“No way,” said Simon. “She deserves what she gets.”
“I don’t get you, Simon Binkle,” said Amanda.
“I don’t see why,” he said. “I’m completely transparent.”
“Hey,” said Clive. “Are we going or not?”
“Not without us,” said Ivy, entering with Nigel.
Amanda did a brief head and paw count. Yep. They’d all fit in Liam’s Volvo.
“Let’s roll,” said Simon.
Liam didn’t say a word on the way. He just clenched the steering wheel and kept his eyes straight ahead. At one point Simon opened his mouth to say something, but Amanda, who was sitting with him in the backseat, kicked him and he shut it again.
When they arrived at the dig site they ducked under the yellow tape and made their way to the hidden chamber. It looked untouched. Amanda could detect no new footprints or any other sign that the public had breached security. Good, though she was still unclear about how the history machine would work.
“How are you going to be able to tell what happened before something else?” she said.
“Strength of the signal,” said Simon, handing the machine to Clive and tiptoeing into the room. “It works like carbon dating. I can calculate the rate of decay and work backwards to see how long the signals have been fading.”
“Genius,” said Clive, examining the device.
“I know,” said Simon, looking this way and that.
“What about objects?” said Ivy. She and Nigel had taken up a position right across from the room. Nigel was wagging his tail, which was hitting Ivy’s leg.
“What about them?” said Simon, his voice muffling as he turned away.
“Can you tell how long they’ve been here?” she said.
“I can track when they’ve been moved,” said Simon. “That should be a reasonable indicator.”
“So you can see when they were put into the room,” said Amanda, petting Nigel. He wagged even harder.
“Yep.”
“But if the jars were put into the chest before the chest was moved into the room, you couldn’t tell when that happened?” said Ivy.
“Correcto,” said Simon. “I can only tell what’s happened within range of the motion sensor.”
“Can you tell when something has been removed?” said Ivy.
“Yes, if it happened while the motion sensor was here,” said Simon.
“So what you’re saying is that you’ll be able to tell what happened recently, but not in Arthur’s time,” said Amanda. “I guess that’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”
“For now that’s the case,” said Simon. “I’m hoping to come up with a new version that can see way back in time.”
“Awesome,” said Clive.
“What’s the range?” said Amanda. “I mean in distance, not in time obviously.”
“Not that big,” said Simon. “But enough to pick up anything that’s happened in this room.”
“Cool,” said Clive.
“I wish Gordon were here,” said Ivy out of the blue.
“What?” said Amanda. “Whatever for?”
“I don’t know,” said Ivy. “He’d enjoy this.”
“You’re unbelievable,” said Amanda. “You miss David Wiffle’s best friend, the one who tormented us every day for months?”
“He’s changed,” said Ivy. “And he did save my life. Remember?”
That he had. When Ivy, who was allergic to bees, had been stung, Gordon had known exactly what to do. While Amanda and Fern had run around in circles, he’d made a poultice for her, which helped suck the venom out of the wound and kept her alive until the ambulance had arrived. Ever since then the friends’ relationship with him had changed. It didn’t hurt that he’d stopped hanging around with David either. Amanda could feel herself tearing up thinking of Gordon, Fern, and the rest of the prisoners of those horrible zombies.
During all this discussion, Liam had stood right outside the room, quietly watching Simon’s every move. Amanda could see that he was clenching his jaw.
“Okay, I need everyone to be quiet now,” said Simon, who had moved to a far corner of the chamber. “Here’s the motion sensor, by the way.” He pointed to a small metal device. “Hm. It would have been better if it had been in the middle, but I think this will do.”
“Why is that?” said Amanda.
“Even coverage,” said Simon.
“It will work,” said Clive.
Simon finished his survey and returned to the tunnel just outside the room. “Clive, if you please,” he said. Clive handed Simon the history machine and stepped back. “Now we see.”
“You’re going to hold it?” said Amanda.
“Yes,” said Simon.
“Won’t your vibrations throw things off? There’s a tripod in the trailer.”
“Don’t need it,” said Simon hefting the machine.
“I don’t understand,” said Amanda. Sometimes Simon was so far ahead of her she couldn’t keep up.
“It’s got error correction built in,” said Clive.
“You’re kidding,” said Ivy.
“You know I don’t kid,” said Simon.
“Me either,” said Clive, cracking up.
“Ssh,” said Simon. “Here we go.”
He held the machine up and aimed it at the motion sensor.
“There’s a storage device in the sensor?” Amanda whispered to Ivy.
“I guess so,” said Ivy. “I have no idea what he’s doing.”
“Looks like a lot of mumbo jumbo if you ask me,” said Amanda. “Why doesn’t he just take the sensor back to the lab and read it there?”
“Beats me,” said Ivy, who was trying to keep Nigel’s tail still.
“If you must know,” said Simon, shutting off the machine, “I’m reading everything in the room, getting a baseline. All right? Now can we please be quiet?”
“Sorry,” said Amanda.
Simon turned the machine on again.
“Simon, are you doing a 3D scan of the chamber?” said Amanda.
“Yes!” yelled Simon, turning off the machine again. “How else am I going to reconstruct the action?”
“Well why didn’t you say so?” said Amanda. “Now I understand.”
“I didn’t think I needed to explain that to you of all people, Amanda,” he said.
“Well you do,” she said.
“Fine,” said Simon. “Now shut up and let me finish.”
He turned the machine on again and let it do its thing. Amanda leaned over to Ivy and whispered, “The machine does a 3D scan and reads the signals from the motion sensor. Wow.”
“He’s pretty smart,” said Ivy.
“Amanda,” said Simon. “If you don’t shut up this instant I am going to come over there and kiss you.”
“Oops,” said Amanda. She didn’t say a word for the rest of the session.
When Simon had taken his data, the group adjourned to the trailer and gathered around him and his history machine.
“This isn’t going to be instant, you know,” he said.
“We just want to see,” said Clive.
Simon fooled around with the machine a bit and an image came up on its screen. It looked like a 3D representation of a scone, but only in lines.
“What is that?” said Amanda.
“What?” said Ivy.
“Simon is serving tea,” said Amanda.
“Shut up,” said Simon, studying the image.
“It’s the chamber,” said Liam. It was the first time he’d spoken since they’d left Legatum.
“Why does it look like a pastry?” said Amanda.
“It isn’t finished,” said Simon. He was obviously exasperated with her.
“Sorry,” said Amanda.
As he adjusted some controls, the scone became more detailed. More lines appeared, adding detail to the lump.
“I see the chest,” said Amanda.
“What’s happening?” said Ivy.
“Simon has reprodu
ced the chamber in lines,” said Amanda.
“Oh,” said Ivy. “That’s cool.”
After another thirty seconds the image was complete.
“You did it,” said Amanda. “That looks just like the room, except for the colors of course. You’ve even got the lighting in there.”
“I know,” said Simon. “This is exactly what I expected.”
“What now?” said Amanda.
“Now we look at the signals from the motion sensor.”
“And do what with them?”
“Amanda, would you please just give it a rest?” said Simon. “Watch and you’ll see.”
“Don’t say it, Amanda,” said Ivy.
“I wasn’t going to,” said Amanda.
“See that you don’t,” said Ivy.
For some reason at that moment, Nigel barked. Ivy reached down and petted him, and he laid down at her feet.
But there was nothing else to see. Simon twizzled some dials and pressed some buttons, but all that came up on the screen was a lot of numbers.
“Okay, we’re done,” he said.
“What do you mean done?” said Amanda. “Where are the images?”
“That, my good friend,” said Simon, “is what you’re going to do.”
Simon told Amanda that the best way to figure out what had happened in the hidden room was to see it. He wanted her to turn his data into a 3D animation as soon as possible. Then they would all get together and watch to see what had happened.
“We’re going to prove that Professor Halpin is innocent,” Simon told her. “He didn’t plant anything in there. That stuff was already there when the team discovered the room.”
“You’re sure your sensor was there early enough that it couldn’t have missed something?” she said.
“Absolutely,” said Simon. “It went in there the day we first entered the room. And Professor Halpin was in everyone’s sight from the time he first went in until the end of the day. He certainly wasn’t carrying any jars or any old manuscripts. He couldn’t have done what they’re saying.”
“Of course not,” said Amanda. “I just want to make sure our proof is airtight, so to speak.”
“Nice pun,” said Simon. “Now off you go. Let me know the minute you’ve got something.”
21
LewisCarroll23’s YouTube Channel
Amanda had still heard nothing from Darius or Nick. She was becoming convinced that Darius was just being a typical Hollywood flake and she’d see him when she saw him. As for Nick, he could do what he liked. If he was in some kind of a snit, it was his loss. She had more than enough to worry about without his interference anyway, such as the fact that the police—and Salty—hadn’t made any progress tracking down the wretches, or Blixus. Taffeta and David’s roommates had disappeared into thin air as well. And the peacocks were still doing poorly. In fact one of them had died.
Meanwhile Holmes refused to tell Amanda what he was doing with Darktower’s Sherlock Holmes videos, and Amanda didn’t ask, even though she was dying to know. She did see him huddled with Darktower in the teacher’s office, and she saw him staring at his computer screen, but that was it—until he texted her and announced that the first video was ready, would she like to see it.
She raced to meet him in the cyberforensics classroom where he hung out most of the time, and found him already there. He had rigged up some sort of a curtain in front of his screen. When she had seated herself next to him he said, “Ready?” She nodded and he pulled a little drawstring. The curtain opened and the movie started to play.
It lasted all of thirty seconds and it was brilliant. Holmes had written a little mystery, which his ancestor had managed to investigate and solve in just those few seconds. The images were stills, but the lack of action didn’t detract from the effect. The plot was clever and the message clear, if subtle. Sherlock used his brain to run rings around an ostentatious villain who sparkled and flashed while he committed crimes. It was enough to show that logic trumps magic without hitting the viewer over the head.
“Scapulus!” said Amanda. “I love it!”
“You do?” he said.
“Absolutely. It’s wonderful.”
“I’m so glad. I’m going to show it to Darktower.”
“Show what to me?” said Darktower, who had been walking by the classroom.
“The first video,” said Holmes. “It’s ready.”
Darktower clomped into the room, sucking all the air out of it. “Well play it already,” he said.
Holmes restarted the video and Darktower glowered. “Hm, blm, bluff, glip,” came out of his mouth as he watched. Amanda was worried sick that he would hate the video and do something terrible to Holmes, but when the movie stopped he said, “Post it.”
“Right now?” said Holmes.
“Do it,” said Darktower.
Holmes did as he was told, and within a couple of minutes the video had appeared on YouTube.
“Hm,” said Darktower about three seconds later. “No views yet.”
Amanda and Holmes looked at each other. Did he really think it worked that way?
“No good,” said Darktower. “Do another one.”
“Uh, okay,” said Holmes.
Then Amanda noticed something. The view statistics had started to rise. First three people had seen the video, then fifteen, then fifty, and then, right before their eyes, the number shot up to four hundred twenty-three.
“It’s working,” she said.
“Hm,” said Darktower.
“Hey,” said Holmes. “There are some comments.”
“Already?” said Amanda. “What do they say?”
Holmes scanned the page, but Darktower was faster. “About time,” he said. “They’re getting the message. Do another one.”
“Yes, sir,” said Holmes.
When Darktower had left the room Amanda said, “Do you believe this?”
“Not really,” said Holmes.
“You did a wonderful job.”
“Thanks. First-time director and all that.”
“Not anymore,” said Amanda.
The video had racked up ten thousand views by dinnertime. Amphora was going around telling everyone how brilliant her boyfriend was and taking credit for the costumes. When Amanda asked Holmes if that was true, he told her it was. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but in the end she decided it was best to be generous. She found Amphora and complimented her on her designs, which were quite good.
“I am a professional,” said Amphora. “I plan to enter myself into the Edith Head award competition. Darius could help me with that if he wanted to. I don’t understand why he hasn’t contacted me.”
“He’s just busy,” said Amanda, hoping to end the conversation.
“He shouldn’t be too busy for me,” said Amphora. “I’m going to go speak to Professor Tumble about this.”
Actually that wasn’t a bad idea. With the disguise teacher’s Hollywood connections, she might actually be able to do Amphora some good—if she cared enough to help her. The woman was rather spacy. Perhaps that was why she’d left the movie business after a glorious thirty-year career. Legatum seemed quite a comedown after that.
“Scapulus did a great job, didn’t he?” said Amanda.
“Of course he did,” said Amphora. “He’s very talented. It’s about time he got credit for it.”
That was a dig at Amanda. Amphora simply could not stand the fact that she had been credited as director on the films she and Holmes had made together. But Amanda was determined to take the high road.
“I’m glad to see that happening,” she said.
“By the way,” said Amphora. “Just in case you’re interested, Scapulus and I are going to start our own production company.”
This hit Amanda hard. It was one thing for each of them to achieve success. It was quite another for them to go into business together. Maybe that was a sign that things weren’t going to work out with Holmes after all.
“Oh
?” she croaked. “When is that going to happen?”
“Just as soon as I tell him,” said Amphora.
By bedtime Holmes’s video had received twenty thousand views and three hundred comments. Now the reception was more mixed. Supporters of Alfie Kingsolver had got the logic vs. magic message and taken to the Web to disparage the video, which, by the way, had been posted under the handle LewisCarroll23. Their remarks were so angering the Sherlock-as-superhero fans that the whole thing had gone viral, and by the morning there were a million views and fifteen thousand comments. All Amanda could do was sample them. It was difficult to tell who was winning, but it seemed that the Sherlock fans had the upper hand.
While the kids were eating breakfast, Darktower came into the dining room, shoved his tablet under Holmes’s nose, and said, “More.” Then he stomped out of the dining room, leaving a trail of black hairs behind him.
“I guess that means he’s happy,” said Holmes.
“Not too polite, is he?” said Ivy.
“Not like me,” said Simon.
“Very funny,” said Amanda.
“I don’t like him one bit,” said Amphora, “but he has given Scapulus a platform. I say we should go easy on him.”
“That’s the spirit,” said Ivy. She leaned over and whispered to Amanda, “What’s Simon doing?”
“Eating,” said Amanda. “Why?”
“Just making sure he’s keeping his promise,” said Ivy.
“What promise?”
“Not to think I’m a Goody Two-Shoes anymore.”
Ah, so that was it. Somehow the two of them had made a deal. Since all seemed peaceful between them, it looked like each was keeping up his or her end of the bargain. Good for them, Amanda thought.
Suddenly Holmes said, “Ho ho!”
“What’s up?” said Simon.
“Well,” said Holmes, thumbing his phone, “it seems that the media is jumping all over our little video. I’m seeing stories about us everywhere.”
“Let me see,” said Amanda, pulling out her phone. He was right. A quick search showed that the world was agog with news about Holmes’s movie. Not only news, however. On page one of the Guardian, New York Times, and the BBC News, was a huge interview with none other than Alfie Kingsolver, and he was not a happy camper.
Amanda Lester, Detective Box Set Page 126
