Battle of the Beetles

by MG Leonard

  ‘Do you think I don’t know that?’ Darkus burst out. ‘All the newspaper reports, food supplies running out, bombs dropping. What will it be next? Starving children? People dying? I can’t stop it, Virginia. I don’t know how.’ He shook his head. ‘I just want my dad back, and I want to go home.’

  ‘Darkus, this affects all of us, and the people we love.’ She leant towards him. ‘Don’t we all have a right to fight for what we believe in? I’m here for my mum, and my dad, and my brothers and sisters. We need to work together to stop Lucretia Cutter. You’ve got to let us help you.’

  ‘How can you help me? I don’t know what the right thing to do is. I don’t want to be in a war. I just want to be with my dad.’ Darkus heard his voice waver. ‘If they are going to drop a bomb, then I want to be with him when it lands.’

  ‘Is that why you’re running away in the middle of the night?’

  ‘I want to get into the Biome. I thought if I went alone, with the beetles, it would be easier to find Dad undetected.’ He looked at Virginia. ‘And, if I take the thingamabob, then none of you will be able to get in, and you can go home, and be safe. I don’t want people to get hurt because of me. Everyone seems to think I’m some kind of hero, that’s going to come up with a plan, but I don’t have one. I don’t even want to hurt Lucretia Cutter’s beetles.’

  ‘I guessed as much.’ Virginia put her hands on her hips and sighed. ‘Such muddle-headed thinking. That’s why I told Marvin to wake me if you did anything weird.’ Marvin uncurled from around Virginia’s braid and waved a metallic red claw at Darkus. ‘You should have told me you felt like this.’

  ‘I’m sorry, I . . .’ Darkus looked at the forest floor.

  ‘Because you’re gonna need someone to watch your back.’

  Darkus looked at Virginia. ‘What?’

  ‘Two heads are better than one, right?’ Virginia smiled.

  ‘You’re not going to tell me to go back to camp?’

  ‘Nope.’ Virginia shook her head. ‘Look, I get it. Bertolt’s hurt, you want to get your dad. It makes sense. I’d probably do the same thing.’

  ‘You would?’

  ‘But I can’t let you run off into the rainforest alone. What if you get hurt? Bitten by a snake? At least if there’s two of us, one of us can go for help.’

  ‘I’m not alone,’ Darkus replied. ‘I’ve got the beetles.’

  ‘And if you can get that Biome door open,’ Virginia leant forward, eyeballing him, ‘I’m going in with you.’

  Darkus smiled, finding he was relieved. ‘Good.’

  ‘So, I don’t want to hear any more about it . . .’ Virginia pulled her head back. ‘Did you say good?’

  ‘Yes!’ Darkus laughed. ‘I didn’t want to ask you to come, because it’s unfair to ask someone to do something so dangerous. But now . . . I’m glad.’

  Virginia grinned and picked up the firefly lantern. ‘C’mon, then, what are you waiting for? You are on the right path, by the way. I checked – oh, and I brought your snake stick.’ She handed it to him. ‘We need to be careful of the pit vipers. Did you know there are over a hundred and thirty-five different species of snake in the Amazon? At least that’s what it says in Bertolt’s guide book. There’s probably more.’

  ‘Don’t say things like that when we’re about to do a night hike.’

  ‘OK. Sorry.’

  Darkus folded up the map, and they walked in silence, side by side, marvelling at the phosphorescent fungi growing on mossy tree trunks and glancing at each other for reassurance each time they heard a startling noise. Darkus felt braver with Virginia by his side, and they covered ground quickly, helping each other over and warning each other of obstacles. They saw snakes and were startled by monkeys, but the creatures of the Amazon showed little interest in the children.

  ‘Darkus!’ Virginia yelped.

  Darkus spun around and saw Virginia frozen to the spot. She talked through tightly pursed lips.

  ‘I’ve walked into a massive web.’ Her eyes were wide and he could see she was frightened.

  ‘Hold still.’ Darkus lifted the lantern. He saw a golden orb-weaver on the back of her head. It was the size of a yo-yo. He recognized it by the stripes on its legs and the flash of white at the top of its body. ‘It’s OK. I see it. I think she’s an orb-weaver. She won’t hurt you. They’re not aggressive.’

  ‘Can you check on Marvin?’ Virginia said.

  ‘I see him. He’s OK. Hang on.’ Darkus took a deep breath and scooped the spider up with his right hand. He’d never picked up a spider this big before. He deposited it on a fallen tree trunk and watched it spindle-step away. ‘It’s gone.’

  Virginia performed a convulsing dance as she pulled the sticky webbing from her hair, face and shoulders. ‘Ewwww, man, that was gross. There was lots of dead stuff in it.’ She shivered. ‘Marvin are you OK?’ She wiped her hands on her trousers and lifted the frog-legged leaf beetle down to the cage around her neck. I was worried you were going to end up being a spider’s supper! Into the cage you go.’

  They drank some water and chewed on dried mango that Darkus had pilfered from Motty’s supplies.

  ‘It’s crazy that even though we’re out in the middle of the night, we can’t see the stars,’ Virginia said, looking up. ‘The canopy is too thick.’

  ‘Good job we’ve got our own stars here.’ Darkus nodded at the firefly lantern. He offered Baxter a piece of mango in his bamboo cage.

  ‘Being in here, in the rainforest, is like being in another world.’

  ‘I know what you mean.’

  ‘I’m not sure I understood the word “wild” before we came to this place,’ Virginia said. ‘There’s no human systems here. It’s a different kind of being alive.’

  Darkus nodded. ‘It’s fascinating.’

  ‘It’s frightening. I’m pretty impressed that you were going to do this walk alone. I’m not sure I’d have had the guts.’

  Darkus didn’t reply. He wasn’t sure how far down the path he would have got on his own.

  ‘Shouldn’t we be seeing the Biome soon?’ Virginia asked. ‘We’ve been walking for ages.’

  ‘I know. We want to get to the trapdoor before the sun comes up.’

  ‘Emma said it was half a day’s walk. What’s that, four, five hours, maybe six?’

  ‘How long have we been walking for now?’

  ‘Three?’

  ‘It can’t be much further. Come on.’ Darkus marched forward.

  Virginia got up and followed him, only to be stopped dead by his hand shooting up in warning.

  ‘What is it?’ she whispered, creeping up behind him.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Darkus looked over his shoulder at her. ‘Can you hear that?’

  There were odd squelchy noises and snuffling sounds coming from their left.

  ‘Whatever it is,’ Virginia’s eyes were wide with fear, ‘we don’t want to meet it.’

  Darkus motioned that they should go around the noise. As he shuffled backwards he skidded on a fallen mossy branch and crashed sideways into a pile of stumpy tree ferns, crying out as he tried not to crush Baxter or the beetles in his backpack.

  There was a blood-curdling squealing as the creature that had been squelching and snuffling thundered towards them. Terrified, Darkus scrambled on to his feet, pushing himself as far as he could into the tree ferns. Virginia leapt backwards over a large rock, ducking down behind it.

  Exploding through a curtain of tree vines came a creature as big as a cow, with the face of an anteater. It blundered past them and disappeared into the forest. Darkus and Virginia were silent for a few minutes, staring at each other from their hiding places and glancing at the spot where the animal had disappeared. As its footfalls grew fainter, Darkus heard it squeal again. He crept from the ferns as Virginia came out from behind the rock.

  ‘What was that?’ she whispered.

  ‘I think,’ Darkus said, scratching his head, ‘it was a tapir.’

  ‘Whatever it was,
’ Virginia put her hand to her chest, ‘it nearly gave me a heart attack.’

  The walked to the spot where the tapir had thundered into view, and saw a sunken, trampled pit of muddy earth beside a pool of stagnant, brackish water.

  ‘It was having a mud bath.’ Virginia smiled at Darkus.

  ‘That’s what the squelching noise was.’

  They laughed with relief about disturbing the tapir’s mud wallow, and walked a little quicker, more aware now that there were large creatures in the forest, and some of them were dangerous.

  ‘Wait, where’s the path?’ Virginia spun around.

  Darkus looked at her in panic, then searched the ground. The path that they’d been following was gone. ‘Let’s move over there, where there’s more light.’ He pointed to where the trees opened up and the sky was visible.

  ‘We must’ve got spun around by the tapir,’ said Virginia, annoyed with herself.

  ‘It’s all right, we’ll stop there and check the map with the compass. We can get ourselves back on the right track. We can’t have gone far wrong.’

  They knelt down in the clearing, which seemed brighter because of the light from the moon and stars in the night sky. Darkus unfolded the map and smoothed it out.

  ‘Give me the compass.’ He held out his hand.

  Virginia checked her pockets and then looked at Darkus. ‘You’ve got it.’

  ‘I don’t. You took it, when you said you were better at map-reading than me.’

  Virginia’s eyes widened. ‘I must have dropped it, when that tapir ran at us.’

  The two looked at each other in panic. Darkus looked down at the map and realized he didn’t know where they were. Fear gripped his lungs and he found it hard to breathe.

  ‘We mustn’t panic,’ Virginia said, anxiously glancing about. ‘The path’s got to be here somewhere.’

  ‘Face it.’ Darkus slumped down on to the ground and slid his rucksack off. ‘We’re lost.’ His heart felt like lead. ‘The best thing we can do is stay here until daylight.’

  ‘Oh, Darkus,’ Virginia’s big brown eyes filled with tears. ‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to drop the compass. It was an accident. I, I . . .’

  ‘We don’t know you dropped it,’ Darkus said, pulling Virginia down next to him. ‘It could’ve been me, when I slipped.’

  ‘You’re just being nice,’ Virginia said, looking away from him. ‘I messed up.’

  ‘Hey, look!’ Darkus pointed. A trail of dung beetles were eagerly clambering out of his backpack. He stared as the beetles crawled on to the ground and then across the clearing in a straight line.

  ‘Where are they going?’ Virginia asked.

  ‘Ha!’ Darkus sprang to his feet, grabbing Virginia’s shirt and yanking her up to stand. ‘They’re showing us the way!’ He pointed up to the star-speckled sky. ‘Dung beetles can navigate using the Milky Way. They don’t need a compass!’ He shook Virginia shoulders with excitement. ‘We’re not lost, as long as we’ve got the beetles and the stars.’ He grabbed his rucksack and the pooter full of fireflies. ‘Come on, we can’t be far away now.’

  They walked beside the dung beetles, clearing the way and protecting them, like two giant bodyguards.

  A space beyond the trees opened up. The dung beetles marched to the edge of the trees then lifted their elytra and flew up, looping over Darkus’s head and dropping back into his rucksack.

  ‘Holy macaroni!’ Virginia exhaled, reaching out to steady herself against a tree.

  Darkus’s jaw dropped as he gawked at the view. Nestled amongst the trees and plants of the rainforest was a building as big as St Paul’s Cathedral, made entirely of glass and metal. He couldn’t see the smaller domes in the darkness, but he knew they were there.

  ‘We made it.’ Virginia looked at him and grinned.

  Darkus nodded, but he couldn’t stop staring at the Biome. His dad was in there somewhere, and he was going to find him. ‘C’mon.’ He grabbed Virginia’s arm and they skirted around the edge of the helipad clearing until they were as close to the trapdoor as possible. Darkus took the black device from his pocket and held it out towards the Biome.

  ‘Look!’ Virginia pointed to a tiny triangle of light in the top right corner of the screen. It grew bigger, and then, in the centre of the dark screen, a word briefly appeared.

  ONLINE.

  ‘Eureeeekka.’ Virginia breathed out a sigh of relief.

  The word was replaced by the hexagon. Darkus pointed the device at the trapdoor again, touching the hexagon. The trapdoor dropped down a foot and slid open, revealing a gaping black hole in the ground, the size of a van.

  There was a noise in the bushes behind them, like a man sneezing. Darkus looked at Virginia with alarm.

  ‘Quick, run,’ she hissed, already sprinting low through the darkness towards the opening.

  Darkus dashed after her, and the pair of them pelted into the entrance tunnel of the Biome. A glaring ceiling of hexagonal lights flickered on and the door began to close.

  ‘Here! Look! Quick!’ Virginia called out, dropping to her knees beside a hexagonal tile in the floor with a handle hole. She lifted it and beneath was a ladder shaft. ‘We have to get out of here. Emma said there are cameras.’ Darkus looked up and spotted a glass globe on the ceiling. ‘Come on, Darkus. Get down here.’

  He shinned down the ladder fast, and Virginia followed, lowering the floor tile with her head. They dropped down into a dimly lit tunnel.

  ‘Do you think they saw us?’

  Virginia cocked her head and listened. ‘There are no alarms going off. Let’s hope the security guards are asleep.’

  ‘Hang on a minute. How did you know that tile would lift?’

  ‘It had a handle in it, for one thing, but Emma said there were maintenance tunnels running under the building. Dr Lenka told her that they’re not watched, and that’s how we are going to get around without being spotted.’

  ‘When did she say that?’ Darkus frowned.

  ‘When I plugged her for info, as she was tying up the hammocks.’ Virginia looked smug. ‘Bet you’re glad you brought me along now, eh?’

  ‘What else did she say?’

  ‘That the insect farm is in the basement under the giant dome, and there’s only one or two cameras down there that we need to watch out for.’

  ‘Then we’re going down.’ Darkus searched the floor for another hexagonal slab with a sunken handle. ‘Because I want to meet the Biome beetles.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  The Queen’s Consort

  Two men in white lab coats came for Novak. Last time it had been Dr Lenka; Novak remembered him forcefully pushing her up the steps into the pupator. She hadn’t known what was going to happen to her then, but this time she knew, and she struggled.

  ‘Get off me! Let me go!’

  The men lifted her on to a stretcher. They strapped down her arms, legs and then her neck. She stopped fighting and started screaming.

  The men ignored her screams, raising the stretcher up on telescopic legs and wheeling her along the corridors of the Biome. She watched the hexagonal ceiling tiles zoom past, screaming and screaming as she frantically tried to work out how she was going to get away.

  The trolley slowed to a stop. She could see a doorway. Darkus’s dad was standing beside it, Spencer at his side, both of them dressed in white coats.

  ‘Let me go!’ she cried. ‘Help me!’ She looked at Spencer and he looked away.

  Darkus’s dad ignored her, speaking in low tones to the men who’d been pushing her. They nodded and walked away.

  ‘Hello, Novak,’ Darkus’s dad said, brightly, coming to stand at the head of the stretcher.

  ‘Traitor!’ Novak shrieked at him, spitting at his face.

  Bartholomew Cuttle wiped his face with his sleeve and turned his back to her. In a low, insistent voice, he said: ‘Please listen carefully to everything I say. Even if I’m not talking directly to you.’ His tone brightened, his voice growing louder as Spe
ncer came to stand by Novak’s feet. ‘We are conducting an important experiment here today, and you are very lucky to be a part of it. Isn’t that right, Spencer?’

  Novak looked at Spencer, uncertain of what to make of Darkus’s dad’s behaviour. With his right eye, Spencer gave her the tiniest of winks.

  ‘Yes, sir.’ Spencer grabbed hold of the bar at the foot of her stretcher and pushed the trolley, Darkus’s dad steering it down the corridor.

  ‘Well, first things first,’ Bartholomew Cuttle said, ‘I’d appreciate it if you didn’t scream any more. It upsets me, and will make it very difficult for you to hear what I’m saying, and, as I said, you must listen carefully to what I say at all times.’

  Novak didn’t reply.

  Spencer nodded and smiled.

  They turned down another corridor, and then another.

  ‘Oh, drat it!’ Darkus’s dad turned around and made a play of looking exasperated. ‘Spencer, I must have taken a wrong turn. I have to admit, I don’t know exactly where we are! I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to the geography of this hive. Do you know which way it is to get to the pupation lab?’

  ‘Lost, are we?’

  Novak immediately recognized Dr Lenka’s snarl, and her blood ran cold.

  ‘No,’ Bartholomew Cuttle replied, turning to face him. ‘We’re not lost, we are, ah, just . . .’

  ‘Where are you taking the girl?’ Dr Lenka asked, stepping up to the stretcher and staring down at Novak.

  ‘Oh, come on.’ Darkus’s dad laughed, lightly. ‘You know where we’re taking her,’ – he paused – ‘don’t you?’

  ‘Yes,’ Dr Lenka sounded uncertain, ‘of course I do. I meant, which direction do you want to go in to get to the err . . .’

  ‘Pupation lab?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I’m taking the girl to be prepared for the pupation chamber. We are performing the holometoboly today. But of course you already know that.’ Bartholomew smiled. ‘Will you be there to see it? I presume Lucy’s invited you? It’s very exciting. Today is the pinnacle of all her hard work.’