Secret Scouts and The Lost Leonardo

by Mr.

  The receptionist shook her head. “Discretion, remember? We don’t ask questions here.”

  “Hmm, discretion,” Sophie mumbled as she walked back to Jack with the mini shovel tucked under her arm.

  “One thing’s for sure, I could never work in this hotel. If someone asked me for a shovel late at night, I’d probably call the cops and tell them that one of my guests was planning to murder and bury someone,” she said.

  The enormous suite smelled amazing thanks to the scented candles burning in the room. The beds they had jumped about on that morning had been made up again. A gigantic fruit basket and a bowl of candy had been set on the desk at the window.

  “This is so awesome!” Jack said softly.

  “It’s amazing! I wouldn’t mind just lying in that soft bed and watching a film, but we have no time to lose. So hurry up!” Sophie said firmly.

  They both changed into suitable clothes and hurried down to the quay, getting there just in time. The speedboat arrived at nine o’clock exactly.

  The skipper, dressed entirely in black, jumped onto the quay and indicated that he needed to use the restroom. He pointed at the boat. “Me toilet. You wait in boat,” he said in broken English with an Italian accent.

  “He has to pee,” Sophie giggled, as the man ran up to the hotel. “Come on, we’ll wait in the boat.”

  They nervously climbed into the boat. Although it was nearly dark, they could still see the island in the distance. The tower stood out against the light on the horizon.

  “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Sophie suddenly said. “The last thing I want is someone spying on us while we’re on the island.” She looked around and mustered all her courage. She had the feeling Lisa would do the same thing. “Jack!” she shouted. “Turn the key and hit the gas!”

  Jack looked at her perplexed, but didn’t need long to think about it. This would probably be the only time in his entire life that he would get to skipper a speedboat. He fearlessly stepped forward and turned the key with his right hand. The boat’s powerful engines roared into life.

  “Untie the lines!” he shouted.

  Sophie ran to the side of the boat and untied the rope from the bollard and swung it back into the boat.

  “Hold tight!” Jack yelled. He turned the wheel to the left and opened the throttle. The propellers on the enormous outboard engines began spinning powerfully. Sophie slammed back into her chair and experienced a moment of déjà vu. It was just like being in Hans’s Ferrari. The enormous force pushed her back into her seat as the boat shot out into the lagoon at full speed.

  Jack was totally in his element. With his teeth clenched, he held the wheel firmly with both hands to keep it under control. He blinked his eyes in an effort to stop them watering from the force of the biting wind.

  The speed with which they flew over the water tilted the bow up dangerously high, causing the boat to smack fiercely against the water. Walls of water splashed up on both sides of the boat each time it slammed against the surface.

  Sophie tried to attract Jack’s attention, but the deafening roar of the engines drowned out her words.

  “Jack!” she yelled. “Jack! Slow down! I don’t want to die just yet! And we have to get to the island!”

  Jack couldn’t hear a thing and simply looked back with an elated look on his face. But when he saw the fear in Sophie’s eyes he let up on the throttle, slowing down the boat.

  With a loud thud both engines suddenly cut out. For a few seconds their momentum carried them forward until they were left bobbing in the middle of the lagoon.

  Sophie looked frantically about. They were completely alone in open water. The nearest island was San Clemente. “Jack, what have you done? Start it up again!”

  Jack looked anxiously at the boat’s panel and saw a flashing red light. “Please no,” he whimpered. “I think the engines have overheated.”

  Sophie breathed deeply in and out a few times before getting to her feet. “Don’t panic,” she said to herself. “You haven’t even reached Poveglia yet… Don’t panic.”

  “I think we should wait a few minutes before turning on the engines again. It might not be a bad idea to slow down a bit…” said Jack, embarrassed.

  Sophie looked at him angrily. “Were you trying to kill me?” She smacked the back of his head.

  “We’re more than halfway there,” Jack tried, cheerfully.

  Sophie didn’t respond, but instead turned away and stared at the lights in the distance.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Venice at night?” Jack tried again. “There are not a lot of people who have seen it from this angle.”

  Sophie grumbled but had to admit the view from the boat was breathtaking. “Just as long as we don’t drift further out to sea,” she said quietly.

  “Drift?” asked Jack, as he looked around. “The island over there is the one with the hotel and resort, that wouldn’t be so bad.” Jack was doing his best to make sure the mood in the boat didn’t deteriorate any further.

  “Jack!” Sophie looked at him and shook her head. “That would mean having to swim a few hundred yards, and in the dark! We’d never survive. And don’t forget, we have to get to Poveglia!”

  Jack tried the ignition again. With a loud roar the engines came back to life.

  “You see,” he laughed, relieved. “No problem! We’re good to go.”

  “Hmm, you lucked out, that’s all!” said Sophie, giving him a knowing look. “Just slow down, okay?”

  Jack skillfully piloted the boat slowly towards Poveglia, almost as if he had been doing this all his life. When they got close they circled the island for a quick look.

  Poveglia was split in two by a narrow channel. Sophie recognized the ghastly tower from the pictures on the internet. It was dark and they could only make out the silhouettes of buildings, bushes, and trees. It was deathly quiet. No birds, no crickets, nothing.

  “Leonardo said we had to go to the southern part.” Sophie pointed to a spot where Jack could dock the boat. A shiver ran down her spine as he secured the mooring line to the quay. When the boat came to a stop she clambered ashore.

  “Wait,” she said. “Check in the boat, there’s got to be a flashlight. And don’t forget that silly-looking shovel.”

  Jack rummaged through the compartments until he found a flashlight. He climbed out behind Sophie carrying the flashlight and shovel. “I’m glad Lisa’s not here,” Jack said. “She’d be doing her best to scare the living daylights out of us.”

  “That’s what you’d think all right,” said Sophie. “But she’s afraid of the dark. She wouldn’t start pulling any pranks around here.” She stood still and looked around nervously. “We’d better hurry, we have to go to the farthest point on the eastern side of the island. Brrr,” she said, trembling, “everything looks so spooky.”

  They reached an enormous, rectangular building. Jack and Sophie couldn’t find a path around it. It was impossible to go left and the bushes on the right were impenetrable. Reluctantly, they walked towards the entrance of the dilapidated building.

  “Guess we have no choice but to go in,” Jack said quietly.

  The building was covered in scaffolding that looked like it could collapse at any minute, and was surrounded by an iron fence. Jack turned on his flashlight and searched for an opening in the dark. He found a large hole in the fence and, crouching down, they managed to crawl through. Sophie was glad she’d thought of bringing a flashlight because it was pitch dark inside. She suddenly stopped and grabbed hold of Jack’s arm.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Jack.

  “That smell! I think I can smell the bodies!”

  Jack breathed in deeply trying to figure out what Sophie meant. “That’s not dead bodies you smell. They’ve decomposed already.”

  In the dark, Sophie couldn’t see that he was shaking his head.

  “That’s the smell of rotting wood. Mold on wet wood, no big deal, okay?”

  “My heart’s racing a mile a m
inute,” Sophie whispered. “This place scares the crap out of me.”

  “I’m carrying a really big shovel,” Jack said in a low voice. “I’ll whack the first zombie I see.”

  “Zombies are already dead, but thanks anyway.” Sophie grinned nervously.

  They carefully stepped over some debris and bits of fence lying here and there on the ground. Jack shone the flashlight all around him after every three steps.

  “We have to go right, that’s east. We have to go to the right-hand side of the island,” Sophie said softly, continually looking around her.

  Dong! The sound of a large bell reverberated around the building. Sophie went pale with fear. She put a hand up to her mouth and had to do her best to keep from hyperventilating. “Did you hear that?” she said softly. “I read about that. That’s the bell tower. That sound you just heard is the bell!” She grabbed Jack’s sleeve.

  “It’s probably the wind,” Jack said dismissively. “When the wind blows up in the tower it makes that thing swing back and forth. That’s why you hear the bell.” He wanted to turn around and keep walking, but Sophie poked him in the ribs.

  “The bell,” she said in a high pitch, “the bell was taken down years ago. It’s gone! So how come we’re hearing it?”

  Jack felt a slight shiver run through his body but he did his best to hide it. “Maybe we didn’t hear it right,” he grunted as he jumped out through a broken window.

  Standing at the edge of the woods he kept an eye on Sophie as she climbed through the broken window behind him. “Which way?” he asked. He was just about to try and force his way through some thick bushes when Sophie heard a terrible scream that continued to echo ominously over the entire island. That must be the sound someone makes when they’re being murdered, Sophie thought.

  “Did you hear that? This place is really haunted! Hurry up, I want to get out of here as quickly as possible.”

  Jack nodded hastily. “Yeah, I definitely heard it! I’m sick of this too! Let’s just go and dig up your backpack as quick as we can.” Using all his strength, he started swinging the shovel furiously in front of him to cut a path through the thick bushes. Every now and then he used the flashlight to check all around him. They stopped walking when they reached the other side of the woods. A vast expanse of hilly grass stretched out before them.

  Sophie stood next to Jack and gulped. “This must be one of the mass graves.” She took the flashlight from Jack and walked up to the edge of the island. When she reached the outermost corner on the eastern side, she turned around and took three steps back. “It should be here! My backpack should be buried right here.” She composed herself, grabbed the shovel, and began digging frantically.

  A few minutes later she hopped back out of the hole, covered in sweat, and handed Jack the shovel. Sophie shone the light on him as he dug out big scoops of dirt until he suddenly stopped. “Is that…?” he muttered. “Are those skeletons?”

  He tossed the shovel aside and dropped to his knees, carefully sifting through the loose dirt with his hands.

  “On no, ugh!” Sophie screamed.

  Jack lifted up a skull. The lower jaw was missing and there were two teeth sticking out of the upper jaw.

  “So, we’re in the right place,” Sophie whispered, “but please, get rid of that head.”

  She picked up the shovel and psyched herself up again. “Don’t give up, Sophie, you’re almost there, don’t give up, just dig. They’re only bones… They’re only bones, they can’t hurt you.” She continued to dig frantically, even as the skulls and bones flew all around her.

  “Yes!” she screamed when she saw a piece of canvas sticking out of the dirt. She threw Jack the shovel and began tugging on the cloth. Using her hands, she dug up the rest of the dirt until her backpack came loose. Smiling, she pulled it out using one of the shoulder straps and then remained on her knees for a while trying to catch her breath.

  “And now, let’s get out of here, fast!” Jack said.

  They quickly shoveled the dirt, skulls, and bones back into the hole. With the backpack hanging over Sophie’s shoulder, they ran as fast as they could back along the same route. They were laughing uncontrollably, mostly from anxiety. They leaped into the boat, gasping for air.

  “Hurry up, loosen the line!” Jack said as he inserted the key in the ignition and turned. “What are we going to say to the skipper when we get back? He won’t be happy!”

  “We’ll make something up. What matters is that I’ve got my backpack back!” Sophie threw her hands in the air in delight.

  “Too-da-loo Poveglia!” she shouted, as Jack opened the throttle. “One thing’s for sure,” Sophie screamed above the roar of the engines. “The next time we have to go to a haunted island, it’s Tom and Lisa’s turn!”

  Jack threw the door open and they tumbled into the suite roaring with laughter.

  “Did you see the skipper’s face?” Sophie cried. “I didn’t understand a word he said, but he was nearly foaming at the mouth!”

  “I think he called us spoiled rich kids,” said Jack, who secretly relished being called that for once in his life.

  Sophie laughed hysterically. “We’re lucky he waited for us on the quay and didn’t call the police. I think he was afraid he might lose his job at the hotel. He should never have left us alone with the boat, of course.”

  She walked to the bathroom and scrubbed her hands thoroughly. “You should wash your hands, too! And bring the backpack with you.”

  Jack followed her into the bathroom carrying the backpack. “It’s almost crumbling to pieces. Look, the material is rotting. I wonder if everything’s still in there.” He brushed the dirt off the backpack above the sink and then handed it to Sophie.

  For a split second she saw her backpack buried again under the ground amongst all the bones. Startled, she let it fall to the ground.

  “Gross,” she said, “That’s not sand, that’s corpse dust!”

  She picked up the backpack again between her thumb and finger and wiped it clean with a hotel washcloth. She nervously opened it up and peered inside. “I wonder how environment-unfriendly the plastic coating on the inside is, because it’s still completely intact. That can’t be good!”

  One by one she carefully removed each item from her bag. “My geography book…” Sophie had to laugh when she put the heavily thumbed-through book down next to the sink. “Look, the little printer… and the boxes of pills… empty.” She reached into her bag again. Empty. “Where’s my phone?” she cried in desperation. She anxiously turned the backpack upside down and shook it. With a soft thud a thin black piece of plastic fell onto the floor. She shook her bag frantically. “Jack! Where is my phone?”

  Jack shook his head in surprise. “How should I know?”

  “And what’s that?” Sophie picked the black piece of plastic up off the floor and held it in front of her face. “There’s a hole in the middle you can look through! But what on earth is it?” She bent the piece of plastic slightly, but stopped when she realized she might break it.”

  “Do you think this is why Leonardo told us it was important we recover the backpack?”

  Jack put his hand next to the square piece of plastic. “It’s about five inches long. Let me see.” He took the piece of plastic from Sophie’s hand and looked at it closely. “It doesn’t weigh a thing!” he said as he studied it.

  “What does that say?” said Sophie, taking it from Jack’s hand again and turning it over. There was something written on a dirty white sticker on the back, but it was difficult to read. Sophie went to the desk by the window and turned on the reading lamp. Using the light, they both tried to figure out what it said.

  “I think it’s in English,” said Sophie.

  Jack nodded. “I think so, too.”

  “I think it says…” Sophie stammered, “I think it says ‘Secret Scouts’…”

  Monday, June 30th, late afternoon

  Lisa was lying on her sister’s bed with her legs up against the wal
l. “Wow!” she said upside down. “That’s such a cool story. And how awesome is that – racing across the water in a speedboat! And then that island, oh man, Jack! Super cool! Did you really have a skull in your hands?”

  Jack sat on the bed with his back against the wall, just like Tom. He shrugged his shoulders casually as if what he had done was the most normal thing in the world, but his smile was full of pride.

  Lisa turned over and sat restlessly on the edge of the bed. “Guys,” she said, “we’ve had two really cool weeks!”

  Sophie spun around in her chair and nodded. “That’s for sure. And how cool is it that we got to hang out with Leonardo? That we actually met him twice!” Sophie winked at her sister. “Mona!” she added. “How bizarre is that?” Sophie shook her head laughing as she spoke to her sister.

  “I’m curious what our next adventure will be,” Lisa said. “We’re going to use that planetarium again, right?” She looked inquiringly at the others.

  “Come on Lisa, it’s never enough for you, is it?” Sophie said. “Take it easy. We’ve just been to Renaissance Florence twice, and Jack and I are just back from Venice! We shouldn’t be too reckless with that thing.”

  Tom was lost in his own thoughts. “Did you guys see the ermine just now?” he asked. “When we walked past, Prattle was standing at the window with the creature in her arms acting as if nothing had happened.”

  “I’m glad the ermine can’t talk like that eagle in Florence,” Lisa laughed. She threw her sister a look. “Too bad about your phone, that really sucks,” she said casually. “And that weird piece of plastic, what do you think it is?”

  “It looks like it belongs to another device,” Jack said.

  Sophie shrugged her shoulders as if to disagree. “I don’t know, I don’t know what it is, but seriously…” she looked intently at her sister. “It totally sucks that my phone is really gone.”

  “Here,” Lisa tossed her sister her phone, “It’s my fault you lost your phone. Keep it, I’ll be getting one from Mom and Dad next year.”