The Crystal Code (15 page)

Brahe leapt from the still-moving bike and disappeared through a doorway at the base of the Tyn Church.

Gerald scrambled after him, diving through the door and up a covered lane. He skidded through an archway and found himself inside the ancient church. The ceiling soared high above. The air carried a trace of incense. The cold was accentuated by the bare stone floor and the kilogram of snow that was still packed into Gerald's underpants. He looked around.

Candles.

Stained glass.

The fug of wood polish.

And a trail of snow leading up the right aisle.

Gerald scarpered past rows of pews, following the trail towards the front of the church. Rounding the corner near the altar, his feet flew out from beneath him. He crashed onto his chest, knocking the wind from his lungs. Momentum carried him across the floor, and he came to a stop at the edge of an open grave. A large slab of black granite lay next to the pit.

Gerald peered down.

The grave was empty.

Police arrived behind him, guns drawn, calling into radios. But Gerald was oblivious to the commotion. All he could see were the two words chiselled into the gravestone, weathered and chipped with age.

The name of the grave's one-time occupant.

Tycho Brahe.

Chapter 21

M
r Pimbury stood before them, his arms crossed and his face set to maximum fury.

Gerald, Sam, Felicity and Ruby had just endured two hours with the Prague police, answering questions and making excuses. Gerald was in no mood to sit through a repeat session in their hotel suite with his stand-in butler.

‘Look, Mr Pimbury,' he said, ‘we've said we're sorry and there's really nothing else to say. We told the police everything we know. And that's that.' He tossed Brahe's silver nose from hand to hand. ‘We're no closer to finding our parents, or Ox and Alisha. So unless you want to start the girls crying again, I suggest you leave it.'

Gerald gave Ruby and Felicity a meaningful look. They both started sniffling.

Mr Pimbury raised his eyes to the crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. ‘I've spoken with Mr Prisk in London,' he said. ‘He has instructed that you are not to leave this suite until the snow clears and we can fly home. You can drown in your tears for all I care. Now, I am going down to the lounge, and I shan't be drinking tea.'

Mr Pimbury closed the double doors behind him with a bang.

Gerald flopped onto an ottoman opposite the others who were seated on a long couch.

Felicity, Ruby and Sam recoiled. ‘
Whoa!
'

Gerald looked at them, surprised. ‘What's the matter?'

Sam covered his face with a hand and pointed to Gerald's pants. ‘You might want to do something about that,' he said.

Gerald looked down to the gaping hole in his jeans.

‘Whoops,' he said, jumping to his feet. He dived into the main bedroom and rummaged around for a change of clothes.

Ruby's voice floated in from the lounge. ‘What's the story with the open grave in the church, Gerald?'

Gerald found a fresh pair of jeans and pulled them on. ‘Brahe's name was on the gravestone,' Gerald called back. ‘It looked really old. Like hundreds of years old.'

‘What are you saying?' Felicity called out. ‘That we're chasing after a ghost?'

Gerald wandered back into the lounge, pulling his shirt free from his waistband.

‘Thank you for doing that,' Sam said. ‘It was quite off-putting.'

Gerald settled back onto the ottoman. ‘You're welcome,' he said with a polite nod, and turned to Felicity. ‘Now, as for ghosts—'

Ruby interrupted him. ‘Don't even start talking that nonsense, Gerald. Ghosts do not exist. Let's not waste any time going down that path.'

Gerald held up a hand. ‘Don't be so hasty,' he said. ‘Let's look at the facts. There's an empty grave in that church with Brahe's name on it.'

‘Maybe it's a common name around here,' Ruby said.

‘A common name?' Gerald said. ‘Oh yes, you can't go ten steps down the street without bumping into a dozen Tycho Brahes. Every year the maternity wards are pumping out tiny Tychos by the truckload. Call out “Tycho Brahe” in any schoolyard and you'll be deafened by the cries of “
Yes
?
” I've heard that—'

‘All right,' Ruby said. ‘You've made your point.'

‘My point is that we can't discount anything,' Gerald said.

‘Even ghosts?' Felicity said.

Gerald grabbed his jacket from the floor. ‘When the police were taking me out of the church, I passed a table with a bunch of postcards for sale. This was one of them.' He pulled a card from the pocket and flicked it to Ruby.

It was a photograph of a marble bas-relief sculpture. On the top was a life-size image of a man dressed in ancient armour. One hand gripped the hilt of a sword while the other rested on a globe of the world. The man's nose had a large gash carved into it.

‘What's this say?' Ruby asked. She pointed to lettering that ran around the border of the tombstone.

‘It's Latin, I think,' Gerald said. ‘But there's Tycho Brahe's name and if I've got my Roman numbers right it says he died in 1601.'

Ruby studied the card, shaking her head. ‘How can that be?' she said. ‘That looks exactly like—' She couldn't finish the sentence.

‘Like Tycho Brahe,' Gerald said. ‘The same man we just saw walking and talking down in the square.'

They sat in silence. Felicity tapped Gerald on the arm. ‘I'm totally lost. How does this empty grave fit in with the crystal pendant?'

Gerald rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. ‘I don't know,' he said. ‘Let's go back to the beginning. Mason Green took his dinner jacket to the cleaners, and he left the pendant in his pocket.'

‘Brahe's gone to a lot of trouble to get it,' Felicity said. ‘It must be really valuable.'

‘So valuable that Green leaves it in his jacket?' Ruby said. ‘That doesn't seem likely.'

‘Green said he just wore it as a lucky charm,' Gerald said.

‘Odd for a billionaire not to know the value of something,' Sam said. ‘Especially since he likes collecting old stuff.'

‘But mostly old documents,' Gerald said. ‘Not stuff like jewellery.'

‘There was that old bottle,' Ruby said. ‘Not that there's much of that left, thanks to Felicity.'

Felicity's cheeks went pink. ‘I hope Special Agent de Bruin is all right.'

‘Agent de Useless, more like,' Gerald said. ‘There's no way he's with the FBI. The Czech police told me they were waiting for Brahe in the square after they were tipped off by the UK authorities who had been monitoring my phone in case the kidnappers made contact.'

Sam leaned across and took the silver nose from Gerald. He rolled it around in his hand. ‘Whether he's a ghost or not, that Brahe's face is something else.'

‘How about his little friend?' Felicity said, giggling. ‘He was pug ugly.'

‘And what's with Brahe perspiring all the time?' Gerald said. ‘Have you noticed? It doesn't matter if it's hot or cold, he sweats like a fat man in a sauna.'

Sam laughed. ‘Sweaty and Pugly. Quite the team.' He buffed the silver nose against his shirt and held it up to the shimmering chandelier.

Gerald held out his hand. ‘Here, toss that over.'

Sam gave him a sly grin. ‘Make me.'

There was a gunslinger's silence.

Gerald glanced at Sam.

Ruby's eyes flicked towards Felicity.

Felicity slowly reached out a hand and wrapped her fingers around the corner of a cushion…

The first shot hit Sam square in the jaw. Felicity's cushion had enough force behind it to send him jolting into the back of the couch. It was followed by three more in quick succession as Gerald and Ruby whipped cushions at Sam's head, before diving for cover behind a chaise lounge.

‘You'll pay for that!' Sam called. He rolled over the back of the couch to the floor and scrambled to collect ammunition.

The battle of Prague was on.

Sam flung a bolster over the couch like a grenade. It smacked into an end table and knocked a stack of magazines across the floor. He poked his head above the parapet and was instantly claimed by a whirling pillow that struck like a padded Ninja star.

Felicity yelled a victory cry. ‘Gotcha!'

Gerald was on his feet, gathering up things to hurl. ‘This is why they call them throw cushions!' He skidded around the side of the couch where Sam was sheltering and let loose a barrage.

Ruby had raced into the bedrooms and returned with pillows stacked under both arms. She tossed a couple to Felicity. ‘It's girls versus boys, Flicka! Let's get 'em!'

Gerald looked to Sam under a pile of cushions and jumped down beside him. ‘Shove over,' he said. ‘Looks like I'm switching teams.'

Sam emerged from beneath his padded pile. ‘Good to have you onboard,' he said.

They both grabbed a cushion in each hand and stood up. They hadn't counted on the girls kneeling on the couch, pillows cocked and ready to go. Ruby and Felicity hit as one. The impact split the covers and an explosion of goose feathers billowed into the air.

‘Eat hot feathers, turkeys!' Felicity was really getting into the spirit of things.

Feathers snowed down as the squealing, whirling, cascading pillow fight rolled around the hotel suite. Lamps toppled, chairs tumbled, vases were deflowered.

Sam and Gerald sought refuge under the dining table. ‘We're down to one cushion,' Sam said, breathless.

Gerald punched him on the shoulder. ‘Make it count.'

Sam gave a tight nod, and rolled out into no man's land. He was immediately hit by a bolster across his ribs. Ruby was pulling back for another swing when Sam wound up with his last throw. But just as he released the cushion his hand was hit by a hard flying pillow from Felicity. Sam's shot aired high…straight into the crystal chandelier.

There was a colossal crash as cushion met glass. The projectile sailed out the other side, shaking loose a dozen prisms. They rained down like shrapnel onto the carpet.

Everyone stopped.

The chandelier swung on its mount. The last of the goose feathers settled. Gerald emerged from under the table to survey the damage.

‘Oops,' Sam said.

Ruby grinned wide. ‘You idiot,' she said, and gave her brother a hug.

Felicity scooped up some cushions and tossed them back onto the sofa, and laughed. ‘I think I needed that.'

Gerald smiled. There was nothing like a pillow fight to vent steam. He knelt down to clear away the crystals. A large one had landed on an open magazine. His hand paused just as he was about to pick it up.

‘Oh, wow,' he said.

Ruby looked his way. ‘What is it?'

‘Come and see this.'

They crowded over Gerald's shoulder and looked at the crystal where it lay on the magazine. Through the glass prism, the words on the page bent and twisted like alphabet pretzels.

'Very pretty,' Sam said.

‘Don't you see?' Gerald said. ‘Look at how the glass bends the letters?' He moved the crystal back and forth, stretching and morphing the images in the magazine. ‘The pendant that Brahe was after, the one that we just gave him. It's just a chunk of quartz on a cheap silver chain. It can't be worth more than a couple of dollars. Its value is in what it does.'

‘What does it do?' Sam said.

‘It's a key,' Gerald said.

‘To what?' Sam said. ‘A chest of gold or something?'

‘No,' Gerald said. ‘To a code.'

‘You're thinking about the manuscript that was stolen from that university a few weeks ago,' Felicity said.

‘Exactly,' Gerald said. ‘What did Dr Efron from the museum call it?'

‘Wasn't it something like Boy Itch?' Sam said.

‘That's Voynich, you numpty,' Ruby said.

‘Do you remember back in the chalet, when we were hiding in that blacked-out passageway?' Gerald said. ‘The voice we heard through the wall was Brahe. I'm sure of it. And he said something about the Falcon coming through with one half of the deal. That must be the manuscript that was stolen from Yale University. Mason Green's crystal pendant was the other half of the deal.'

‘So Brahe is trying to solve the code in the manuscript,' Felicity said.

‘That's why it has never been deciphered,' Gerald said. ‘Without the crystal prism it's impossible, no matter how many supercomputers you have.'

Ruby looked at Gerald, impressed. ‘Gerald, you might be onto something.'

‘I'm sure of it,' he said.

‘What's in this manuscript that's worth all this trouble?' Sam said.

‘Dr Efron said it was rumoured to hold the secret to alchemy—to turning lead into gold,' Gerald said. ‘If Brahe could do that—'

‘He'd have slightly more money than he already does,' Ruby said, shaking her head. ‘He's a billionaire, Gerald. A member of your new club. He's not short of cash. I think your idea might need some more work.'

The wind fell out of Gerald's sails. ‘There must be more to it than the money.'

‘Well, Brahe has got the pendant now,' Ruby said. ‘There's nothing we can do about that. He will release everyone, won't he?'

Gerald looked blank. ‘Mason Green promised our parents would be released. But he said Ox and Alisha were in danger.'

‘I don't understand,' Ruby said. ‘What's different about Ox and Alisha?'

‘I don't know,' Gerald said. ‘But what more can we do? Brahe doesn't need anything else from us.'

Felicity straightened in her seat. ‘But he does need something more,' she said. ‘Do you remember down in the square. Pugly said something about going to a castle, and looking for three people. Jan, Sigmund and someone else.'

‘Rudolph?' Sam suggested.

‘No, that was the name of the old emperor, wasn't it?' Felicity said. ‘The one who bought the manuscript in the first place.'

There was a rattle at the door. A hotel waiter appeared with a large trolley, bearing plates topped with silver cloches. He glanced at the mayhem in the room and shook his head.

Gerald looked at the clock on the wall. He was surprised to see it was after eight in the evening. And he was famished.

The waiter set bowls of steaming dumplings and beef stew across the dining table.

‘Excuse me,' Felicity said.

‘Yes, ma'am,' the waiter replied.

‘Is there a castle near here?'

The waiter looked at her dumbly for a second, then picked up a remote control from the sideboard and pointed it towards the windows. He pressed a button and the curtains tracked open, revealing an astounding night vista. On a steep hill overlooking the city stood the most extraordinary stone castle.

‘There is that one,' the waiter said.