‘Don’t they realize the reindeer don’t want to be rescued?’ I asked. ‘It’s not like we mistreat them. They’re happy with us!’
‘Isn’t that the woman we were talking to?’ Gilmore cried out suddenly.
We shone the torch in the direction he was pointing at and sure enough, we spotted the red-haired lady crouching near the door at the other end of the room we had just entered. When she heard Gilmore’s cry, she looked up, turned around and broke into a run. We hurried after her and found ourselves in another corridor, but she was nowhere in sight.
‘We must be getting close,’ Bean said. ‘Let’s hurry!’
‘If we go down that corridor, we’ll reach the back door,’ Oliver pointed. Gilmore nodded since that’s where his tracking directed him too.
Suddenly we heard a deafening clang. We looked at each other in alarm and covered our ears.
‘WHAT IS THAT?’ I yelled over the noise.
‘IT SOUNDS LIKE AN ALARM!’ Oliver bellowed back. The sound echoed loudly throughout the castle. We entered the corridor with our hands clamped tightly over our ears. That’s when we saw the smoke.
‘THEY SET THE CURTAINS ON FIRE?’ I shouted in disbelief.
‘IT’S A DELAYING TACTIC!’ Bean yelled in reply. ‘WHY DO I HAVE TO MEET ALL THE CRAZY ONES?’ I roared.
Before the elves and I could start panicking, the clanging stopped.As we uncovered our ears, water cascaded into the corridor from the ceiling. Apparently, in this wet country, it even rained indoors.
‘You can thank the fire alarm for that,’ Oliver said. Sure enough, the flames on the curtains were receding before completely disappearing.
Three elves came running into the corridor, carrying a fire extinguisher between them. They looked around for the source of the fire and sighed in relief when they spotted the blackened curtains.
‘I knew that getting the entire castle up-to-date with the fire safety codes would come in handy,’ one of them said, grinning.
They deposited the extinguisher against a wall and turned to face us. Oliver explained our problem to his comrades.
‘Why don’t you just call the reindeer?’ asked one of the elves after discovering that Gilmore was the official reindeer expert. ‘Don’t you have some sort of signal?’
‘The reindeer whistle,’ Gilmore agreed. ‘But I can’t do that. They’re with humans. We can’t let them spot the animals flying back to us.’
‘Who are these humans anyway?’ one of the elves wanted to know.‘Why have they kidnapped your reindeer?’ ‘Some people from the village,’ I replied. ‘They wanted to set the animals free. They thought the reindeer looked unhappy.’
‘Is this a group led by the red-headed lass?’ Oliver asked. I nodded.
‘Oh, them! They’re animal rights extremists,’ another elf said. ‘They go around the village rescuing pet dogs too. They don’t seem to realize that if the dogs keep coming back home, it probably means they want to be there. They just go and set them loose again.’
‘You don’t have to worry about them,’ Oliver told Gilmore. ‘Everyone in the village thinks they’re crazy anyway. If they carry around tales of flying reindeer, the villagers are just going to think it’s another publicity stunt.’ ‘Oh, they carry out all sorts of stunts in the village.’ The other elf rolled her eyes.‘Go ahead and call your reindeer. Nobody’s going to believe them.’
Bean and I looked at each other. ‘Do you think we should risk it?’ I asked.
‘Definitely!’ Bean replied. ‘Go on, Gilmore. Call them so we can get out of here.’
The rear entrance of the castle was right in front of us with its door wide open, spilling sunlight into the hallway. Once we walked out to the backyard, Gilmore removed a bright yellow whistle that was tied to a string around his neck. He blew it hard three times but it made no sound.
‘Is it broken?’ I asked.
‘It can only be heard by reindeer,’ Gilmore replied, looking up at the sky.
I followed his gaze to see eight reindeer flying towards us. They landed in front of us with a thump and I could swear they looked really happy to be back. They nuzzled against all of us, even giving Coral a lick that messed up his hair.
We walked around the castle and hurried to the sleigh in the front yard. We quickly harnessed the reindeer to the sleigh, said our goodbyes to Oliver and his friends and took off before anything else could happen.
18
Bean’s list of things to do in Mumbai:
1. Ride the local train during rush hour (‘The trains are so crowded that people have to push you in and push you out! How fun!’)
2. Fish at Powai lake (‘We might find more crocodiles than fish there, but what’s life without a little risk?’)
3. Travel in a ferry (‘Someone fell off the boat and into the water once!’)
4. Dance as an extra in a Bollywood film (‘We’ll be famous!’)
5. Sample the city’s street food (‘Only five people got food poisoning!’)
By the time we reached India, Gilmore, Coral and I were tired and cranky. The last few days had been way more eventful than we had bargained for and now all we wanted to do was go home. But we still had two more factories to visit. We were not a happy crew.
My mood wasn’t helped by Avery’s radio call. He wanted to exchange progress reports, but the only progress he had made was that we now knew all the places Dad wasn’t in.
Bean tried to cheer us up by looking up things to do in the city. I don’t know what exactly she looked for on Google, but her list looked like it was written by and for someone suicidal. Do normal forms of recreation involve bloodthirsty reptiles?
‘At least this will be an easy job,’ Bean said comfortingly. ‘All we have to do is drop in to say hi, convince them that everything is under control, maybe grab a quick nap and then make our way to Australia!’
‘The faster we get out of there, the faster we can get home,’ Gilmore said grumpily.
By the time we reached the factory in Mumbai, it was nighttime. The city, however, didn’t seem to be asleep. Most areas were quiet, but there were still more people and vehicles about than you would see on an average North Pole day.
As we were flying over the city, Bean pointed out the factory to us. Unlike all the other factories we had been to so far, the Mumbai one was in a fifteen-floor building.
‘Does the factory take up all those floors?’ I gaped in astonishment.
‘It’s Santa’s largest factory,’ Bean nodded. ‘You need a factory that size for the world’s most populated continent.’
‘We have a problem,’ Gilmore informed us. ‘There’s no place to park the sleigh.’
‘There’s plenty of place!’ Bean objected. She pointed to the streets. ‘That space is completely empty.’
‘We can’t park the sleigh in the middle of the road!’
‘What about there?’
‘We can’t park the sleigh on top of another car!’
They finally decided to park the sleigh on the terrace of the building next to the factory.
‘Why can’t we just land on the factory’s terrace?’ I asked.
‘Imagine uninvited guests landing in your living room!’ Gilmore exclaimed. ‘Entering an elf factory without being invited in is just as rude.’
The building next door was even taller than the factory. The reindeer landed on its roof and the elves and I walked out of the terrace into the building. We looked around for the elevator to ferry us down when we got an unpleasant shock.
‘What kind of skyscraper has an elevator that doesn’t work?’ I cried.
After exploring the rest of the floor we were on, we realized three things.
1) We were in an office building that had shut down for the night.
2) It had four elevators, all of which were also shut down for the night.
3) Which meant that we had to climb down twenty flights of stairs.
‘How much further?’ I panted, after what felt like a trek down
Mount Everest.
‘Seven more floors to go,’ Bean replied, sounding infuriatingly cheery. She really seemed to thrive in terrible situations.
I looked at Gilmore to see how he was holding up, but he didn’t even have the energy to return my glance.
By the time we got to the ground floor, even Bean was exhausted.All of us collapsed at the foot of the stairs and lay sprawled out on the floor. None of us could speak. When I finally got my breath back, I sat up and looked at the elves.
‘Wait a minute,’ I said slowly. ‘Where’s Coral?’
Bean and Gilmore sat up and looked around. Before they could reply, we heard a soft humming noise. The source of the sound was explained a minute later when the elevator to our left lit up the dark corridor. The doors opened and out stepped the missing elf.
‘What?’ I said.
‘How?’ Gilmore spluttered.
‘I am clearly the only one competent enough to lead this foolish quest,’ Coral replied coolly. ‘If you imbeciles would have stopped to think, you would have realized that someone who could convince a bunch of hooligans that a factory was haunted could easily get an elevator to start working again.’
‘Why didn’t you tell us?’ I yelled as Bean and Gilmore stared at him in outrage. In reply, Coral smirked and walked out the door. I resisted the urge to throw something at his head and followed him out.
We walked into the factory’s walled compound and saw that the building’s windows were still lit up. A human stood guard at the entrance.
‘We have an appointment with the chiefs,’ I lied confidently.
The guard led us inside with the air of having had to deal with a lot of strange requests at odd hours. We entered a reception area filled with potted plants. An elf-receptionist was sitting at the counter, her face lit by the glow of the computer screen she was peering into. The room was silent except for the click-clack of the keyboard as she typed furiously. Her nametag identified her as Tanya. The guard coughed. She looked up and noticed our motley group.
‘I’ll take it from here,’ she nodded at the guard. He turned around and returned to his post.
Tanya looked at us quizzically.
‘This is Bean, Gilmore and Coral,’ I said pointing at them. ‘They’re elves from the North Pole. And I’m Noel. Noel Claus. I’m Santa’s daughter.’
She hurriedly typed something into her computer and looked back at us. ‘I don’t have any of your names down,’ she said, sounding slightly annoyed. ‘Why are you here?’
‘We’re here to meet the factory’s chief elves,’ I said.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, not sounding sorry at all. ‘But that’s impossible. You need an appointment. They’re very busy.’ ‘Under the current circumstances, I think they’re going to want to meet Santa’s daughter,’ Bean said.‘Appointment or no appointment.’
‘And what circumstances would those be exactly?’ the receptionist asked blankly.
‘Um, the circumstances where Christmas is three days away and my father is still missing?’ I said. I couldn’t believe how oblivious she was.
‘Just a moment,’ Tanya said, without batting an eyelid. She picked up the telephone in front of her, dialled a number and tapped her polished fingernails against the wooden countertop.
‘Sir, there are three elves and a human girl here to meet you,’ Tanya spoke into the phone. ‘It seems to be urgent.’ She paused. ‘No, they don’t have an appointment . . . yes, I told them how busy you . . . they’re from the North Pole and the girl says she’s Santa’s daughter . . . yes . . . I see.’
She hung up and walked out from behind her desk. ‘Follow me,’ she said and led us to a glass-walled room to the right. It had a large wooden table at its centre and sixteen chairs around it.
‘Please wait here,’ Tanya instructed us. She stepped out of the room and returned with four cups of tea. ‘The chiefs should be with you shortly.’ She turned and walked out of the room again.
For a couple of minutes, none of us spoke. The silence was broken only when Bean knocked over her cup and spilled tea all over Gilmore. She used one of her scarves to mop it up and began to apologize as Gilmore sighed resignedly.
‘Aren’t elf factories supposed to be more . . . festive?’ I sipped my tea and looked around the bland conference room. Judging from the parts we had seen, it didn’t feel like Christmas here at all. There wasn’t even a stray piece of wrapping paper to hint at the building’s true purpose. It looked like a boringly regular office.
‘All too corporate for my taste,’ Gilmore said. He seemed even more bewildered than I was at the factory’s distinct lack of Christmas spirit. Even Tanya, in her grey skirt and neatly tucked in black blouse, had been dressed too normally by elf standards.
Just as Bean opened her mouth to reply, a group of elves marched into the room. All four of them wore identical suits and grim expressions.
‘Impostors!’ one of the female elves shouted.‘Who are you and what do you want?’
‘What?’ I asked, confused.‘I’m Santa’s daughter. These are—’
‘Don’t lie to us, girl!’ another elf interrupted angrily. ‘If you were Santa’s daughter, you would be out looking for him instead of visiting our factory and pretending to be someone you’re not.’
‘My brother is looking for Dad!’ I protested. ‘And why would I lie about who I am?’
‘Because you want us to trust you and give you control of the factory,’ a third elf snapped. ‘That’s not something Santa’s daughter would do.’
‘But I am Santa’s daughter!’ I exclaimed. ‘And I don’t want your factory!’
‘Prove it,’ a fourth elf challenged me.‘How many Santas have there been throughout history? Name them all in chronological order.’
‘That’s a ridiculous question!’ I cried. ‘How does that prove anything?’
‘What kind of Santa’s daughter doesn’t know her family history?’ the female elf questioned in reply.
‘Me!’
‘If Santa leaves the North Pole on Tuesday and doesn’t get to North America until Friday, what would he be doing on the two missing days?’ another elf asked.
‘How am I supposed to know that?’ I asked.
‘You’re allegedly his daughter,’ the elf said mockingly. ‘You should know what your father would do.’
‘What kind of sandman would Santa make?’ the second elf asked.
‘You’re a bigger bag of nuts than the elves back home,’ I decided.
‘Ha!’ the elf cried triumphantly. ‘Which only proves you don’t know the answer.’
‘Of course I don’t know the answer!’ I exclaimed. ‘That question doesn’t even make sense!’
‘Oh stop it, all of you,’ Bean interrupted the lunacy. She took out her laptop and pulled up a photograph. It was a family picture where Dad and Mom were standing in front of a Christmas tree with Xander, Avery and me sitting around them.
‘This is the Christmas card Santa sent out to all the elves last year,’ Bean said. ‘Does the daughter look familiar?’
The group of four elves looked closely at the photograph and back at me. They then huddled in a group, whispered furiously for a minute and turned around to face us. One of the elves hurried out of the room.
‘We believe you’re Santa’s daughter,’ the female elf said.
‘Glad we got that sorted out.’ I rolled my eyes.‘Can we get on to more important things now?’
The missing elf returned with three guards, one of whom we had met earlier. ‘Seize them!’ he cried. ‘Lock them in my office and make sure they don’t escape!’
‘Wait, what?’ I was a little confused. ‘I thought you realized I’m Santa’s daughter.’
‘Oh, we did,’ the female elf replied. ‘We also realized that you’re trying to dethrone your own father by staging a coup. We cannot let that happen.’
She turned to the men standing at the entrance. ‘Guards!’ she barked. ‘Take them away!’
And before we
could open our mouths to object, that’s exactly what they did.
19
Things that would have been more outrageous than being accused of taking advantage of my missing father to take over his Christmas empire:
Nothing!
‘I can’t believe this!’ I raged. ‘We’re being held prisoners because these crazy elves won’t trust us!’
‘I knew they were getting paranoid without any word from the North Pole, but this is ridiculous,’ Gilmore said glumly.
‘I am being punished for something I have not done yet!’ Coral said indignantly.
‘They took away my laptop!’ Bean wailed. ‘We can’t finish this mission without it!’
‘We cannot finish your precious mission while we are trapped in this room either,’ Coral replied.
I started banging the locked door and yelled, ‘Let us out of here!’
The elves followed my lead. We made so much noise that the four chief elves returned with their guards. ‘Stop this ruckus!’ the female elf demanded. ‘Can’t you just sit quietly and think about what you’ve done?’
‘But we haven’t done anything!’ Gilmore answered. ‘If you knew who I was, you wouldn’t be questioning my loyalty to Santa.’
‘You’re from the North Pole,’ another elf said scornfully. ‘That’s all we need to know.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Gilmore asked.
‘It means that just because you Pole elves have decided to abandon Santa and join this young upstart doesn’t mean we’re going to let you get away with it,’ the elf replied.
Gilmore spluttered incoherently.
‘I want my laptop back!’ Bean yelled. ‘You’re not only a bunch of paranoid fools, but you’re also rotten thieves!’
‘You’re not getting it back,’ the female elf said. ‘It’s being checked by our tech department. We know you have top-secret files in there. They will prove you’re all traitors!’
‘You do not know what you are talking about, you illiterate goons,’ Coral interjected. ‘These simpletons are not capable of double-crossing anyone. As for me, I am a better elf than all four of you combined and I will not be treated like a common criminal.’
When Santa Went Missing Page 10
