by Alesha Dixon
“Of course.” He shrugged like it was no big deal that he’d hacked into the computer system of one of the largest tech giants in the world. “I think with their boss in prison and all the scandal surrounding Darek, the people at Vermore have let their guard down a bit. Anyway, it took me a while, but I managed it.”
“Did you find any trace of Mr Mercury?”
“No, nothing like that, but” – he added hurriedly, noticing my disappointment – “I did find something strange. On the day of the showdown on Vermore Enterprises rooftop – the day Darek Vermore revealed that he had the Light of the World and was going to steal your powers – he arranged a private flight to Iceland.”
I blinked at him. “A flight to … Iceland?”
“Yeah, weird, right?” Alexis raised his eyebrows. “But the weirdest thing about it is the time that he made the arrangements. I checked out the time stamp of the booking on his account, and it looks like he got in contact with the pilot, just after he’d kidnapped me and left me tied up on the roof with his security team. Seriously, from the looks of it, he must have arranged the flight as he was making his way down the stairs from the rooftop door and towards the lift. Don’t you think that’s strange?”
I nodded slowly, my brain utterly confused by this new information.
“Why would he arrange a trip to Iceland when he thought he’d finally got the key to transferring the powers of the Light of the World to himself?” Alexis asked, his brow furrowed in concentration. “He was just about to become the most powerful person on the planet. Why book a last-minute holiday to Iceland? It doesn’t make any sense. And why book it in secret?”
“What do you mean?”
“I spoke to his PA this morning and he didn’t know anything about it,” Alexis explained. “I don’t think he’s lying either; he seems very upset that he’s been working all this time for an evil genius trying to take over the world. Anyway, it may mean absolutely nothing. Maybe he thought he’d want a little break after transferring the powers and booked a weekend break on a whim. But I thought you should know. You can bring it up when you see him later.”
“Thanks, Alexis.”
“Aurora?” Aunt Lucinda calls up the stairs. “Are you ready to go?”
“Coming!” I yelled back, standing up and turning to Alexis. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
“See you in a bit, Lightning Girl,” he said. “And be careful.”
As I stood looking up at the towering gates and walls of the high-security prison, I wondered whether it had been such a good idea asking Aunt Lucinda and Alfred to wait in the car. I was determined to do this on my own, because I needed to be able to speak to Darek Vermore freely about the stones. But I suddenly didn’t feel so confident any more.
I didn’t have the Bright Sparks by my side, either. When I told them I really was going to see Darek in prison, they offered to come with me, but I told them I was fine doing it on my own. As far as they were concerned, the Light of the World was safe and, although it was important to get the Imperial State Crown back to the Queen and bring Mr Mercury to justice, it wasn’t like the world was in grave danger. They didn’t know how precious that crown was and what it contained.
“We just need you to sign in here,” the prison guard said to me when I came in, sliding me a folder from behind his glass screen.
I took the folder and filled in my name and details, including who I was visiting, at the bottom of the front form, underneath a list of previous prison visitors. I was just about to hand it back when something caught my eye. An entry from a few days before.
A visitor for Darek Vermore who had signed themselves in as “N”.
“Everything all right?” the prison officer asked, wondering why I was just staring at the list.
“Yeah… It’s just … do you remember this visitor?” I pointed at the entry.
He shook his head. “No, sorry. I wasn’t on duty then.”
“No worries,” I said, passing back the folder. “I’m ready to go through now.”
He nodded and waved over another prison officer to escort me. Loud buzzers went off over our heads as each door was opened to let us through to the next part of the corridor. I followed the officer nervously, wondering who that visitor could possibly be. Was it Mr Mercury in disguise? Would he really risk coming to visit Darek in prison?
“Here we are,” the officer said, stopping at a door. “We have instructions from Patricia Beam of the British Security Service to let you speak to the prisoner privately?”
“Yes.” I gulped. “That’s right.”
“I’ll be just out here,” he said warily. “Are you sure you don’t want someone with you? It doesn’t seem right… You should be accompanied by—”
“Trust me, it’s OK,” I said, pointing to my trainers. “I can handle this.”
He smiled knowingly. “I thought it was you. I’m a big fan, Lightning Girl. Well, the minute you feel uncomfortable, you just call out and I’ll come in.”
“Thank you.”
He opened the door and held it for me. I stepped through to see Darek Vermore sitting at a lone table in the middle of a windowless room, his wrists in thick metal handcuffs attached to the table. The first thing I noticed was how odd it was to see him in anything other than a sharp, tailored suit. He looked so different in the dull grey prison uniform. And he looked tired. Very tired.
I had to be calm to get him to talk to me, but just seeing him, the anger bubbled up inside me as I thought about everything he had tried to do and what he had put my family through.
“Aurora,” he said quietly as I came to sit on the chair opposite him. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to speak to you,” I said, my hands feeling very clammy as they gripped the sides of the chair. “I wanted to ask you some questions.”
He watched me carefully. “Nanny Beam is trying a different tactic, then? Sending in you to get some answers. I’m not going to tell you anything.”
“Has Mr Mercury visited you in prison?” I blurted out, the visitors book still on my mind.
A smile crossed his lips. “Do you think he would be that stupid?”
“Then who came to see you this week? I saw the logbook.”
He leaned forward to rest his forearms on the table and clasp his hands together, before bringing his eyes up to look up at me earnestly.
“I’m sorry, Aurora. For everything.”
I stared at him.
“I’m sorry for everything I did,” he continued. “I never should have turned against you and your family.” He let out a long sigh and shook his head. “I was consumed by jealousy and getting revenge for my father’s death. Prison has given me plenty of time to think. You have no idea what it’s like in here.”
“If you think I’m going to believe a word you say—”
“I think we can help each other,” he said suddenly.
“What? Look, Darek, I’m here because I have to track down Mr Mercury. Does he know about the Jewel of Truth and Nobility?”
Darek pursed his lips, refusing to answer.
“You know as well as I do what’s at stake,” I continued. “I know you don’t want to tell us anything because you hate the Beam family but think about this – that precious stone in the hands of Mr Mercury. Whether he knows what it is now because you told him, or whether he discovers what it truly is, do you really want him to have it?”
He looked at me curiously. Last night, I had barely slept, my mind racing with ideas and angles that I could try to get information from him. This was the best one I’d thought of.
“Do you think that he’s going to help you?” I continued. “He doesn’t need you any more. He’s got something incredibly powerful in his possession. If you help us track him down and return the crown, maybe Nanny Beam will be able to help you.”
He nodded slowly.
“I don’t want the stone in the hands of that oaf, it’s true. And I don’t want to spend my life locked in here. I miss the
comforts. The holidays. The luxuries. I was one of the richest people in the world and now” – he gestured around him with a dismal expression – “I have nothing. And do you know what the worst thing is? I don’t have a family.”
“You never wanted a family,” I reminded him, narrowing my eyes. “Nanny Beam was your family; we were your family, and you betrayed us. Alexis worshipped you.”
“I know,” he said, waving his hand for me to stop with a very convincing pained expression. “I regret it all.”
“I’m not an idiot, Darek,” I said, crossing my arms. “So, you can stop acting as though you’re actually sorry and instead start helping me to track down Mr Mercury.”
“Aurora, please, I want to help you,” he said desperately. “But the information I can give you is all I have left.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have nothing now but my knowledge. It’s the one bargaining chip I can use to get out of here.” He took a deep breath. “Aurora, I will tell you where Mr Mercury is.”
“You will?” I leaned forward eagerly. I couldn’t believe I’d done it.
He held up his hand. “If you get me out of prison.”
“WHAT?” I looked at him like he was mad. “Is that a joke?”
“I can’t give you his whereabouts for nothing in return. I want to help you; I want to give you answers. I can take you to Mr Mercury. But you must help me to get out of here. Those are my terms.”
“Never.”
“Then you’ll never find the crown and the precious stone that is set within it.” He shrugged. “It’s up to you. I’m not offering this deal to anyone else, not even Nanny Beam.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t trust any of them not to go back on their word. I really am sorry, and I want to make up for what I did. I want to help you catch Mr Mercury and keep the precious stone safe.”
I shook my head at him and stood up abruptly, the chair legs screeching across the floor. The prison officer waiting outside immediately opened the door and stepped in to make sure everything was all right.
“I’m leaving,” I said to Darek. “If you were truly sorry you’d help, even if there was nothing in it for you. You’re going to be stuck in here a long time.”
I turned on my heel and marched towards the guard waiting to escort me out.
“Think about my offer,” I heard Darek call out just as the door shut behind me. “It’s all in your hands now, Lightning Girl.”
6
“I did NOT scream,” Fred declared adamantly. “I had something stuck in my throat. It was a cough. Not a scream.”
Suzie and Georgie shared a smile. We were on a school day trip to Warwick Castle and had just been on an immersive tour of the castle dungeon. When the guide had warned our group that the tour involved actors and was “scary and jumpy” before we went in, Fred had snorted and whispered to the rest of us Bright Sparks that he hardly thought “a few dark stone rooms and people in costume” counted as scary.
We emerged from the dungeons with Fred looking mildly traumatized.
“Sounded like a scream to me when that actor jumped out at you, Fred,” Suzie said, raising her eyebrows at him. “A high-pitched, terrified scream.”
“Like I said, it was a cough,” Fred repeated through gritted teeth. “Easy to get those confused.”
Georgie smiled. “Sure,” she said. “And what about when you begged Aurora to use her light beams to light up the scary dungeon cells?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Fred said breezily. “I may have asked Aurora if she wanted to use her light beams if she was a little nervous…”
“Yeah, sure, Aurora was the nervous one.” Suzie rolled her eyes. “I don’t remember Aurora hiding behind my back when they asked for a volunteer.”
“I was NOT hiding,” Fred protested, fiddling with his collar. “I just wanted to make sure everyone could see, and if I stood in front of you, you might not have been able to see as well.”
“Come on,” Kizzy said, reaching into her bag and pulling out a book. “Let’s go explore the rest of the castle. This place has an amazing history. You know, Queen Elizabeth I visited the castle in 1572.” Kizzy paused and looked down at her feet in wonder. “She may have stood on this exact stone that I’m standing on.”
“Kizzy, is that a book on Warwick Castle?” I asked, noting the title on the spine.
“Yep, I borrowed it from the school library specially for the trip,” she told us proudly, flicking it open to a bookmarked page. “If anyone has any questions, let me know.”
“That may be the geekiest thing you’ve ever done, Kizzy,” Suzie said.
“No, what about the time she brought the French culture encyclopaedia to Paris? And then dragged it about with her every day to all the sights,” Fred pointed out.
“Oh yeah.” Suzie nodded. “That was pretty geeky.”
“I don’t remember any of you complaining when I used said encyclopaedia to knock out one of Darek Vermore’s henchmen,” Kizzy said, her cheeks going pink.
Georgie giggled, throwing an arm round her. “Don’t worry, we love you for your geekiness. The Bright Sparks wouldn’t get anywhere without you and your books.”
“Come on, let’s go see the turrets,” Suzie said, leading the way. “Apparently, the view is amazing from the top. Unless you’d find it too frightening, Fred?”
“Very funny,” Fred grumbled. “For the last time, it was a COUGH.”
As Suzie and Georgie continued to tease Fred on the spiral stone steps up to the top of the castle, Kizzy hung back slightly to fall into step with me.
“Whilst we’re on the topic of books, I’ve had a chance to go through that one the Queen gave you,” she said, patting her bag. “I brought it along with me today because I think I found a couple of things in there that might interest you.”
I stopped in the middle of the staircase. “What is it?” I asked excitedly.
I had lent Kizzy the book after we’d finished chatting to JJ and Cherry on the video call. I had glanced through it already and not found anything helpful, so I decided to ask Kizzy to look over it, too.
“I’ll show you when we get to the top,” she said, as we both started to get a little out of breath climbing all the stairs.
Suzie, being the sportiest girl in school, was way ahead of the rest of us and was already at the top, calling down for us to hurry up and see the view. By the time we got there, she and Fred were arguing over whether a small blob in the distance was a cow or a horse.
“Wow!” Georgie smiled, leaning forward on the wall and looking out at the beautiful countryside. “You can see for miles!”
Kizzy reached into her bag and pulled out the precious stones book, riffing through it to a certain page and then passing it to me.
“You see?”
My eyes scanned the two pages in front of me. “What am I looking at?”
“Look closely.”
She pointed to the top left-hand corner of the first page and then the top right-hand corner of the second page. I examined the page numbers printed in the corners and gasped, looking up to see her watching me with a satisfied expression.
“There’s a page missing here,” she said, as I looked again to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. “The page numbers don’t follow on correctly. But whoever took this page managed to rip it out so neatly that you can hardly tell. They did a very good job of hiding it.”
“They really did,” I whispered, running my finger down the middle of the pages to see if I could feel any sign of torn paper.
“It may not be important, but I thought I should let you know. I don’t know what was on the page that was here.”
“I do,” I said quietly.
“What are you two talking about over here?” Suzie asked, coming to join us. “You’ve barely noticed the view. Are the facts in that book about Warwick Castle really that fascinating?”
“This isn’t that book; this is the precious
stones one that we helped Aurora steal from the Natural History Museum last term, remember?” Kizzy explained. “Last night, I realized that there was a page missing. Someone’s torn it out.”
“Seriously?” Georgie peered over my shoulder at the book. “You think it has something to do with Mr Mercury and Darek?”
“Maybe.” Kizzy shrugged. “Or it could have already been torn out years ago before any of this happened. It is an old book.”
“Your dad may have torn it out, Aurora,” Suzie suggested.
Kizzy snorted. “No way. Professor Beam would never vandalize a book. Trust me.”
“Alfred could have done it when he was in one of his moods and you weren’t looking,” Georgie said with a smile. “He is such a funny ostrich.”
“No, this has something to do with Mr Mercury and Darek,” I stated firmly. “I know it.”
“How?” Georgie asked, her brow furrowed.
“Because I know what was on the page that’s meant to be here,” I said, tapping the book. “It was the page that mentioned the Light of the World. Darek may have ripped it out after he kidnapped Alexis. But if Darek still had it, Nanny Beam would have found it on him on the rooftop or when MI5 swept his office. Someone else has got it now and I would bet anything that it’s in the hands of Mr Mercury.”
“But why would Mr Mercury be interested in the legend of the Light of the World now? He doesn’t have the stone itself,” Suzie pointed out, prompting the others to nod in agreement. “Surely he’s given up on that whole plan now.”
“Yeah, and he doesn’t have Darek’s resources or his brains to come up with a new plan to steal the Light of the World again without Darek helping him out, which he can’t do from prison,” Kizzy added. “He’s got the Imperial State Crown now and he’ll just be interested in making as much money as possible from that.” She let out a sigh and shook her head. “I can’t believe the petty Blackout Burglar was once our teacher.”
I pursed my lips, wishing I could tell them.
“Are you OK, Aurora?” Kizzy asked, noticing my pained expression.
“Yeah,” I replied. “I just wish… I wish Darek had told me something useful when I went to visit him.”