Lola Benko, Treasure Hunter

by Beth McMullen

  “I don’t… understand.”

  “Of course you don’t! You’ve been played. I know all about your Task Force, trying to keep these objects all to yourselves. But here’s the thing your ridiculous, greedy little team doesn’t understand. You can rely only on yourself. People will let you down. Every. Single. Time.”

  Lipstick gazes into the distance beyond my father. Loneliness flashes in her eyes, and desperation. But there is something darker, too. Anger. After a second, she shakes it off and refocuses on my father. “Now, it’s true that there’s not much money can’t buy, but all the people I hired to find the stone failed. Again, I needed another approach. So I flooded the networks I know you monitor with rumors that the mysterious Shadow was searching for the stone and was close to finding it. If I can invent one personality, why not another? I knew this would get you out of hibernation. The Task Force would put you on it at once. And you, of all people, might really find the stone. Which you did. Brilliant plan, eh?”

  “You have so much,” Dad says slowly. “I don’t understand why you seek the stone.”

  “EmoJabber gets me into their lives,” Lipstick continues, gleeful with anticipation, “and the stone gets me into their heads. Maybe I want a thousand-person dance mob on the Golden Gate Bridge, just for kicks, at rush hour. Or I want a bunch of tourists to steal the Crown Jewels on my command. I’d look fine in a crown, don’t you think? How about handing over the details on what my competitors are working on? That would be a good use of the stone’s power. The possibilities are endless! It’s going to be heaps of fun!”

  My father pulls at the ties binding him to the chair. “You don’t understand what you’re messing with here,” he growls. “The stone is dangerous.”

  “Blah. Blah. Dangerous.” She waves off his concern. “I learned a lesson back when I invented Tewksbury. Power is the only thing people respect. And you can never have too much. It was only a matter of time until someone found the stone. I just made sure it was me.”

  “You kidnapped me,” Dad says flatly.

  Lipstick shrugs. “Collateral damage. These things happen.” I catch a glimpse of the stone in her hand. She casts loving glances at it. Creepy. Why not get a pet if you want something small and cute to love? A hedgehog or a kitten?

  “We will have so much fun later,” she says to the stone, placing it in a sturdy safe bolted in the corner. Oh no. Not a safe. I’m an amateur when it comes to breaking safes, as in I have no idea how to do it. And I have nothing in my backpack of tricks to help.

  In the bunker, Lipstick crouches down in front of my father. “It’s not that bad,” she says. “Just think, you will witness the stone’s power firsthand.”

  “I won’t help you,” my father hisses.

  “Oh, but you will,” Lipstick says. “If you don’t want that daughter of yours meeting with misfortune. We’ll get started later. In the meantime, don’t go anywhere.”

  Cackling at her own joke, she strides toward the bunker exit, right at us. Instinctively I push Jin and Hannah flat against the wall, into the dark shadows. If we are perfectly still and pretend we are just part of the tunnel, she should walk right by us. We are underground in a system of tunnels that have been barricaded from the outside world for years. She does not expect us to be here.

  We need to be one with the wall. Bricks and concrete. Please, oh please don’t see us. Beside me, Jin fidgets. I find his hand and squeeze it hard to settle him down. Hannah is still as a statue. Tewksbury, aka the Shadow, cruises right by, disappearing down the dark tunnel.

  But she will always be Lipstick to me.

  CHAPTER 37 CAUGHT. AGAIN.

  MY FATHER SAGS IN HIS chair, defeated. It’s all I can do not to run right up to him and tell him everything will be okay even if I don’t know that it will be. But Jin holds me back. “Just to make sure she doesn’t come back,” he says quietly.

  There is so much I want to tell my father—about Jin and Hannah and the STEM fair and the Jelly and Zeus and Irma and Redwood Academy and Judge Gold and my room with the cute kitten comforter and how I’m really good in science class and I was thinking I might learn fencing. Or soccer. I might make a good goalkeeper, having nerves of steel and all. Who knows?

  “Well, what do we have here?” I whirl around to find Buzz carrying a tray with a sandwich and a glass of water. My first thought is, Dad does not like tuna salad. My second thought is, uh-oh, now what?

  “Are you really here to break out your father? How amazingly nervy and stupid you are.” A walkie-talkie dangles from Buzz’s belt. A flashlight is clipped there as well, swinging back and forth and casting loopy circles of light at his feet.

  What I think he wants to do is hold the tray in one hand and key the walkie-talkie with the other, alerting Lipstick and Plaid to our presence. But the tray wobbles and the sandwich slides precariously to one side. Not wanting tuna salad all over his shiny black boots, he pauses briefly to steady it.

  In a flash, Hannah leaps forward and conks him on the head with the flat hard side of the voice amplifier. Jin jumps in, kicking him swiftly in the back of the knees. The sandwich flies up in the air and the plate crashes to the ground. Buzz goes down in a heap, smacking his head on the concrete, out cold. The tray clatters to the ground. Jin and Hannah stand over him, grinning like superheroes who have just discovered their powers. My jaw hangs open.

  “You guys.”

  Jin holds up a hand for a high five and Hannah slaps it hard. “That was amazing,” Jin says. “We’re amazing.”

  “I guess that makes us the muscle of this operation.” Hannah flips up the collar of her jacket.

  “Hey,” my father calls out. “Who’s there? What’s going on?” And that’s when I rush to him.

  It takes a few minutes for me to stop simultaneously laughing, crying, and hiccuping to explain how we got here. “I’ve been trying to find you because I knew you weren’t dead. And I stole a statue from Tewksbury who is the Shadow who is Lipstick. But I fell out the window, two stories, and wrecked it. Which is why I have this cast. And then Judge Gold sent me to Redwood instead of jail. Where I met these guys.”

  “Hold the phone. Jail? And you broke your wrist?”

  “It’s a long story,” Jin says.

  “And complicated,” Hannah adds.

  “And then Lipstick made a deal with us. And we found the stone on a ship going to South America and almost drowned in the bay. And then we thought we were trading it for you, but Lipstick is a double-crosser. And then we found the entrance to the tunnels in the basement of the wedding cake mansion. And…”

  My father holds up his newly freed hands. “Let’s sort this out later, shall we? We’re in a bit of a pickle at the moment.” He hugs me close. The musty smell of his leather jacket threatens to start the tears all over again.

  “Escaping might be a good idea,” Jin suggests.

  “But the stone,” I say. “We can’t just leave it.”

  “Forget about the stone, Lola,” my father responds. “We’ll deal with it later.”

  “But, Dad. There’s something we need to tell you.”

  “It really is magic!” Jin blurts. “It talks to Lola. The stone, I mean.” Dad goes a shade paler, and that’s no easy thing, considering he doesn’t look his best to begin with.

  “It talks to you? Oh dear.”

  “It tells me things. Or I think it does? But what if we leave it and it decides to talk to Lipstick?” If Lipstick harnesses its power, an army of EmoJabbers will march across the world, leaving a wake of destruction without once using a proper word. I just can’t let that happen. Plus, I’ve really had it with Lipstick.

  Dad pats me on the head. “Look at you. Never one to back down even when the odds are against you.”

  The odds are always against me. Outside the cave, Buzz groans, starting to come around. We are running out of time. “Whatever we’re going to do, we need to do it fast,” Hannah says.

  “Right.” Dad is all business. “Does anyone
know how to break into a safe? No? Me either. Thoughts?”

  “Ask the stone for the combination,” Jin urges me.

  “I can try.” I feel remarkably silly, but here we go. Hey, Stone! Wake up! It’s me! Do you want to be rescued or what?

  It takes a few seconds, but finally the butterfly whisper returns.

  Took you long enough.

  Just my luck. A sassy magic stone. Quit complaining. The only way I get you out is if you give me the combination. Do you happen to know it?

  I know lots of things. 35-24-18-7.

  “Thirty-five,” I whisper. “Twenty-four. Eighteen. Seven.” Jin drops down in front of the safe, turning the dial frantically. Click. It pops open. My father chokes, gasping and muttering. Jin holds up the stone triumphantly. I can’t tear my eyes from it.

  “Lola?” Jin asks. “Hey, Lola?”

  “Okay. I’m good. Just give me a sec.” I try to shake off the sensation, but it clings to me like a sticky cobweb.

  “That’s not it,” Jin says.

  In the entrance to the cave stands Buzz, wobbly but on his feet and ready to blow a gasket.

  CHAPTER 38 EASY COME, EASY GO

  BUZZ RUBS A BIG BUMP on his forehead. “You knocked me out,” he complains. “Nobody has ever knocked me out before.”

  Hannah shrugs. “Turns out I’m pretty strong.” Buzz holds a can of pepper spray, finger on the trigger. My father shoves the three of us behind him and steps forward.

  “I understand you’re upset.” Dad is calm and soothing. “But we can talk this out and reach an accommodation. I’m sure of it. I know people. I can get you out of this. At the very least, let the children go.”

  “These children are dangerous,” Buzz says indignantly.

  “The children can’t help with the stone. Only I can. Keep me. Let them go.”

  What is he saying? And why am I just standing here? I have a magic stone!

  Hey, Stone? Can you get Buzz to, you know, buzz off? Make him think he’s a peacock or something. That would be funny.

  I wait for the butterfly whisper, but nothing comes. Uh-oh. What did Dad say about the stone using the person and not the other way around? Or maybe the stone is napping? Or maybe it just needs to warm up to me like a cat? It’s not like I have an owner’s manual to consult or anything.

  Stone? Please? Things are pretty bad right now.

  Clearly, the stone does not care about my problems. What good is a magic stone if it doesn’t work? Worthless stone! Jin and Hannah watch me. I shake my head. Forget it. Buzz strides up, bold as ever. “Hand it over.”

  “No way.”

  “Lola,” my father commands, “give him the stone.”

  “But…”

  “Do it.” I put the stone into Buzz’s outstretched hand, but I don’t want to. I want to do like Hannah did and hit him in the head with it.

  “I’m going up top and telling the boss.” Buzz tosses the stone up and down like a baseball. “She’s not going to be happy.” Outside the bunker entrance, he hits a red button and a heavy steel door slides across the opening, locked with a heavy latch that can only be opened from the outside.

  Things have definitely taken a turn for the worse.

  Hannah pounds on the door with her fists. Jin gives it a swift kick. This doesn’t help. We are trapped. I drop to my knees and hold my head in my heads. “I’m sorry,” I say. “I lost the stone.”

  Dad wraps his arms around me and kisses the top of my head. “Water under the bridge,” he says. “Who cares? What I want to say is that you’re pretty amazing, Lola Benko. You all are!” We collectively beam at his praise. Sadly, it is short-lived. “Of course, coming after me was incredibly foolish, dangerous, and wrong on so many levels I cannot even count that high. But still, quite brave.” Dad looks at us expectantly. “Now, how do we get out of this mess? Anyone happen to have a phone handy? Aren’t you kids always tethered to your phones?”

  “Lola said we couldn’t bring them,” Hannah explains. “And they aren’t allowed at Redwood.”

  “Oh, I like this new school very much.” My father lets me go. He strides to the door to study it, running his hands around the edge. His brows furrow in concentration. “If we could somehow break the latch from the inside, we might be able to slide the door open manually.”

  The three of us step up to have a look. “We’d need a bomb to go off to break that latch,” Jin says, disheartened.

  Did he just say bomb? “We have one of those!” I shout.

  “We do?”

  “Frank!” I drop my backpack to the ground and pull out Frank, still happily humming along, glowing blue.

  “What is that?” Dad asks, looking a little horrified.

  “Oh, that’s just our STEM fair project,” Jin says. “It’s an electromagnetic pulse generator. Lola made it.”

  “She did?”

  “And Hannah made the night vision goggles and the voice amplifier,” he adds. “Without all three, we never would have made it this far.”

  “But the pulse was Jin’s idea,” I say quickly. “It really took both of us.” I squat down by Frank and try to remember the process for making him explode. I’m sorry, Frank. You did everything we asked of you, flawlessly, and in return I’m going to ruin you. But I promise to rebuild you again, to make you better, stronger, and possibly more pretty, if you think that matters.

  I dig my fingers into Frank’s guts, disconnecting and rerouting the wires. Blue, green, and red wires this way, and the purple and yellow like this. “When I cross these wires,” I explain, “it will take about sixty seconds for Frank to heat up and blow. And remember, once that happens, the security cameras will be back online. We don’t have much time.”

  “I’m concerned,” my father says.

  “You got any other ideas?” Hannah asks.

  “None,” he replies.

  “It will work,” I say. Jin grabs the extra set of shoelaces from his backpack and helps me bind Frank to the door latch. “Ready?”

  My father looks worried, but Jin and Hannah nod. “Do it,” Jin says.

  Quickly, I attach the wires and flee to the farthest point in the bunker from the door. We huddle together and my father drapes himself over us like a human shield. Oddly, it pleases me that he clearly believes Frank has the potential to put us in danger.

  Thirty seconds. The smell of burning plastic fills the room. Forty-five seconds. Frank starts to hiss and spit sparks. And at sixty seconds, just like clockwork, he explodes. I duck my head and close my eyes. The room fills with smoke. Jin coughs.

  “Gross.” Hannah fans away the thick air clouding the room. I race to the door. Frank lies in smoldering pieces and the latch is completely detached, dangling precariously by a thread.

  “Brilliant,” my father says, gagging just a little. “Now everyone, push!”

  We place our hands flat against the steel and heave it to the right with all our strength. At first it doesn’t budge. I envision Lipstick, Buzz, and Plaid charging our way. We push again, hard, and the door begins to give.

  “Harder!” Jin yells. One more time and the door slides open just enough for us to slip through. Free of the cave, we run, without looking back.

  CHAPTER 39 RATS

  THE TUNNELS FORM A COMPLICATED labyrinth beneath the city. Dad wants to know why we didn’t use some sort of bread-crumb system to mark our way, like Hansel and Gretel who, by the way, came really close to being eaten by a witch. I remind him that we can’t go back the way we came as that is where our particular witch currently lives. I don’t think she’s cannibalistic like in the Hansel and Gretel story, but you never know.

  “I think it’s this way,” Jin says at yet another tunnel intersection. “It feels right.”

  “Feelings are not good science,” my father replies. But at the moment, feelings are all we’ve got. We follow Jin’s lead. Is it possible that it’s getting darker? Our flashlights do little to penetrate the gloom. In stealth mode, we move quickly and quietly. There has t
o be another way out of these tunnels that isn’t sealed up. I’m hungry and tired and would like for this rescue to be over now. But it’s not over. Not by a long shot.

  Hannah stops abruptly in front of me. In the darkness, I bump into her. “Hey!”

  “Shhh.” She holds a finger to her lips. “Do you hear that?” It’s a rushing sound, kind of like a river or a constant wind. It’s far away but growing louder by the second.

  “Oh dear,” Dad says. “I think I know what is going on here. Lipstick, as you call her, mentioned she has used this tactic a few times and greatly enjoyed the effect.” Tactic? What? It’s close now. Whatever is causing the sound is almost upon us. “Try not to lose each other, but more important… run!”

  I turn back to the last tunnel intersection just in time to see a wave of rats come around the corner and barrel toward us. Millions and billions and trillions of rats. It’s an amazing amount, shocking, unbelievable, ridiculous, not okay. It’s possible I immediately die at the sight of them coming toward us like a living nightmare. I’d prefer zombies. Or vampires. Or grizzly bears. Honestly, anything but rats. But the screaming that fills the tunnel is my own, drowned out by the thunder of little twitchy feet. I throw my flashlight in the air.

  “Stay ahead and on top!” Dad yells. “Like an avalanche!” I have never been in an avalanche and certainly not one of rats. And they are not small rats. They are big sewer rats, fat and happy and being driven on a wild rampage by Lipstick, probably with fire or water or something they fear. I can’t stop screaming. Running and screaming is not as easy as it appears in the movies. An acrobatic rat launches from the tunnel wall into my hair. Another clings to my leg. Still a third slithers across my shoulders. I can’t even cry. And I definitely can’t breathe. I’m hyperventilating. Any second I am going to pass out.