The Stolen Jade

by Dan Lee

  Half an hour later, they had reached the Forbidden City. They came to a stop outside the Palace Museum gates. The gates were secured by a massive, chunky iron padlock.

  Matt weighed the lock in his hand. ‘No way are we getting past this! You’d need a chainsaw to open it.’

  ‘I forgot to bring my chainsaw,’ said Catarina. The others laughed.

  ‘But seriously, what are we going to do?’ said Matt. ‘Any ideas?’

  ‘It must be open somewhere,’ said Olivier. ‘Because look!’ He pointed. The windows of the West Wing were all lit up.

  ‘Let’s go round that side, then,’ said Matt.

  They remounted their bikes and cycled over there. At closer quarters they could see people in evening dress, the men in dinner jackets and the women in glamorous long gowns wandering back and forth in the yellow rectangles of the windows.

  ‘Looks like some sort of private viewing,’ said Olivier. ‘The opening of an exhibition or something. I’ve been to things like this with my dad before.’

  The gate on this side was open. But it was guarded by two Chinese security men. They stood there stony-faced, arms folded, guns in holsters by their sides.

  ‘Do you think they’ll let us in?’ said Shawn.

  ‘Leave this to me,’ said Olivier.

  Olivier’s father was a diplomat, and Olivier had grown up accustomed to grand parties and official functions. He had bags of confidence and natural charm. If anyone could blag their way in, it was Olivier. But Matt’s heart was beating fast as they approached the guards. What if they thought it strange that four kids should be out so late at night? This was where it could all go wrong.

  The guards stared as Olivier walked over.

  ‘Excuse me,’ said Olivier with his most winning smile, ‘we’re so sorry we’re late for the party, but we’re supposed to meet our parents there. Do you think you could let us through?’

  The guards frowned and looked at each other. They moved closer together.

  ‘Ticket,’ said one of them.

  ‘Ah, that’s the problem, you see,’ said Olivier, smiling. ‘We were supposed to meet up with our parents earlier and go in with them – they’ve got the invitations. But we got delayed and missed them. We have got invitations, but they’re inside with our parents. So if we could just –’

  ‘Ticket,’ repeated the guard.

  ‘Our parents will be waiting inside, you see, and we don’t want them to worry. My father is quite an important diplomat, and if you could use your initiative and let us in, I’m sure he’d be grateful –’

  ‘Ticket,’ said the guard again.

  The Tangshan Tigers glanced at each other.

  ‘Nice chatting with you,’ said Catarina.

  The gang picked up their bikes, and cycled back to the main entrance. Matt eyed the padlocked gates. They were a good four metres high and ended in a row of nasty-looking spikes. Not much doing there.

  ‘So what do we do?’ said Shawn.

  What would Chang Sifu do? Matt wondered. He didn’t know, but he knew what Chang wouldn’t do. He wouldn’t give up.

  ‘We can’t give up before we’ve started,’ said Matt. ‘There must be something we can do.’

  ‘Yes, but what?’

  A shadow fell across the group. They turned slowly to see a young Chinese girl standing in the lamplight. She was about their own age, to judge by her face, but a little smaller. Her eyes were large and dark, and she gazed at the Tangshan Tigers with perfect familiarity, as if she’d been expecting to meet them there.

  For a moment nobody spoke.

  Then Matt said, ‘Hello – can we help you?’

  ‘Perhaps I can help you,’ the girl replied in perfect English.

  ‘But who are you?’ asked Catarina.

  ‘My name is Li-Lian. I saw you trying to get into the museum. What are you doing here so late?’

  Matt hesitated. He didn’t want to reveal the gang’s secret to anyone, let alone someone they had only just met. ‘We’re not the only ones up late,’ he countered. ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘I live in an apartment nearby. I like to sit up late sometimes, watching the museum in the moonlight. When I saw you trying to get in, I was curious and came out to ask: what are you doing?’

  ‘Well, we’ve got something important to do,’ said Matt cautiously. ‘But if we get caught, we’ll be in big trouble for doing it. And if you knew about it, you’d be in trouble too. So it’s better that you don’t know. But we really, really need to get into the museum.’

  ‘It’s such a pity that you cannot tell me,’ said the girl with a sigh. ‘I could help you get inside. But I can’t help you get in if I don’t know your reason. You might be burglars.’

  ‘We are not burglars –’ began Catarina indignantly, but Shawn interrupted.

  ‘She’s got a point. Why should she help us break in if she doesn’t know why? I vote we tell her.’

  ‘But can we trust her with the secret?’ said Catarina.

  ‘I don’t think we have much choice,’ said Shawn.

  ‘Anyway, I don’t think it matters,’ said Olivier. ‘We’re never going to bump into her again in a city of ten million people. And she doesn’t know anyone we know.’

  Matt came to a decision. ‘OK, Li-Lian. This is a secret, OK?’

  The girl nodded gravely. Matt told her about the theft in the museum, the suspicious failure of the security system, the cleaned-up display case and the strange feeling he had about the Jade Dish. ‘So we want to get in and do a bit of detective work,’ he concluded. ‘Try and pick up some clues.’

  Li-Lian’s eyes had widened in surprise during Matt’s explanation. Now she gave a grin of pure pleasure. Obviously, this kind of adventure was just what she liked most.

  ‘OK,’ she said. ‘I will get you in. Follow me.’

  ∗

  She led them round past the East Wing to the rear of the museum. A section of the railings gave way to a stone wall. It was high, but within arm’s length there stood a tree. Matt saw at a glance that it would be possible for them to climb the tree, straddle the wall and let themselves down the other side. It would take nerve, though.

  Catarina was the first to go. The tallest and most slender, she was also the best climber. She shinned up the tree, reached across and put her leg over the wall, then dropped down. They heard her land with a thud.

  ‘All right?’ called Matt.

  ‘No problem. Come on, you guys!’

  Olivier went next, then Shawn. They didn’t manage it quite as gracefully as Catarina, but both got over safely. Then it was Matt’s turn. He hauled himself up the tree. Soon he was straddling the wall. He looked down at the upturned faces of the Tangshan Tigers. He gulped. It looked a long way down. He had never had a great head for heights…

  ‘Come on, Matt!’ said Catarina. ‘You can do it!’

  There was nothing else for it. He took a deep breath. He turned round, gripping the top of the wall.

  ‘Hang down by your arms before you jump,’ advised Shawn.

  Matt hung by the full length of his arms, letting his legs dangle. His feet must have been about two metres from the ground. Two metres wasn’t such a terrible drop…

  He let go.

  He hit the ground hard and staggered. Olivier caught and steadied him.

  ‘All right?’ said Shawn.

  ‘I’m fine,’ said Matt. He grinned with relief.

  He moved back to the railings and waved to Li-Lian. She came towards them.

  ‘Thanks, Li-Lian – we’d have been stuck without you!’

  ‘Yeah, thanks,’ said Catarina.

  Li-Lian gave a little bow. Her silver hairband glinted in the moonlight. ‘It was my pleasure. I wish I could come with you – but I might be missed back at home.’

  ‘You speak very good English,’ Matt said. ‘Where did you learn it?’

  ‘My grandfather taught me.’

  ‘Your grandfather…?’ began Matt. But before he could f
ind out any more Shawn said, ‘OK – let’s get on with it!’

  They waved to Li-Lian again and set off towards the museum building. But Matt hung back for a last word – there was something about Li-Lian that intrigued him. He knew he had never met her before, yet there was something familiar about her.

  ‘Why did you trust us? We might have been lying. We might have been burglars like you said.’

  Li-Lian smiled. ‘I know an honourable soul when I see one. This is something else my grandfather taught me.’ She spoke in respectful tones; it was clear that she regarded her grandfather as a great man. ‘And now I must go – before someone notices I’m missing!’

  She darted across the road. She turned and pointed at a tall apartment block. It stood just behind the walls of the Forbidden City, a huge rectangular building with hundreds of windows. Matt understood that she was telling him where she lived, in case they should ever need her help again.

  Matt watched her for a moment.

  ‘Come on!’ hissed Shawn.

  Matt ran and caught up with the others.

  They ran up the broad steps of the museum entrance, and high-fived each other at the top.

  ‘Yes!’ said Shawn. ‘We’re in!’

  ‘Well, nearly,’ said Matt. ‘But now how do we get past that door?’

  ‘I bet I can get in that window,’ said Catarina. She pointed upwards. On the second floor, a tiny window was half open – the gap was too small for an adult, but a girl as slender as Catarina might just wriggle through.

  ‘Do you reckon you could get down to this door and open it within thirty seconds?’ asked Shawn.

  ‘No problem!’

  ‘OK,’ said Shawn. ‘So the alarm’s set to go off forty-five seconds after it detects an intruder entering – the idea is to make sure they’re well inside before it’s activated, so they’ll be trapped, right? If you can get me in within thirty seconds, I’ll have fifteen seconds to disable it – that should be enough, I hope.’

  ‘Good luck, Catarina!’ said Matt.

  They waited anxiously as Catarina scaled the wall, making use of a handy drainpipe. She poked her head through the window, turned and gave them a thumbs-up, then, with a squeeze and a wiggle she got her shoulders through. For a second, her long legs remained sticking out of the window. Matt watched her legs kick and, then, with a small cry she slipped completely through the window and her trainers disappeared from sight.

  ‘I hope she’s OK,’ said Matt.

  They waited anxiously.

  ‘I hope she can get back down here in less than thirty seconds,’ muttered Shawn. ‘If I don’t disable that alarm in time all hell’s gonna break loose. A siren will go off that’ll burst your eardrums, all the lights should come on, the security guards’ pagers will start bleeping like crazy and an alarm will go off at the local police station!’

  Matt counted the seconds ticking away on his watch. Ten. Fifteen. Twenty seconds. Twenty-five…

  The door burst open, and there stood Catarina, grinning.

  Shawn ran past her. He made straight for a black box mounted on the wall. It displayed a flashing red light. With nimble fingers, Shawn removed the cover and punched in a long series of digits on the keypad.

  The red light started flashing faster. Shawn removed the keypad. Underneath was a tangle of wires. Matt watched how carefully he removed one of the wires without touching the others.

  ‘Nearly there,’ muttered Shawn. ‘Now to disable all the connections.’

  The red light was blinking faster. Shawn had only about seven seconds left, Matt calculated.

  Beneath the wires was a tiny metal cover. Shawn flipped it open, again without touching any other part of the mechanism, and withdrew a little black silicon chip.

  The red light was blinking like mad now. Three seconds.

  ‘Now to make it think it hasn’t been disabled,’ said Shawn. He deftly, swiftly, inserted another, identical silicon chip he’d produced from somewhere; then plugged in the wire he’d removed.

  The red light went out.

  The Tangshan Tigers breathed a sigh of relief.

  ‘Way to go, Shawn!’ said Matt.

  ‘That was close,’ breathed Shawn. ‘Within forty-five seconds of the photo-electric cell being broken, you have to key in a sixteen-digit code, remove the keypad, unplug the lead wire and take out the chip. That disables the connections – the guards’ pagers and the police alarm and stuff. But then you have to put in a replacement chip and reconnect the lead wire, otherwise the siren will still go off! Do you reckon a bunch of clueless bozos could have done all that?’

  ‘I guess not,’ said Olivier.

  Quickly, they made their way towards the T’ang Dynasty room. Matt found that he was holding his breath. The museum at night was an eerie place. Statues of lions and bears and Buddhas and warriors watched them in the gloom. They seemed to move around just outside his line of vision, but froze when he looked at them directly. You’re imagining things, he told himself. Stop being so jumpy.

  Suddenly he heard a voice. Footsteps clicking on the tiled floor. A light, no, two lights were approaching.

  ‘Quick!’ whispered Matt. ‘Hide!’

  He seized Catarina by the wrist and darted into an alcove. Shawn and Olivier followed, fast. A huge porcelain vase with a pattern of flowers and birds stood in the alcove and they huddled behind it.

  Two security guards passed. Matt saw the beams of their torches sweep around the walls, picking out details of the statues and ornaments and paintings. Then gloom settled again. The two men passed on. Their footsteps died away.

  Cautiously, the Tangshan Tigers emerged from their hiding place.

  ‘That was close!’ whispered Catarina.

  They moved on. They came to the room of the T’ang Dynasty.

  The Emperor’s Jade Dish stood in the centre, green and glowing.

  They clustered around. Matt looked it over carefully. Then something clicked in his brain.

  He gave an involuntary laugh. ‘So that’s it!’

  How could he have missed it? It was like one of those spot-the-difference puzzles he used to do when he was a little kid.

  ‘What?’ said Olivier. ‘What have you seen?’

  ‘It’s these dragons – see those, like, tendrils of hair, or whiskers, or whatever they are, round their faces? In the original, the one I saw on the website, they have three tendrils on each side. But, look, this one only has two.’

  Olivier, Shawn and Catarina looked puzzled. Shawn shrugged his shoulders. ‘So what does that mean?’ he asked.

  Matt looked at his friends.

  ‘This dish is a fake!’ he told them.

  Chapter 7

  THE OPPONENTS ARRIVE

  ‘Let’s take a closer look,’ said Shawn. ‘The alarm won’t go off – the whole system’s down now.’

  Carefully, he removed the glass case. Olivier reached out and picked up the dish. He hefted it in both hands, looking thoughtful.

  ‘This is not jade,’ he announced. ‘I’ve seen and handled plenty of jade – my father collects the stuff. Jade should be heavier than this. This must be, I don’t know, toughened glass or something.’

  ‘So what do we do now?’ asked Catarina.

  ‘Report it to the museum, of course!’ said Shawn. ‘They have to know their Jade Dish has been stolen. Then there’ll be an investigation – and they’ll find out what happened and prove it wasn’t my dad’s fault!’

  ‘But we can’t do that,’ Matt objected. ‘If we do, we’ll have to say how we know. And if Mr Wu discovers that we’ve sneaked out of bounds at night and broken into the museum, we’ll be expelled for sure.’

  ‘And then we can’t win the tournament,’ said Catarina.

  ‘And we’ll have let Master Chang down,’ added Matt.

  ‘I tell you what I think,’ said Olivier. ‘I think we should put the dish back as it was and get out of here while we can. We’ve got what we came for – now we know for sure it’s a fake. Tomor
row we can figure out our next step.’

  Olivier moved to put the Jade Dish back on its wooden plinth. ‘Wait a minute,’ said Matt. ‘Look!’ He pointed at the plinth – there were some tiny fresh scars on the wood, as though something had been ripped away from it. ‘See? The dish must have been glued to the plinth – that’s where they pulled it away!’

  They replaced the case and retraced their steps towards the back entrance.

  They were just turning into the corridor when they were suddenly dazzled by the harsh glare of torches. Matt’s heart jumped as though a hand had squeezed it. Behind the glare he made out four dark figures. One of them shouted harshly in Mandarin.

  It was the security guards from earlier, plus two others. They marched up and planted themselves in front of the Tigers. Matt felt a sinking sensation in his stomach. They were well and truly caught. They’d be expelled from the Academy for sure – maybe even worse. What would the punishment be for breaking into a museum stuffed with priceless works of art in, of all places, the Forbidden City? For all Matt knew, they might be thrown into prison!

  ‘What are you doing here?’ said one of the guards sharply, in English.

  Olivier stepped forward, smiling, switching on the charm. ‘We’re so sorry. We’re guests at the reception in the West Wing, and I’m afraid we wandered away. There are so many wonderful exhibits here we couldn’t resist coming to take a look. We’re really sorry – we didn’t mean any harm.’

  The faces of the guards relaxed.

  ‘You shouldn’t be here,’ said one of the guards. ‘Our security system should have activated when you came to this part. It has failed again – it is not a good system.’

  Matt saw Shawn grit his teeth.

  ‘We’d better get back to our party, then,’ said Olivier smoothly. ‘We do apologize if we’ve caused any inconvenience.’