by Katie Penryn
Again I called out, “Ostende mihi ubi est Marc!”
The photo crumbled and turned brown; the salt sent up a yellow flame as it ate its way across Marc’s likeness.
Lights flashed across the mirror, then met in the middle as a churning whirlpool of color. Gradually, they settled down and Marc began to appear. He was in a cave, the cave I’d seen before in my visions of Nina, but this time in the bottom right-hand corner dim figures or letters appeared. I didn’t know which. As I absorbed Marc’s condition: disheveled with his hands tied behind his back and tears running down his face, the print crystallized.
“What does it say?” I asked Felix.
“You’ll never guess,” Felix answered in that annoying way of his.
“Of course, I won’t,” I snapped back.
Felix grinned. “It’s the geographical co-ordinates. Longitude and latitude. That magic’s mighty powerful. We know exactly where to find him now, down to the last minute of the last degree.”
Not to be outdone in the cleverness stakes, I added, “You can put them in your phone and we can use the GPS to find the spot. Come on, Felix. We shouldn’t waste a moment. Look at the state of the poor kid.”
“Hold on, boss. Let me Google the co-ordinates to give us the general direction. We don’t want to be zigzagging all over the countryside.”
Felix’s fingers clicked over his keyboard and he let out a yelp of astonishment. “Look,” he said turning the laptop round towards me. “He’s right in the middle of the de Portemorency vineyards. Come on.”
We stopped long enough to collect blankets, biscuits and a bottle of soda, not wanting to waste time making a hot drink. At the last minute, we decided to take Zag with us to keep Marc company in the car on the way back. Marc had a German shepherd of his own so he wouldn’t find Zag intimidating. We’d toyed with the idea of waking up Jimbo, but decided the rescue could turn dangerous and place a second child at the villain’s mercy.
*
Once we left Beaucoup-sur-Mer and took the road to Cognac and the de Portemorency vineyards, the dark crowded in on us. By now the clock had ticked round to that time before dawn when the stars disappear, but the sun has not yet shown its face. As we approached the château, Felix navigated according to the GPS on his phone. We drew closer to our destination and found we were tracing the very route we’d followed days earlier to search the area where Hélène met with her accident. The car bumped down the little rough track between the vines until I came to a stop in the middle of the patch of dead vines where Hélène’s horse had been tied up.
Zag stood up on the backseat resting his front paws on the window and stared out into the darkness. “Where are we? This place has scary vibes, Penzi. I don’t like it one bit. You’re not getting out here, are you? It’s not safe.”
I switched off the engine and leaned over my seat to ruffle his ears and reassure him. “I’ll have you and Felix with me. Are you ready for this? We’ve come to take Marc, Jimbo’s friend, away from the bad man who’s locked him up. Your job is to make friends with Marc and stop him being frightened. All right?”
Zag gave me a low woof in reply and scratched at the window to be let out.
Felix opened the door and Zag jumped down onto the ground, ears back and muzzle forward sniffing the air.
Felix led the way following the GPS through the scrubland until we fetched up against the outcrop of rock.
“It’s right here,” he said, “but we scouted all this area last time we were here.”
“Could the cave be inside the rock?” I asked.
Felix studied the display on his phone and walked part way around the outcrop before saying, “It has to be, but if so, it’s cleverly disguised. I didn’t notice any openings before.”
“What are we to do?” I asked almost whining in desperation.
“Think, boss, think.”
“My mind’s gone blank.”
“What about your unlock spell? There may be no lock, but maybe the magic will paraphrase the spell and interpret it as open up.”
“Oh, Felix. You’re so brilliant.”
Zag knocked his head against my knee. “Steady on, Penzi. He’ll get a swollen head. He already thinks he’s your chief bodyguard; we all know that’s me.”
Felix let out a low chuckle. “Oh yes, and can you shift to being a leopard?”
I stamped my foot. “This is no time for levity, you two. We have the fate of a little boy in our hands and if we’re right, he’s only feet away from us. And I’ve remembered the unlock spell so here goes.”
“Wait a moment, boss. Shouldn’t we go invisible?” asked Felix.
“No, we’ll frighten Marc if he hears voices and can’t see anyone. Ready?”
Felix and Zag nodded. I cast the spell. Nothing happened. Felix shone his flashlight all around, up and down the foot of the outcrop but no openings had appeared.
“Try again,” he said.
I cast the spell a second time. We waited, we listened. Nothing. Not a sound.
Felix checked his phone. “We’re in the right place all right.”
“That’s it,” I cried out.
“Shush,” said Felix. “If the villain’s nearby, he’ll hear you.”
I tugged at Felix’s arm as I stammered, “It’s your phone. Switch it off. It’s interfering with the magic.”
Felix looked at me as if I was mad. “You really think so? But my phone’s modern magic.”
“It’s science, not magic. Switch it off, Felix. We’ll try again without,” I said barely managing to keep my exasperation under control.
This time as I uttered the words and imagined the symbols of the spell, a door slid open in the rock in front of us. It ran silently on plastic rollers set in an aluminum strip top and bottom.
“Stay and keep guard,” I whispered to Zag who obediently took up duty at the side of the opening leading into the darkened cave.
Felix signaled for me to stay behind him. I kept close peering around him as he covered his flashlight with his hand to dim it. He swept it slowly from side to side and took a step into the cave. A muffled grunting started up from the darkness.
“Marc’ll be right at the back next to the opening to the tunnel,” I whispered.
Felix raised the beam and splashed it against the far side of the cave. There sitting in a miserable huddle was Marc, gagged and bound hand and foot.
I pushed past Felix and knelt down beside the boy to undo the gag. “We’re here now, Marc. You’re safe. Where’s the bad man?”
He rubbed his lips before he answered. “He’s gone out… down the tunnel. I don’t know when he’ll be back. We must hurry or he’ll catch you as well and tie you up, too.”
“I’d like to see him try. Anyway, how long’s he been gone?” Felix asked shining his flashlight down the tunnel.
“Ages and ages,” said Marc. “He’s taken his drill. It was charging when he brought me here.”
“We must hurry, Felix,” I said. “He’s probably out drilling more vines, but it’ll be dawn soon and he’ll be back.”
Felix picked Marc up in his arms. “We don’t have time to untie him, boss. I’ll carry him back to the car like this.”
As we passed through the entrance to the cave, Felix told me to wedge the door open but as unobtrusively as possible.
“Why?” I asked him.
“Let’s go,” Felix said as soon as I’d put a small stone to stop the door clicking to. “I’ll explain on the way.”
We set off with me holding the flashlight and Zag in the lead.
Felix spoke quietly as we pushed our way back through the bushes. “As soon as I’ve seen you both safely back to the car, I’m returning to the cave to lie in wait for the villain’s return. We can’t allow him to continue like this. Who knows what he’ll try next. Dubois’s never going to catch him through normal police procedures.”
“But you never leave me alone,” I said, astonished that Felix was contemplating such a course of action.
“Needs must, boss. You can lock yourselves in the car, and Zag will be with you. Make use of the time to untie poor Marc here, warm him up and give him something to eat and drink.”
“What if the kidnapper comes back that way… past the car?”
“We’ll have to take the risk that he’ll come back through the tunnel because he left that way.”
Felix wasted no time on the turnaround once he’d seen us into the car and made sure we’d locked ourselves in. “I don’t want to miss the blackguard,” he said as he left.
I picked undone the knots binding Marc, resorting to my teeth at one point. At last he was free. Cold, shivering and still scared out of his wits, he clung to me inside the blanket tent I made for us both on the back seat. Zag insisted on taking up guard point on the front seat. I hugged Marc to me and rubbed him to warm him up. Once he’d relaxed and stopped shivering, I told him stories, glad that I’d had plenty of practice with Sam and Jimbo. And we waited… and waited for Felix to return until Marc fell asleep safe from the pre-dawn chill and the vicious kidnapper.
Chapter 36
Felix
It wasn’t without trepidation that I left Penzi and Marc in the car in the dark in the middle of a vineyard with a monster prowling around, but I judged it necessary to put an end to this villain’s malicious crimes against the de Portemorency family.
Before I entered the cave, I shifted to my leopard form. As a human being I had no weapons with me. As a leopard, I’d have all the power of tooth and claw and the element of surprise. The last thing the villain would expect to find waiting in ambush would be a full-grown male leopard, weighing in at a little over two hundred pounds of pumped muscle. My shift took longer than usual; the stresses of the past few days had depleted my reserves of physical and mental strength. When at last my spotted coat materialized, I spent several minutes flexing my muscles to fill them with oxygen, and I tested my claws to make sure I had the force to flick them out when necessary. Then I searched for somewhere high to hide. I wanted to be able to launch myself at the villain as he came into the cave from the tunnel. I didn’t know if he had a gun or not. Marc hadn’t mentioned one, but he may not have seen it.
A ledge ran around the walls of the cave one side, about ten feet above the floor. That would be perfect. The problem facing me was how to get up there in the first place. An old tool cupboard stood against the other side of the cave. With much pushing and shoving of my mighty foreshoulders, I managed to move it across underneath the ledge. I bounded up onto the table, then onto the top of the cupboard and onto the ledge. Now, I had only to be patient. My kind are designed by nature to ambush their prey. I had the element of surprise on my side. I had to put the villain out of action before he noticed Marc was missing.
I sank down onto my haunches, then stretched my front legs out in front of me and laid my heavy head down on my paws, all the while keeping my round ears swiveling like radar antennae, straining to pick up the first sounds of the villain’s progress along the tunnel on his return to the cave.
It was just as well I could see in the dark because I’d left my powerful flashlight with Penzi and Marc. Dawn was still some way off, but a pale light glimmered faintly through the crack in the doorway in contrast with the blackness in the cave. I had to hope I’d get the jump on the man before he registered the door had been opened. He wouldn’t be long now. He obviously did most of his nefarious deeds at nighttime; daylight would have him scuttling back into his burrow.
A scraping deep down in the tunnel. A stone dislodged along the way. He was approaching. His footsteps came closer. Any moment now he would appear in the opening to the tunnel. I edged my way to the end of the ledge, sank back on my rear legs and tensed my powerful muscles.
The instant I saw his head, I sprang with every ounce of energy I could summon. I had to take this man down. He had the advantage of weight and height over me, but I was fit and nature had designed me to be a hunter. My attack hit him with the force of a high rugby tackle to the shoulders. Down he went with me straddling him, two legs on either side of his plump body. He had just time enough to scream his disbelief before I socked him with my mighty left paw and knocked him right out. I hadn’t had to use my claws or my fangs; he’d been well and truly south-pawed.
As quickly as I could, given the energy I’d expended in tackling him, I shifted back to being Felix the human being. My leopard self does not have the advantage of opposable thumbs. I had to tie the villain up; truss him and leave him until we could get Dubois and his cohorts to the cave to make an arrest.
I double-checked my knots. He wasn’t going to get free. I made a quick exit of the cave, closing the door behind me. I found the trail we’d blazed through the scrubland and hurried back to the car. Penzi lay fast asleep with Marc curled up against her, both of them sheltered by the blankets. Zag heard me coming and sat up to watch my approach. He wagged his tail so fiercely it thumped against the back of the seat and woke Penzi up from her slumber.
I knocked on the back window for Penzi to unlock the doors and let Zag out for a doggy snuffle around and a much needed pee.
“Did you get him?” Penzi asked me as she gently dislodged Marc who hadn’t woken up.
“Of course. He’s well and truly bound up. As soon as we deliver Marc to his father, we’ll brief Dubois, and he can send a posse out to arrest the villain.”
“All right, but first I must copy Zag; I’m busting. I suggest you wake Marc and take him to do the same. Gentlemen in front of the car; ladies to the rear.”
Toilet requirements sorted out, a gulp of water and a couple of cookies, and we set off to the Château de Portemorency with our precious cargo on board. I couldn’t wait to see Jean-Claude’s face.
*
Although day had barely broken, we found the household already in action with lights on in the downstairs rooms. Jean-Claude ran down the front steps when he heard our car. The look of joy that burst over his face as he came close enough to the car to see Marc sitting in the back with Penzi, made all the discomforts and stress of the past twenty-four hours worth it. He burst into tears of joy and yanked the door open to scoop his son up and hug him to within an inch of his life. He broke away to look at Penzi and me, but he couldn’t speak. We both patted him on the back and ushered him back to the house.
“Marc needs a hot drink and a hot bath and lots of TLC,” said Penzi. “And would you take Zag to the kitchen with you. He’s probably hungry and thirsty, too. We have to see Dubois at once. Has he arrived for the day yet?”
Jean-Claude came to a sudden stop, pivoted back towards us and said, “Dubois’s not here. Of course, you don’t know. He didn’t want to wake you.”
“What’s happened?” Penzi asked her face paling as she imagined the worst. “Not another kidnapping or another accident?”
“No, no. Not at all. He and his men have gone off to search for the kidnapper. An important exercise with men from all the surrounding Departments. They left at midnight taking a local geologist with them and that machine they’d been waiting for from Bordeaux.”
“Get Marc inside, Jean-Claude, and I’ll phone Dubois to let him know we have Marc safe and sound and brief him on everything else that’s happened tonight.”
When we stepped into the hall I took out my phone as I watched Jean-Claude and Marc walk off towards the kitchen followed by Zag. Wouldn’t you know it? My battery was flat. I asked Penzi for her phone with the same result. We’d been too busy to charge our phones. We’d have to borrow one from a policeman in the control center Dubois had set up in the library. Dubois would have left a skeleton staff on duty I was sure.
I called Dubois on a borrowed phone but there was no answer. I waited a few minutes and tried again. Still no answer, so I left a message.
“Inspector Dubois must be too busy to answer his phone,” I remarked to the young officer who’d lent me his.
“That’s possible, but he may have it switched off if he doesn’t want it to ring,”
he answered.
A second policeman looked up and said, “They were to conduct an underground search. His phone is probably out of reach.”
“Did he brief you on where they were going? Could we catch them up? We have important news for him.”
“In that case,” the young policeman answered, “come and sit down here next to me and I’ll show you what’s going on.”
As Penzi and I pulled up chairs, the policeman called out to his colleague, “Ring for some coffee and something to eat, will you? These guys must be tired and hungry.”
Once Penzi and I were settled, and we had a steaming hot cup of coffee and a couple of stale but still enjoyable croissants in front of us, the officer begun his briefing.
“Now, this is Inspector Dubois’s plan….”
Chapter 37
Dubois’s story:
On the point of scolding Penzi for not advising him Nina had regained consciousness, Dubois had the words snatched out of his mouth by Violette’s announcement that her brother Marc had gone missing.
Another possible kidnapping and he hadn’t debriefed the victim of the first one. First things first. Maybe the child had not gone far.
“Come,” he yelled at Penzi and Felix. “We must search the house and the gardens. Hunting down the villain can wait for a few minutes.”
But Marc was nowhere to be found in the proximity of the château. He had vanished leaving his red bicycle in the ditch beside the main road. Dubois ran back with Felix and Penzi, his stomach churning at the realization that the child had probably been snatched on his watch.
Back in the library when the email came through from the villain, images of Dubois’s future life flashed before his eyes: failure, disgrace… dismissal. He had to get a grip on the situation. No way would Madame Fer-de-Lance or the Ministry countenance the payment of a second ransom even if a second child’s life was at stake.
