by Lauren Child
‘Yeah, Darnley Rex.’
‘Yeah, boy, I mean, who calls their son Darnley?’ said Clancy. ‘So what about him?’
‘Well, I was thinking about the way he gets people doing stuff by planting an idea in their head and he manages to make them believe that they are seeing something or experiencing something and even if you were to try and convince them otherwise they would just carry on believing.’
‘Until he brings them out of their trance,’ said Clancy, ‘then they stop believing right away.’
‘Exactly, and it’s kind of like what’s happening here to me. Someone is out there undermining me by planting ideas in people’s minds, but I don’t think this person has any intention of letting anyone believe anything other than that I am a total phoney.’
‘You have any theory about who it could be?’
‘That’s the weird thing. I mean there’s no one, no one I know, who would do this,’ said Ruby, ‘but if I had to guess, I’d say I don’t think it’s got a whole lot to do with school.’
‘I agree,’ said Clancy, ‘this is beyond anything Vapona would do, or even that guy Beetle, plus I mean, Rube, when it comes down to it, everyone likes you – even the ones that don’t like you, like you.’
Ruby smiled. ‘That’s nice of you to say, Clance.’ She paused before adding, ‘So if this isn’t a school thing then where exactly is it coming from?’
‘I have no idea,’ he said. He looked at his watch. ‘I’m afraid I gotta go. We are flying to Washington at 6am so I need to get home before my folks start flipping out.’
‘Don’t forget to pack your elasticated bow tie,’ said Ruby.
Clancy gave a flat sounding, ‘Ha ha.’ He wasn’t laughing because he knew that he might well be required to wear an elasticated bow tie.
Just before he disappeared into the dark he said, ‘You need to talk to Blacker. Just ask him straight. Better to know, it’s always better to know – isn’t that what you are constantly telling me?’
But there was no way Ruby was going to do that.
Chapter 50.
More like a ninja
RUBY WAITED UNTIL MIDNIGHT BEFORE ZIPPING HERSELF INTO THE SPECTRUM-ISSUE JUMPSUIT, grabbing her backpack and heading for the subway. She arrived at the Movie Museum on Fibonacci just before 1am, and having walked around the building once, decided that she would enter by the old side door; she could pick the lock easy enough and it would be far less effort than scaling the wall.
The pick up went exactly as it had done at the Twinford Mirror building – no goons, no guy in a red hat. She was just on her way out when she walked smack bang into a large metal trashcan, which toppled over and began rolling loudly down a flight of stairs, gathering speed as it went.
Unsurprisingly, this alerted the two security guards.
‘What was that, Charlie?’
‘I don’t know, Dale, but it sounded like something.’
They ran into the foyer and Ruby’s only option was to sprint up the stairs to the floor above. The trashcan had finished its descent to basement level, but the guards were not heading down to check it out; they wanted to know just who had sent it tumbling.
‘I think they went up the stairs,’ said Dale.
Charlie was on his walkie-talkie; it sounded like he might be calling for back up.
Get out of there Redfort.
She could hear them coming, their feet on the marble steps, slow at first but then picking up speed.
She broke into a sprint, ran to the floor above, kept running. They were fit these guys, close behind. She made it into the upper gallery, its display cases filled with historical costumes from movies – mannequins dressed in 18th century clothes, huge dresses with wasp waists, bodices laced up tight.
No doors, no exits.
She ran back into the stairway. There was a window, she stood on the ledge and pulled at the latch – it wouldn’t budge.
‘Come on,’ pleaded Ruby.
She was beginning to panic.
Six seconds, she counted.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
What popped into her mind was the laser tool. It was one of the functions of the Escape Watch and she had used it before. She depressed the operate button and directed the beam at the catch. The catch gave and the window swung open.
‘Is that a kid?’ said Charlie.
‘More like a ninja,’ said Dale.
Get out of here, thought Ruby.
And she jumped.
The glider wings deployed exactly as they should and Ruby sailed clear over rooftops, but the wind was strong and she had no choice but to let it take her, and where it took her was to a narrow alleyway secured by a chain-link fence.
She landed just fine and though it was gonna be a drag to have to climb the fence, she wasn’t going to whine about it. She was lucky to have escaped arrest for breaking and entering, she could so easily be sitting in a squad car heading down town …
However, feelings of relief weren’t to last, for the sound she heard next was blood-curdling.
With great caution, she turned to face this new enemy – dogs, two of them, closing in. They were snarling, teeth bared and dribbling drool.
Oh jeepers! What are the chances? I jump out of a window and land up with the Hound of the Baskervilles and his less friendly brother.
Ruby made sure not to look them in the eye, but began moving very calmly towards them. If she could get enough of a run up she could make it; if not, then she would most probably be ripped arm from leg.
Seven paces, eight paces, nine … then she turned and ran at the wall as fast as her feet would carry her.
The dogs sprang at her heels and their growls became barks as she flew, tick-tacking herself up the narrow alley walls, reaching for the top and pulling herself over, and onwards, across the rooftops, higher and higher, the dogs still leaping at the wall, their barks echoing into the night.
When she was perhaps seventy feet above the alley she looked down. The dogs were losing interest, only barking intermittently. Their quarry gone, they slunk off into the shadows.
Ruby took the fire escape and dropped down to the safety of the street.
Chapter 51.
Back to square one
IN THE QUIET OF HER ROOM, Ruby sipped from the bottle she had found at the Movie Museum.
She was cautious, after the unpleasant kale incident; she didn’t want to take any chances and slurp.
The overriding taste was of tamarind. There was also salt and honey running through it.
Salt, sweet, sour.
(0,1,1,1)
She marked it up …
… then went to check the bathroom map, and was surprised to see that the point she had circled was: the Little Seven Grocers store, where the first bottle had been found. It was a loop.
She was, quite literally, back where she had started. Back at square one.
She examined the lid of the bottle. This time there was no date, so she figured there was no next bottle to find. What there was, instead, was a shallow impression of an X, nothing more.
She had no idea what it meant and how it might link to any of the previous clues. Was someone playing a game here? Was this actually about anything at all?
She looked at the locations and tried to see a connection.
They were all more or less in the College Town district.
She wrote down the four locations in her notebook:
The Little Seven Grocers on Little Seven Street.
The music school on the university campus, Algebra Street.
The Twinford Mirror building on Gödel Avenue.
The Movie Museum on Fibonacci Street.
If there was a connection, she couldn’t see it.
Her brain ached, her legs ached, her arms ached. Too tired to do much else but stumble from her chair to her bed, she kicked off her shoes, pulled the covers over her and fell asleep.
When she woke, the rain was falling. It had been falling through the night and had been the white noise of her dreams. When she hauled herself from her bed, she found a note taped to the outside of her window. It said:
You can count on me.
She unlatched the window and pivoted it towards her – water poured in onto the floor and as she peeled the paper from the glass, so it split into tiny fragments and was washed away.
She wasn’t sure when he had left it, but there was no doubt who had written it. Suddenly she didn’t feel so alone.
She had Clancy Crew on her side and that was a lot.
Chapter 52.
Watch your back
RUBY PEELED OFF THE JUMPSUIT, showered, pulled on her jeans and a T-shirt (the T-shirt, appropriately, had the word Framed printed across the front) and went to the hall to fetch her coat. She put it on, zipped it up and felt in the pockets for her gloves.
An envelope fell out onto the floor. She picked it up, tore it open and found two things. One was a note. It said:
I thought you might find this useful – you never can tell when you might need to tie things up.
She looked at the second thing. It was a red leather wristband, and at its middle it had a yellow dragon that looked to be made from enamel. Its eye was raised a little and glittered red.
She turned the note over.
Kid, if you ever find kung fu isn’t enough – then cheat.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Aim dragon mouth at enemy and press the red eye to release vapour. Vapour will solidify on contact and create a temporary binding, which will render your enemy incapable of movement for approximately twenty-four minutes. The binding will also become as heavy as lead within seconds: do not attempt to lift the captive. Be aware that due to temporary muteness – experienced three minutes after vapour is released – captive will not be able to respond to questioning.
To release, press dragon tail.
WARNING: never aim at self.
WARNING 2: you only get one shot of vapour.
There was a P.S.:
Watch your back kid, it’s a dangerous world out there.
‘You’re telling me,’ she muttered, as she pushed the envelope back into her pocket and headed out into the rain. She walked without purpose, striking off down Amster for no other reason than that it was there, turning left, turning right, no thought of a destination. Half-considered dreads filled her mind.
Her world suddenly seemed a great deal more hostile.
Her fellow Junior High students eyed her suspiciously, Del Lasco wasn’t even speaking to her, and trusted colleague Blacker no longer trusted her, to say nothing of the rest of Spectrum. Who even knew what they were saying. Hitch clearly feared for her safety, though he gave no indication as to where the threat might come from.
The Taste Twister code had led full circle, and brought her right back to the beginning. A bottle top marked with an X was all she had going for her, and it wasn’t enough.
She was drawn out of her sorry feelings by another feeling, a creeping unease that seemed to shadow her steps.
The thoughts of lost reputation and nowhere to turn might feel threatening, but right now not half as threatening as the feeling Ruby was getting of being watched.
And she was being watched.
Spectrum had taught her a few things about dealing with a tail; it was part of basic training. So she did as she had been instructed. She did not pick up the pace. Instead she slowed it right down, even stopped to tie her shoelace. She pretended she had dropped a coin so she might have an opportunity to look back, but this guy was good, a real pro; she couldn’t see him though she was sure he was seeing her. She walked on, every now and again lingering to peer in a store front window, like she was looking to see someone or something when really she was hoping for a face reflected in the glass, but her tail was not going to give himself away so easily.
It was when she reached a stall selling cheap fun sunglasses that she finally saw his image. It was twice reflected back at her in the lenses of a pair of outsized star-shaped frames. She faked an interest in the shades, turning them this way and that. All the time she was looking at him, a guy she recognised – a guy with eyebrows that met in the middle. She had seen him twice only, and on both occasions he had been talking to Blacker. Both times he had exited the scene as soon as she had arrived. Now she knew for sure.
He was Spectrum.
And more than that: he was an associate of Blacker’s.
She put the sunglasses back in the rack and walked on towards the subway. She knew exactly what she was going to do now.
When she reached Spectrum, Ruby did not bother to announce her arrival to Buzz, nor did she stop by the canteen to pick up a donut, instead she marched right along to the coding office.
If Blacker wanted to destroy her reputation, plant bad seeds in her colleagues’ heads, mess with her mind, then she wanted to hear his reasons to her face. No more lurking in the shadows, let’s get everything out there in the open.
She walked right into the coding office, didn’t knock, didn’t close the door quietly behind her.
‘Why don’t you just say it out loud?’ said Ruby.
Blacker looked up. ‘Huh, what?’
RUBY: ‘That you don’t trust me.’
BLACKER: ‘Why wouldn’t I trust you?’
RUBY: ‘I don’t know, you tell me.’
BLACKER: ‘You must have some idea?’
RUBY: ‘OK, since you’re asking, I think it might be to do with the key.’
BLACKER: ‘The 8 key?’
RUBY: ‘Yeah, the 8 key, I think you think I took it.’
BLACKER: ‘Why would I think that?’
RUBY: ‘Because of those other things I took.’
BLACKER: ‘What other things you took?’
Oops, she could tell just by the way he asked that he really didn’t know. She was referring to the various gadgets she had sort of ‘accidentally borrowed’ from the gadget department over the past eight months. Now she found herself breaking her own RULE 22: IF YOU THINK YOU MIGHT TALK YOURSELF INTO A TRAP, KEEP YOUR TRAP SHUT.
‘Never mind,’ said Ruby.
‘Well, now you mention it, I kinda do mind, Ruby. You’re saying I don’t trust you and that I’m falsely accusing you of taking LB’s code key, and I guess I’m wondering two things here,’ said Blacker, ‘one is, what makes you think I would carry on working with you in any capacity if I thought you were involved in this? I mean, if this is true, don’t you think I should report it?’
Ruby said nothing because she couldn’t think of any good answer.
‘And the second is: it occurs to me that if you are saying I don’t trust you then it is also fair to assume you don’t trust me, am I right about that?’
He was, and she didn’t see the point in denying it.
‘But I overheard you,’ she said. ‘I heard you talking about me, you were on the phone telling someone I was a loose cannon, dangerously unhinged.’ Her voice was rising and a little unsteady; she sounded like someone dangerously unhinged.
‘What you overheard was one half of a conversation, you’ve put two and two together and you think you’re making four but you’re way off.’ His phone was buzzing. ‘Look, I have to go, but you are going to need to make up your mind here, Ruby, about what it’s gonna be.’
‘Maybe I will once you explain why you’ve been having me tailed.’
‘I’m not at liberty to say,’ said Blacker.
‘So you admit it?’ said Ruby, surprised that he wasn’t dancing around it. ‘Straight up, no denials, you admit it?’
‘Why wouldn’t I admit it?’ he replied. ‘You’re right, I had someone watch you.’
‘I knew it,’ she said. ‘You don’t trust me and you never did.’
‘Do you think there could be any other reason for my having you watched – one which doesn’t involve a lack of faith in you?’ He picked up his coat. ‘Think about it Ruby, use that smart brain of yours fo
r six seconds.’
And he walked from the room.
Ruby sat completely still until she could no longer hear his footsteps. She was surprised by his reaction. He had looked her dead in the eye. He had neither smiled in a reassuring way, nor had he become flustered or angry. He had exhibited none of the behaviour of a person caught in a web of lies.
Did she really believe this colleague of hers had it in for her? This guy who had talked her through cases and backed her up no matter who might disagree? Could he really be the one who was trying to bring her down?
Could he?
Chapter 53.
Back on the map
AS JEN YU WAS FOND OF REPEATING, sometimes the answer is only found by completely emptying the mind.
Ruby decided that this might be best achieved by giving herself a little kung fu time. At the dojo she tried to banish all thoughts and become formless, shapeless, like water, like the wind …
It was only after several hours’ practice that her mind at last became clear and she found her answer. She knew immediately what she must do.
Ruby, you have to talk to Blacker.
Clancy had been right.
And she had been wrong.
Ruby changed, gathered her things and wasted no time, practically running from the dojo and tearing off towards the subway, and on to Spectrum.
She found Blacker sitting at his desk. He was reading, his brow furrowed. When he saw her standing in the doorway, he closed the file and looked her square in the eye.
‘Look, I think I might have got the wrong end of the stick somewhere along the way …’ said Ruby. ‘The wrong end of something anyway.’
‘It happens,’ said Blacker. ‘Working in this field tends to bring on the paranoia.’
‘It’s just I seem to be on the outside of everything lately and it’s making it hard to see which way is up.’ She paused. ‘Does that make sense?’
