It took Essie a while to find the right switch to turn the computer on, and longer again to wrestle with the unfamiliar operating system, while Annalie looked for a hole to plug the microphone into. Seeing this, one of the very oldest apes came to join them. ‘Recording,’ she said. ‘Scientists make recording.’
‘Did you make recordings?’ Annalie asked.
‘Yes. As a youngling.’
Essie was still trying to make sense of the interface. ‘Where do you suppose they’ve hidden the apps on this thing?’ she asked.
‘Your department,’ Annalie said ruefully.
A red arm reached past Essie and a long, strong finger began to type, slowly and steadily. To Essie’s astonishment, the recording program opened.
‘I can’t believe you remember the key command after all this time,’ she said.
‘We don’t forget,’ the ape said.
Essie turned and found herself gazing into the old ape’s eyes. They were dark, solemn, but also very lively; for a moment she felt a deep sense of kinship and affinity with the old ape, as if she were an eccentric long-lost aunt.
When they left the island of the great red apes, celebrations were in full swing.
‘Do you think they’ll be all right?’ Essie asked, as they sailed away.
‘They’ve done okay so far,’ Annalie said. ‘So long as the generator doesn’t die on them again.’
‘Wouldn’t surprise me if they worked out how to fix it all for themselves,’ Will said. ‘Did you see how they watched me? They’re pretty smart.’
Only Graham was unimpressed. ‘Monkeys?’ he squawked derisively. ‘How smart can they be?’
Breaking the code
All the next week, they sailed quietly through empty ocean.
Annalie spent her time trying to crack the code Spinner had left for her in her favourite book. She knew there were some tricks to decoding a message. You could look for three-letter words that appeared a lot—they’d probably be either ‘the’ or ‘and’. One-letter words at the beginning of a sentence were probably ‘I’. In the middle of a sentence, they were more likely to be ‘a’. Starting with these clues, she tried to build a key, but she got nowhere. There were three-letter words in the document, but she couldn’t work out which might be ‘the’ and which might be ‘and’—if that was even what they were. And if the code was, in fact, a list of names and addresses, these tricks would not be any use to her at all.
Essie sat down with her and looked at the jumble of letters. ‘Making progress?’
Annalie shook her head. ‘Not really.’
‘I was never very good at this kind of puzzle,’ Essie said.
‘Codes are often pretty simple,’ Annalie said. ‘You just need a key to unlock them. There are simple codes, where you just shift all the letters round by one or two. You know: A becomes B, B becomes C, that sort of thing. They’re easy to use, but they’re also easy to crack, so they’re not really very good as codes if you want to keep something secret.’
‘You don’t suppose this is one of them?’ Essie asked.
‘I don’t think so,’ Annalie said. ‘It could be a random code. You reassign all the letters of the alphabet randomly, without following a pattern.’
‘How do you crack those?’
‘Well, really you need the key.’
‘Oh.’
‘Although sometimes it isn’t random,’ Annalie said. ‘Sometimes another document is the key.’ Inspired, she jumped up. ‘Where’s the book?’
‘What book? You mean the one we found this in? On my bunk.’
Annalie raced to fetch the book and began jotting and circling letters excitedly. ‘There’s a kind of code where you start with the first letter of a book,’ she explained. ‘That first letter becomes A, the next new letter is B, and so on, until you’ve gone all the way through the alphabet. It’s a random code, completely unbreakable, unless you have the book in front of you.’
Annalie worked her way through the pages until she had a complete key.
Then she set to work decoding the message.
Finally, she sat back. ‘It’s a list of names and addresses,’ she said.
There were four names on the list: two men and two women, and the addresses were widely dispersed. One was on the east side of the Moon Islands; another was beyond the Islands in one of the far eastern nations; another was on a mountain in the far north; and the last address was in the island continent in the south, which had closed its borders decades ago.
‘Do you know who any of these people are?’ Essie asked.
Annalie puzzled over them. ‘I don’t think so.’
They showed the list to the boys. Will didn’t recognise any of the names, but he was interested by the fact that one of the addresses lay in the Moon Islands.
‘Maybe that’s where Spinner’s going,’ he suggested.
‘I thought you thought he was going to see Uncle Art,’ said Annalie.
‘I didn’t know about this, though, did I?’ he said, still studying the list. ‘What’s the one thing you notice about all these addresses?’
‘They’re all in terrible places?’ Essie suggested.
‘Exactly,’ Will said. ‘And most of them aren’t even proper addresses. They’re directions for how to get to places. Whoever these people are, they’re living in places that are really hard to find.’ He thought for a moment. ‘Hey Annalie, get the charts, will you?’
Annalie went and got the sat nav. Will opened the giant world chart and found the approximate locations of the four addresses. They were almost as far flung as it was possible for them to be, with thousands upon thousands of miles between them.
‘I’m pretty sure,’ Will said, ‘that we’ve never been to any of these places.’
‘No,’ Annalie agreed, ‘and that’s kind of surprising, because we’ve been to a lot of places with Spinner.’
‘Almost like he was staying away from them,’ Essie said.
They were silent for a moment, looking at each other.
‘Who are these people?’ Annalie asked.
‘And why was it so important to keep their names and addresses a secret?’ Will asked.
‘The first time Beckett came to see me he wanted the names of Spinner’s friends and where they lived,’ Annalie said.
‘What did you tell him?’
‘I made stuff up,’ Annalie said. ‘I knew there was something not right about him.’
‘Do you think,’ Will said, ‘that this list is what the Admiralty’s looking for?’
Annalie nodded. ‘We have to keep it safe.’
‘So what does this mean for us?’ Essie asked. ‘Are we going to try and find the people on this list instead?’
Will and Annalie looked at each other, considering. ‘We don’t know who they are,’ Annalie said.
‘They must be important,’ Will said.
‘But maybe not in a good way,’ Annalie said.
‘If we ever find an island with some signal I can search them,’ Essie said. ‘See if there’s any info about them on the links. It might help us work out where to go.’
‘Good idea,’ Annalie said.
‘You may not find much,’ Will said. ‘I bet there’s not much about Spinner.’
‘Everyone’s on the links somewhere,’ Essie said airily.
‘Well, for now we know nothing about these people,’ Annalie said. ‘I don’t think we should go looking for them just yet. We know Uncle Art, we know we can trust him. I think we should stick to the original plan and go and find him. Will, do you agree?’
‘Yeah,’ Will said, nodding. His mind was still stuck on the idea that this list might not be a list of friends after all. But if they weren’t Spinner’s friends, who were they?
‘Hey,’ Pod said. ‘Maybe Graham knows them.’
Annalie was embarrassed it hadn’t even occurred to her to ask.
‘Hey Graham, come here. We want to ask you something,’ Pod said.
Graham flew obli
gingly down to the table. ‘Do you remember someone called Dan Gari?’ Will asked. ‘Might have been an old friend of Spinner’s?’
Graham fluffed his feathers up. ‘Who?’
‘Dan,’ Pod said. ‘Gari.’
Gaham rarked, then said, ‘Danny Boy.’
‘Who is Danny Boy?’ Pod asked.
‘Danny Boy very grumpy. Didn’t like Graham,’ Graham said. ‘Called Graham Birdbrain. Graham break one instrument, Danny Boy never forgive.’
‘What kind of instrument?’ Annalie asked.
‘Musical instrument?’ asked Pod.
Graham made a rude noise. ‘No. Science.’
‘Danny Boy was a scientist?’
Graham bobbed up and down.
‘What about Sola Prentice?’ Annalie asked, moving to the next name on the list.
‘Sola,’ Graham said. ‘They call her Sun.’
‘Of course they did,’ Will said dryly.
‘Long hair, like a rope. Sun very sweet. Always say “Hello, Graham! Like a biscuit, Graham?”’
‘And was she a friend of Spinner’s too?’
‘Yes. Good friend. Always had good biscuits.’
Pod took the hint and got Graham a biscuit.
‘Pod good friend too,’ Graham said, stroking him briefly with his head.
‘What about the other two?’ Annalie asked. ‘Ganaman Kiveshalan and Sujana Kieferdottar?’
‘Can’t talk,’ Graham said, spraying crumbs. ‘Eating.’
They waited while Graham finished his biscuit. ‘Vesh and Suj. Vesh had cowboy hat. Suj big fat lady. All Spinner friends. At night we sit and look at the sky. Lots of stars. Sing songs, Spinner play. Vesh used to say “nothing else to do out here”.’
‘How come we never met any of them?’ asked Annalie.
‘Long time ago. We live in the desert then,’ Graham said. ‘Allie and Will not born. Then one day Spinner and Graham leave. Never see desert friends again.’
‘What was Spinner doing in the desert?’ Annalie asked.
‘Work,’ Graham said.
‘Like, fixing stuff?’ Will suggested.
‘Was it anything to do with the Department of Scientific Inquiry?’ asked Annalie. This was the department Beckett belonged to; he’d said Spinner had worked for them as well.
‘Just work,’ Graham said huffily, annoyed by a question he couldn’t answer.
They looked at each other. ‘Well, at least we know they were all friends once,’ Essie said.
‘And that one of them wore a cowboy hat,’ Will said. ‘It’s not a lot to go on, is it?’
‘Maybe Uncle Art will know more,’ Annalie said. ‘When we get there, we can ask him.’
‘When we get there, we can ask Spinner himself,’ Will said.
Later that evening Will was standing watch when Pod came and joined him on deck. The stars were out and they looked up into them in silence for a while.
‘Your dad,’ Pod said finally. ‘He a bad man?’
‘No,’ Will said. ‘He’s a good man. But he’s in trouble.’
‘What kind of trouble?’
‘The Admiralty are after him. They say he stole something, but he didn’t. He’s hiding out here in the Islands and we’re on our way to meet him.’ Will couldn’t help noticing it all sounded much clearer and more definite when he said it than it actually was.
‘This is a bad place,’ Pod said. ‘Moon Islands. A bad place full of bad people. Why did he make you come out here?’
‘He didn’t make us come,’ Will said. ‘We decided to come.’
‘We?’
‘Me and Annalie. Essie wasn’t meant to come, that was more of an accident.’
‘You’re not safe out here. You got no idea,’ Pod said. ‘Why’d you want to come?’
‘The Admiralty took our boat,’ Will said. ‘We had to get it back and give it back to our Dad.’
‘A boat’s a good thing to have,’ Pod said. ‘Worth money. But why bring it here, where so many people want to take it away from you?’
Will stared at Pod, an uncomfortable feeling trickling down his spine. ‘We needed to find Spinner,’ he said.
‘What if you don’t find him?’
The uncomfortable feeling was spreading, expanding. It was doubt. ‘We’ll find him,’ he said. ‘I know we will.’
Pod fell silent. Will wished he would go away and stop asking him questions.
After a while, Pod spoke again. ‘I don’t remember my dad. Had plenty of bosses. Don’t miss them much.’ He laughed then, a slightly scary laugh. ‘One day, though, I want to find my sister.’
Will looked at him, unable to see much of his expression in the starlight. ‘Yeah?’
‘Find that floating palace. Get her back.’
‘How would you do that?’
‘Don’t know how. But someday.’
The Blue Room
For a skinny boy, Pod had a big appetite. With four of them aboard (plus Graham, of course) they had begun to run low on food much sooner than Essie had anticipated. ‘Perhaps he’s making up for lost time,’ she said, when she brought the problem to Will and Annalie’s attention.
‘We’re going to have to find somewhere to take on more supplies,’ Will said.
They gathered around the sat nav to check the charts and plan a course change.
‘What about here?’ Will said, naming a small group of islands to the south.
‘Don’t go that way,’ Pod said. ‘There’s pirates down there.’
Will pointed to another set of islands, further off course but still within striking distance. ‘What about here? Know anything about these ones?’
Pod shook his head, but Annalie brightened.
‘Oh!’ she said. ‘That’s where the Blue Room used to be!’
The Blue Room was a famous sea cave on Kapa Island. The only way into it was via the sea, through a small opening which would admit a rowboat, but nothing bigger. Inside it was said the water glowed with a beautiful, slightly eerie blue light, which flooded in from a much larger hole below the waterline. Before the Flood the Blue Room had been a famous tourist attraction, and people had flocked there to queue for hours for a chance to row in and out and see the blue water glow.
‘I thought it was all underwater now,’ Will said.
‘I’m sure it is,’ Annalie said sadly. ‘Still the chart says there’s a town there. We have to go somewhere, may as well go there!’
They changed course and sailed for Kapa Island. Kapa was quite a substantial island, one of a group of three which had had a long and varied history: inhabited by cannibals, valued and fought over for its spices, annexed by one colonial ruler after another, until it became part of the international tourist trade, when there still was such a thing. Now it was quiet, isolated by the Moon Islands’ dangerous reputation, its water supply damaged by salt.
They reached Kapa and sailed down the famous coastline, where a few old billboards still clung to the cliffs, pointing the way to the Blue Room and announcing the names of long-vanished bars and restaurants.
‘I wish I could have seen it,’ Annalie said wistfully.
‘Me too,’ Will said. ‘Remember that bit in Three for the Sea where they go there and find treasure?’
Three for the Sea was Will’s favourite book, one of the few he could be bothered reading all the way to the end.
‘Don’t go getting ideas,’ Annalie said, with a grin.
They sailed a little further.
‘I reckon we’re getting close now,’ Will said, watching the signs. ‘Reckon if you put a mask on you could dive down and find the entrance?’
‘That sounds like a really bad idea,’ Annalie said.
‘Wait a minute,’ Will said. ‘Maybe we don’t need a mask.’
A sign had been newly painted directly onto the cliff above the sea. It said:
The Blue Room
Visiting hours change daily
Enquire at Kapa Village for tickets
Beside the sign
was a small circular opening in the rock, big enough to admit a dinghy. A pontoon floated outside it, and it looked like someone had begun building a ticket booth on it, but hadn’t yet finished the job.
‘It can’t be,’ Annalie said.
‘Looks like it can,’ Will said gleefully. ‘Who’s coming?’
‘But shouldn’t we buy tickets?’ asked Essie.
‘Who from?’ Will said. He was right—there was nobody about. ‘Come on. We’ll be in and out before anyone notices.’
They anchored the Sunfish at a safe distance in the bay, then took the dinghy in towards the cave entrance. Pod had to be persuaded to come with them—he said he wanted to stay behind to guard the boat, but eventually he confessed he didn’t like water-filled caves.
‘Come on. It’s one of the wonders of the world,’ Will said. ‘You can’t miss this.’
Will rowed them all towards the crevice, which looked dark and rather forbidding.
‘Are you sure about this?’ Essie asked. The swell was washing up and down; it seemed there was a chance they might get smashed into the rocks as they attempted to go through.
Will waited for his moment; the dinghy washed safely through the gap; and suddenly they were in a magical world. The cave opened up above them, huge and dark; all around, the water was glowing with a vivid blue light. It was strange, eerie, unearthly.
‘What’s making that light?’ Pod whispered, looking spooked.
‘Who cares?’ said Essie, gazing around her in delight.
‘I could tell you the scientific explanation, but why spoil it,’ Annalie said. ‘It’s so beautiful.’
‘How can it still be here?’ Essie asked.
‘Some smart local must have made a new hole,’ Will said appreciatively. ‘Good on them.’
‘Pity no one’s ever going to get to see this, buried out here in the middle of the Islands,’ Essie said.
Suddenly, the glow vanished.
‘What’s happening?’ Essie said, frightened.
‘Look,’ said Will, pointing back towards the entrance to the cave. Something was casting a shadow across it—an enormous shadow.
‘What is that?’ Annalie cried. ‘Could it be storm clouds?’
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