Hamish X and the Hollow Mountain

by Sean Cullen

  The swarm was thickest around the hole. Dark figures staggered in the heart of the cloud. One by one, individual Guards fought their way free. Coated with butterflies, they looked like delicately winged moving carpets.

  Mimi was about to go to the aid of the Guards when a figure dressed in red and white dashed into the fray waving a burning branch. Mr. Kipling, who’d been looking for his peaked cap in the wreckage of the wedding tent, had been separated from the Guards when the swarm attacked. Fortunately, he still wore his white gloves from the wedding. Around his face he had wrapped a white scarf that covered everything but his grey eyes. Swiping his makeshift torch back and forth he waded into the swarm, looking for Guards who were still upright. The butterflies shrank back from the heat; any that came too close ignited and shrivelled to crispy black husks.

  Several more Guards struggled free, guided by the flaming torch. Many, too many more lay on the ground, immobilized by butterfly stings.

  Mimi shouted, “Over here! Over here!” The Guards followed the sound of her voice, staggering blindly towards her. She grabbed the closest by the hand and pulled him over to a spot where a bonfire of broken chairs, shattered and set alight in the Firebird attack, burned brightly. The heat was enough to keep the butterflies at bay. She dragged another Guard over, and another. Soon a dozen Guards were swiping the clinging butterflies from their goggles.

  “How many did we lose?” Aidan’s voice was so welcome that Mimi felt tears start in her eyes. He grabbed her arm and shook her. “Mimi? How many?”

  “Loads. I couldn’t count ’em all.”

  Mr. Kipling dashed out of the cloud waving his torch. Mimi thought it was a miracle he hadn’t been stung. The man joined them by the fire. “You know, I never liked butterflies. Too fluttery for me by half! But these really take the biscuit.”

  Aidan pulled a burning stick from the flames. “Grab a torch, everyone. We’re going to get our people out of there.”

  “Oh no,” one of the other Guards gasped and pointed. “The stairs.”

  In the heat of the attack they had forgotten the refugees climbing above. Butterflies were separating from the main group and heading for the vulnerable children, who were looking behind them and pointing. Mrs. Francis urged them to climb, but the butterflies were already alighting. Here and there a child slumped motionless on the stone steps. The other children, filled with terror, began to push the ones in front. Panic was spreading.

  “We gotta help,” Mimi shouted.

  “What about our comrades?” Aidan pointed at the Guards lying unconscious around the breach. “We can’t just leave them.”

  “We have to fer now,” Mimi said. “Our job’s to protect the children. We cain’t do nuthin’ fer these fellars if we lose the whole mountain.”

  Aidan was torn, his eyes wide behind the goggles. Finally, he decided. “Grab a torch and follow me.”

  The Guards did as they were told and soon they were racing up the stairs to the aid of the escaping children.

  MRS. FRANCIS WATCHED the approaching swarm with mounting terror.

  “Stay calm! Stay calm! Don’t push!” she cried but no one was listening. Children were climbing over each other to get to safety. The raccoons were doing their best, but they were small and not as strong as the panicked children.

  “Oh dear,” Mrs. Francis gasped. Her wedding dress was torn and smeared with soot. She looked up and saw that the gate to the Workshop level was less than a hundred metres away, but it seemed like miles.

  “Help me!”

  The little woman turned to the sound of the terrified voice. A tiny girl, the last of the long line of children, sat a few steps above Mrs. Francis. “I hurt my foot.” Mrs. Francis looked behind her and saw that the closest butterfly was scant metres away. She dashed up, crushed the little child to her ample bosom, and began to grimly climb the steps.

  Mrs. Francis had never had a child of her own. The tiny girl in her arms was a stranger. She didn’t even know her name. There are some people, however, to whom all children are important and special and worthy of any sacrifice. Mrs. Francis knew that she would not be able to outrun the butterflies. She had never been fit, had always been chubby, and right now she was close to exhaustion. So she did the only thing she could do: she stopped and covered the girl with her voluminous wedding dress and braced herself for the sting of the first butterfly.

  “What’s your name, child?”

  “Olive,” the girl sniffed.

  “Olive. What a lovely name. Don’t cry, Olive. I’m Mrs. Francis and I’m here to take care of you.”

  They huddled closer and waited for the end.

  Instead, they felt a strong wind rush over them from above. The wind was accompanied by a loud roar. Mrs. Francis raised her head to see the rear of the Orphan Queen, its great propellers blasting a strong current of air over the huddled woman and child. The back cargo door was open and Parveen stood there. He saw Mrs. Francis and waved.

  Mrs. Francis hazarded a look over her shoulder and saw no butterflies. Their tiny wings weren’t strong enough to counter the propellers’ blast. They were being held at bay. Around the corner of the stairs rushed the remaining members of Aidan’s group. Mr. Kipling saw Mrs. Francis and ran forward. He threw aside his torch and crushed her in a bear hug.

  “Darling! Are you all right?”

  “I am now!”

  “Enough mushy stuff,” they heard Mimi say. “Let’s hightail it!” Mimi pushed the adults along. Mrs. Francis held tight to Olive and together they mounted the stairs. Above them, the last of the refugees passed through the gate. Guards and raccoons stood beckoning. Mimi waved to Parveen as they passed and he gave her the thumbs-up.

  MR. SWEET and Mr. Candy flexed their fingers and checked their jetpacks. All the other agents followed suit. Satisfied, Mr. Sweet turned to Mr. Candy. “It would seem that the time has come to get our hands dirty, Mr. Candy.”

  “Indeed it has, Mr. Sweet. Indeed it has.”

  They thumbed their ignition buttons and rose through the breached gate into the cavern beyond.

  CARA WAITED with the Guards at the metal plate that served as the gate to the Workshop Cavern. The final refugees hurried in, with Aidan and Mimi bringing up the rear. Cara hugged Aidan fiercely. He hugged her back briefly and then pushed her away.

  “Where are the others?” Cara asked.

  “The butterflies,” he said bitterly. “They didn’t make it.” Cara’s face was a picture of shock. “We don’t have time to worry about that now. Is everybody up in the Nurtury?”

  Cara nodded. “George has been shuttling them up in the elevator. Just these ones here to go.”

  “Good,” Aidan said. “Quick. Let’s get the gates closed.”

  “Wait!” Mrs. Francis pushed forward. “Parveen and Noor are still in the airship.”

  “That’s right!” Mimi dashed back through the gate to the top of the stairs. What she saw filled her with dread.

  The airship was making a wide turn pursued by a flock of Grey Agents. The Orphan Queen was nowhere as fast as the agents’ jetpacks. As she watched, the first of them approached the open cargo hold and attempted to enter the airship. Suddenly, the agent clutched at his head and then dropped like a stone to the floor of the cavern far below.

  INSIDE THE CARGO HOLD, Parveen picked up another hamster bomb from the box at his feet. He looked out at the open air and tried desperately to keep his balance. He had tied himself off with a piece of rope, but standing was next to impossible with Noor at the controls. He regretted allowing her to take the wheel. There was no helping it now, though. She wasn’t doing badly, but the middle of a battle was not exactly the ideal time to learn how to navigate smoothly.

  Parveen saw another Grey Agent approaching. It was a female. Parveen found her pallid skin and blank expression somehow more disturbing than the male version. He wondered briefly and incongruously if the Grey Agents married or had children like normal people. He didn’t have more than a second to ponder the q
uestion before the agent swooped into the cargo hold, directly at him.

  Parveen cocked back his arm and threw a hamster bomb, but he missed. Silently wishing Mimi were here, he braced himself as the agent bowled him over. She wrapped her hands around his throat and began to squeeze. Parveen battered the strong hands with his smaller fists, but to no avail. They rolled around the cargo hold, the plume of blue fire from the jetpack scorching the planks of the deck. Parveen knew he couldn’t continue in a wrestling match with the agent: she was far larger and much stronger. He turned his head and saw the gaping cargo door. Just then Noor made another of her hard turns, and he pushed off with all his strength. Parveen and the agent rolled up and out of the cargo door and into space.

  Parveen fell until he reached the end of the rope. The agent’s grip was jerked loose as they bounced from the impact. Parveen looked down past her blank, goggled face and saw the fire-dotted lawns hundreds of metres below.

  The jetpack on the agent’s back was still firing. It spun the dangling combatants in a great swinging arc. Parveen knew the rope would hold both of them forever. In desperation he leaned closer to the pack and saw a cluster of hoses running down the side of the metal device. He reached down, grasped the largest of the hoses, and pulled with all his might.

  The hose ripped free and sprayed some form of liquid into the air. The flame on the jetpack fizzled and died. The agent looked over her shoulder, the same blank expression on her grey face. Parveen took the opportunity to wrench his whole body in one titanic wriggle. The agent’s grip slipped and she fell, looking up at Parveen with a strange expression on her face, neither fear nor anger, merely puzzlement: a look Parveen would never forget. Turning away before the creature struck the ground, he began hauling himself back up towards the ship.

  “Parveen!” He heard Mimi’s voice and stopped climbing. He looked and saw her standing at the top of the stairs, waving her arms. She cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted. “We have to close the gates. Come on! Now.”

  Two agents spotted Mimi and swooped towards her. She turned to meet their attack, pulling her combat stick from her back and swinging hard at the closest one. Parveen watched long enough to see the agent reel back from the impact of the blow before he turned his attention to the hole and saw more agents pouring through the breach. He redoubled his efforts and finally heaved himself into the cargo bay.

  As soon as he got his breath back, he pushed himself to his feet and raced up the corridor that ran the length of the ship, then through the galley and into the bridge. He stopped, horrified at what he saw.

  The wide glass windscreen in the front of the bridge was shattered. Two agents held Noor in their grip. As he leapt forward to stop them they launched themselves out of the shattered windscreen, carrying his sister away.

  “NO!” Parveen screamed. The agents roared off, his sister thrashing between them. He ran to the shattered window and watched them carry his sister down to the hole and through. Several other agents rose in their place, heading in a V formation straight for the airship.

  Parveen was an intelligent boy. The whole of his being cried out to go and help his sister immediately. His practical side, however, told him that without a plan he had no chance of getting her back. He looked to the top of the stairs and saw that Mimi was still battling the two agents, swinging her stick wildly and fending off their attacks. The gate was open above her. Parveen went to the wheel and spun it. The airship turned sharply, drawing the agents after it. Parveen aimed the vessel straight for the open gate. He pushed the throttle forward to full power.

  Mimi drove her stick into the belly of one attacker then spun and batted the rifle barrel of the other just in time to make a shot fly safely over her head.

  “Is that all you got?” She danced from foot to foot, holding the stick at the ready. The two agents floated in front of her, calculating their next move. Mimi glanced past them and saw the Orphan Queen approaching, its long nose heading straight at her. Through the shattered windscreen she saw Parveen, his face grim and determined, holding the wheel steady.

  “Holy monkeys!” Mimi gasped. “He’s lost it.” She turned on her heel and ran for the open gate. “Out o’ the way! Ever’body back!”

  The two agents watched her retreat with surprise. They looked at each other, shrugged, and turned to investigate the loud humming noise building behind them. They had an instant to register the bulk of the ship approaching before it smashed into the stairs and scraped them like a grey smear on the stone steps.

  The pursuing Grey Agents had managed to catch up with the Queen just seconds before the impact. Three of them had already been in the cargo hold when the ship crashed, two were underneath, and one, a female agent called Miss Gumdrop, had managed to fly down the corridor to the bridge, arriving just in time to see Parveen tie himself to the wheel.

  “Stop!” Miss Gumdrop levelled her rifle at Parveen.

  “If you say so,” Parveen said and pointed forward.

  Miss Gumdrop saw the grey stone stairs looming before them. “Goodness,” she said, before the crash sent her hurtling forward, smashing her head on the window’s frame as it suddenly stopped when she didn’t. Her hat was dashed from her head and a mess of brightly coloured cables flew in every direction.

  The ship slid into the open gate and smashed, its wreckage filling the opening like a very messy plug. Mimi and the other Guards had managed to get clear just in time. Effectively, the door was closed.

  Mimi scrambled over shattered stone and airship wreckage. “Parveen!” She clawed away broken scrapes of hull and tattered shreds of gas envelope. “Parveen!!!” Her efforts became more frantic. Aidan and Cara joined her in pulling debris aside. In a minute, they had managed to clear a path to the shattered bridge.

  “Parveen! Can you hear me?” Mimi shouted, on the verge of hysteria.

  A square of hull planking jerked and then fell to the floor with a clatter. Parveen’s head and shoulders appeared in the gap. “Yes. I can hear you. I think anything with ears can hear you, and even some things that sense only vibrations.”

  Mimi laughed and tears of relief leaked from the corners of her eyes as she reached down, grabbed his tunic by the shoulders, and pulled him out of the wreckage. She shook him angrily. “Are you nuts? What’s the deal? Crashin’ like that … you coulda bin killed!”

  Parveen dangled in her grasp and shrugged. “It was a calculated risk. The gate is blocked now. The agents will have some difficulty getting through. Now,” he said patiently, “please put me down.”

  Mimi laughed and hugged him once. She dropped him onto his feet.

  Parveen reached back into the debris and hauled out a metal cylinder with grey nylon straps.

  “Is that a jetpack?” Mimi asked.

  “One of the agents was wearing it. She has no further need of it.”

  Mimi smiled fiercely and looked past Parveen into the wreckage. “Is thur another one o’ them things handy?”

  Aidan broke in. “All right. We don’t have time for souvenir hunting. This level is secure. We’re retreating. We’ll use the time to make sure everyone gets out. Everybody up to the stairs, now!”

  “But we’ve stopped ’em. It’s time ta regroup,” Mimi disagreed. “They’ll take forever ta git through this mess.”

  As if to prove her wrong, a dull explosion rippled through the rock beneath their feet. The wreckage of the Orphan Queen shifted slightly.

  “Then agin, I could be wrong.”

  Mimi and the rest of the Guards ran for the stairs on the heels of Aidan and Cara. Parveen ran a few steps after them and stopped, ducking behind a statue of some King or other. He watched until he was sure the others were up the stairs and out of sight. When they were gone he slung the jetpack over one shoulder and jogged to the doors of the tech department and the lab that he and Noor had been using that very afternoon.

  “Don’t worry, Noor,” he said to himself as another explosion shook his makeshift barricade. “I am coming for you.”


  Chapter 24

  Mr. Candy and Mr. Sweet watched from aloft as the CCTVs roamed about Frieda’s Cavern. The lumbering vehicles had made their way up the stairs and through the shattered gate. Now the cranes on the back of each vehicle were rising and falling, plucking unconscious children from the ground and placing them in the cargo containers in neat rows.

  “The butterflies were most effective, Mr. Sweet.”

  “Indeed, Mr. Candy. Now we will have plenty of energy for the final integration. They are not very ripe but they should provide a sufficient boost to open the gate.”

  “But we have not found Hamish X. I thought the boy would have challenged us by now.”

  “Indeed, Mr. Candy. And I have not detected his electronic signature anywhere in the mountain. I had assumed the stone was shielding it from us but I am beginning to think the King wasn’t lying.”

  Mr. Candy shook his head. “Of course the King was lying. The boy must be here. We must scour the higher levels.”

  A loud crash echoed off the stone walls. “Ah,” Mr. Sweet said, looking up. “The blockage has been cleared. Send in the troops.”

  IN THE NURTURY, the gathered refugees heard the shattering crash below and knew they didn’t have much time. Great arched doorways had already been unsealed. These portals led to the escape pods designed to ferry the residents of the Hollow Mountain should their safety be threatened.

  The children were lining up, carrying whatever meagre possessions could be crammed into a single backpack. The younger ones were crying and the older ones were on the verge of tears. Guards urged the children forward. George raccoons were everywhere, doing what they could to keep the exodus orderly. Still, progress was agonizingly slow.