by Alesha Dixon
Cherry shook her head. “No, I’m fine. Thank you.”
“We’ll get back to bed then,” Mum said, as Dad plodded back to their bedroom. “Night, everyone.”
“Night,” we chorused, before she shut the door behind her.
“See you in the morning then,” JJ said, heading to the door.
“Wait,” Cherry said as he reached for the handle. “I need to tell you two something. I didn’t have a nightmare.”
JJ and I shared a look of confusion and then he sat down at the end of her mattress, ready to listen. Cherry bit her lip. She looked shaken by whatever it was that had happened.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Was it a premonition?”
“It wasn’t a premonition. It was a vision. A real vision. I’ve never had one before.”
“A vision, as in … you saw the future?” JJ said, watching her in awe.
“I don’t know.” She looked at me worriedly. “Normally, I just feel if something bad is going to happen. That’s how my premonitions have always worked. But this was so different… It’s like my powers are warning me about how dangerous things really are, or how dangerous they could be, by showing me exactly what’s happening. It sounds stupid, I know.”
“It doesn’t sound stupid at all,” I said firmly, JJ nodding in agreement. “I think that makes perfect sense. What was your vision? I heard you say the word ‘Mercury’ during it.”
She took a deep breath, her eyes fixed on her hands resting in her lap as she focused on remembering it.
“Mr Mercury was in a tunnel, maybe underground or dug through a cave or something. It was very dark, and he was holding a torch. He walked into a room, which was so dimly lit, I couldn’t really see anything. There was … a person in the corner with a hood over their face.”
She pursed her lips, closing her eyes. Neither JJ or I said anything, both of us completely enraptured and waiting for the rest of the story.
“I could feel how scared Mr Mercury was,” she continued, clutching her stomach. “I could feel it. He was terrified. The hooded figure told Mr Mercury to turn off his torch and as Mr Mercury fumbled for the switch, he dropped it. It shone a light right at them.”
“Did you see who it was?” I asked gently as she paused.
She shook her head. “I just saw their hand.”
“Their hand?”
“When the light shone at them, they jumped away, crying out in anger until Mr Mercury snatched the torch up from the ground and turned it off. Then the person held their hand out from the shadows; I could just see it in the glow from one of the lanterns. Mr Mercury put a stone into his hand. The hand was scarred.”
“What did the stone look like?” I asked.
“I couldn’t really see it. But then they told Mr Mercury that there was just one more to get. They said that he had to move quickly before it was safely returned and out of his reach for ever. Mr Mercury asked the hooded figure’s advice on how he was going to get it and then … I woke up.”
We sat in silence, digesting the information Cherry had just given us.
“What do you think it means, Aurora?” JJ asked finally.
They both looked at me expectantly and I shook my head.
“I’m not sure,” I told them honestly. “But I think I know what we need to do next.”
13
The first thing I did the next morning was to call a family meeting.
“This had better be important,” Alexis yawned, plonking himself down on the sofa next to Clara after I’d dragged him from his room. “I was just about to get to level 108 in this new game I’ve been asked to test.”
“Tell me you weren’t up all night playing computer games?” Mum asked, sitting on the arm of the sofa and giving him one of her best stern-mum looks.
“Don’t worry, Aunt Lucinda has already promised to make a revitalizing smoothie for me, so I won’t feel tired today,” he replied smugly.
“Where’s Dad?” I asked impatiently, absentmindedly stroking Kimmy’s ears as she took her place at my feet. “I need everyone to be here before we can get started.”
“I saw him chasing Alfred round the garden,” Clara told me without looking up from the science book open on her lap. “I think Alfred stole his entire collection of ties.”
Mum laughed and then stood up to go through to the garden. “I’ll go get them. Back in a sec.”
Alexis waited until Mum was out of the room to raise his eyebrows at me.
“So, little sis, what’s this all about then?”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” I assured him. “I’m actually hoping that you’ll be able to give up your free time to help me out today, Alexis. I need your computer genius. It’s important.”
“Where are Cherry and JJ?” Clara asked, still not looking up from her book. “Aren’t they invited to the family meeting?”
“They’re already aware of the particulars. Aunt Lucinda is giving them a yoga lesson upstairs,” I said, taking a few gulps of my coconut water in the hope that it would help to wake me up. I was feeling a strange mixture of tiredness from staying up so late talking things through with Cherry and JJ, and tingling nerves from the adrenaline pumping through me as I thought about what I was going to try to do.
“Does this meeting have something to do with Cherry yelling in her sleep last night?” Alexis asked curiously. “I was just hitting level fifty-four when I heard it.”
There was a commotion as Alfred came stomping down the corridor past the sitting room, wiggling his bottom feathers indignantly and wearing a load of ties round his long neck. As he went upstairs, Mum came in from the kitchen with Dad in tow, who was red in the face and had to lean on the door frame for a moment, bent double, trying to catch his breath.
“Everything OK, Dad?” Alexis asked, trying and failing to suppress a smirk.
“That … ostrich … is … going … to … kill … me,” he wheezed.
I passed him my glass of coconut water and he gratefully took the last few swigs before moving Alexis along and slumping down on to the sofa next to him.
“Don’t worry, darling,” Mum said soothingly, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve been needing a wardrobe clear-out for a while. We’ll get you some new ties.”
Dad looked up at her with a pleading expression. “When did you say your sister was moving out again?”
I cleared my throat and Kimmy barked, ensuring everyone was paying attention.
“I called this family meeting as I have something very important to discuss.” I took a deep breath and looked at Mum and Dad. “At the beginning of the year, you told me that you trusted me and that you were going to let me go ahead and do what I could to find Mr Mercury, but the deal was I had to keep you in the loop. You wanted to all work together this time round. Right?”
“Right,” Mum said, Dad nodding in agreement.
“I considered not telling you what I’m about to say,” I admitted, hesitating before Kimmy rested her head in my lap in encouragement. “But I think you’re right; it’s better to work together and I definitely could do with your help.”
“What’s going on, Aurora?” Dad asked gently, the pink in his cheeks slowly fading as his heart rate returned to normal.
“You told me that you trusted me, and I need you to trust me right now.” I paused, trying to think of the best way of saying it before deciding to just blurt it out plain and simple. “I need you to give me the Light of the World.”
Dad and Mum stared at me. Clara finally glanced up from her book and Alexis smiled, looking impressed.
“You want us to give you the Light of the World,” Dad repeated slowly. “Why?”
“Because it’s time that I started acting like its guardian,” I answered determinedly. “The world is getting darker every day; strange things are happening, and I think it has something to do with the Beams’ precious stone. I want to fix things and I have an idea of how. I know you might not believe me, but I can handle this. I know I can.”
There was a moment’s silence as Mum and Dad shared a knowing look, as though they were both thinking exactly the same thing. I prepared myself for a gentle put-down lecture but that wasn’t what happened.
“Aurora,” Mum said, a smile creeping across her face, “you may not believe us, but we know you can handle it.”
“Dad, are you … crying?” Alexis asked.
Dad sniffed, dabbing his eyes with his jumper sleeve. “It’s just, we’re so proud of you, Aurora. You’re so brave and determined, and only twelve years old! You really are a superhero, with or without your powers.”
“Your dad’s right,” Mum said, taking his hand and squeezing it. “And I’m really proud that you haven’t gone behind our back this time and you’ve asked us straight out. If you think it’s time for you to take the Light of the World, then I trust that it’s time.”
Alexis blinked at me. “Seriously, this is NOT the reaction I got when I asked to skip school to go to a technology convention. I didn’t go behind your backs then, and yet I didn’t get a watery-eyed smile and a speech about how proud everyone was of me.”
“Yes, well, that was slightly different.” Mum laughed, reaching over to ruffle his hair. “And this doesn’t come without conditions.”
“And those conditions are?” I asked in my most sophisticated, grown-up voice.
“Whatever your plan is, you don’t go it alone,” Dad said. “You have a tendency to try to take on dangerous situations by yourself, and the Bright Sparks have to insist on joining you. If you’re taking the Light of the World anywhere, someone is going with you. There are MI5 agents surrounding our house for a reason – I want you to be safe.”
Mum nodded. “Absolutely. We’ll give you the Light of the World, but we want to help protect it.”
“Deal,” I said, with a wave of relief at this being their condition. “I was planning on asking you to come along with me, Mum, anyway. You’re the proper Beam superhero after all; I’m going to need all the help I can get on the way.”
“So, you’ll let us in on the full plan of what you’re going to do with the stone once you have it?” Dad checked.
“Yes. Definitely.”
Mum beamed at me and Dad stood up, clapping his hands together.
“Right then,” he announced. “Let’s go get the Light of the World. Follow me.”
We all stood up and followed Mum and Dad into the kitchen, and then through to the small boot room by the back door that led out to the garden.
“This is so exciting,” Clara whispered to me, taking my hand. “Thanks for including me in this family meeting, even though you didn’t need to.”
“Oh yes I did,” I said, squeezing her hand. “Your role in all this is still to come.”
“Are you ready?” Mum asked, turning to me, Clara and Alexis as we formed a little semicircle behind them, squeezing into the small room.
“Mum,” I said slowly, glancing around us, “please tell me you haven’t been keeping the most precious stone in the world … in our boot room?”
“Actually, we have,” Dad said. “Not just anywhere, mind you.”
He reached for Kimmy’s dry dog food bag sitting on the shelf in the corner and plonked it in front of us. Kimmy barked happily, jumping up and down at the sight of it and then running around in circles, chasing her tail in excitement.
“Ta-dah!”
Alexis, Clara and I stared at him.
“I think Dad has lost the plot,” Clara murmured.
“Why have you put Kimmy’s food bag in front of us?” Alexis asked.
“Because inside it, you will find” – Mum began, reaching into the food bag and digging around until she pulled out a small black box with a golden clasp – “the Light of the World.”
My jaw dropped to the floor. “You’ve been keeping the Light of the World in KIMMY’S FOOD BAG?! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!”
“It was your father’s genius idea,” Mum gushed, fluttering her eyelashes at him as he puffed out his chest. “Where else could be safer?”
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe an unbreakable vault in an unbreakable bank with an unbreakable security system?” I cried, looking at them as though they were both mad.
“Too obvious.” Mum shrugged. “That’s where everyone thinks we’ve been keeping it, no doubt. No one would think we’d stash it in the house and especially not in a dog food bag. Should Mr Mercury come calling, he’d NEVER think to look there. And besides, the box itself is custom-made by Nanny Beam. You need several codes and a Beam family eye retinal scan to get this thing to open.”
“We knew that if anyone approached this dog food bag, Kimmy would go nuts, especially if it was someone other than a family member,” Dad pointed out proudly. “You can’t touch this bag without Kimmy running straight in here, no matter where she is. She has incredible hearing, as you know.”
He patted Kimmy on the head as her tongue lolled out. She remained staring determinedly at the bag in the hope it might open of its own accord if she looked at it long enough.
“That makes her the perfect alarm,” Mum added, bending down to give her a neck scratch. Kimmy gave her a slobbery lick and then returned to her mission of staring the dog food bag open.
“You know,” Alexis said slowly, “this almost makes sense.”
“I think it’s brilliant,” Clara declared with a giggle. “Unexpected and simple.”
“Thank you, Clara,” Dad said, putting the bag back in its place on the shelf. “I was quite pleased with that brainwave, I must admit.”
Mum straightened and pressed the box into my hand. “Here you go, Aurora. It’s in your hands now, quite literally. We’re here to help, whatever you need.”
“Thanks, Mum,” I said, clutching the box and nestling into her as she put her arms round me. “I’m not sure I can forgive you for keeping it in a dog food bag but give it time.”
She chuckled. “So, what’s the next move?”
I pulled back and turned to Clara. “This is where you come in.”
“Reporting for duty,” she said, giving me a little salute. “What do you need?”
“We need to get out of the house without the agents noticing.”
“We?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.
I nodded. “Aunt Lucinda is going to take me, Cherry and JJ somewhere. Mum and Alexis, I’d like you to come, too, if you don’t mind? Alexis, you’ll need to bring all the equipment you need for hacking into a security system.”
Alexis’s eyes brightened and he rubbed his hands together in a mock-evil way. “I’m loving this plan already. I’ll get my laptop ready.”
Dad groaned as Alexis hurried away. “I don’t even WANT to know how many laws my family are about to break in order to save the world.”
“That will teach you for marrying a superhero.” Mum grinned, giving him a kiss on the cheek. “Of course I’ll come with you, Aurora.”
“Great, so Dad, that leaves you and Clara in charge of getting us out of the house and to Aunt Lucinda’s car parked around the corner, without any MI5 agents spotting us. We’re ready to go when you are.” I grimaced as I saw an agent passing by the window of the boot room. “It’s not going to be easy. They’re everywhere.”
Clara let out a long sigh. “Aurora, I recently wrote a Chemistry paper on mononuclear and binuclear molybdenum complexes. I THINK I can handle sneaking people out of a house.” She looked up at Dad. “I have an idea. It involves filling the entire house with a harmless, luminous green vapour.”
“Let’s get started,” he said, giving me a high-five as he followed Clara out of the boot room and up the stairs.
A few minutes later Aunt Lucinda put her foot down on the pedal and we sped away down the road away from our house, which currently had green smoke billowing from every crevice. MI5 agents were desperately falling over themselves to get in to see what was going on, completely unaware we’d all sneaked out past them during the chaos.
I laughed as I spotted Clara through
her bedroom window, holding what looked like an entire science apparatus with beakers bubbling over, while Dad came out on to the front lawn holding a cup of tea, with the agents in tow, and looking perfectly relaxed as he explained it was just his daughter’s science experiment gone awry. Everything was fine and they could go back to their positions guarding the house.
“You OK, Aurora?” Cherry asked, nudging me as I turned around in my seat to face forward.
“Yeah.” I grinned. “I’m OK.”
One thing this whole superhero thing had really taught me is that, when you’re setting off on a new adventure and you don’t know what dangers lie ahead, it really helps to have the best family in the world beside you.
14
“Just so I’m clear,” Mum said slowly from the front seat, as Lucinda parked the car in front of the prison, “your plan is to break my evil cousin out of jail.”
“That’s correct.”
Mum swivelled to face us in the back. “Seriously?”
“Yup. Seriously.” I gave her a stern look. “You said you trusted me.”
“I know, I do trust you. It’s just” – she hesitated – “we’re talking about breaking someone out of a high security prison here. And not just anyone, but Darek Vermore. He was behind all this chaos in the first place!”
“He also knows exactly where to go underneath the Aurora Borealis to return the Light of the World to its rightful place,” I explained calmly. “If we really want to stop Mr Mercury, then the most important thing is to make sure the Light of the World is safe. As good as the dog-food-bag hiding place was, it’s not where the precious stone belongs.”
“What’s that about a dog-food bag?” Aunt Lucinda asked.
“And you’re sure we shouldn’t just call Nanny Beam and explain?” Mum said, ignoring her sister. “That way we don’t have to break anyone out.”
“Mum, there is no chance Nanny Beam will let Darek Vermore walk out of that prison. No, the fewer people who know what’s going on, the better.”
“There’s no fun in him walking out of prison, anyway.” JJ grinned next to me. “Much more fun to break him out.”
