The Midnight Mercenary

by Cerberus Jones

  ‘You keep forgetting about James!’ Amelia snapped. She wasn’t sure why that was the point that made her lose her temper, but now she had the weapon, she wasn’t going to be pushed around anymore.

  If only she knew how to undo the containment fields, she could get Len to blast them both with mucus and break their holo-emitters. It would be unfair on the real Leaf Man to get burnt, but at least it would be proof.

  Seeing as she couldn’t do that … ‘I’m going to shoot you both. Then I can get Tom, and let him work out who’s who.’

  The Leaf Man on the left shook his head. ‘You wouldn’t have time. If you shot me first, Krskn there would attack you before you could do so much as blink.’

  ‘Very convincing!’ said the Leaf Man on the right. ‘You sound so sincere – yes, you’re just trying to help, aren’t you? Getting the girl to shoot me first when we both know that you’re Krskn!’

  The Leaf Man on the left shrugged. ‘She will make her own decision. I trust she can see past these holo-emitter disguises. If she’s half as smart as her mother, she already suspects which one of us is Krskn.’

  Do I? I have a feeling, but can I trust it?

  The Leaf Man on the right smiled at her. ‘Amelia,’ he said kindly.

  But Amelia had seen that smile before. On Derek’s handsome face as he passed the salted cookie to Len. In Krskn’s splendid eyes as he’d promised to kidnap her. She knew exactly what lay behind that warmth and charm.

  ‘Hello, Krskn,’ she said, pointing the containment tube at him. Now if only I knew how to fire it.

  ‘Amelia!’ He stepped back, raising his hands in surrender, his black Leaf Man eyes unblinking and expressionless. ‘Don’t waste your shot! I’m the Keeper!’

  Amelia ignored him and raised the tube, still pointing at him, until she could see it without taking her eyes off him. Was there a button somewhere?

  ‘It responds to pressure,’ said the Leaf Man on the left. He turned his head a fraction to the side, almost like he was listening for something. ‘When you’ve decided on your target, just squeeze it hard and the containment field will deploy.’

  When I decide on my target? she puzzled. Haven’t I already decided? I know which one’s Krskn – what’s to decide?

  Leaf Man on the right saw her confusion and seized his opportunity. ‘You see? He’s let slip the truth by accident! He knows you should shoot him, not me!’

  Amelia, knowing she was risking everything, looked away from Leaf Man on the right and looked long and hard at Leaf Man on the left instead.

  ‘That’s right!’ said Leaf Man on the right. ‘Shoot him – save yourself!’

  I don’t want to save myself, thought Amelia. I want to save everyone. The Keeper would understand that. She hesitated, not knowing where to point the tube.

  Leaf Man on the left nodded, and said quietly, ‘He’s a liar, you know. Cruel, selfish, greedy and a shameless liar. But he’s right about one thing: you should shoot me.’

  What?

  Was this some sort of weird double-bluff? Or did he really mean it? If he was the Keeper, then for some reason she couldn’t see, he was asking Amelia to shoot him. And if he wasn’t the Keeper … Well, she’d be happy to shoot Krskn.

  Amelia knew that if she got this wrong, they would all be prisoners or slaves, or worse, on the other side of the galaxy by this time tomorrow.

  She wavered, unable to untangle what should happen next.

  Leaf Man on the left’s head turned to the side again – and again, it was almost as if he could hear something Amelia couldn’t. His tone was urgent, but his blank white face gave nothing away. ‘You need to choose now. Please. Shoot me.’

  She did.

  As soon as she squeezed the tube, she knew she’d got it wrong. She wanted to take back her decision even as the blast of white gel shot out toward the Leaf Man on the left. Before she had time to blink, a huge transparent bubble had engulfed his whole body.

  Her hand shook, still nervously holding the silver tube.

  From her right, a fluid black shape swarmed over her. A tail curled around her legs and pulled against them, spinning her around violently. For a moment she was dizzy and confused, and the next thing she knew she was alone on the stone floor and the tube was gone.

  ‘Brilliant work, Amelia my love!’ said Krskn. ‘Masterful!’

  She looked up and watched as he shot her point blank.

  The containment field thumped into her, and she fell back, waiting for the pain as she hit the ground with her head. Instead, there was only a warm, rolling sensation of being inside the bubble – as if she’d fallen inside a jumping castle. She was trapped like the rest of them. There they were – Krskn’s seven captives, like ships in bottles. She wanted to be sick, but she knew she’d only have to stand in it, like poor Len in his froth.

  Krskn danced on the chamber floor, gloating over his victory.

  ‘Oh, Amelia,’ Krskn sang, his voice melodious, but so hateful and greasy too. And Amelia could hear every word. Although the bubbles muffled any sound made inside, Krskn’s taunting outside was coming through loud and clear.

  ‘What a perfect, pitiful little fool you are – and I’m so grateful to you! The great Keeper of the Gates and Ways neutralised by an idiot child. It’s so delicious, Amelia, I’m going to make you a promise. Really! I promise,’ he laid a claw over his muscular chest, ‘that when we get to Absin Delta, I’ll make sure I sell you to someone who wants a pet, and not pet food!’

  He laughed heartily and turned to Leaf Man. ‘You disgraceful invertebrate! You snivelling waste of carbon! If I had even half your powers, do you think I’d –’

  But Leaf Man wasn’t listening. At least, he wasn’t listening to Krskn. But Amelia saw he was concentrating on something. Then she heard it, too – a deep, gargling roll of thunder, like being caught under a giant dumper in the surf, like –

  Leaf Man nodded quietly, and the huge metal door Amelia, Charlie and Lady Naomi had earlier walked through dropped closed, sealing them all in with Krskn. That thundering sound deepened, and then –

  Water blasted into the chamber from all directions – seawater crashing up through the slatted rock floor, and a black torrent rushing down the tunnel from the gateway. It was open.

  Amelia panicked, and saw Charlie and Len thrashing in their bubbles too. Grawk was barking, and when the waters hit, Krskn was thrown to the ground by the sheer force of the onslaught. The water level was rising so quickly, it would be over their heads in less than a second.

  She took in a huge gulp of air, then another, petrified, helpless. Would the bubble hold her underwater while she drowned? And then she looked again at Len’s slime – none of that had leaked out. The containment fields were waterproof. Although the sound could get in, the water was kept out. Better yet, without anyone operating the guiding strings, the bubbles were all fixed in place. Even as Krskn was being dashed against a pillar by the water’s momentum, the seven prisoners were totally safe. It was like being in their own tiny underwater observatories.

  Amelia watched as Krskn recovered from his collision. The water had completely filled the chamber now, so the currents were lessening.

  A crocodile can hold its breath for fifteen minutes. It can stay underwater for up to two hours, if it’s not stressed– how long can Krskn survive before he drowns? She looked around for the containment tube. He has salamander skin – hopefully the saltwater will burn him up, same as it would Len …

  But Krskn showed no signs of distress. His long tail drove him through the water like an eel, and he was swimming straight for her – his claws stretched out, his mouth split into a grin, and those red eyes locked onto the guiding string dangling beneath her feet. He turned his head, and she saw that gills had opened along his neck.

  He doesn’t even need to hold his breath! He’s probably more dangerous underwater than he was on dry land! And it’s me he’s angry with.

  But as Krskn reached for the string, the entire chamber was
hit by a shock wave, and he faltered. In that split second, Amelia realised the tremor must have come from the gateway. It was still open. And there was nothing between this chamber and the gateway itself.

  Amelia remembered the fear in Tom’s face when he’d had to walk down the stairs to the gateway the day that Grawk had arrived. And that was after the wormhole had passed and the gateway had closed. He’d told them that the gateway was never safe, that anything could come through, that they could be sucked into the Nowhere and lost forever.

  And if she’d had any doubt that Tom was telling the truth, the flash of alarm in Krskn’s eyes convinced her otherwise.

  He lashed his tail again, reaching for the string of Amelia’s bubble. It was almost in his hand when a deep, juddering noise boomed through the waters, and a flurry of bubbles rushed out from the gateway tunnel. Instead of grabbing the string, Krskn turned his head to look. It was that hesitation which saved Amelia, because the same moment, all the water was sucked back out of the cavern.

  It was unimaginably violent. Even faster than the chamber had flooded, the water was torn away – and by a force far greater than Earth’s gravity or the caves’ intense magnetism. This was the vacuum of space itself, or not space – the terrible wrenching power unleashed when space was twisted open.

  Krskn was nothing to this power. Amelia saw one last glimpse of his beautiful red eyes wide with horror before he was dragged away by the current and vanished through the gateway.

  It was James and Tom who got them all out of the containment fields. They couldn’t find Krskn’s silver containment tube; it had probably been sucked through the gateway with him. And without that, Tom couldn’t just reverse the fields and set them free instantly. Instead, he had a long consultation with Control while James paced around the empty chamber, wordlessly examining the glassed rooms, the glowing spheres, the size of the vaulted ceiling above them. Every now and then he just shook his head.

  When Tom got back, he was carrying a big bottle of white vinegar and a bag of salt.

  ‘We have to erode the fields manually,’ Amelia heard him say.

  ‘Huh?’ James stopped studying the carvings on the pillar closest to Amelia, and turned.

  Tom handed him an old rag. ‘You add vinegar, sprinkle on salt, and scrub until the membrane wears away.’

  Len frothed and foamed anew in his field. Understandably, he was very unhappy about the prospect of being saved with salt and vinegar. James, on the other hand, was equally wary about bursting a bubble filled with toxic green mucus, so in the end Tom had to work on Len, while James started on Amelia.

  It was the nicest time she’d spent with her brother in ages. She sat cross-legged on the floor of her prison, unable to talk back, while James, still sore and swollen from the burns, chatted away to her as he rubbed salt into the bubble. She could tell he was embarrassed by what had happened that night. It took him ages to meet her eye, but it didn’t matter. He was working hard to cheer her up. He was taking care of his little sister, just like he would have done a year ago, before things went so wrong with him.

  When he had finally worn a hole big enough for Amelia to crawl through, she hugged him tightly.

  ‘It’s so good to see you, James,’ she said, and she knew he understood what she meant.

  Then Tom limped past, handed her a rag, and told her to get to work on Charlie’s bubble.

  One by one, everyone was set free – except for Dad, who was still stuck to the wall of the shed above ground. And Lady Naomi, who still had tar over her face …

  ‘Kerosene and butter,’ said Tom, patting Lady Naomi on the shoulder. ‘Although apparently it will take a couple of hours to dissolve.’

  ‘I can’t believe we won!’ Charlie shrieked. ‘I can’t believe Leaf Man was the hero! I can’t believe I’m alive!’

  Charlie was so happy, he even romped around with Grawk. They raced each other from one end of the chamber to the other, weaving in and out of the pillars, Charlie whooping with joy. Amelia laughed, but rather than joining in, she looked around for Leaf Man.

  He’d disappeared.

  ‘We didn’t even say thank you!’ said Amelia.

  Tom didn’t want to talk about it. ‘If he wanted to hang out and group hug with you all, he’d still be here, wouldn’t he?’

  Mum kissed the top of Amelia’s head. ‘You’ll see him again.’

  Amelia yawned and leaned into Mum. As the adrenalin faded away, she realised how exhausted she was. And how cold. She felt as though she could sleep for a week. No, scratch that – she felt as though she could eat an entire chocolate cake and then sleep for a week. Her stomach gurgled. Yeah, she was starving.

  But it wasn’t over yet: they still had to walk back along all those long, dark tunnels and up those stairs to get to the hotel. After everything they’d been through, they weren’t even home yet.

  To Amelia’s surprise, the walk home turned out to be fun. It was a much shorter journey when they were heading back to safety rather than down into danger, and when they could talk and laugh together. Mum hadn’t seen glowing lichens in the tunnel she’d followed Krskn along, and she was as delighted as Amelia by the pink grotto.

  James walked more slowly at the back of the group, keeping Len company as he inched along. The sandy ground was extremely hard work for his soft slug belly, especially as he’d already used up a lot of his slime, but James encouraged him with descriptions of all the lettuce and baby spinach they would give him in the hotel.

  Amelia looked over her shoulder at the two of them, and nudged Mum.

  Mum smiled. ‘I knew he’d get it in the end. It took longer than Dad and I thought, but he got there!’

  It also took Tom longer than he thought to free Dad from the binding tar in the meter shed. The sun was up and already getting hot before Tom finally limped back to the hotel with Dad half-draped over his shoulders. He was trying to walk by himself, but a whole night standing upright and immobile had left his legs rather wobbly. The tar still clung in chunks to his clothes, and he was white with fatigue, but he grinned when he saw Amelia running over the grass toward him.

  ‘Cookie!’

  She wrapped her arms around him, at last giving him the hug she’d missed out on the night before.

  ‘Tom has been telling me how amazing you were. You and Charlie. Even James!’

  Amelia looked sideways at Tom. She had her doubts that he’d said any such thing.

  Tom just grunted. ‘Can you make your own way back to the hotel from here? I’ve got things to do.’ And without waiting for an answer, he shrugged off Dad’s arm and turned to stump off down the hill again.

  Dad staggered a bit and Amelia rushed to put her arms around him. He just laughed. ‘Good old Tom. He was impressed, you know. And even if he didn’t say it quite like that, I’m saying it now. You were a star last night, kiddo.’

  The praise was warm and genuine, but Amelia didn’t feel like a star. What had happened last night was far too complicated for that. What she did feel, though, was happy. Truly and simply happy.

  A flock of cockatoos flew across the blue sky, screeching outrageously. Far below them, the surf pounded against the foot of the headland. And in between, standing on the grass in the sunshine, was her whole family: Dad with his arm around her, Mum and James talking intensely together by the rose garden, and Charlie squirming to get away as his mum smothered him in yet another weeping bear hug.

  ‘Mum!’

  Mary crooned over him in Greek, but Charlie had had enough.

  ‘I know! You’ve said it a million times!’

  He struggled out of her arms. ‘But if you really loved me, you’d stop hugging me and get me some toast!’

  Amelia laughed. ‘And me! I could eat a whole loaf!’

  ‘Two loaves!’ James threw in. ‘And then I’m going to bed until July.’

  ‘Actually,’ Mary said, ‘you might have forgotten – we still have fifty guests in the hotel.’

  Amelia sighed. It was tru
e. While they’d been down in the caves struggling with Krskn, Mary had been sitting up in the library waiting for each hysterical Scout to calm down enough to make their way back to shelter. Human and Lellum alike, they’d all eventually crept back and were now spread out on the floor of the library, sleeping off the terror of the night before.

  ‘What are we going to say when they wake up?’ Amelia asked.

  ‘I doubt we’ll have to say anything,’ said Mum. ‘The Lellum know exactly what was going on last night, and once they see Len is safe, they’ll save all their questions for the Keeper when he comes back to escort them through the gateway.’

  ‘But what about the humans?’

  Mum raised an eyebrow and smiled. ‘What did they really see? A boy with an allergic reaction, a smashed window – nothing so very peculiar. In fact, the only really strange part about last night was how they all behaved, but even that will probably make sense to them – once they find out they spent the night in Australia’s most haunted hotel.’

  Amelia laughed. ‘That’s so mean! You’re going to let them think the broken window and the screams were because of ghosts?’

  ‘Are you kidding?’ Mum laughed back. ‘This will be the stuff of Scouting legend! They’ll tell this story at every campfire for the rest of their lives! And for once, it’ll be a true story – more or less.’

  They made their way wearily up to the hotel steps. Then Amelia’s dad spied the library annexe window.

  ‘Oh, no!’ he groaned. ‘Not more broken glass – we just replaced every window in the kitchen.’

  Amelia laughed out loud. What a brilliant day when a broken window was all they had to worry about. Grawk bumped against her leg, and together they all went into the hotel. Home.

  Amelia and Charlie panted as they ran. There had been some kind of crisis at the hotel that morning – the phone had been ringing and ringing long before dawn, and between each call, Dad and Mum kept having this hurried, whispered discussion. By the time the sun was up, it felt like everyone had been awake for hours. In fact, when Charlie’s mum Mary had looked at the clock and screeched, ‘You’re twenty minutes late!’ Amelia was surprised it wasn’t already lunchtime.