The monster moved towards Gerald, unlocking a mouth big enough to swallow him whole.
Then the crocodile arched its back and emitted a rasping huuurk that sounded like the world’s biggest cat hoiking up the world’s biggest hairball. Then it spat out Gerald’s backpack. The bag struck Gerald in the chest like a giant phlegm-covered cannonball. He almost dropped it into the stream as he fell backwards.
The croc took another pace. The beast was just metres away. Ruby, Felicity and Sam were shouting and raining rocks against its back from the far bank. But the missiles made no impact on the leathery skin. Gerald stared paralysed at the advancing monster. He didn’t even blink when the shark launched in a grey blur from the stream and took the crocodile in the ribs. The reptile threw its head back and roared as a chasm of razor-sharp incisors closed around its chest, showering the air with blood and broken fangs. A jettisoned shark tooth spun from the monster’s maw and struck Gerald in the forehead, tearing the skin above his left eyebrow. The force of the shark’s momentum carried both enormous creatures back beneath the water with an immense splash.
Finally, Gerald managed to convince his legs that running was a good idea. He landed in the arms of his friends on the far bank.
‘Did you see that?’ was all he could ask. Again and again. ‘Did you see that?’
Sam took the dripping backpack and Felicity and Ruby led Gerald to a tuft of grass so he could sit and somehow recover.
‘Yes, we saw. We saw,’ Ruby said. ‘A shark the size of a speedboat just attacked a crocodile as a big as a dinosaur. You’re not imagining it.’
Sam unwrapped the soggy T-shirt from around the stainless steel sphere in Gerald’s pack. ‘The perpetual motion machine seems okay,’ he said, ‘apart from being coated in crocodile spit, of course.’ He looked back to the stream and the bridge. ‘It looks like we can add giant apex killers to the list of bizarre animals in Mason Green’s zoo. Those things looked prehistoric. Did you see the size of the teeth?’
‘That’s pretty much all I saw,’ Gerald said. He swallowed and tried to get to his feet, but he only managed to get halfway up before dropping to his backside again.
Ruby held Gerald by the shoulders to keep him upright. ‘There’s one thing about this island that just doesn’t ring true,’ she said.
Felicity scoffed up a laugh. ‘Only the one thing?’
‘Mason Green is not the zookeeper type,’ Ruby said. ‘He’s all about world domination and power and people calling him God. This place isn’t his style at all.’
‘Well, Ursus did say that he doesn’t work for Green,’ Felicity said. ‘Maybe someone else is running this show after all.’
‘Geppetto could be pulling the strings for all I care,’ Sam said. ‘Let’s get to the Archer and be done with this crazy island.’
Ruby took Gerald’s hand and hauled him to his feet. He stood unsteadily for a moment, getting his balance, then let Ruby lead him along the path into the jungle. He could probably have made it quite easily by himself, but he kept a firm grip on Ruby’s hand. It’ll make her feel better to be helping me, Gerald assured himself.
They followed the trail for a few hundred metres before Ruby pulled to a sudden halt. She whipped around to face Sam and Felicity with a finger to her lips. They all dropped to their haunches.
What now? Gerald wondered. A sabre-toothed tiger? A woolly mammoth? Carnivorous penguins? Ruby pointed through the tangle of branches and vines to their left.
Gerald stopped breathing. It was worse than some primeval predator.
There were two of them, squatted in the bushes.
Humans. Looking right their way.
Chapter 28
For a moment, both groups stared at each other. No one wanted to make the first move.
Then it struck Gerald: if this was a pair of Mason Green’s bullyboys, why were they hiding in the bushes? He ignored Ruby’s gasp of alarm as he stood and called out, ‘You don’t need to hide. We’re not going to hurt you.’
Ruby hissed an ‘Are you crazy?’ but in a moment there was a rustling in the undergrowth and the movement of two bodies coming towards the path. Ruby sucked in a sharp breath as two blonde women stepped out in front of them.
‘Ella!’ she said. ‘Irene! What are you doing out here?’
The twins, still dressed in their uniforms from the Archer, beamed at the sight of the four ragged youngsters on the path, and gathered them into a tight group to make sure they were all okay.
‘We’re fine,’ Sam said to Irene, puffing out his chest. ‘I’ve been keeping everyone safe.’
Ruby rolled her eyes. ‘You are truly pathetic,’ she said.
Irene tried to suppress a smile. ‘You’re terribly brave,’ she said to Sam.
Sam looked like his ribs were about to burst.
‘We broke out of the dormitory where they had locked us up,’ Irene continued. ‘We were on our way to the Archer to try to get to the ship’s radio room.’
‘We heard you coming along the path. We thought you were guards,’ Ella said, ‘so we ducked into the jungle to hide.’
Sam told them about his plan to use the EPIRB and how it was all his idea and how brilliant an idea it was and that it was all his.
‘That is brilliant,’ Irene said. ‘If we use the radio, the guards will be able to monitor it and know help is on the way. By firing off the EPIRB they’ll be none the wiser. You are clever.’ Sam’s face exploded tropical pink.
Ruby shook her head. ‘You are a hopeless case,’ she said to her brother. She turned to Ella and Irene. ‘You two know the Archer better than anyone,’ she said. ‘Can you find one of these beacon thingies?’
Ella nodded. ‘There’s one in the rear gear locker on the lower deck. We can get to that without being seen.’
‘First, we have to show you what we found further in behind the trees,’ Irene said.
Before Gerald could ask what could possibly be more important than sending out a distress signal, the blonde twins swept away through the tangle of branches like jungle cats. Gerald ploughed after them, battling through the vines. More than once he lost sight of the pair, only to catch a flash of white uniform through the leaves. He urged Sam, Ruby and Felicity to keep up. Finally, they all emerged in a clearing, at the centre of which stood a squat building, almost identical to the butterfly house they had found earlier that day.
Ella waved off Gerald’s questions. ‘Come and look inside,’ she said. ‘I think this will answer everything.’
The six of them gathered in the doorway of the corrugated-iron structure. Ella nodded to Irene, who stood at the back of the group. ‘Ready?’ Then she slipped a hand into a pocket and retrieved a key. She unlocked the door, flung it open and rushed inside. Gerald felt a sharp shove in the back as Irene corralled them all through the doorway.
The door slammed shut behind them and Gerald looked up to see Sir Mason Green sitting in a wicker armchair, looking back at him in surprise.
‘You!’ Gerald said.
‘You!’ Green replied.
Gerald swung around. If Mason Green was inside, Gerald needed to get out. He made for the door but he was met with the extended point of a samurai sword, just centimetres from his eyes.
‘Please stop,’ Ella said, weaving the sword through a tight figure of eight. ‘This thing is extraordinarily sharp.’
Gerald could not take his eyes from the razor tip of the blade. It hovered at his face, as insistent as an annoyed hornet. He did not look around when Ruby demanded of Ella, ‘What are you doing?’
Ella gestured for Gerald to retreat into the room. He stepped backwards and stumbled into the side of a couch. Ella lowered her hands, but kept the sword at Gerald’s throat. ‘We’ll leave you here for a while,’ she said. ‘I believe you already know Sir Mason.’
Gerald tried to keep his breathing under control. ‘It was you two on the glacier in New Zealand, wasn’t it?’ he said to Ella, his voice quavering. ‘You with your ninja sword and your wrap-aroun
d sunglasses.’
Ella ignored him and looked to her sister. ‘Come. We need to report this.’
Gerald’s temples pulsed with anger. How could they have got so close to escaping only to be snared like this? He couldn’t stop himself. ‘I hope you enjoyed the sausage rolls,’ he called to Ella. ‘You must have looked pretty stupid when you returned with a bag of baked goods instead of the plans for the curiosity machine.’
Ella’s eyes lowered to meet Gerald’s steely gaze. Before he could move she unleashed a kick that drove the sole of her deck shoe square into his chest. The blow sent Gerald flying backwards over the armrest and onto the couch, punching the air from his lungs. As Ruby and Felicity rushed to Gerald’s side, Ella and Irene slipped out the door, locking it behind them. Gerald’s eyes swelled as he struggled to draw breath. ‘Maybe teasing her about the sausage rolls wasn’t the brightest idea,’ Ruby said.
Gerald managed to sit up. Sir Mason Green looked at him from his armchair. The billionaire businessman folded a copy of The Times and placed it on a low coffee table. ‘It’s terribly dated,’ he said, nodding at the newspaper. ‘Though there is an item on the front page about your yacht going missing.’
Green was dressed in safari chic and looked ready for cocktail hour at some upmarket African game lodge. His silver hair, brushed with military precision, served to highlight the intensity of his tan. ‘I suppose you want some sort of explanation,’ he said to Gerald. ‘And Miss Valentine, do sit down and stop looking so judgmental.’
Gerald was about to deliver Sir Mason Green some very basic judgments when Ruby settled next to him on the couch. ‘Hear him out,’ she said to Gerald. ‘It’s not like we have much choice.’
Gerald looked to Ruby, and she gave him an encouraging smile.
‘Go on then, evil mastermind,’ Gerald said. ‘Tell us your plan to take over the world.’
Green folded one long, elegant leg over the other and flicked a piece of lint from his trousers onto the rattan rug at his feet. ‘If only I was in a position to take over anything,’ he said. ‘Sadly, Gerald, I am as much prisoner here as you are.’
Felicity turned in disbelief. ‘Just because you’re on the run from the police it hardly makes you a prisoner,’ she said.
Green smiled. His lips stretched thin across his teeth. ‘Did you not hear the key turn in the lock just then? Those two delightful young ladies are my prison guards. This island is my Elba, my St Helena. I am most certainly an inmate, Miss Upham. I play the role of Napoleon in this sorry tale, and as an Englishman you can imagine how that makes me feel. Until the last few days I was free to walk this island’s beaches and swim its waters. But after you escaped from the Archer I have been kept under lock and key. It appears word leaked out about our video chat and I’m now considered too much of a risk to be wandering around.’
A dull throb erupted at Gerald’s temple. Napoleon? St Helena? What was Mason Green banging on about? ‘If you’re not behind all this, then who is?’ Gerald asked.
Green steepled his fingers and propped them under his chin. ‘I’m disappointed you have not been able to work that out for yourself, Gerald. Tell me, what have you learned of this mystery? About the Voynich manuscript and its recipes, hidden for centuries behind codes and symbols? About Cornelius Drebbel’s perpetual motion machine, stolen from Rudolph II and hidden in a Scottish castle until Jeremy Davey, the son of a condemned Luddite, managed to liberate it? About supposedly extinct creatures such as the Xerxes Blue butterfly, so rare that any collector would sell his own kidneys to get hold of it? What do all these disparate things have in common?’
Felicity straightened in her seat. ‘It’s Rudolph II, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘The emperor of Bohemia.’
Green raised his right eyebrow. ‘Explain your thinking, Miss Upham.’
‘We know that the manuscript and the perpetual motion machine were part of his cabinet of curiosities,’ Felicity said. ‘And Ursus said something about the emperor having a zoo, with rare animals and insects from around the world.’
‘Rare things like the Xerxes Blue butterfly,’ Gerald said. ‘And tigers and lions and—’
‘Dodos?’ Ruby added. ‘And monster-sized crocodiles?’
Felicity’s eyes lit up. ‘Exactly. Just like all of those things.’
Mason Green nodded. ‘Very good. Now, who do you know who’s keen on collecting things, particularly in the category of butterflies?’
Gerald’s eyes popped wide. ‘Jasper Mantle! From the Billionaire’s Club? Is Jasper Mantle behind all of this?’
Green brought his hands together in slow applause. ‘That is precisely what I am saying. Jasper Mantle—modest, mild, somewhat Muppet-like—is our host and our gaoler. He has been pulling the strings on this enterprise since he helped me escape from that Athens prison after our little misadventure in Greece last year.’
Gerald sat in stunned silence. Jasper Mantle, who looked like he wouldn’t harm a butterfly, was responsible for this nightmare?
‘You work for Jasper Mantle?’ Sam said. ‘That was who you were arguing with on the telephone under the Billionaire’s Club in New York. He’s your boss?’
Sir Mason shifted a shoulder up an inch. ‘I prefer to think of it as a consultancy arrangement,’ he said. ‘I have been helping him with his project—some advice here, a little trip to Scotland there. It seemed the least I could do after he helped me break out of prison and sheltered me here, far from the attention of Inspector Parrott and the Metropolitan Police. I suppose you could say that I have been earning my keep.’
‘But what is Mantle trying to achieve?’ Ruby asked. ‘Is he recreating the same collection that Rudolph had four hundred years ago? That’s hardly worth kidnapping half the staff of the British Museum and hijacking a super-yacht for.’
‘If it was just a collection of random items, Miss Valentine, I would agree with you,’ Green said. ‘But it is what he plans to do with all those items that is driving him.’
Gerald chewed on his bottom lip. ‘The curiosity machine,’ he said. ‘All those bits and pieces of the collection form something much bigger.’
‘Again, well done,’ Green said. ‘You finding the plans for the curiosity machine in the Billionaire’s Club changed everything. It gave Jasper the incentive to complete the collection.’
Gerald took a deep breath to steady himself. ‘So he sent Ursus and his hired guns to steal the plans from me.’ He turned to Felicity and Ruby. ‘That’s why we were attacked on the glacier,’ he said. ‘Ella and Irene must have thought I’d have the plans with me at all times, and they assumed that the backpack Sam had was mine.’
‘Jasper Mantle must have made sure that Ella and Irene were hired as crew on the Archer months ago, so they could keep track of you,’ Ruby said. ‘He’s keen.’
‘Ursus was speaking to one of them the night we were hijacked,’ Gerald said. ‘Ella and Irene were the ones who were supposed to keep me close until he arrived.’ He turned to Mason Green, who was looking on with bemusement. ‘So Ursus is Jasper Mantle’s hired helper—not yours.’
‘I’m afraid I’ve been without a henchman since you shredded my last one in India,’ Green said. He gazed off into the distance. ‘I do miss him.’
‘All this is fascinating, I’m sure,’ Ruby said. ‘Why go through all this effort to reassemble a machine for the first time in four hundred years?’
Sir Mason Green stood up and walked across the room to a long window covered with a security grille. ‘I have my suspicions about Jasper’s game, and I have laid my bets accordingly. It is quite preposterous and I can’t see how it will work, but he has proven himself quite persistent. I’m sure Professor McElderry knows all the details. But I haven’t been alone with him to ask him since we were washed down the New York sewers.’
‘I still don’t understand why the professor kicked me out of the way in the cellar,’ Gerald said. ‘I could have saved him.’
Green clasped his hands behind his back and rose up onto hi
s toes. ‘Knox is a curious one,’ he said. ‘He seems to have bought into whatever it is that Jasper is doing.’
‘Maybe you shouldn’t have been pumping him full of those potions from the Voynich manuscript,’ Felicity said. ‘You are a vile human being.’
Green lowered his heels to the ground but did not turn from the window. ‘Spare me your judgments, Miss Upham,’ he said. ‘You are young—your chances at treachery will come soon enough. I seem to recall that is what high school is mostly about.’
Sam put a hand on Felicity’s arm. ‘Don’t listen to him. We’ll get out of here once Jasper Mantle knows we’ve got the perpetual motion machine.’
The words were out of his mouth before he had a chance to think. Green still had his back to them, but his spine seemed to straighten at the mention of Cornelius Drebbel’s long-lost invention.
‘So you found it?’ Green said in a matter-of-fact tone. ‘Tell me, does it actually still work after all these years?’
Gerald did not know what to do. His backpack sat between his feet—he could almost feel the device pulsing inside. His stomach knotted. They could not lose the advantage of having the machine.
‘Yes, we found it,’ Ruby said in a clear and confident voice. She held up a hand to silence Gerald’s protests. ‘But we’ve hidden it. We’ll only hand it over once all the people from the Archer are delivered safely to the mainland. Felicity’s parents, all the museum people—everyone. We all get off this island before anyone even sees it.’
Sir Mason Green continued to stare out the window, seemingly deep in thought. ‘You talk a good game, Miss Valentine, but I’d wager the contents of my frozen bank accounts that it’s in that tatty-looking backpack of Gerald’s.’
Gerald looked down at the backpack. The time it had spent inside the crocodile had knocked all the shape from it.
‘My offer to you is still open, Gerald,’ Green continued. ‘If we work together I can guarantee you a trillion dollars.’
The Curiosity Machine Page 22
