The Expeditioners and the Secret of King Triton's Lair

by S. S. Taylor

  “Now, I am happy to announce that we have two very special guests tonight, Mr. Francis Foley, the Director of the Bureau of Newly Discovered Lands, and Mr. R. Delorme Mountmorris, a well-known historian and advisor to BNDL. Welcome, gentlemen.”

  They gazed out at us, Foley looking angry as usual in his black BNDL uniform, Mr. Mountmorris smiling devilishly, his shiny suit and top hat a sparkly blood red. Foley was very thin, with small eyes that shifted back and forth when he spoke, and a too-wide mouth of very white teeth.

  I hated him. I’d hated Foley ever since the day he’d come to tell us that Dad had disappeared on an expedition in Fazia, ever since he’d seized Dad’s maps and chased us across the country, ever since he’d killed the one person who could tell us something about why Dad had left the mysterious map for us. I hated him for that and a lot of other reasons besides.

  If it was possible, I hated Mr. Mountmorris even more. We had gone to him to ask about Dad’s map of Arizona and he had told us that it might show the location of a fabled treasure in gold. He had acted pleased to meet us and to show us his collections of artifacts and specimens from all over the world. He’d made us feel like we could trust him, and then he’d betrayed us, telling Foley and Leo Nackley about the map and trying to get it away from us so the government could find the gold.

  Most of all, I hated him because he held our futures in his hands. We were only at the Academy because he’d said we could be, and I knew he could send us away any time he wanted to. And now he was the only person who’d be able to tell me about Gianni Girafalco. And yet there was no way I could ask him.

  “Security seems a little tight, don’t you think, considering we’re in the mountains and about a thousand miles from civilization?” I said to the others. “Look at all those agents.” There were ten of them, dressed identically in their black BNDL uniforms, the red patches on their jackets identifying them as agents of the Bureau. They were watching all of us carefully, standing close to Foley and Mountmorris.

  Raleigh lowered his voice. “You heard about the bomb in New York last week, didn’t you? Some people say that Foley was the target. They think it was East Simerian terrorists.”

  Sukey lowered her voice too. “When Delilah came back from Mooristan, she came up for a visit and told me that people think there’s going to be a major uprising in Simeria. War, maybe. If I were Foley, I’d be nervous too.” “Look who else is here,” M.K. whispered. “Isn’t that . . .?”

  “Dolly Frost,” I said, finishing her thought. I met the reporter’s eyes, then looked away when she recognized me. She was the exploration correspondent for the Times, and I knew she had questions about what had happened in Arizona, too.

  “As you all know,” Maggie went on from the front of the room, “you will all soon be submitting your Final Exam Expedition proposals for our consideration. The Final Exam Expeditions constitute 50 percent of your grade for the entire year and are the most important work you will do here at the Academy. Your proposals will be read and evaluated by the faculty, and ten will be chosen—the ten best plans. Those expeditions will be carried out during the spring term. You may make suggestions about the crew members you want for your expeditions, based upon your needs, but the final choice will be up to the faculty. Now Mr. Foley and Mr. Mountmorris would like to address you. But before they do, I have a very special announcement.”

  She looked out at the crowd in the Longhouse, the enormous head of the Munopian Mammoth Elephant scowling down at her from above, and hesitated before saying, “Earlier today, President Hildreth announced that he has named Mr. Francis Foley as the new Director of the Agency to Defend the Realm, and has asked Mr. R. Delorme Mountmorris to take over as the director of the Bureau of Newly Discovered Lands. We are greatly honored to have both of these talented and patriotic men with us today.”

  There was a low murmur in the Longhouse as everyone took in the news and then stood to applaud. I thought for a moment about staying seated but changed my mind. There were too many agents. I happened to look over at Leo Nackley during the long round of applause and was surprised to find him scowling and barely clapping his hands.

  “Director of ADR,” Raleigh said with a whistle. “Foley’s moving up in the world, huh?”

  One of the other parents at the table leaned in and said, “Leo Nackley doesn’t look very happy. I heard he was up for head of BNDL too.”

  Once we were all seated again, Foley stood up, taking a piece of paper out of a pocket of his black jacket and shaking it out.

  “It’s always good to be back at the Academy, to see what all of our young Explorers in training are up to.” After a moment of hesitation, he gave a false smile, as though someone had written “grin now” in his notes.

  “I am especially pleased to be here today as my mind turns to the defense of our great nation and our allies. Make no mistake: The Indorustan Empire has designs on our lands and resources, and we must do everything in our power to defend ourselves. You young Explorers are an important part of this mission. Our ability to defend ourselves is wholly dependent on our ability to find new resources and riches in our newly discovered lands. This is where your Final Exam Expeditions come in.

  “A winning expedition proposal is well researched, well presented, with every eventuality accounted for. In addition, a good expedition proposal focuses on a region that is not only unexplored but that may be of value to the well-being or the security of the United States and its allies.

  “I don’t have to tell you how important these expeditions may be to the future of our country,” Foley said. “As you work on your plans, remember that though you may only be Explorers in Training now, your expeditions are very real and may yield discoveries that can improve the lives of your fellow citizens. I am expecting a lot of you. In these troubled times, your country is counting on you. Mr. Mountmorris?”

  Mr. Mountmorris hopped over, joining Mr. Foley under the elephant head, and smiled a broad, jowly smile. His egglike eyes glittered, and thin wisps of gray hair sprang up from his shiny scalp. “Hello, students!” he boomed. “What a pleasure, what a truly great pleasure it is to see your happy faces, your happy, happy faces!” He looked around the room, seeming to take in the details of every one of the happy faces in the room. “Mr. Foley is right, you know. These expeditions of yours are of the utmost importance to our country and our allies. And to show you just how important I think they are, I have an exciting announcement to make. As the new director of BNDL, I am putting my money where my mouth is, so to speak. I am offering . . .” He paused. “I am offering $50,000 in gold to the leader of the expedition who makes a find that will most significantly contribute to the security of our country.” A wave of excited murmurs went around the room. “Furthermore—”

  I watched Francis Foley’s face as Mr. Mountmorris spoke, and I suddenly saw fear flash across his eyes as we all heard a loud boom from above his head. A second later, there was another explosion, and smoke filled the air. The black-clad agents leapt forward and pushed Mr. Foley and Mr. Mountmorris out of the way just as the Mammoth Elephant head crashed to the ground where they’d been standing. Mr. Mountmorris gave a last, excited grin at the crowd before he disappeared beneath the pile of agents. There was another, smaller boom and then a cloud of smoke rose from the spot on the wall where the elephant head had been hanging.

  “Get under the tables!” someone shouted, and we all scrambled for cover, overturning chairs up and down the hall.

  “What was it?” Sukey whispered once we were all on the floor. “Did anyone see?” I looked down the row of students and parents crouched on the ground and saw Joyce Kimani protectively shielding some of the younger kids next to me.

  “Hey, you’ll be safe right here next to me. I promise I won’t bite,” I heard Jack Foster say to the unfortunate girl taking cover next to him.

  “It sounded like an explosion. Foley looked scared,” I told her.

  “He should be scared. Those Mammoth tusks would have gone rig
ht through him,” Raleigh said, grunting with pain. His IronLegs made him clumsy, and he’d fallen amid the confusion.

  It was eerily silent for a few seconds and then we heard the agents shouting for everyone to stay down while they got Foley and Mountmorris out of the room and secured the Longhouse. I peeked out from beneath the table and saw them hurrying out, followed by a few agents, while the rest of the agents huddled around something on the floor in the corner. Dolly Frost was scribbling in a notebook and talking to the agents.

  Finally, Maggie told everyone to stand up and walk single file out of the Longhouse. “Slowly, now,” she said. “No pushing. I want you to go straight back to your cabins and go to bed. Guests, we are very sorry for this unfortunate turn of events. It seems that the presence of Mr. Foley and Mr. Mountmorris provoked unpatriotic elements in our society. Have no doubt that the perpetrator will be brought to swift justice.”

  We helped Raleigh up and filed out. The remaining agents, including Woolf, watched us carefully, focusing for a moment on the face of each student or visitor as he or she passed by.

  “You okay?” I asked Sukey once we were outside. Torches blazed outside the Longhouse as agents directed everyone back to the cabins. In the yellow light, her mouth twisted down with worry.

  “Yeah, mostly,” she answered. “But I have a feeling this isn’t the end of this. Things are going to get pretty bad here for a while.” She watched the agents leading people away from the Longhouse. “Be careful, Kit. They can do anything they want now.”

  Seven

  I didn’t understand what she meant until the next day when word started spreading around campus that BNDL was calling students in for interviews about the Kickoff Dinner.

  “Somebody wired up the Mammoth head with explosives,” Sukey told us at breakfast. “That reporter Dolly Frost told Ava Eisenhofer this morning. She wanted to know if Ava’d seen anything.” The Longhouse was quieter than usual, everyone eating and talking in low voices, very aware of the agents lining the walls. It seemed like the number of agents had quadrupled overnight. I wondered how they’d gotten them up here so quickly. “It wasn’t very sophisticated, but the tusks on that head would have killed Foley if the agents hadn’t pushed him out of the way. BNDL is determined to figure out who did it.”

  “Who do you think it was?” Zander asked her.

  Sukey shrugged. “Must have been one of the visitors or students, right? Nobody else could get on to the campus without being discovered.” But she didn’t look so sure.

  We walked down to the gates to say goodbye to Raleigh, who had been interviewed and told he could leave. As his SteamTaxi disappeared around the bend, we all looked up and watched as a huge airship rose into the cloudless sky and floated over the mountains towards the south, a thin, gray tail of smoke behind it.

  “The Grygia,” Zander said. “I guess they’re hustling Mr. Mountmorris and Foley out of here.”

  We all watched until it was gone. And then, because we didn’t know what else to do, we went to the library to study. It was full, everyone looking nervous and uncharacteristically studious as agents came in and took students out a few at a time to be interviewed. I couldn’t focus on my homework, so I read through the newspapers laid out on a table by the big fireplace. The Times and most of the other papers were reporting that the Simerian government was accusing the Indorustan Empire of imprisoning East Simerians who weren’t supporting the Indorustan authorities. INDORUSTANS COMMIT ATROCITIES, the Times headline shouted. INDORUSTAN TREATMENT OF UNITED STATES ALLIES GROWS WORSE, SAY WITNESSES.

  Two agents escorted Zander and M.K. out of the library. When they returned, they were trailed by one of the regular school agents, who nodded at Sukey and me and beckoned for us to follow him.

  “Are you okay?” I whispered to M.K.

  “No talking. Come with me,” the agent hissed.

  We followed him outside and past the Longhouse to the Administration Building, a big log structure that housed the headmaster’s office and the infirmary. The mountains loomed in the distance. Below, the trees were still bright, not quite at their autumn peak. There was a bunch of students waiting on the benches outside Maggie’s office, and DeRosa scowled at us and told us to sit down and wait until we were called. Kemal Asker moved over to make room for us on the wooden bench.

  “Did they tell you anything?” Sukey asked Kemal. He looked nervous, his face pale, his hands worrying at the strap on the Explorer’s bag he held in his lap.

  “No. But I heard some kids saying that they’re searching the cabins while they interview us.” His voice shook as he said it, and I wondered if there was something in his room he didn’t want them to find.

  I could feel Sukey tense up next to me, and I knew what she was thinking. The key and the map. But they were safely hidden in the collar pocket of my vest. I couldn’t think of a way to let her know that I’d brought them with me without tipping off Kemal, so I just said, “You’d have to be pretty stupid to leave bomb-making equipment or something in your room.”

  “Yeah, well, I doubt it was a student,” Kemal said. “I heard that—”

  “Asker?” The door next to Maggie’s office opened and Jack Foster came out, looking relieved, followed by a young female agent with short blond hair.

  “Thanks so much for your time,” Jack said to the agent. “I really enjoyed talking to you.” She ignored him and showed Kemal into the office. The last thing we saw before the door closed was Kemal’s terrified face.

  “Jack would flirt with a Carnivorous Derudan Hippo if he thought he might get a kiss,” Sukey muttered. “I don’t know. Petunia was pretty cute,” I said, trying to get her to smile.

  But before I could find out if I’d been successful, Maggie’s door opened and Agent DeRosa poked his head out and said, “Christopher West. In here.”

  I’d really been hoping it wouldn’t be DeRosa. He narrowed his eyes at me as I brushed past him, and I felt very slightly relieved when I saw that Maggie was there too. At least he couldn’t torture me, though after seeing the suspicious way Maggie studied me, I wasn’t so sure. And then I saw Leo Nackley sitting against the far wall. He nodded, smirking. Rather than seeming upset about the assassination attempt, he looked as though he’d never been happier.

  “Sit down, Kit,” Maggie said. “As you know, we’re interviewing all of the students at the Academy about last night’s unfortunate attempt on Director Foley’s life. I assume you know Agent DeRosa?”

  “Yes, we, uh—”

  “We certainly do know each other,” DeRosa interrupted, rubbing his head as though it still stung from the wallop M.K. had given him with her wrench last spring.

  “And have you met Mr. Leo Nackley? He will also be helping us during this difficult time.”

  “Yes, Mr. West and I are quite well acquainted,” Nackley said.

  Agent DeRosa leaned back in his chair. “Now, where were you when the incident occurred?”

  “I was eating dinner with everyone else,” I told him. I hadn’t been in Maggie’s office before, and I looked around at the paintings and artifacts hanging on the walls. There were Rubutan masks, the stuffed heads of two antlered Snow Deer, Lundlandian idols, and photographs of Academy expedition teams from over the years. It was a nice room, warm, outfitted with a big dark wood desk and white velvet chairs and couches, but I couldn’t feel at ease in it.

  DeRosa watched me, his moustache quivering. He nodded at Maggie. I expected him to interrogate me further, but instead he said, “Now, what about your fellow students? Did you notice anyone acting strangely just before the incident? Anyone seem nervous or out-of-sorts? Anyone out of his or her seat?”

  “No,” I said. “Do you think it was a—”

  “I’ll ask the questions, thank you. So you say you didn’t notice anyone out of his or her seat. Are you sure?” I nodded. Leo Nackley and Maggie were watching me, waiting for me to slip up. DeRosa looked down at the paper he was holding. “What about Mr., uh, Asker. Kemal Asker. Did
you notice anything odd about his behavior last night?”

  “No, although . . .” Now that I thought about it, I didn’t remember seeing Kemal at all.

  “Although what?” DeRosa leaned forward.

  “I don’t remember seeing him before it happened, but he was probably on the other side of the room. Anyway, I didn’t see him doing anything strange.”

  Leo Nackley watched me while DeRosa wrote something down in his notebook. “And what about Joyce Kimani? She’s from Kenya, I believe.”

  “I thought she grew up in New York.”

  “Well, her parents have returned to their native Kenya.”

  “What does that have to do with anything? Kenya is an Allied Nation, last time I checked.”

  Leo Nackley slammed his palm down on Maggie’s desk. “Just answer Agent DeRosa’s question, West.”

  “I think she was at the end of the table. She seemed to be eating dinner just like everyone else. I definitely saw her right after the elephant head fell. She was helping out some of the younger kids who were scared.”

  Agent DeRosa looked disappointed. He named a couple of other students, all of whom had come to the Academy from allied countries. When I failed to come up with anything incriminating to say about any of them, he leaned back in his chair and fixed his dark eyes on me, stroking his mustache. “You do realize that lying to the government is a very serious offense, do you not, Mr. West?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “The last time we met, I asked you if you had been contacted by a known degenerate and enemy of the Realm who had had a relationship with your father. You said you hadn’t. Has your answer to that question changed?”

  I met his gaze and said steadily. “No. I haven’t seen that man.” I was telling the truth. I hadn’t seen him—not lately, anyway. I felt a flash of anger. The Explorer with the Clockwork Hand had started this whole thing. And then he’d disappeared, leaving me to face the questions about him alone.