Amanda Lester, Detective Box Set

by Paula Berinstein

  A white van with its doors open was parked near the Moriartys. A pile of apricot crystals sat on the ground next to it. Pink dust filled the sky, punctuated by glints of apricot-colored light from the crystals that were being created and thrown up in the air. But something else was happening too: the sky was just a little bit darker over the quarry than everywhere else. Amanda hoped it was from the dust, because if it wasn’t, it was a sign that Blixus had found a way to force feed extra light into the crystals and they were draining it off from their surroundings. That would have meant that the crystals were indeed capable of stealing light and leaving people in darkness.

  The flat floor of the quarry was surrounded by gigantic buff-colored walls studded with blocks of rock and naturally shaped boulders, some of them forming terraces. Tall piles of small rocks and bits of earth-moving machinery dotted the landscape. Off to the right as the tram faced it stood a large pit filled with water. The scene would have been beautiful under other circumstances.

  As the tram approached, the kids yelled at the Moriartys to stop. The two of them looked up briefly, broke into laughter, and set off another explosion, throwing more pink dust into the air. David hurled himself off the tram and ran toward them.

  “Scapulus, how are you doing?” yelled Amanda. Holmes shook his head. Then she caught sight of something moving behind the roommates. It was tall and dark and looked like a person. Amanda couldn’t believe her eyes. There before her, alive and seemingly well, was none other than Nick Muffet.

  33

  The Quarry

  Amanda gasped. The shape couldn’t possibly be Nick. The dust must have been playing tricks on her eyes. The only problem was that the others were staring too. Editta screamed so loud that Amphora clamped a hand over her mouth. Ivy said, “What is it? What’s going on?” Simon froze. David Wiffle, who had been pleading with his roommates to give the book back, stopped and gaped. Despina said, “Who’s that when he’s at home? Why is everyone screaming?”

  Nick smiled and walked toward Amanda. “Hello, Lestrade,” he said, when he’d got within speaking range. “Surprised to see me?”

  Amanda burst into tears despite willing herself not to, and Nigel licked her hand. Ivy rushed to her side and hugged her. “What is wrong with you, Nick Muffet?” she said. “And what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be dead.”

  “Not quite,” said Nick, clearly enjoying himself.

  Holmes glanced from Nick to Amanda and back again. An expression of horror crossed his face and he turned away.

  Suddenly Nigel broke loose and ran toward the Moriartys. Ivy screamed, “Nigel! Come back here.” Simon dashed the fifty yards to the stash of crystals sitting by the van and grabbed some, then banged them together as hard as he could. This action caused beams of light to shoot out of them like lasers as the crystals released the excess light. Simon lifted the crystals, aimed them, and began to zap the Moriartys and David’s roommates with bolts of energy. Taking a cue from him, Blixus, Mavis, and Nick picked up the deepest orange crystals, slapped them around, and started zapping back. David’s roommates copied them. Amanda and Clive joined Simon, as did the tram driver, whose name was Eustace. And then something even more unlikely happened: Despina and Hill grabbed a couple of crystals and took their place on the Legatum side. Meanwhile Holmes was still trying to hack the virus, Editta was still screaming, and Amphora was running back and forth waving her arms.

  Suddenly a small aftershock hit. Rocks flew into the air, boulders rattled, and even more dust flew about. The battle stopped as the participants fought to stay upright. While the Moriartys were distracted, David took the opportunity to charge Mavis, knocking her down. She screamed, “You little creep! Who do you think you are?” but she had obviously been hurt and was struggling to get up. At the same time Simon zapped Nick, who had been trying to get to his feet as well, and he fell back down.

  Amanda took the opportunity to check on Holmes’s progress. She ran back to him, looked over his shoulder, and said, “How’s it going?”

  “Badly,” he said. “I’m trying to hack the Moriartys’ whole network so I can find all the copies of the formula. I’m working to implant a cybervirus, but I can’t quite get—” His jaw dropped. “Oh no! I’m out of juice.”

  “No!” cried Amanda. “Do you have any kind of power source with you?”

  “No. Maybe that van over there. Do you think the key is inside?”

  “We can find out, but don’t you think Blixus will stop us if we try to do that?” she said.

  “How about the tram? I can plug in my charger.”

  He ran to the tram and turned the key, which Eustace had left in the ignition, but the engine wouldn’t start. He tried again. Nothing. Amanda screamed, “Do something, Scapulus!”

  “I’m trying,” he said. “I hate to say this, but I’m going to need to go back to town.”

  “How are you going to get there?” she said.

  “Good question. Maybe I can hijack the van.” He surveyed the situation, then struck out toward the van, carefully skirting the action.

  Mavis had recovered from whatever injury she had sustained and the battle had resumed, with Nick going for Simon’s jugular, so to speak. He was obviously furious that his former friend had knocked him down and was shooting beams out of the crystals as if they were some kind of automatic weapon. Simon was doing a good job of deflecting them, but he was looking tired and Amanda was worried that Nick would knock him unconscious or worse. With each shot Amanda could see the sky darken just a little more.

  Meanwhile Amphora, Editta, and Ivy were following behind Holmes, sneaking round to the van. Not to be left out, Despina and Hill tiptoed after them. When the kids got there they began to take crystals out of the back with the help of Amanda’s relatives, who talked nonstop. Amanda would have felt sorry for Hill except that he was as bad as Despina. How they lived with each other she couldn’t imagine. While the battle raged, the girls and the Liverpudlians reversed their steps and carried the crystals to the tram, with Hill dropping a few and having to scurry to retrieve them.

  David Wiffle was like a machine. He had taken on both his roommates using a combination of martial arts, but they were beating him up badly. Simon glanced in their direction and zapped them royally, which allowed David to get away. Unfortunately that may not have been the best idea because the next thing Amanda could see was David running to the book, grabbing it, throwing it in front of a bulldozer that was sitting next to the pit, getting into the cab, and running over it.

  Amanda screamed and ran to the bulldozer. “David, stop it right now!”

  “No!” he yelled. “They’re not going to have it.”

  She waited for him to stop while backing up, then before he could move forward again climbed into the cab, flung her arms as far around him as she could, and pulled. “Get off me,” he screamed and pushed her away. Holmes looked up from his position inside the van, ran to the bulldozer, and leaped inside the cab. David was exhibiting superhuman strength now: he threw him off too.

  At last Ivy yelled, “Nigel, sic!” The dog raced for the bulldozer, leaped into the cab, and jumped up on David, who yelled, “Eeeeeeek!” He pushed Nigel and jumped down, then grabbed the crushed book, hurled it into the pit, and ran off.

  “No!” yelled Amanda, jumping into the water. Holmes took one look and leaped in after her.

  The water was icky—cold and gritty with a terrible smell—but she barely noticed. Down, down she dove, just as she had when trying for the skateboard back at Enchanto. However this time she wasn’t able to find what she was looking for. It was too hard to see. She surfaced, yelled, “Can’t find it,” and dove down again.

  She swam all over the pit, or at least it seemed so, without finding so much as a page. The water hurt her eyes. She could kind of see Holmes zooming around like a fish, but he didn’t seem to be having any luck either. She wasn’t actually sure she wasn’t swimming in circles, as there were no landmarks to go by.

  Whe
n she couldn’t take it anymore she propelled herself to the top. Holmes followed a moment later, holding up his hands to show that he hadn’t found anything.

  “I can’t do this anymore,” she said.

  “We can try again,” he said, diving down for a second go while she treaded water and coughed. Soon he was back again, empty-handed.

  The sides of the pit were so steep that they had trouble climbing out. Hill managed to find a foothold near the water and reached out a hand, pulling first Amanda and then Holmes up onto dry land. Simon, Clive, and Eustace were still fighting the Moriartys and the air was still crackling with electricity.

  Holmes didn’t stop for a moment. He ran back to join the fight, only to hear Simon yell out, “Electricity.”

  “What?” said Holmes.

  “You need juice?” said Simon, releasing a bolt into Blixus’s foot.

  “Yes,” said Holmes.

  “Hold up your tablet,” said Simon.

  “What’s that?” said Holmes.

  “I say hold up your tablet. Get right over there and don’t move.”

  Holmes raced back to where he’d left the tablet, ran to the spot Simon had indicated, and held it up. Simon took aim and let out a soft beam of light, which hit the USB port. The tablet burst into life, lights flashing, startup noises sounding, screen painting. “We got it!” Holmes yelled.

  “Thought it might work,” said Simon, dodging a blast from Mavis.

  Holmes handed the tablet to Amanda, who was still recovering from her foray into the pit, grabbed Simon’s crystals, and faced Nick. Nick laughed and said, “Who are you?”

  “You know perfectly well who I am,” said Holmes.

  “Oh, so that’s it, is it?” said Nick. “You look like you’re pretty tight with Lestrade there, Holmes. Better watch out. She’s trouble.”

  Nick pulled a glowing orange crystal out of his pocket, aimed it at Holmes, and let go with an electric blast that knocked the shorter boy to the ground. Simon stopped zapping Blixus for a moment and threw Holmes a crystal, which gave off such a crackle of light that it knocked Nick back and nearly into the pit. Holmes got to his feet and let go with another blast, but Nick recovered his footing and got off his own bolt right before it hit him. Holmes went flying. When Holmes regained his balance, he zapped Nick three times in a row and sent him right, left, then right again.

  The two boys were glaring daggers at each other—Holmes and Moriarty, Moriarty and Holmes, just as their ancestors had done a century before. Amanda, Editta, and Amphora screamed on the sidelines, and Ivy kept yelling, “What’s going on?” Despina and Hill joined Simon, Clive, and Eustace in their fight against Nick’s parents, which was a sight to behold, and David Wiffle had returned from wherever he’d run off to and was struggling to hold his ground against his roommates. As the combatants blasted each other over and over, the crystals began to turn red and wink out. Seeing that the weapons were failing, Amanda and Amphora ran to supply the Legatum fighters with fresh ones, which made Amanda want to cry, or would have done if she’d had time to think.

  The fighting kicked up so much dust that sometimes it was hard for the foes to see each other. The fact that the sky above the quarry was like twilight now didn’t help. More than once Amanda and Amphora were almost hit by friendly fire, and Despina accidentally grazed Eustace, causing a long, narrow part to form on the right side of his yellow mane. Nigel didn’t like the dust at all and he pulled Ivy back to the tram, which was parked sufficiently far away from the action to remain if not pristine, at least less dusty than everything else.

  Blixus had succeeded in creating more crystals, but their numbers were declining at an alarming rate. Amanda feared that soon they’d be extinct, or at least they would if Holmes could destroy the virus formula. Of course he was otherwise occupied, so the threat was minor for the moment, but if and when the tide turned, chances were that the crystals would either die out entirely or end up as a crippled race. It was a lose-lose situation and Amanda wasn’t sure which outcome would be worse.

  When Simon, Clive, and Eustace had initially begun to zap the Moriartys, both sides had been defending territory. Now the violence took on a personal tone, as David fought for his honor and Nick and Holmes sought to annihilate each other for reasons both contemporary and historical. Blixus and Mavis simply seemed to find the whole thing funny, which enraged Despina so much that she charged Mavis and managed to knock her over again. Blixus got his revenge easily by tripping Hill as he raced to join his wife, knocking him onto his nose, which immediately turned purple and grew to the size of a small eggplant. Despina wheeled around and tried to blast Blixus but dropped her crystal, which Blixus kicked out of the way, causing her to run after it. She made an easy target and he nicked her in the butt. Meanwhile Puppybreath and Niven were taunting David, yelling, “Where are your knickers, Little Lord Fauntleroy?” and “An electron is bigger than your brain.” David took each insult as if it were a slap, and hurled back lame retorts like, “Your ancestors are stupid” and “You can’t talk to me like that—I’m a Wiffle.” Amanda had never felt so sorry for him. In all the time he’d been at Legatum, he’d learned nothing about relating to other people.

  Suddenly Clive yelled, “Amanda, can you cover for me?”

  She ran to where Clive was standing, dodging blasts from Mavis, and grabbed his crystals from him.

  “Thanks,” he panted. “I’ve got an idea.”

  Amanda stood up straight and began to fight. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Clive run all the way to the tram and get on. She couldn’t imagine what he was doing. Then, wheeling around to evade a blast from Philip, she saw him running toward the group with his pack on his back. What in the world?

  Clive blew past her and she could see him dance past orange beams until he had come to the base of one of the walls at the far side of the quarry. Finding a foothold, he began to climb, higher and higher until he’d stopped above what looked like a loose congregation of boulders. She could see him remove a couple of reflectors from his pack and place them within the grouping. Then he climbed back down, found a spot with a direct line of sight to the reflectors, and laid his pack on the ground. The next thing she knew he had removed his acoustic levitator and aimed it at one of the reflectors.

  “Clive, watch out for Nigel!” she yelled.

  “Oh no,” he yelled back. “Get him away.”

  “Ivy,” Amanda screamed, “get Nigel out of here.”

  Ivy grabbed Nigel, turned him toward the road, and commanded, “Run!” He took off like a shot and pulled her almost at a speed she couldn’t manage until the two were completely out of sight.

  “All clear,” Amanda yelled to Clive.

  “Thanks,” he said, and aimed the levitator once more. “Now get out of the way!” A spot from his laser materialized on the edge of one of the boulders. Amanda was beginning to get the idea and it wasn’t pretty. Clive was going to create an avalanche!

  Before she could say anything more the boulder began to move, and within a few seconds it had hit another boulder and another. Soon all the boulders were tumbling down onto the quarry floor. Amanda dived for Simon, who was so absorbed in the fight that he hadn’t heard Clive, and pushed him as hard as she could. “Get out of here!” she screamed. Simon looked up, caught sight of Clive, grabbed Amanda’s hand, and tore out of there.

  As the boulders fell, the noise became deafening. It sounded like a hundred King Kongs. The Moriartys looked up to see a storm of rocks coming toward them and scattered in three directions. David and his roommates dashed for cover, and Eustace made a beeline for the wall to the right of the boulders, which was safely out of their path. Hill and Despina looked like deer in headlights, but Amanda pulled away from Simon, ran back to them, grabbed their hands, and tugged them out of the way.

  The descending rocks tumbled like bowling pins. They scattered all over the quarry, flying into the air when they hit the ground and each other hard and fast. They bashed earthmovers, flew in
to the pit, and nearly decimated the white van, which was miraculously spared. It must have taken them ten minutes to come to a stop. At least that was how it felt. When they did, the pit into which David had thrown the book was completely covered. There was no way to get past them now short of using a crane.

  Everyone was injured. Almost everyone was bleeding. They were all bent over, panting. Clive was in the worst shape of all, having been closest to the falling rocks. He had a cut on his head and looked dazed. Amanda worried that he might have a concussion.

  She looked around. Something about the avalanche had made her madder than ever, released something in her. How had it come to this? How had the best friend she’d ever had become so rotten? Where was all that violence coming from? She picked up a crystal, faced Nick, and zapped him so hard he fell onto his shoulder. “Ouch,” he yelled from the ground. “Big mistake, Lestrade.”

  He got up, rubbed his shoulder, and let out a blast so strong that it propelled Amanda right into Holmes, who oofed, grabbed Amanda’s crystal, and shot beams at Nick from both hands at once. Nick dodged them, laughed and shot back a line of hits, sending Holmes to the right and Amanda to the left. “You shoot like a girl, Holmes,” he taunted. This made Amanda so mad that she loaded up on crystals and sent out a double-strength arc that got Nick in the stomach. He recoiled so far back that he collided with his father, who was in the process of collecting fresh crystals and almost fell over but managed to stop himself just in time.

  “What is wrong with you?” Blixus said to his son, who was clutching his stomach. “How can you let Lestrade get the better of you? Get over here now.”

  Nick hesitated, looked back at Amanda, then fixed his gaze on Holmes and said, “This isn’t over.” His father pushed him and he stumbled to the van. Amanda couldn’t stand seeing Nick like this. No matter what he was or how he’d behaved, the indignity was too much to bear. She yelled to Blixus, “You killed Mr. Wiffle.”