The Valley of the Ancients

by David Alric

  They laid the professor across two of the seats with Richard just behind. They waved to the others and once again the engine roared into life. The plane gathered speed across the plain, lifted off and disappeared over the rim of the crater.

  ‘Well,’ said Lucy. ‘That’s one patient sorted out. Now for the other. We’ve lost the proper doctor but I’m sure you two medics can do something. Come and help me with the cat.’ They walked over to where the sabre-tooth lay.

  ‘The evil one has hurt thee with his firestick,’ said Lucy. ‘We have come to help. Do not harm those who touch thee now.’

  She nodded to Clive and Clare who knelt beside the cat to examine it. There were two wounds, an entry wound near the top of the shoulder and an exit wound a few inches further back.

  ‘At least there isn’t a bullet in there,’ said Clare. ‘Surely that must be a good thing.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Clive, ‘but we don’t know what damage it’s done inside. It could have fractured the shoulder blade. I haven’t done much orthopaedics yet, but I doubt if that would need any treatment. We actually saw her limp on it, so I don’t think anything really dreadful has happened to the bones. In nature of course, she couldn’t hunt or defend herself, and probably wouldn’t survive but I’m sure Lucy can sort those problems out. The main thing is whether she’s got serious internal bleeding or not. We wouldn’t be able to do anything about that.’

  They made the cat as comfortable as possible, gave her a large dish of water and Lucy arranged for her fellow cats to feed and defend her.

  ‘I should’ve asked Dad to bring a vet,’ said Lucy, as they walked back to the camp. ‘I just didn’t think about it.’

  ‘You didn’t have time,’ said Clare comfortingly, ‘and his main concern was the professor.’

  ‘And,’ said Clive, ‘what’s a vet going to think about being asked to look at a sabre-tooth? Your secret would be out.’

  ‘Good Lord!’ exclaimed Clare, looking at Lucy who gave an embarrassed grin. ‘You’re right of course. We’d completely forgotten that.’

  Clive blushed. He had come to realize that it wasn’t often anyone scored over the Bonaventure sisters. They were a formidable combination. It was bad enough trying to keep up with Clare (whose suggestions throughout the trip had invariably turned out to be the best ones), but when the smart girl you fancied also happened to have a little sister who could talk to animals … He rapidly changed the subject.

  ‘And now,’ he said, ‘I’m dying to know if the professor managed to wipe the computer.’

  ‘Ooh yes! I’ll come with you,’ said Clare. Clive turned to Lucy. ‘Can you come too, so that its custodians don’t attack us!’

  She laughed. ‘Of course.’

  And they all made their way to the lab.

  The computer was turned on and a screensaver composed of a series of endlessly changing Newton’s rings was on the monitor.

  ‘Looks clear,’ Clive said, and moved towards the keyboard.

  ‘Stop,’ said Lucy, ‘unless you want a nasty surprise. I told them only to come out if somebody started tapping on the keys. Watch.’

  He stopped and she stepped forward and tapped the keyboard a few times at random. A few seconds later three enormous black scorpions appeared, from under the keyboard one on each side and one from the front. They raised their claws and their tails curled up with the stings in a menacing pose. Lucy looked at them for a moment and soon they relaxed and scuttled away. Clive watched until they were safely under the door of the cabin before he could relax.

  ‘Cripes!’ he said, ‘No wonder the prof left in such a hurry!’ Then he sat in front of the computer and started to operate the keyboard, rather clumsily with his splinted wrist.

  ‘Your security plan was a brainwave,’ he exclaimed. ‘He’d just had time to tap in his password before the scorpions drove him out. What a bonus!’ He pointed to the screen where the word MORIARTY was displayed.

  ‘I wonder what it means,’ said Lucy. ‘I’m sure I’ve heard of it before.’

  ‘Probably his mother’s maiden name,’ said Clive. ‘Usually is. Whatever it is, knowing it is going to save some police computer nerd quite a lot of time.’He sat and started flicking through the computer folders as the girls went back to check on the injured sabre-tooth.

  23

  Another Invisible Surprise

  The next day the big cat was alive, and though she wasn’t moving much, she had drunk all the water and was eating heartily the food brought to her by the others. ‘I think if she was bleeding seriously she wouldn’t have survived the night,’ Clare reassured Lucy, ‘so she’s already past the most dangerous period.’

  By mid-morning they were all sitting in the mess hut drinking coffee and wondering what time the plane might return. The sky was overcast and there was the occasional rumble of thunder. Suddenly there was a sound like a gunshot nearby. They all looked at each other in consternation. Clive got up and looked out cautiously.

  ‘That wasn’t thunder. Sounded as if it came from the lab,’ he said. ‘I suppose I’d better go and investigate.’

  ‘No!’ said Lucy. ‘It sounded like a gun. There might be other crooks we don’t know about. I’ll send Queenie.’ Clive looked relieved at this suggestion as he felt very vulnerable with one arm out of action, and soon the monkey was on the lab roof peering through the lab window. As she jumped down and scampered back they saw a wisp of smoke drifting out through the window netting.

  ‘The magic window has been struck by a jagged skyflash and is dead,’ she reported. ‘There are no tailless ones.’

  Lucy told the others and they rushed over to the lab. The computer was a smoking hulk and the lab floor was covered in shards of shattered screen and electronic fragments. Everything else in the room looked undamaged. Lucy looked up. The roof was intact.

  ‘Queenie said it had been struck by lightning,’ she said, puzzled, ‘but I don’t see how it can have been.’

  ‘It wasn’t a thunderbolt,’ said Clive. ‘It was a bomb.’ The others looked at him. He was consulting his watch.

  ‘Yes,’ he murmured. ‘It would have been about this time yesterday.’

  ‘What on earth are you rambling about?’ said Helen.

  ‘Sorry, I was just working it out. I think the professor had a small explosive device fitted inside the computer which could be triggered by an electronic time clock. It was a self-destruct mechanism: a way of ensuring that his data wouldn’t fall into anybody else’s hands if he was taken ill, locked up, or whatever. He had a safety lock which he would reset every day as long as he was OK. He reset it at exactly this time yesterday morning when he was in the lab. He couldn’t, of course, reset it today so it’s gone off, just as he intended.’

  ‘So, after all our clever planning,’ said Lucy, ‘there’s nothing left for the police after all.’

  ‘No-o,’ said Clive. Helen glanced at him. Her son looked thoughtful but she said nothing.

  They looked out for a plane all afternoon, but it wasn’t until the following day that two planes appeared in the sky. Julian and Richard were in one and the other was a police plane, containing a pilot, a detective and a forensic technician who immediately set to work examining the professor’s cabin and laboratory. The remains of the computer were carried to the plane, together with all kinds of files, rock samples, chemicals and strips of cloth impregnated with test mixtures of metamaterial.

  The detective was Captain Colarinho, the same police officer who had been involved in the arrest of Chopper and his gang eighteen months earlier. He was astonished to see Richard and Lucy again.

  ‘You two seem to have a talent for finding villains in remote places. Had you thought about joining our police force? Lucy is a little young but I’m sure she could be called a “special juvenile rainforest consultant” or something.’They all laughed and Richard was relieved that the investigation was in the hands of someone he knew and trusted.

  Captain Colarinho was particularly interested in
the professor’s pistol which Lucy had retrieved and given to Julian.

  ‘You did well to get this off him,’ said the detective with genuine admiration in his voice. ‘You must have been watching him –’ he was proud of his excellent English and paused to search for the correct idiom, ‘– like a hawk.’

  ‘Er, yes,’ said Julian. ‘I suppose that’s a pretty accurate way of putting it.’ The detective was puzzled as everyone smiled at this remark, but put it down to post-traumatic stress. They had, after all, been through quite an ordeal.

  The following day, at the request of the detective they took him to the escarpment where Sam and his companion villains had met their deaths and described how they had been attacked and eaten by wild animals. They told him of their plane crash and how Chopper and the pilot had been killed while trying to steal their plane. The detective looked up at the forbidding crags of the escarpment and decided he’d investigated far enough.

  ‘These were all jail-birds,’ he said, ‘and you are respected scientists. I think a statement that you witnessed their deaths will be enough at this stage. If we need anything else we’ll come back to you but,’ he nodded to the cliff, ‘I can’t see any police team wanting to crawl over that lot looking for non-existent clues. Talking of savage animals –’ He looked around nervously. ‘Shouldn’t we be getting back to the camp?’

  ‘Yes, I suppose we should,’ said Richard nonchalantly, looking at the setting sun. ‘It’ll be dark very soon.’

  The detective couldn’t help but be impressed by his quiet courage.

  ‘I thought my job was dangerous,’ he said, ‘but you guys must have nerves of steel to explore in places like this.’

  ‘Oh, it’s just part of the job,’ said Richard modestly, ‘and we start young. Lucy here is only thirteen,’ he put his arm round her and she smiled innocently at the detective, ‘and yet we wouldn’t go anywhere without her!’

  They planned to leave the next day. The police had finished their tasks and Julian, Helen and Richard had sorted and filed all their precious scientific data about the valley of the dinosaurs, as they now referred to it.

  Lucy was up at dawn and went to the spot where she had climbed down a makeshift ladder into the crater eighteen months earlier. There, a hundred feet above her sat the great eagle, waiting patiently, tearing now and then at the carcass of a monkey lying at his feet.

  ‘I thank thee O master of the jungle skies. Thy task is now fulfilled. Fare thee well.’

  ‘I have been honoured to serve thee twice in my life. Fare thee well.’

  Lucy wiped a tear from her eye and walked back to join the others.

  Over breakfast, their last meal before leaving, Julian pointed out that it was exactly a week since they had arrived.

  ‘I just can’t believe all that’s happened in a week,’ said Helen. ‘It seems more like a month.’

  ‘– Or a lifetime for most people,’ said Richard. ‘Aircrashes, dinosaurs, surgical operations on dinosaurs, invisible villains, giant spiders, people eaten by animals – it’s like living in an adventure story.’

  ‘– And not just an adventure story,’ added Lucy with a sly glance at Clare, ‘– a love story too.’ She put on the dramatic voice of a TV critic. ‘Let’s not forget the tale of steamy and secret passion that has run like a golden thread through this week in the crater!’

  She ducked under the table as Clive went scarlet and Clare threw a banana at her. Queenie pounced on it and gave it to Lucy, thinking she had been meant to catch it.

  They all had final jobs to do and while Clare and Clive went off to shut down the generator Lucy spoke to the others and they laughed and nodded. ‘You’re really mean!’ said Helen, but she had to smile.

  When the time came to get in the plane Clare got into one of the two back seats and Lucy climbed in quickly beside her. As Richard and Helen made to get in next, Julian said to Clive: ‘I thought you’d like to sit in the front on the way back. You said you wanted to learn to fly and you can watch me at close quarters.’

  ‘Well, it’s kind, Dad but … but wouldn’t Lucy rather sit up here and …’ he was obviously thinking very fast, ‘… and then she can wave goodbye properly to all her animals,’ he ended rather lamely. ‘I’ll just sit in the back with …’He was interrupted as everybody except Clare burst out laughing. Red-faced, he looked back and saw that she was blushing too.

  ‘What a wind-up!’ said Lucy. ‘And they walked straight into it. Come on, Clive, get back here next to Clare – I’ll sit in front so I can – what was it?’ She gave a wicked giggle. ‘Oh yes, wave to the animals.’

  Clive and Clare had to laugh as he came and sat next to her.

  ‘Your sister gets worse,’ he said good-naturedly, ‘but I’m very fond of her really.’ Then he leant over and whispered in her ear. ‘But not as fond as I am of somebody else.’They squeezed hands as the little plane bumped across the plain, gathered speed and flew east, back into a world that had moved on millions of years earlier than the one they were leaving.

  They returned to the airstrip at Cayman Creek where they had stayed on their outward journey as Lucy wanted to restore the monkeys to their home territory. As soon as they had landed, and Julian had opened the door, Queenie jumped out and scampered into the trees. She returned a few minutes later while they were pitching their tents.

  ‘I have told those in the forest that the Promised One is safe,’ she explained to Lucy. ‘Since none can pass in or out of the Valley of the Mighty Ones the animanet has been silent about thee, and all creatures have been waiting to hear of thy return. Soon the Great Ones will take the news hence across the Great Salt to the Isles of Albion.’ Lucy thanked her and explained the interchange to the others.

  ‘Just a minute,’ said Clare with a frown. ‘If we’ve been shut off from the animanet how could you have got a message to that dog?’

  ‘Good thinking,’ laughed Lucy. ‘I wasn’t going to bore you with it, but I had a little arrangement with a monkey eagle, just in case.’ As she was explaining herself the bushes parted and a black panther stalked majestically onto the airstrip.

  ‘Melanie!’ shouted Lucy, and rushed to embrace the great cat. She brought her back to the group and introduced her to Clare and Clive who, of course, knew how she had helped Lucy before, but were now lost in admiration at her beauty and lithe power.

  Later that evening as they sat and chatted round the camp fire Clive looked over at Lucy who was sitting with Michelle on her shoulder, Melanie stretched at her feet, and Queenie and Clio sitting on either side. Sophie, who had formed a special attachment to Clare since their adventure in the cave, was sitting with Clare and, as was now her habit, had the earbud of Clare’s iPod in her ear.

  ‘The animals certainly look after you,’ said Clive. ‘I must confess, until I saw your power in action I really had no idea just how important you are to them and the absolute sway you hold over them.’

  ‘Talking of which,’ added Julian, ‘your idea of bringing the monkeys along was absolutely brilliant. I thought it was a bit of a gimmick when you first mentioned it, but they almost certainly saved our lives. Please thank them on our behalf for all they did.’ There was a chorus of agreement and Lucy told the monkeys, who went round the group and gave an affectionate lick to everybody in turn.

  ‘Sitting here again,’ said Clive, looking across at Richard, ‘reminds me of our greenhouse discussion over the campfire last week. We never really came to any conclusions and I’ve been thinking about it a great deal. What are we actually going to do about global warming?’

  ‘A good question,’ replied Richard, ‘because it’s something that scientists and governments can’t agree about.’

  ‘What do you think we should do, Richard?’ asked Helen who had followed the previous discussion with interest, ‘because I should tell you that Julian and I argue endlessly about this.’

  ‘Oh, dear,’ said Richard with an apologetic smile, ‘I’m bound to upset one of you then. Make yourselve
s comfortable because it’s a long story.’

  They made some more coffee and then sat talking long into the night about the future of the planet.1

  The next day Lucy spoke to the monkeys with Clare by her side. She was holding the earbud of Clare’s iPod in her hand.

  ‘We now return to the City of the Great Clock in Albion. Without your help we would not have survived the many dangers that have threatened us since we last stood in this place. I will return one day and speak once more to the arborikin, but I know not whether it will be to thee or to those that follow thee.’ She then turned and spoke to Sophie, giving her the earpiece. ‘Clarekin bequeaths this to thee in return for thy loyal service.’ The monkey whimpered in delight. She put the bud into Kai’s ear, but the little creature took it straight out and started to suck it, much to the girls’ amusement. Sophie then spoke:

  ‘Fare thee well O Promised One – and give my special thanks to Clarekin; but for her courage my son and I would surely have been devoured by the great arachnopod.’ Lucy gave the message to Clare who burst into tears as she hugged Sophie and Kai.

  The sisters then turned and walked sadly back to join the others who were preparing to board the plane. Soon Cayman Creek lay far below as the plane climbed and then banked to follow the glistening thread of the river tributary back towards the mighty Amazon.

  That night they stayed once again with José and his family in Macapá, who were enthralled to hear of their astonishing adventures. Cerberus was inseparable from Lucy and Francesca said that since their previous visit he had been much more even-tempered and had even started wagging his tail at strangers. Lucy retrieved the message she had left with him; as she explained to Richard, it would cause endless complications if it were discovered sometime in the future by an enthusiastic gardener.

  Before they went to bed, Julian, who had spent most of the evening on the phone, asked José if he could possibly take him into town the next day.