The Crystal Code (6 page)

Gerald snuck back into the games parlour just as Sam shot a duck from clear across the room, sparking howls of disbelief from the others. Ox gave Gerald a ‘where have you been?' look, but Gerald just patted his pocket and gave a quick thumbs up.

The fire in the grate had burned down to embers and Ruby was leading the tally in an epic pinball challenge when Gerald crossed to the windows.

Alisha joined him and hooked an arm through his. ‘It's really tumbling down out there,' she said. ‘Plenty of snow for a white Christmas in the morning.'

Gerald watched the plump snowflakes as they trailed in from above. Alisha gave his arm a squeeze. ‘Thank you again for inviting me, Gerald. It's been such fun.'

‘No worries,' he said. ‘And thanks for setting me straight on a few things. You've given me a bit to think about.'

Alisha smiled, then tried her best Australian accent, ‘No worries, mate.'

A clock on the mantelpiece struck the hour with Westminster chimes.

‘Oh my goodness!' Felicity cried. ‘It's midnight! Happy Christmas everybody!'

As the chimes continued towards twelve, embraces and kisses were exchanged. Felicity gave Gerald an enormous hug and kissed him on the cheek.

Just as the final strike for midnight sounded, Gerald found himself standing beside Ruby.

‘Happy Christmas, Gerald.' Ruby smiled up at him.

Gerald smiled back. ‘Thanks,' he said. ‘You, too.'

Then the lights went out.

There were cries of surprise as the room plunged into darkness. The music and the video machines cut out. A faint red glow came from the embers in the fireplace, but it was not enough to see by.

‘All the outside lights have gone as well,' Alisha said. ‘The snow must have brought down the power lines.'

‘We'd be on generator power all the way out here,' Sam said. His voice came from by the pinball machines. ‘Something must have broken.'

‘I think I saw an emergency torch on the wall,' Ox said. ‘There should be a blinking red light somewhere.'

‘I see it,' said Felicity. ‘Hold on. I'll get it.'

There was some shuffling and a muffled yelp as Felicity bumped into a low table in the dark. ‘There, that's got it,' she said. A torch flicked on. It provided just enough light for everyone to see Gerald and Ruby, their eyes closed and blissful looks on their faces, holding each other in the most tender embrace.

‘Gerald?' Felicity said. ‘What are you doing?'

Gerald and Ruby broke apart. Busted.

But before anyone could speak, a series of sharp explosions sounded from the front of the house.

‘Are we having fireworks?' Ox said. ‘That's a nice way to bring in Christmas.'

A fresh volley of bangs rattled the windows.

‘I'm not sure those are fireworks,' Alisha said as she peered out into the snow.

Then a high-pitched scream came from deep within the house.

‘What was that?' Felicity asked.

The double doors burst open. Mr Fry and Miss Turner barged into the room.

‘Is everyone here?' Miss Turner demanded. Fry bolted the doors behind them.

‘Yes,' Gerald said. ‘What's going on?'

‘The house is under attack,' Fry said. ‘Men. With guns. They're coming this way.'

Chapter 7

T
here was no time to think. No time to plan. Mr Fry crossed to the windows and pressed on a panel in the wall. It popped open to reveal a narrow door. The butler fumbled with a ring of keys and had it unlocked in seconds.

‘In here,' he said. ‘This passage leads to the kitchen. There's a drying room at the far end with jackets and boots. You need to rug up and get out into the kitchen garden.'

There was a stunned silence.

They were under attack?

‘Is it Mason Green?' Gerald asked.

‘Don't talk,' Miss Turner said. ‘Listen and act. The power has been cut but once you're in the garden you'll see the covered bridge. The one we crossed when we arrived this afternoon. Go over it and follow the roadway to the left for about two miles. There's a caretaker's cottage.'

‘Lock yourselves in and stay there,' Fry said. ‘We'll come and get you when it's safe.'

‘But our parents,' Ruby said.

Another scream echoed from the front of the house, followed by the sound of breaking glass.

Fry bundled them to the passage doorway. ‘Go! Now!'

Ruby pushed Alisha and Felicity ahead of her. Gerald was last through, behind Sam and Ox. He looked back to see Mr Fry, grim-faced, closing the door behind them. And he heard the key turn in the lock.

They were in a narrow corridor that snaked off into the distance. Felicity switched off the torch.

‘What did you do that for?' Sam hissed. ‘I can't see a thing.'

Felicity shushed him. ‘This will be a service passage,' she said. ‘It will pass behind every major room in the house on the way to the kitchen. That means we need to be totally quiet. No noise. No torch. Look, further down there.'

As their eyes adjusted to the gloom they could make out ribbons of light at floor level, marking a path.

‘The power must have come back on,' Felicity said. ‘That light is shining under the doors of every room we have to pass.'

‘Felicity's right,' Gerald said. ‘We can't let anyone know we're here.'

‘How do you know all this stuff, Flicka?' Ox asked.

Felicity took a tentative step down the corridor. ‘Boarding school brats in old buildings learn a lot.'

They picked their way along the passage. Ruby kicked off her shoes and continued in bare feet. They'd been going for a minute when voices sounded from the room they were passing.

‘All jewellery! Everything in your pockets! Put it on the table.'

Felicity froze. Everyone behind her stopped in the narrow walkway, banked up like a traffic jam.

Gerald looked down at the strip of light beneath the door.

‘Hurry up!' The voice was rough and urgent.

‘Listen, we're doing everything you ask.' It was the voice of Francis Valentine. Calm. Rational. ‘There's no need to—'

The sound of a slap sliced through the door, followed by a chorus of shocked cries.

Ruby clung to Gerald's arm. A gasp caught in her throat. It was just light enough for Gerald to see Sam's jaw tighten. Sam was reaching for the door handle when Ox grabbed him by the wrist and whispered a single word.

‘Guns.'

Sam allowed his hand to be lowered to his side, but his face glowed red in the gloom.

None of them dared move.

Then Gerald noticed the peephole in the door. A tight pencil of light poked through it into the passageway. The hole must have been there so servants could check that it was appropriate to enter the room.

Gerald pressed his eye to the opening. What he saw on the other side made him sick to his stomach.

At least ten guests were huddled in one of the chalet's many drawing rooms. Gerald could make out Francis and Alice Valentine as well as Ox's parents. But he couldn't see his own mother and father. Francis Valentine was holding a hand to his jaw.

There were three intruders—thick-set, dressed in black, wearing balaclavas. Each had a rifle slung over a shoulder and a handgun at the ready. They looked like heavily armed bears. Gerald could see a low coffee table near the guests. It was covered in necklaces and rings and strings of pearls and watches and wallets. But still the bandits were demanding more.

‘Everything!' one of them yelled. ‘Earrings, pinkie rings. The lot.' He held his pistol at one woman's face. Her hands shook uncontrollably as she tried to remove a diamond brooch from her gown.

Then the main door to the room was thrown open and another man stepped in. He was enormous—broad- shouldered and hulking. Coarse whiskers from a dark beard poked through his balaclava. Judging by the reaction from the other bandits, this man was in charge.

‘Well?' he demanded. His voice was like a roll of thunder across the plains just before a twister touches down.

The bandits pointed to the haul of diamonds, silver and gold on the coffee table. The man swept a gloved hand through the trove.

‘It's not here,' he rumbled. ‘Radio the others to search the bedrooms. Turn the place upside down. The Falcon came through with one side of the deal. I'm not leaving here without the other.'

The thug coughed heavily into his fist and swore. He moved across to Francis Valentine. ‘Where are the children?'

Francis stood tall and stared the man directly in the eye. ‘You can leave the children alone. Whatever it is you're looking for, they don't have it.'

Gerald could feel Ruby tensing at the sound of her father's voice. He kept his eye to the peephole.

The bandit pulled his fist back—gasps came from the others—but he didn't strike. ‘We'll see,' he said.

Gerald swallowed. Felicity was still at the head of their group. Gerald pulled himself away from the peephole and leaned forward to tap her on the shoulder. He pointed further up the corridor and she nodded. They moved off, painfully aware of the sound of their feet on the floor.

They gathered at the end of the passage, inside a set of swinging doors. ‘This must be the kitchen,' Gerald whispered. ‘Stick close.'

He eased one of the doors open and poked his head through. It was just as Mr Fry had described. The door to the drying room was open at the far end: jackets and ski suits hung on pegs, and boots were lined up on racks.

‘Come on,' Gerald said over his shoulder. ‘Grab some gear and let's get to this cottage.' He channelled everyone into the drying room, and pulled the door shut behind them.

Gerald, Sam, Ox and Felicity quickly had jackets, snow pants and boots on. But Ruby and Alisha's gowns were causing a problem. ‘We can't just pull pants over these,' Ruby said.

Gerald was peeking through a crack in the door back into the kitchen. ‘Then take them off,' he whispered back.

Ruby glared at the back of his head. ‘There is no way I am getting undressed in front of you.' She turned to look at Alisha and found that she had already unwound her sari into a bundle on the floor and was pulling a ski suit over the thermal shorts and T-shirt that she had been wearing underneath.

Alisha glanced up at her. ‘I always wear these in winter,' she shrugged. ‘I'd freeze my butt off otherwise.'

‘Great,' Ruby muttered.

‘Oh, get on with it, Ruby,' Sam hissed. ‘No one cares about your undies.'

‘Look the other way,' Ruby said. Gerald rolled his eyes and turned back to peek into the kitchen. Sam and Ox readied themselves by the door to the garden.

Gerald heard the sound of a zip, followed by the rustling of material. After a moment Ruby breathed, ‘Okay, I'm done.' He turned to find her dressed in a red ski jacket, and lacing on rugged hiking boots. Alisha had folded her sari into a neat parcel that she slipped inside her ski suit.

‘Can't we just phone someone?' Felicity asked, pulling ear warmers onto her head. ‘Call 911 or something.'

‘There aren't any phones here,' Gerald said. ‘It's too remote. Mr Fry said something about a satellite phone for emergencies but I have no idea where it is.'

‘The helicopter!' said Alisha. Everyone turned to her. ‘We could use the chopper.'

‘And you're going to fly it, are you?' Ox said.

Alisha shot him a filthy look. ‘There's a radio in it,' she said. ‘Foolish boy.'

‘Actually, I've been taking flying lessons through my school's aero club,' Gerald said, ‘but I wouldn't know where to start in a helicopter.'

Sam looked at him. ‘Your school has an aero club? Just how posh is that place?'

‘Pretty posh, I guess. But Alisha is right. We could radio for help from the hangar. I should be able to do that.'

Ox zipped his jacket to the chin and led the way outside. Gerald and Alisha were last through the door.

‘Ruby's cost us some time,' Gerald grumbled as they ducked into the night. ‘Was it really so shocking to see her in her undies?'

‘Girls should be modest,' Alisha said. ‘You never know when someone is going to grab you for a sly squeeze especially when the lights go out.'

Gerald almost throttled himself on a low hanging clothesline at the edge of the garden.

It was blowing a blizzard outside. A frigid wind sliced through them like a razor, driving snow in thick flurries before it. Gerald pulled a beanie from his pocket and yanked it over his ears. Ox had his head down, leading Felicity, Sam, Ruby, Alisha and Gerald—a family of frozen ducklings making for safety.

Gerald could barely see. The snow, falling thick and relentless, was halfway up to his knees. Ox ploughed onwards, and finally they gathered in the shelter of the covered bridge.

‘I'm freezing,' Felicity said, clapping her arms across her chest. ‘This snow is ridiculous.'

Gerald glanced back at the chalet. The front was decorated with blinking coloured lights and warmth shone from the windows. On any other night, it would have been a Yuletide delight. But Gerald shivered at the thought of what was going on inside.

‘We've got to move on,' he said. ‘The snow will cover our tracks but those thugs will figure out we've made a run for it soon enough.'

‘What did you see through that door, Gerald?' Ruby asked. ‘Is Dad okay?'

Gerald pulled his beanie lower. ‘He's okay.' He refused to catch Ruby's eye. ‘But we need to get help.'

Ruby turned to Sam. ‘Can't we do something?' she said.

For a moment, Gerald thought Sam was about to dash back to the house and take on the intruders by himself. But he zipped his jacket to his chin. ‘They've got guns,' Sam said. ‘We need the police.'

They set off further into the white night. Down by the hangar the snow had banked almost up to the windows, blocking the main entry. But in the lee of the building, sheltered from the wind, they found an unlocked door and poured inside.

It was still cold but better than trudging through the snow.

‘Felicity,' Gerald said. ‘Do you still have that torch?'

He clamped his hand over the end and flicked it on. The light glowed red between his fingers, giving some dull illumination to the darkened hangar. There were two helicopters inside, sleek and spotless.

‘The other choppers must have been flown back to San Francisco,' Gerald said. He clambered up to the door of the closest one and pulled on the handle to the cockpit. ‘Let's see what we can do in here.'

Ox climbed in after him. Ruby and Felicity crowded the doorway, and Sam and Alisha kept watch through the front windows of the hangar.

Gerald pulled on the pilot's headgear and gazed at the dark panel of switches, dials and screens in front of him.

‘Wish I'd paid more attention when Fry was flying this thing,' Gerald said. He flicked a few switches. Nothing happened.

‘Do you need to get some power going?' Ox said. ‘What about that red button there?' He pressed a large disk. Immediately, the control panel flickered to life, blinking red, green and yellow.

‘Ox!' Gerald said. ‘You're a legend.'

‘Yeah, I'm a bit of a natural,' Ox said. ‘A.T.' His knee brushed against a bank of switches, and a low whine could be heard in the cabin.

‘What's that?' Gerald asked. The whine grew louder.

‘Beats me?' Ox said, looking left and right.

Ruby provided the answer. ‘You've started the chopper, you morons!' she yelled.

Gerald and Ox looked up through the perspex canopy to see the huge rotors turning slow circles. They were gathering speed.

‘Turn it off!' they yelled at each other.

‘I don't know how!' they screamed back.

The rotors spun faster and faster. Ruby and Felicity abandoned Gerald and Ox, rushing heads down to the front of the hangar.

‘Which button did you push?' Gerald frantically flicked switches and turned dials. The chopper started to bobble up and down on its landing gear.

‘Dunno!' Ox cried. He screwed up his eyes and poked a finger at random. The whir of the rotors gained intensity. The helicopter started to move across the floor.

‘Not that one!'

The chopper tilted to one side and set off across the hangar, kangaroo hopping on its skids.

‘Shut it down!' Ox screamed. In the confined space of the hanger, the roar of the engine was incredible.

Gerald scanned the dash of flashing lights. Then his eye fell on the big red button that Ox had first pushed. He said a silent prayer and jabbed at it. The power cut out. The lights died. And the roar of the rotors abated. But they were still bouncing across the floor. A second later there was a sickening jolt and the screech of bending metal as they collided with the second chopper.

They came to a sudden halt. Silence returned to the hangar.

Gerald let out a long breath. ‘Maybe the radio isn't such a great idea after all,' he said.

They jumped down from the cockpit to find the two helicopters locked in a tangled embrace. ‘I don't think these two are flying anywhere for a while,' Ox said.

Ruby hurried across to them. ‘Could you two make any more noise?' She had a daypack slung over her shoulder. ‘I've emptied the snack tray from the office into here and we've got some cans of soft drink. But unless you can get that radio to work we should get out of here.'