by Alesha Dixon
9
“What are you doing?”
I snapped my head up and saw Clara standing in my doorway. Her eyes scanned across the dozens of open books scattered across my bedroom floor, covered in colourful post-it notes. I was sitting cross-legged in the middle and, at the moment she’d found me, was resting my head in my hands in despair.
“Nothing!” I replied hurriedly.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. Why would you think something was wrong?”
“Aurora,” she said, leaning on the door frame, “you have a post-it note stuck to your forehead.”
I lifted my hand and found that she was speaking the truth. I pulled it off and stared at it accusingly.
“How did that get there?”
“You also have one stuck to your knee.”
“Look, I’m very busy,” I said crossly, crumpling up the post-it notes that had attached themselves to me without me noticing. “Did you want something?”
“I was actually wondering if you knew where Alexis was.”
“Mum said he’d gone into Vermore Enterprises today. He wants to spend a lot of half term there doing extra work,” I explained. “So weird.”
“Oh.” She glanced at his bedroom door. “He promised he’d let me borrow his new headphones and I’m not allowed into his room without permission.”
I laughed. “Yeah, I don’t think it would be worth the risk. Last time I went into his room to look for something when he wasn’t there, he put my Lightning Girl trainers in the freezer as punishment. I didn’t find them for two days.”
She stepped across the bedroom, carefully finding space to tread in between all the books, and hopped up on to my bed, leaning against the wall with her feet dangling over the side. She pulled my duvet over her legs and propped up some pillows behind her.
“Please,” I said drily, “make yourself comfortable. I’m not busy at all.”
“Do you think Alexis has been acting strangely recently?” Clara asked, ignoring me.
“I guess. If by ‘strange’ you mean ‘actually bothering to do some work for someone else’, then yes.”
“I think he’s upset about the internship,” she stated.
I stared at her. “Upset? Are you kidding? He’s never been happier! Vermore Enterprises is his dream job.”
“That’s exactly my point. This is his dream situation. But he hasn’t been acting happier,” she said thoughtfully.
“What do you mean?”
“I think he’s struggling with this project Mr Vermore has given him and he’s worrying that he’s not achieving the results he should be. Whenever I see him, he seems down and tired.” She paused. “Has Mum ever told you what happened between Nanny Beam and Darek’s dad?”
“No. Has she told you?”
Clara shook her head. “I don’t want to ask but I get the feeling Darek is really embarrassed about it and wants to make it up to Nanny Beam, even though it was his dad’s fault and nothing to do with him. I hope he’s keeping Alexis on the team for the right reasons.”
“You think he should fire him?”
“No! Only, it would be awful if Darek felt so irrationally guilty about whatever it was that his dad said or did to Nanny Beam before he died, that he keeps Alexis in a role that he’s too junior for. I don’t like Alexis being so down all the time.”
“Clara, this is Alexis we’re talking about. He always works everything out in the end,” I said encouragingly. “It’s obvious that Darek loves him and he wouldn’t risk giving Alexis anything he can’t handle. Alexis will storm this project, just like he wins at everything else, you wait and see.”
She nodded slowly. “Anyway, what are you doing with all these books?”
“Homework,” I lied.
“You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“I am not a terrible liar!” I protested. “And I’m not lying!”
“You’re the worst liar I ever met. Your friend Suzie agrees with me.”
“WHAT? When were you talking to Suzie about this?”
“Mum thinks so, too. She says it’s cute when you lie.”
“It is NOT cute when I lie! And I’m not lying!”
“So, you’re currently reading books about the Blackout Burglar and other such criminals for … homework?” Clara said, folding her arms and giving me a very stern look. “I can read, you know.”
I gulped.
“OK, I’ll tell you, but you can’t tell anyone,” I hissed, standing up to close the door. “Ouch!” I said, hobbling back to the bed. “Pins and needles.”
“When you were sitting cross-legged, you were putting pressure on the peroneal nerve behind the knee, which is what supplies the sensation to your lower limbs.”
“Thank you, Clara, very helpful.”
I slid up on to my bed next to her. “I think there may be more than one precious stone.”
“Of course there’s more than one precious stone.” Clara frowned. “Dad has plenty in the Natural—”
“No, not that kind of precious stone,” I corrected. “Precious stones with powers. Like the Light of the World.”
Clara’s eyes lit up. “You think there are others with supernatural properties?”
“It’s a theory. Anyway, I figured that in his old days of thievery as the Blackout Burglar, maybe Mr Mercury, on instruction from whoever it is he’s working for, had gone after other famous stones, which may also have had secret powers. Apparently, DI Bumble found a book about precious stones in Mr Mercury’s old flat and it was scribbled all over with notes.” I gestured to all the books. “I’ve been reading up to see if there are any famous gems he had his eye on and attempted to steal back then, but so far, none of his crimes really stand out as something that might be linked.”
Clara furrowed her eyebrows, something I know she does when she’s deep in thought and just about to say something super intelligent.
“I think you’re looking in the wrong place.”
“What do you mean?”
“You should be looking into books that might refer to precious stones with powers. Old legends and folklore books.”
I laughed. “You want me to read fairy tales?”
“Folklore is one of the most powerful and informative tools available to us,” she said sharply, looking at me in such a disapproving manner that I quickly stopped giggling. “How did our family know about the Light of the World in the first place?”
I hesitated before admitting quietly, “From the legend of the Beam ancestry.”
“Told to each generation by the generation before. Chances are it’s the same for any other such precious stones in existence.”
I suddenly felt very stupid for making fun of her folklore suggestion and couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before. I’d been wasting my time reading the same thing about the Blackout Burglar over and over again, and all along my focus should have been on the stones themselves.
“I need to get back to the library,” I said determinedly. “Is there a folk tales and legends section? Maybe I should research precious stone folklore online, too.”
“I have a better idea. You mentioned that there was an annotated book about precious stones in Mr Mercury’s old apartment? Well, Dad has a really good book about the same thing – there’s a chance it’s a different copy of the same book, or at least similar to the one Mr Mercury was reading back then.”
“Brilliant! Clara, you really are a genius!”
She looked down at her feet modestly.
“Right,” I said, reeling in this new wave of hope, “where can I find this book? Will it be somewhere in Mum and Dad’s room?”
“Ah, that’s the slight catch,” she said. “It’s not here, he keeps it under lock and key in his office in the Natural History Museum. It’s a very old book and the spine is broken because Dad has read through it so many times. According to him, it�
�s one of only a couple in existence.”
“Argh!” I slumped on to the bed. “I can’t just ask him for it! He’ll know it’s something to do with the Light of the World and I promised Mum and Dad I’d stop looking into it.”
“You could just ask Dad to look through it for you?” Clara suggested. “Maybe Mum and Nanny Beam haven’t thought of this theory yet. It might be useful.”
I shook my head. “No, I want to do this myself. Otherwise, I’ll just be sitting around waiting and I’m bored of being useless.”
Clara watched me carefully.
“Well, then, there’s only one thing you can do,” she declared.
“What?”
“Steal it.”
My jaw dropped open. “WHAT?!”
“Don’t look so shocked, Aurora. You’re the one who went to prison, not me.”
“HOW DO YOU KNOW I WENT TO PRISON?” I cried. “Mum said she wouldn’t tell you and Alexis!”
“I have other sources,” she informed me breezily. “So does Alexis. We knew before you got home from the police station. Anyway, none of that is important. I think the only answer to you getting your hands on this book without anyone finding out is to borrow it from the museum … without asking.” She hesitated. “There. So, it’s not technically stealing.”
I stared at her in disbelief. “That would not hold up in court.”
“What else can you do?”
I thought about my predicament, still a bit dazed at my little bookworm sister suggesting I commit a crime.
“You’re right,” I said eventually. “I have to somehow steal it from Dad’s office.”
“Borrow,” she corrected. “I can help. Not with the breaking into the office bit, but I know where he keeps the book once you get in. It’s in the bottom right-hand drawer of his desk.”
“Thanks, Clara.”
I started laughing.
“What’s funny?” she asked, looking up at me all innocently.
“I never thought we’d be sitting on my bed working out how to steal something together,” I giggled. “It’s a bit weird in terms of sisterly bonding moments.”
“Yeah. Although not as weird as finding out you have the ability to shoot light beams out of your palms. That was an off-the-scale weird bonding moment.”
She caught my eye and we smiled.
“OK, so how are you going to break into Dad’s office in the museum?” she asked, clapping her hands together. “He’s at work all week. It’s going to be difficult to get in without anyone seeing you. You might need some help.”
“You’re absolutely right, Clara,” I said, reaching for my phone. “And when it comes to breaking the rules, I know exactly who to call.”
10
The following morning, I waited patiently on the pavement a few streets away from my house. A car turned into the road and sped down it, braking hard to come to a halt right in front of me.
The door opened and a long ostrich leg came protruding out.
“Hi, Alfred, how are you doing?”
Alfred got fully out of the bright pink car, wearing a black polo neck and a black eye mask. He ignored my question and instead reached forward, took my bag in his beak and then threw it down the road before stalking off in the other direction to peck at a nearby tree.
“Hello, darling!” Aunt Lucinda beamed, getting out of the driving seat and rearranging her bright purple sunglasses.
“Hi,” I grumbled, going over to pick my bag up from the ground before wiping bits of gravel off it. “Alfred’s still in a good mood, I see. Why is he wearing that eye mask?”
“Oh, I told him that you needed a favour and that it was something to do with bending the rules for the greater good, and so he put on his vigilante outfit.” She smiled adoringly at him, while bits of bark went flying up in the air. “You know how he likes to dress for an occasion. Of course, it would have been easier to dress for this if we’d actually known what it was we were doing. Your phone call was rather mysterious.”
“I can’t tell you, Aunt Lucinda. You just have to trust me. It’s very kind of you to drive me. Did you collect—”
“I did exactly what you instructed,” she interrupted, nodding to the back seat of the car. “See for yourself.”
I opened the door and Fred stuck his head out.
“Come on, Lightning Girl, let’s get on the road,” he said, grinning up at me. “I need to go before my parents notice I sneaked out of the house. We’re all ready to go and you’re holding us up.”
“We are ready to go?” I asked curiously. “I don’t think so. Alfred is still over there destroying that tree.”
“I wasn’t talking about Alfred. I was talking about the others.”
He gestured behind him, so I leaned forward to look inside the car, furious that Fred had told anyone about our secret mission … that is, until I saw who had joined him.
“Aurora, can you please tell Fred that he does not need to take up all the space in the car with his gigantic elbows?” Suzie huffed, squirming next to him.
“Hey, Aurora!” Georgie waved from the seat next to her. “Plenty of space in the back with Kizzy.”
I craned my neck to see Kizzy in the row of seats behind them, lowering her book to check her watch.
“Fred’s right, you know. We should get going if everything’s going to go to plan,” she said matter-of-factly before giving me a little wave. “Hi, Aurora, how are you today?”
“What are you all doing here?” I asked, baffled. “I only told Fred!”
“And he told us,” Georgie explained. “You can’t go on a Bright Sparks mission without ALL of the Bright Sparks.”
“But you’re so busy and I didn’t want to disturb—”
“Oh please, Aurora, we’re never too busy to break into a museum and steal something,” Suzie said, looking at me as though I was stupid. “And did you really think we’d leave you to do something this difficult with only FRED to help? I mean, are you trying to get caught? Haven’t you had enough of prison?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Fred grumbled. “I’m the most talented of the bunch. Aurora and I didn’t need your help.”
“Oh, really?” She folded her arms. “Then why did you call us?”
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I just… I didn’t want you to feel left out.”
“Sure,” she said. “That’s the reason why.”
“You’re seriously all coming to help?” I asked brightly, my jaw hurting from grinning so much at how this had turned out. “You are the BEST.”
Kizzy smiled warmly. “And we’ve got a plan, too. Come on, let’s get going.”
Aunt Lucinda attempted to round Alfred up as I climbed into the car, which I must admit, was a lot more spacious than I remembered. From the outside, it looked like a sleek sports car but inside it felt like a big truck with a load of gadgets and buttons everywhere. I had asked Aunt Lucinda when Nanny Beam was going to want her car back, but Aunt Lucinda insisted that Nanny Beam was working on a much better model and this was hers to keep.
I don’t know how much I believed this story.
Once, Aunt Lucinda told me that a famous Olympian “gave” her the gold medal that was hanging round her neck because they were great friends and he had so many. Then, on the news the next day, that very same athlete made an appeal for the safe return of one of his gold medals after seeing a “bizarrely but unmistakably large bird wearing an Elvis costume” make off with it during his fancy-dress birthday party.
To this day, Aunt Lucinda claims it was a big misunderstanding and her returning it to him was a selfless gesture of goodwill on her part.
“Kizzy and Aurora, I can hear you whispering in the back,” Aunt Lucinda called out as we drove towards London. “Are you telling Aurora the plan? Why don’t you let me in on it? Perhaps I can help.”
“Nice try,” Georgie said. “Like we already said, we’re not telling you anything about this mission.”
“I don’t see wh
y not,” Aunt Lucinda replied huffily. “Not only am I VERY kindly driving you into London for whatever this nonsense is about, but I also happen to be the world’s best at stealthily breaking rules and getting away with it.”
“Which is why I knew you were the best person to call to drive us in,” I said, studying Kizzy’s scribbles and diagrams on the piece of paper she was showing me. “I knew you wouldn’t snitch.”
“You have my word. But really, darlings, this secrecy isn’t necessary! What can possibly be so important in the Natural History Museum? A load of dinosaur bones won’t help our plight.” She let out a long sigh as no one responded. “And what about my excellent skills in sneaking in and out of heavily barricaded buildings? I have a long list of credentials. I’ve managed to blag my way into some of the highest profile events in the world. Didn’t you see me present that Best Actor Academy Award earlier this year? That wasn’t planned, you know. I simply turned up on the day and got in there with just a few distracting light beams and some smooth words.”
The rest of the journey into London was spent ignoring Aunt Lucinda as she reeled off her most daring and exciting sneaking-in victories and nodding along to Kizzy’s excellent plan at getting into Dad’s office without anyone noticing.
When we pulled up to the Natural History Museum, the others swivelled in their seats to face us and Kizzy pointed at her now-crumpled piece of paper.
“Right, first things first,” she said in a low voice, “Fred, as soon as you’ve got the key card, you give the signal and we’ll set to work. Everyone know what they’re doing?”
We all nodded.
“Good. Let’s go,” she instructed.
“Did I hear someone mention a key card?” Aunt Lucinda said, climbing out of the car and watching us closely.
“Aunt Lucinda,” I frowned at her fiercely, “you promised you’d stay out of it. If we get in trouble, I don’t want Mum or Dad thinking you helped me. It’s better that you don’t know what we’re doing.”
“Very noble,” she said, rolling her eyes before getting distracted by Alfred, who had begun to cause chaos by launching into an Irish jig across a zebra crossing, making sure the cars couldn’t pass through.
