by Petra James
‘What’s a game?’ said Arkie. ‘This isn’t a game to me.’
‘Or me,’ said TJ. ‘Although I do like games.’
‘I know it isn’t, Arkie,’ said Edie, ‘but to Sebastian, it’s all about the next challenge and upping the stakes. He was just like this as a child.’ She looked at the compass closely. ‘SOS is an international signal for HELP, TJ, but it also stands for Septimus Octavius Sparkle.’
‘Who?’ said TJ.
‘My great-grandfather,’ said Arkie. ‘He’s the only relative Dad has told me about.’
‘Probably because Septimus’s story is very well known,’ said Edie. ‘He was one of the greatest treasure hunters of the twentieth century. He joined another famous explorer, Colonel Percy Fawcett, on several of his expeditions to the Amazon, searching for the famed city of gold.’
‘Gold,’ breathed TJ.
‘Yes, gold,’ said Edie. ‘Lust for gold has fuelled generations of treasure seekers, ever since the Spanish conquistadors saw the gold temples in the New World. They heard rumours of an ancient civilization as great as the Aztecs and the Incas, hidden deep in the Amazon jungle. Explorers have searched for this city for hundreds of years. Colonel Fawcett called it “The Lost City of Z”.’
‘Why Z?’ said Arkie.
‘Maybe the last letter of the alphabet, the most obscure in many ways, the letter that is used least in the English language – maybe, to him, this captured the essence of this legendary, elusive city. Septimus was supposed to join Colonel Fawcett on his expedition into the Amazon in 1925, but he was too sick. The Colonel, his son and his son’s best friend left without him, and were never seen again. The jungle has kept secret their fate.’
‘But Septimus died in the jungle too,’ said Arkie. ‘We had to do a project on one of our ancestors last year for school and Dad gave me Septimus’s treasure hunter’s notebook to read. I’ve still got it.’
‘Excellent,’ said Edie. ‘That might prove useful.’
‘What happened to Septimus?’ said TJ.
‘As soon as he could, he mounted his own expedition into the jungle, following the Colonel’s route,’ said Edie. ‘And just like the Colonel, he disappeared. But his notebook was found and returned to the family.’
As Edie’s words echoed in her head, Arkie turned the compass over and over in her hand. She felt an indent on the side of it. She pushed it in and a small panel slid open in the front. ‘There’s a note hidden in here,’ she said, ‘but it’s jammed in tight. I’ll need some tweezers to get it out.’
‘Tweezers to hand,’ said TJ, giving her a pair from the kitchen drawer.
Arkie extracted the note and spread it out on the table.
‘I can’t read it,’ she said. ‘It’s in some kind of funny language.’
Edie leaned over next to her. ‘Ha,’ she said. ‘It’s in Pig Latin.’
‘Pig Latin?’ said Arkie.
‘It’s a made-up language that used to be popular when we were kids,’ said Edie. ‘Ted, Sebastian and I spoke it all the time when we wanted to have secret conversations. We were fast and fluent in it. It used to drive Dad crazy. The rules are easy really: you just take the first consonant, or the first consonant cluster of the word, move it to the end, and then add “ay”.’
‘But what if the word doesn’t start with a consonant?’ said Arkie. ‘Like “Arkie”. My name starts with a vowel.’
‘Then you just add “way” at the end of the word,’ said Edie.
‘So Arkie is: “Arkieway”’ said Arkie.
‘And TJ is TJAY?’ said TJ.
‘Esyay,’ said Edieway.
‘So can you read this note, Edie?’ said Arkie.
‘I’m a bit rusty – it’s been years since I last spoke it – but I’ll try,’ said Edie, putting on her tortoise-shell glasses and picking up the note.
‘I’ll be your scribe,’ said TJ, ready with a notepad. ‘Speakers of Latin in the Roman Empire always had scribes.’
Edie read the note aloud slowly in Pig Latin:
‘Andway … atthay … eansmay?’ aidsay Arkieway, owlyslay.
Edie replied haltingly:
‘I guess that means me,’ said Edie, looking up from the note. ‘I haven’t been eleven for a while. But how did Sebastian know I’d be here? I didn’t even know myself.’
Arkie’s face fell. No Edie? But how can we discover the Lost City of Z without Edie? We need her.
‘You can do this, Arkie,’ said Edie, seeing her panic. ‘You’ve been on four treasure hunts already without me. You and TJ have solved all the clues on your own and found the treasures.’
‘That’s right,’ said TJ. ‘It’s just another treasure-hunting day for us.’
But it’s not, is it? thought Arkie. It’s the fifth hunt. Each hunt is becoming more and more important.
She thought of the boy on Junior Genius who got all the way to DELTA level and then got the very last question wrong.
That could be me, she thought. We’re getting closer and closer to Mum and Dad but they could still be so far away.
‘Every treasure hunter doubts themselves at some stage,’ said Edie, tucking a strand of Arkie’s hair behind her ears. ‘And doubt is good. It keeps you sharp. It keeps you looking closely at every single detail, taking a 360-degree approach to every problem.’
Some problems have more than one angle.
‘Take Septimus’s notebook with you,’ said Edie. ‘Knowing that he was there too might make you feel less lonely.’ She paused. ‘But don’t underestimate the jungle. It’s dangerous, unpredictable and treacherous. It can drive you mad. Don’t do anything risky and check in with me as often as you can. And if you’re not back by tomorrow afternoon, I’m coming after you.’
‘But you can’t,’ said Arkie. ‘The small but important print said —’
‘I don’t care what it said,’ said Edie. ‘I’m here now and I’m not going to let Sebastian endanger you. And while you’re in the Amazon, I’m going to contact some people – people who might know where Sebastian is. If we can find Sebastian, we will find Ted and Martha.’
Arkie smiled at Edie. Maybe everything will be okay, after all.
‘And now it’s time to sleep – at least for a few hours,’ said Edie. ‘You’ve got a big day tomorrow.’
‘And I’ve still got to pack,’ said TJ. ‘We’ll need extra special clothes for this treasure hunt: clothes that are insect repellent, humidifying, waterproof and practical, yet still have a certain jungle chic. This could be my most challenging sartorial assignment yet.’
gold gold gold gold gold gold
It was nearly 5 o’clock in the morning, and Arkie was tossing and turning. Thoughts of golden temples, lost cities and explorers hacking through the jungle were strangling her sleep.
She switched on the light and picked up Septimus’s notebook, opening it at one of the entries Septimus had written to his wife.
Arkie closed the notebook and turned out the light.
Septimus was waiting for the morning too, she thought, as she lay in the dark, staring at the ceiling.
Waiting, like me, to begin the most dangerous journey of our lives.
TJ’s Style File
Jungle Tumble
Arkie was still thinking about the Lost City of Z as BLUR sped across the globe to South America and the Amazon – the largest rainforest in the world.
She thought about Colonel Fawcett and Septimus Sparkle and all the explorers before and after them – driven by dreams of gold.
Obsession can be dangerous, her mother had once said to her. The worth of something, Arkie, is the value you place on it.
Arkie repeated the last line of the clue in her head: But who is willing to pay the cost? It sounded like a warning. I’ve got such a bad feeling about this hunt already, she thought. And we haven’t even started.
‘If our plan is to follow in the footsteps of Septimus,’ said TJ, interrupting her thoughts, ‘we need to head for what is now part of the Xingu Natio
nal Park in the Mato Grosso state in Brazil. According to DATAMAX, that’s where both the Colonel and Septimus were last seen.’
‘Copy that, Tango Juliet,’ said Arkie, looking at the map on BLUR’s console. ‘A lot of the rainforest has been cleared but the jungle here is still really dense. “Mato Grosso” means “thick bush” in Portuguese. So we’ll have to use the PP – the Parabrella Plunge.’
‘What’s that?’ said TJ. ‘Another Quincy invention?’
‘It was one of the last things he invented before he disappeared,’ said Arkie. ‘It’s a targeted landing sequence, with pinpoint accuracy, especially for use in crowded areas. We’ve only used it once before. When we landed in the middle of some nesting penguins.’
‘Quincy thinks of absolutely everything,’ said TJ. ‘I want to be just like him when I grow up. Did Edie say anything about him?’
‘She hasn’t heard from him either,’ said Arkie. ‘She’s as confused as we are.’
‘But at least we’re 99.9999 percent sure now that Sebastian is the likely kidnapper,’ said TJ, ‘so we are making progress.’
‘I guess,’ said Arkie. But there are still so many things we don’t know.
Soon, BLUR was hovering above the Amazon – the green canopy of the rainforest stretching below them like a lush carpet in the sky.
‘We’re landing near the Kuluene River,’ said Arkie. ‘I’m programming the PP coordinates now.’ She looked at TJ. ‘This is kind of scary because it’s so fast. Just hold on extra tight.’ She put on her SEGs and lifted Cleo into TJ’s parapack.
‘Ready?’ she said.
‘Ready,’ said TJ.
Arkie opened the hatch and the air swarmed wildly around them.
‘On the count of chim chim-ney eee,’ shouted Arkie, crouching into a jump position. ‘Chim, chim-ney.’
‘EEEEEE,’ yelled TJ.
They leapt into the green below.
plunge plunge plunge plunge plunge plunge
Arkie was plummeting through the air. Falling faster than a second.
She could feel the skin on her cheeks, stretching back to her earlobes, as she hurtled down, down.
The forest canopy was rushing up to meet her. She closed her eyes as tight as she could as her lips flapped against her face.
With a whoosh and a slap, she pierced through the upper canopy of the rainforest at incredible speed – the trees and leaves barely brushing her face.
And just as Arkie could see the forest floor racing up to meet her in a blur of speed, the parabrella pulled back and opened. Then, it settled into a gentle descent.
She landed on her feet between two mighty trees, covered with liana vines and new growth. The roots of the trees spread out on the ground around them, anchoring them to the forest floor and carving out a path between the leaf litter.
She was in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
‘LOOK OUT BELOW,’ yelled a voice from above.
Arkie leapt out of the way just as TJ dive-bombed into the spot Arkie had just been standing. As TJ hit the ground, her legs gave way and she folded over in a heap. Cleo sprawled out next to her.
‘Whoops,’ said Arkie, helping TJ and Cleo up. ‘I forgot to warn you about the Wobbly Leg Syndrome. It happened to me on my first plunge too.’
‘And you didn’t say anything about speed sickness,’ said TJ. ‘My stomach’s trying to escape through my mouth.’
Arkie looked at TJ. She was lime green.
‘Well, you’re blending in perfectly,’ said Arkie.
‘Camouflage is a fact of survival in the Amazon,’ said TJ, putting her head between her knees and breathing deeply. ‘This jungle has the greatest biodiversity of life anywhere in the world. It’s a pecking order of survival. It’s just prey and predator here.’
And which are we? thought Arkie, looking around her.
‘When I don’t feel sick any longer,’ said TJ, ‘I’m going to talk myself into feeling courageous and brave, just like an Amazon.’
‘A who?’ said Arkie.
‘The Amazons were brave women warriors in Greek mythology,’ said TJ.
‘But there are only two of us,’ said Arkie. Cleo barked at her. ‘Sorry, Cleo. Three of us,’ she said.
I don’t feel much like a warrior, thought Arkie as she looked around, absorbing the enormity of the jungle. I feel small and scared and eleven.
The smell of rotting leaves and fruit filled her nostrils, and the sounds of the jungle bombarded her ears. Everything around her seemed to be seething with movement.
The jungle’s so alive, thought Arkie. And every part of it is home to something.
Leaves rustled as small animals scurried through them. Howler and spider monkeys hollered and somersaulted through the tops of the trees. Scarlet macaws squawked.
The sweet scent of tropical lilies and orchids tugged at her senses, edging their way into the deep smell of the jungle that was invading her.
Arkie checked the humidity monitor in her pocket: 87 percent. She was sweating already and they’d only been in the jungle for five minutes.
I could dissolve in this heat, she thought. Drip drip dripping away until I’m just a pile of clothes and a puddle.
TJ was gazing up at the enormous trees around them, reaching far into the sky. ‘Everything here is so BIG,’ she said.
‘And so small,’ said Arkie, watching an army of ants trailing through the forest floor then up to their nest, high in the canopy.
‘Yeah, insects are pretty big around here,’ said TJ. ‘And just about every single thing in the jungle is dangerous.’
The jungle may be alive, thought Arkie, but it’s full of death too. Septimus died here, Colonel Fawcett, my grandmother, and so many others.
‘It’s like being in a real-life game of snakes and ladders,’ said TJ, as a green anaconda slithered around a tree in front of them.
Arkie jumped and covered her eyes with her hands at the sight of its thick body weaving languidly around the tree.
Cleo nestled between her legs.
‘Don’t worry, you two,’ said TJ. ‘Anacondas aren’t even venomous. They usually wrap themselves around prey and suffocate them.’
‘That’s all right then,’ said Arkie, peeking out from behind her fingers and watching the snake as it dangled and dropped from the tree, head then body, and crisscrossed through the undergrowth.
She didn’t like snakes, and lots of other things that started with S.
Arkie looked at her watch – it was 10 o’clock. It’s hard to tell the time in the thick of the jungle when you’re cocooned by leaves – beneath your feet, brushing your shoulders, forming a ceiling above your head.
Only the strongest shafts of sun slice through, a patchwork of stripes across the undergrowth.
‘We’d better get moving,’ she said, texting Edie that they’d arrived. ‘And remember, this jungle is a maze of danger so we need to keep our hands in our pockets. Many plants are two-faced and have a nasty trick or two. Some spike you, others poison you and some can trap your fingers. We need to be constantly alert.’ She patted Cleo on the head. ‘You too, Cleo. Stay close and follow in our footsteps, okay?’
Cleo licked her hand.
Arkie opened the map in Septimus’s notebook and TJ consulted his compass.
‘This way,’ she said, pointing to the east.
Jumpy in the Jungle
They walked for an hour and a half, trudging through the forest that became thicker and darker.
Some of the path was blocked by the massive trunks of fallen trees. They climbed up and down and around.
‘We’re like real explorers,’ said TJ, wiping her forehead with her sleeve. ‘Hot, grumpy and probably lost.’
‘Let’s stop for a break,’ said Arkie, gulping from her water canteen and pouring some water over her head and face. She could almost hear steam sizzling out her ears as the water cooled her hot head.
She put some water in a small plastic saucer for Cleo.
‘I saw
a documentary on the Discovery Channel once,’ said TJ, ‘about two people who got lost in the Amazon. They were only metres away from the path to their hotel but they couldn’t find it. They spent seven days walking around in a circle. And seven sleepless nights. They nearly died from fright!’
Cleo growled suddenly, and Arkie looked up.
‘Shhh,’ she said.
‘What?’ said TJ.
‘Cleo and I heard something,’ said Arkie. ‘Did you hear anything?’
‘Only the incessant buzz of the thousands of mosquitoes that are driving me completely CRAZY,’ said TJ, waving her arms around her head. ‘I knew I should have packed my space helmet.’
‘No, it wasn’t the mosquitoes,’ said Arkie. ‘It was something else.’
‘Like what?’ said TJ.
‘I don’t know,’ said Arkie. ‘Some kind of noise – but not a jungle noise.’
‘It’s just the jungle making you jumpy,’ said TJ. ‘Remember what Edie said: “It can drive you mad.”’ She looked around anxiously. ‘But you do have exceptional hearing. I hope it’s not a jaguar. They’re the biggest cat predator in the Amazon.’
‘I think they usually hunt at night,’ said Arkie. ‘And they’d be stealthy and silent. We probably wouldn’t hear them until it was too late.’
‘We so don’t want to be in the jungle in the dark,’ said TJ. ‘I’m not ready to be a headline. Not just yet anyway.’
Arkie bent down to tie up her shoelaces. With a quick movement, she took the Sneaky Snake Sound Synthesizer out of her backpack. She’d thrown it into her bag at the last minute. Just in case.
She pressed the ON button in the middle of the snake’s belly, and covered it with some of the leaves beneath a tree.
‘Yeah, I’m probably just hearing things,’ said Arkie loudly. ‘There’s a clearing ahead. Let’s rest there for a few minutes.’
