by Alesha Dixon
“I can’t believe we’re about to do this,” Cherry said, fiddling with her headphones and checking they were all in order.
“I can’t believe I’m trying to break into a prison security system,” Alexis said from the row of seats right at the back of the car. “Which, by the way, is much harder to do when the ostrich sitting next to you isn’t letting you have any elbow room.”
He glared at Alfred, who was perched next to him, taking up two seats and still wearing all of Dad’s ties. He had also added one of Mum’s giant sunhats to his outfit.
“How are you getting on?” I asked hopefully.
“OK,” Alexis shrugged, peering at his laptop screen and typing frantically. “It’s pretty complicated but Nanny Beam has taken me through this kind of thing before. I guess she wasn’t expecting me to use it against one of her own high-security prisons.”
“I guess not,” Mum said through gritted teeth, before letting out a long sigh. “Honestly, what a family.”
“If it makes you feel any better, Mrs Beam – sorry, Kiyana – I think your family is the most AWESOME family ever,” JJ said enthusiastically. “And I have a dad with super-strength and a mum who can walk through walls, so that’s really saying something.”
“Thank you, JJ.” Mum smiled, before glancing nervously at the prison in front of us. “Do you have a plan for breaking Darek out then, Aurora? You can fill us in while Alexis works.”
“Yes, good idea,” I said. “Cherry and JJ, did you bring the bag from my room?”
“Got it here,” Cherry said, holding it up.
“OK, good. It contains a few of Fred’s tricks that he’s left at the house before. There should be a smoke bomb or two in there.”
Cherry zipped open the bag and held them up triumphantly.
“Here’s the plan,” I began, taking a deep breath. “Mum, you come with me, Cherry, JJ and Alfred into the prison. We say that we’re visiting Darek—”
“Aren’t there visiting hours you’re supposed to stick to?” Mum pointed out.
“Yes, but I’m Lightning Girl and you’re you, so I’m guessing we can persuade them to let us talk to him about an urgent matter that’s just come up,” I replied confidently. “Once we’re in with him, Cherry will be using her supersonic hearing to listen out for anyone coming, and JJ will be on hand with his super-strength if anything goes wrong.”
“My karate skills are outrageously good, so don’t worry, people, you’re all in safe hands,” JJ declared.
“Yeah,” Cherry said, sighing dramatically, “because I’m sure Mrs Beam, a superhero who has been saving the world for years, really needs your help in a jam.”
JJ frowned at her.
“Once we’re with Darek, Alexis will cut out the security system,” I continued, “meaning all alarms will go down. We let off one of Fred’s smoke bombs and in all the confusion we smuggle Darek out hidden in Alfred’s feathers and head to where Aunt Lucinda is waiting with the engine on for a speedy getaway. Job done.”
Mum blinked at me. “We smuggle him out hidden in Alfred’s feathers?”
“It’s the best I could come up with at short notice, and with all the confusion, I think it has a good chance of working,” I insisted, sounding a lot more confident than I felt.
“OR I could just use the blaster that is inbuilt into this amazing super-car to blow a big hole in the wall of Darek’s cell. We get him out and off we go, flying into the distance,” Aunt Lucinda suggested. “Much easier.”
“That sounds so cool!” JJ exclaimed, his eyes widening as Aunt Lucinda pointed at a big red button. “Let’s go with that idea.”
I shook my head. “No. We’re already breaking out a prisoner; let’s not cause as much damage as possible along the way.”
“I agree,” Mum said, giving Aunt Lucinda a stern look.
“Always the sensible one, Kiyana,” Aunt Lucinda said to Mum, drawing her finger away from the big red button. “When are you going to let yourself have a little bit of fun?”
“Oh, and your idea of having fun is shooting a blaster out of a car?”
“Yes, I think that sounds like a LOT of fun.”
“That’s so like you, Lucinda: never thinking of consequences, just pressing big red buttons throughout life and then leaving all of us to clear up the mess,” Mum mumbled. “Just like that time with the Lego.”
“I KNEW you were going to bring that up,” Aunt Lucinda huffed. “You always have to throw that in my face!”
“You knocked over that entire Lego castle and you knew I’d been working on it for weeks! You didn’t even care!”
“We were six years old and I didn’t knock it over on purpose! You shouldn’t have built it in our bedroom when you KNEW that’s where I practised spinning round as fast as possible until I got so dizzy I fell over!”
“Yeah, well YOU—”
“That’s enough!” I cried, leaning forward to address them both. “We need to work together, remember? Otherwise we don’t have a chance of pulling this off.”
“Fine,” Mum said through gritted teeth, narrowing her eyes at her twin sister. “But you had better behave, Lucinda.”
“Cross my heart, Kiyana,” Aunt Lucinda said, sticking her tongue out at her.
“I’m in!” Alexis announced suddenly, causing everyone to turn to look at him. “I did it. I can shut it down but it’s only going to be for a few seconds. You’ll have to act fast.”
“Nice!” JJ high-fived him. “Does that mean it’s time to go?”
“It does.” I gulped. “Everyone ready?”
Cherry smiled at me encouragingly and opened the car door. “After you, Lightning Girl.”
“Good luck!” Aunt Lucinda called out after us, as we made our way through the car park. “Loving the hat, Alfred, darling!”
Walking through the prison doors with Cherry, JJ, Mum and Alfred in tow, I tried to act as naturally as possible. I strolled up to the reception and cleared my throat.
“We’re here to visit Darek Vermore,” I told the prison guard behind the screen.
He looked shocked at the group suddenly before him, his eyes lingering suspiciously on Alfred for a few moments.
“All of you?” he said eventually.
“Yes, all of us. We have some questions of the utmost importance for him. Something has just come up and uh … we need to speak to him. So, yeah, shall I fill in the visitors’ book?”
My voice had gone slightly higher-pitched than normal and I could tell that the prison officer wasn’t completely convinced. He opened his mouth to say something but before he could, Mum stepped forward to put her hand on my shoulder.
“It’s a matter of national security; I’m sure you understand,” Mum said coolly. “My name is Kiyana Beam and if you’re in any way hesitant about the nature of our visit, please do feel free to call Patricia Beam of MI5. She’ll be happy to confirm the necessity of our seeing Darek Vermore and we don’t mind waiting.”
I looked up at Mum as though she was MAD, but she must have done this kind of thing before because the prison officer immediately slid some passes to us and shook his head, beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead.
“No … no need to put in a call to Agent Beam, ma’am; you go on ahead,” he stammered.
He gestured for another prison officer to take us through and I leaned in to Mum as we passed through the many heavy doors to the interview room.
“How?” I asked.
Mum smiled mischievously. “She may be Nanny Beam to you, but to everyone else she’s Patricia Beam, Head of MI5 and someone you do NOT want to mess with. Ever since she told me what she really does, I’ve discovered that it can be handy to drop her job role into certain conversations from time to time.”
“I’ll remember that.”
We waited in the interview room in silence until Darek was brought in. He looked confused to see us all in there and then stopped in his tracks when he saw Mum was among the group, his expression becoming fearful.
> “Hello, Darek. Have a seat. We have a few questions for you.” Mum smiled warmly at the prison guard who had brought him in. “We can take it from here.”
The guard nodded and scuttled out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
“OK, Cherry, headphones on. Everyone ready?” I said hurriedly, as Cherry followed my instructions.
Mum sent Alexis a message and Alfred stalked over to Darek, pecked him with his beak until he stood up and then shoved him under his wing.
“Hey!” Darek cried, his voice muffled through the feathers. “What’s going on?”
Suddenly, the lights all went down and JJ, who was standing at the door peering out of the window, spoke in the darkness of the room.
“OK, all the red lights above the doors down the corridor have gone green.”
“The panic is starting,” Cherry whispered to us. “I can hear the prison guards. We need to move fast.”
I concentrated as hard as possible, which wasn’t easy considering how nervous I was feeling, and let the warm tingling feeling run down through my arms. My fingers sparked and then my hands gave out a warm glow, lighting our way.
“Let’s go!” I said, throwing open the door. “JJ, smoke bombs now!”
JJ let off the smoke bombs in the corridor and sparked immediate chaos. I really thought the plan was working until something happened that I hadn’t exactly thought through: the smoke faded. And Alexis had managed to shut down the lights and alarm system, but clearly they had a back-up system in place.
We’d just reached the first door to get through in the corridor when everything came back up and running. The strip lighting switched on, bathing us in harsh artificial light, and the doors locked, stopping us in our tracks. The smoke bombs had worn off.
“Uh oh…” Cherry whispered, lowering her headphones back round her neck, noting the prison guards turning their attention to us.
As their expressions changed from confusion to anger, I guessed they had cottoned on to what was happening. They slowly surrounded us and we all put our hands up, retreating into the interview room.
“Please tell me this wasn’t the entirety of your plan to get me out of here,” Darek mumbled, poking his head up through Alfred’s feathers. Alfred accidentally-on-purpose stomped on his foot in reply and Darek cried out in pain.
“What do we do?” Cherry whispered, shuffling backwards and knocking into a chair.
“We can take them,” JJ said determinedly. “Just give me the signal, Lightning Girl, and I’ll start with a high kick.”
My head racing as I desperately tried to think up a plan B, there was suddenly a loud beeping horn from outside and then the unmistakable sound of a super-car revving.
“Here we go,” Mum muttered before crying out, “Everyone away from the wall!”
Just as we darted to the sides of the room and crouched down, there was a huge CRASH. I looked up to see a gaping hole in the wall behind us and Aunt Lucinda waving at us through the front window of the car.
“Yoohoo!” She grinned, revving the engine again. “Anyone need a ride?”
Before the prison guards knew what was going on, Mum grabbed Darek by the scruff of his neck and dragged him through the hole in the wall and towards the car, the rest of us racing after her.
A couple of guards who were quick off the mark yelled at us to stop and attempted to launch through the wall, but Alfred was prepared and blocked them with his bottom, sending them flying backwards as they crashed blindly into his feathers.
We clambered into the car and once Alfred was in, we slammed the door behind him and Aunt Lucinda set off.
“Seatbelts on, please!” she instructed, calmly putting her sunglasses on while the rest of us scrambled into a seat and buckled in. Wings sprang out of the sides of the car.
That familiar robotic voice rang out of the car’s speakers – “Flight mode engaged. Prepare for take-off” – and the car began to lift off the ground, soaring upwards into the air.
“Now, THAT is how you break out of prison,” Aunt Lucinda said with a smug smile at Mum, as she glanced down at the prison guards on the ground who were becoming little dots in the distance. She caught Darek’s eye in the rear-view mirror. “Hello, evil cousin. How unpleasant to see you again.”
“Thank you for breaking me out,” Darek replied, looking about him. “I see you’ve remodelled. Nanny Beam never told me she was working on a new flying car. It’s very impressive.”
“Don’t touch anything,” Aunt Lucinda said, narrowing her eyes at him. “Now, Aurora, to where exactly am I flying this merry crew?”
I turned to Darek. “We had a deal. I break you out of prison, you help us return the Light of the World.”
“Well then, Darek?” Mum asked from the front seat, refusing to look at him. “Where are we going?”
“Iceland,” he replied, gazing out of the window at the clouds. “We’re going to Iceland.”
15
The video call screen in the car started flashing green and the robotic voice announced, “Incoming Call: Mummy.”
“Uh-oh,” Aunt Lucinda whispered, before saying clearly, “Reject.”
The robotic voice replied: “Rejection of Call from Mummy Overruled.”
Nanny Beam’s face popped up on the screen and she did NOT look pleased. Two of her agents were standing behind her, including the agent who had been so nice to me that time at the bowling alley when I thought it was a haunted house. She was grimacing behind Nanny Beam’s back before Nanny Beam had even said anything, so I knew we were in big trouble.
“How did you overrule my rejection of call?” Aunt Lucinda gasped. “You didn’t tell me about that feature.”
“We can discuss that another time, Lucinda,” Nanny Beam snapped. “I want to know just WHY you have broken DAREK out of PRISON?!”
“We can explain—” Mum began.
“Tell me where you are right this minute!”
“Nanny Beam,” I began, “we have to go to—”
“Are you out of your minds?” Nanny Beam cried, throwing her hands up in the air. “You BROKE HIM OUT OF PRISON!”
“It’s for good reason,” Mum said, wincing at Nanny Beam’s tone.
“If you don’t tell me where you are, I’m going to track the car and come to get you.”
“Actually, Mummy, don’t be mad,” Aunt Lucinda said, before taking a deep breath, “but Alfred ripped out the tracker last week. He took the car for a spin, you see, and when he discovered that I’d known where he was the whole time, he was very angry. He thought it was an invasion of privacy. So, he took the tracker out and threw it into the Thames.”
“We need Darek,” Mum said sternly. “You’re going to have to trust us.”
Nanny Beam shut her eyes in despair. The nice agent from the bowling alley suddenly cleared her throat and took a small step forward.
“Boss,” she said nervously, “you’re getting another call.”
“Ah, well, off you go, Mummy, lovely to talk to you!” Aunt Lucinda said. “We’ll be in touch soon! Toodle-oo!”
She quickly hung up on Nanny Beam.
“Well,” she said, smiling at us in the rear-view mirror, “I think that went as well as it could, don’t you? If we get in trouble for this, Kiyana, I’m blaming you. You owe me for that time I took all the heat about the broken window when we were ten years old. I haven’t forgotten that debt.”
“You took the heat for that one because YOU were the one who broke the window,” Mum said through gritted teeth.
When the car landed in Iceland, it was almost completely dark except for a flickering glow of the Northern Lights above us.
Darek had directed Aunt Lucinda to stop in the middle of a vast, empty, ice-covered landscape of fields with a swirling river running through it. It felt like there was no one for miles. It was so peaceful. Aunt Lucinda switched off the engine and, pulling my coat tightly round me, I stepped out and gazed up at the sky.
“Whoa,” JJ said, coming to st
and next to me and looking up in awe at the beautiful array of green and purple lights swirled through the sky. “Is that the Northern Lights? I’ve only ever seen pictures before.”
“It is,” Mum said, holding Darek firmly by the arm as Aunt Lucinda flanked his other side. “But the Northern Lights don’t usually flicker.”
“The aurora is fading,” Aunt Lucinda said softly, shaking her head. “Something’s not right.”
Cherry leaned against the car. “Aurora, is this all connected to the Light of the World somehow? Mr Mercury stealing things and kidnapping people?”
“Once we get the Light of the World to where it belongs, everything will be better,” I said firmly, carefully avoiding her question. “Cherry, can you and Alfred stay with the car? Just in case.”
“Of course,” she nodded, glancing at Alfred who had put on some ear muffs.
I made sure Darek was out of earshot and then leaned towards her to whisper in her ear.
“The button there on the dashboard” – I pointed to a purple button with a swirled symbol on it – “is a direct line to Nanny Beam. Listen out and if you hear us getting into trouble, press that and call her to come here straight away, OK? Just in case Darek tries to pull something.”
“Got it, Lightning Girl,” she said, tapping her headphones. “I’ll be listening to you the whole time. You won’t be alone.”
“You stay here, darling,” Aunt Lucinda told Alfred, who looked offended at the suggestion. “Now, now, don’t get cross. It’s nothing personal, we just need someone to stay behind who can drive the car just in case.”
“Wait, what?” Cherry said, insulted. “You trust an OSTRICH to drive, over me?”
Alfred glared at her with his beady eye and she recoiled under his glare.
“OK, OK,” she said hurriedly. “If anything happens you’re the driver.”
“If he gets impatient, then there are sweets in the car,” Aunt Lucinda informed her, giving Alfred a pat on his feathers. “Whatever you do, don’t eat any yourself. I once nabbed a raspberry one when I thought he wasn’t looking.” She grimaced. “When he was finished sulking, he threw everything in my house outside the window into a big pile on the front lawn. And when I say everything, I mean, everything. Even the bath.”
