The Emerald Casket (19 page)

‘It is a masterpiece from conception,' the man said. ‘At the end you will have a piece of art. A rug that will last a lifetime. But you know the fate of every rug?'

‘What's that?'

‘People walk all over them!' The man let out a raucous laugh. ‘Maybe sometimes, sir, it's best to adjust to life's changes as they come along. Let it be the rug that remains steadfast—and allow your life to be free.'

The man nodded his head. ‘After all,' he said. ‘In life, nothing is certain.'

It was fortunate Gerald was already sitting down, otherwise he would have fallen over.

Chapter 13

T
he dinner at the rooftop restaurant was excellent. Gerald noticed that Constable Lethbridge made a point of sitting next to Miss Turner and butting into her conversation with Mr Fry at every opportunity. The air was alive with insects and Gerald spent half the meal swatting at mosquitoes. He was chatting with Sam when an enormous brown cockroach flew right into the lamb curry in front of the police constable. Before Gerald could shout a warning, Lethbridge had scooped up a forkful of rice, curry and cockroach and shovelled it into his mouth.

‘Here, this food's good, isn't it Miss Turner,' he said, biting down with a moist crunch. Gerald and Sam watched goggle-eyed as Lethbridge's expression registered the odd taste. He ran his tongue over his lips, then smiled. ‘Just like home cooking, this is.'

After dinner they walked the five hundred metres to the west gate of the Taj Mahal, past cycle rickshaws, camel carts and peddlers trying to extract some last business for the day.

They were greeted by the man with the enormous handlebar moustache. ‘You need to be back at the station by one a.m. Your carriage will be coupled to the next train south and will leave with or without you on board,' he said.

He ushered them through a clutch of hawkers and into the peaceful confines of a courtyard garden.

‘Through those gates,' the man said, pointing to an enormous red stone structure with a huge archway in the centre. ‘I do hope you have a pleasant time.' He waved farewell and left them.

The crowds were gone; the entire complex was theirs to explore.

Alisha led the way across the red and white chequerboard paving and through the archway.

On the other side of the entry they stopped in their tracks. A symmetrical garden stretched out before them. It was divided down the middle by a narrow reflecting pool. Lamps dotted throughout the shrubs and trees gave the scene a fairyland quality. But the greenery and the water features fell away before the structure about three hundred metres in front of them—the fabulous white marble domes of the Taj Mahal.

‘That. Is. Amazing,' Gerald said.

‘It's so much bigger than I imagined,' Ruby whispered. ‘And so beautiful.'

‘It's like the world's biggest onion,' Sam said.

Alisha glared at him.

The pale white skin of the building's domes glowed in the evening light. Ruby and Alisha scampered into the garden. Gerald and Sam followed. They were two-thirds of the way to the Taj when Sam called out.

‘Check the love birds.'

Gerald glanced back and saw Mr Fry and Miss Turner sitting side-by-side on a stone bench near the reflecting pool. They were deep in conversation. Constable Lethbridge was hovering in the background.

‘That is so sweet,' Ruby said.

Sam gagged, ‘Where's that bucket?'

Gerald laughed.

‘You know,' Ruby said, ‘every so often you remind me just what little boys you are.' She and Alisha turned and stalked off towards a set of stairs that led up to the main buildings.

‘What'd we do?' Sam asked.

‘Who can tell?' Gerald said.

They followed the girls and emerged at the top of the stairs onto a paved area the size of several football fields. At the centre stood the Taj Mahal. There was no sign of Ruby or Alisha.

Gerald's boots clattered across the white marble tiles as he wandered to the far end of the platform. He leaned over a railing.

‘There's a river down there,' he called to Sam.

Lights from a small settlement shone from the opposite bank. Fingers of smoke from cooking fires crept up into the sky. The river lay black and mysterious.

‘Do you think there are any wild animals around here?' Sam asked.

‘Could be snakes,' Gerald said. ‘Or monkeys maybe.' He paused, then said in a hoarse whisper: ‘Or…rats!'

Sam flinched. ‘I think I saw something move down there.'

Then, from behind them, a cut-throat-razor shriek sliced the night air.

‘That's Ruby!' Sam said. ‘It came from inside the Taj.'

They sprinted across the tiles and rounded to the front of the white-domed building. Gerald shot a glance into the garden. The bench where Fry and Miss Turner had been sitting was empty. There was no sign of Constable Lethbridge.

Gerald trailed Sam as they raced inside. They skidded across the floor into a large octagonal chamber. Ruby stood on their left, fists clenched by her thighs, her face a mask of fury. Two men, dressed in black robes with scarves wrapped around their heads, held Alisha by the arms. A third figure pointed a handgun at Sam and Gerald.

‘You!' Gerald said.

‘Alisha?' Sam called. Her cheeks were wet with tears, her eyes beseeching.

The bandit nodded to the others and they dragged Alisha across the floor. She kicked and flailed, straining to free herself. But her captors simply lifted her until all she was kicking was air. Gerald took a step forwards but the bandit whipped the weapon around and aimed at Alisha's head. Gerald froze. The three kidnappers bundled Alisha into the night.

Ruby rushed to her brother. ‘They just came out of the dark,' she said. ‘There was no sound at all.'

‘We've got to get help,' Gerald said. ‘Fry. Miss Turner. Lethbridge. Anybody.'

They bolted outside. There was no sign of the butler, the governess or the policeman. Gerald turned to his left. A movement in the garden caught his eye.

‘There!' he shouted. ‘Alisha.' He ran across to the top of the stairs, took them three at a time, and leapt to the bottom. About thirty paces in front of him one of the abductors had Alisha over his shoulder. He was climbing over the side of what appeared to be a well. They disappeared over the edge.

Gerald came to a skidding halt. The bandit was clambering after Alisha but paused, one leg over the low brick wall. The gun was pointing straight at Gerald's chest. They stared at each other, motionless. Then Gerald took a step. The bandit pulled the trigger.

Gerald hit the ground.

The crack of the shot reverberated through the trees, startling hundreds of birds from their slumber. The night sky filled with a dark confetti of feathers and screeches.

Sam and Ruby raced to Gerald. He was face down on the paving, his arms splayed and right leg bent.

‘Gerald!' Ruby cried. She grabbed his shoulders and rolled him on to his back. Vacant eyes stared up at her.

‘No…' she whispered.

Then Gerald sucked in a breath. ‘That was a bit close,' he said.

He ignored Ruby's sob of relief and rolled back onto his stomach. ‘They went down that hole,' he said.

Sam got there first and peered over the edge. A rope ladder disappeared into a dark void. ‘Do we go down after them?' he asked. He already had a foot on the top rung.

‘We don't have any light,' Gerald said. ‘It'd be hopeless.' He ran a hand over the top of his head. How did this happen? What did this cult want with Alisha?

‘This drain must empty out somewhere,' Gerald said. He turned to Sam. ‘The river.' He sprinted towards the main gate, Ruby and Sam on his heels.

The three of them burst onto the street. The place was deserted, the carts and hawkers gone home for the night. The road split in two—one avenue wound around towards the river.

‘They'll have to come out onto the road to get away,' Gerald said.

‘Unless they have a boat,' Sam said.

Gerald started running down the road. ‘Let's hope that they don't.'

He'd only gone fifty metres when a bicycle bell rang behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see Sam in the driver's seat of a cycle rickshaw, pedalling like fury. Ruby was in the back.

‘Hop in,' Ruby said, stretching out a hand for Gerald to grab.

Gerald made a running dive into the back seat. His head bobbed up behind Sam's shoulder.

‘I borrowed this,' Sam said, responding to the look on Gerald's face. ‘Hope the owner doesn't mind.'

The road sloped downwards and they picked up speed.

They'd gone about a kilometre with no sign of Alisha or her captors. Gerald was starting to get anxious that he'd made the wrong call, when Ruby shouted, ‘There!' She stabbed a finger into the darkness. ‘It's them.'

A hundred metres ahead four figures emerged from the river side of the road. It was definitely Alisha slung across one of the abductor's shoulders. But now she was not resisting.

‘Is she okay?' Ruby asked.

Sam eased off the pedals and coasted. ‘Let's see where they go.'

The kidnappers jogged along the roadway. They seemed to be unaware they were being followed. The path began sloping upwards and Sam had to ride standing on the pedals to keep up. They came to a roundabout that was choked with motorcycles, scooters, taxis and rickshaws. The bandits ducked through the traffic and into the forecourt of an enormous building. Gerald had been concentrating so hard on keeping Alisha in sight that he hadn't noticed the structure loom out of the night shadows.

‘What is this place?' he asked.

They stared up at the outer ramparts of an ancient fortress. Red stone walls stretched out of sight to the left and right. In the middle, a broad pathway led into the stronghold.

Sam searched for a break in the traffic. ‘We're going to have to leg it from here,' he said. They abandoned the rickshaw. Gerald was about to chance his luck running across the road when he was grabbed from behind. He whipped around to find a young boy had him by the sleeve.

‘You stole my rickshaw!' the boy yelled through his gasps for breath. He'd chased them all the way from the Taj. He was barefoot and couldn't have been more than nine years old.

‘Sorry,' Gerald said. ‘It was an emergency. Here—' he fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a handful of notes and gave them to the boy. ‘Go get a policeman. Someone's been kidnapped and taken inside the fort.'

The boy looked at the money then back at Gerald. ‘I don't know…'

‘Just do it. It's our friend.'

The boy shoved the cash into his pocket and jumped onto the rickshaw.

‘I'll wait for you,' he said. ‘My name's Pranav.'

‘No, no. Get a policeman.'

The boy shrugged and set off up the road. Gerald was certain they wouldn't see him again.

Ruby grabbed his hand and hauled him out into the traffic. ‘Come on, or we'll lose them.'

The three of them scooted across the road and into the deserted forecourt.

The walls of the garrison stood over them like a disapproving teacher. Gerald slowed to a walk, his eyes struggling to adjust to the shadows. They entered a crowd control barrier shaped like a funnel. It led onto a bridge and then over a moat. The path cut to the left and stopped at a tall archway pinched to a point at the top and blocked by a wooden drawbridge. Gerald peered up to the top of the wall. Archers' battlements loomed above them.

‘This thing was probably built to keep out war elephants,' he said. ‘How are we going to get in?'

Iron chains ran down either side of the drawbridge from notches high up in the wall. Gerald tugged hard on one. It didn't budge. He turned to Sam and Ruby. ‘Any ideas?'

Ruby stood to one side of the drawbridge and looked up.

‘I don't think this thing is closed properly,' she said. ‘It's tilting out a bit.'

‘You're right,' Sam said. ‘There's a gap at the top. If someone can get up there, they might be able to wriggle through.'

‘What do you think, Gerald?' Ruby said. ‘You're the rock climber.'

Gerald inspected the stone facing around the drawbridge. It was as smooth and featureless as a pane of glass. There were no gaps to gain a foothold.

‘Don't think I can climb this one,' he said. Then he had an idea.

‘Ruby, remember how you got into the house at Beaconsfield? That gymnast jump?'

Ruby sized up the height of the drawbridge. ‘That's got to be six or seven metres to the top,' she said, shaking her head. ‘I'd need a tramp to even think about it.'

Sam paced across the courtyard and looked back at the arched entryway.

‘What if we did a totem pole? Gerald on the bottom, me on his shoulders?'

Ruby considered it for a second. Then she grabbed Gerald and shoved him against the drawbridge. ‘Don't sneeze,' she said.

Gerald braced his back against the timber. Sam placed a foot on Gerald's thigh then pushed up onto his shoulders. Gerald winced. He was still tender from the thin man's attack weeks before. The thought of that cadaverous face unsettled him. Even if they were able to breach the fort's defences and find Alisha, what would they do against three armed members of a deadly cult? Gerald took a deep breath. He had to concentrate.

‘You can come up anytime you want,' Sam called to Ruby.

He was met by silence.

‘What's the problem?' he asked. He was facing the drawbridge and couldn't see back to the courtyard.

‘You're too short.' Ruby's voice was plain and to the point. ‘Here, try this.' She held up a plastic chair.

Sam clambered back to the ground, squeezing another wince from Gerald on the way down. Gerald placed the chair by the drawbridge and he and Sam reassembled their human ladder. Again, there was a pause.

‘Still not high enough,' Ruby said. ‘Hold on, there might be something over here.'