chancellor tell you about me?” I ask.
    Noah shrugs a little. “Not much.”
    “You flare your nostrils when you lie.”
    “I knew that,” he says, nostrils flaring again.
    The clouds are gathering over the moon, and for a moment we are shrouded in shadow, there atop the rocky cliffs. Someone changes the music and it’s quiet for a split second. But that is all it