Johnny Graphic and the Etheric Bomb

by D. R. Martin

  The trio stopped only to replenish their canteens at a freshwater spring, where Johnny also snapped a picture of the two girls. To add to the ordeal, the sun was beating down, with a searing, oven-like heat.

  Finally emerging on the other side, the three peeked out through a jumble of rocks to survey the situation. They saw decrepit tin buildings, rusting farm equipment, palm trees, dense undergrowth, and a road covered with crushed seashells. A few ghosts wafted around aimlessly. From what Bao had said, the cave mouth to the northwest was where Dame Honoria would be.

  “Do you see any of the troopers or Bao?” Nina asked.

  “Nope, no one,” Mel answered, peeping above some rocks, searching the sun-blasted landscape. “The place looks deserted. No guards in front of any of the buildings.”

  “No Steppe Warriors?” Nina continued.

  “Don’t see any.”

  This whole business was getting on Johnny’s nerves. He was tired of waiting for others to act. He just wanted to find Dame Honoria and get the heck out of here. The sooner she was rescued, the sooner they could continue on their around-the-world newspaper assignment. And the sooner they could start investigating what had happened to their parents. But they wouldn’t get anywhere unless they quit hiding. Uncle Louie always said the best defense is a good offense.

  “Why don’t I run over there and check Dame Honoria’s cave?” Johnny said. “It’ll take me a few minutes, tops. Nobody’ll see me.”

  Nina shook her head vigorously. “I think we ought to wait until dark before we go exploring. Too dangerous in the daylight.”

  In turn, Mel shook her head. ”I don’t think we can wait that long. But I’m the oldest, so I should go.”

  “Are you nuts, Sis?” Johnny sputtered. “If anyone gets caught, it oughta be me. They grab you, they get what they’ve been after all along.”

  “It’s a bad idea for either of you,” argued Nina. “You don’t have any idea who might be sneaking around out there, or where Steppe Warriors might be lurking. Johnny’s right, Mel, you’re too important.” Then she glared at Johnny. “As for you, I’d have hoped our little adventure in Jadetown would have cured you of any urge for recklessness.”

  Johnny glared back at Nina. Who did she think she was? His mother?

  “Some friend you are!” he snapped.

  Eyes and mouth wide open, Nina looked as though someone had slapped her in the face.

  She was about to make a retort when Johnny abruptly barked, “Gotta go!”

  And he spurted out from behind the sheltering rocks, into the open.

  Feet pounding, legs pumping, he made for Dame Honoria’s cave—gripping his camera pack for dear life.

  Chapter 40

  Johnny took a hard left into the open cave mouth, past two rusted, gaping steel doors that drooped on their hinges. Deep shadows enveloped him, cutting ten degrees off the baking heat. He panted wildly, bending over and putting his hands on his knees.

  Suddenly he heard rushing footsteps outside. He pivoted around with a fierce expression, ready to wallop whomever it was with his camera pack. And he almost did, too, until he realized his pursuer was none other than Nina.

  She skidded to a stop, not quite seeing Johnny in the dim light. The instant she did, she screeched and hopped backward. She glared at him. “Now you’re going to smack me with your camera bag. Some friend you are!”

  Having his own insult thrown back in his face stung Johnny considerably—and, he had to admit, deservedly. He turned even redder. “You shoulda stayed back with Mel, Sparks. Why’d you follow me?”

  She frowned furiously at him. “I really have no idea. Temporary insanity, perhaps?”

  He put up a single index finger. “Just a minute.”

  He quickly scanned the cave. It would be rotten luck if, while getting chewed out by Nina, he had a bunch of Steppe Warriors charge at him. But as far as he could see no one else was here. No Honoria. No Steppe Warriors. No ghost troopers. No Bao.

  “Jeez Louise, Nina,” Johnny sighed. “I know I open my trap before I think sometimes. But we’re still pals, aren’t we?”

  She put her hands on her hips—never a good sign—and scrunched up her mouth. “A friend does not talk to a friend like that.”

  “Sparks, I thought you were on my side.”

  “I am on your side. But sometimes friends need to tell friends things that friends don’t want to hear. Because they don’t want their friends to get exterminated.”

  “Oh.”

  “Every time the young news photographer puts his skinny neck on the line—which is frighteningly often—his friends and relatives all hold their breaths and suffer heart attacks.”

  “Oh.”

  “Believe it or not, Miss Nina Bain would much rather that John Joshua Graphic doesn’t end his very brief professional career as an archery target.”

  “Oh.”

  Johnny pushed up the brim of his straw fedora and tried to puzzle out what had just happened—but came to no immediate conclusions. Other than the fact that it was tough to win an argument with a girl.

  “Well, you’re here,” he said, “so you might as well pitch in. No one’s around, but let’s have a look before we go back to Mel.”

  They quickly found the tattered cot and one of Dame Honoria’s battered red valises. Johnny peeked inside it and discovered shampoo, mouthwash, aspirins, a toothbrush, and toothpaste. There were also a number of roomy female undergarments that he didn’t care to examine. He assigned that task to Nina.

  Sorting through the clothes, she found a small pigskin case at the bottom of the valise. She opened it and made a lengthy “ooooooh” sound. Johnny recognized the object, having seen it back in Zenith not too long ago, at the party Mel and Uncle Louie had thrown for Dame Honoria.

  “The Star of Gilbeyshire,” Nina cooed. “One hundred and ninety-six wonderful carats of perfect black diamond. Pear cut. Nearly unbreakable titanium setting and necklace. Dame Honoria can’t be far away because she would never leave it.” She put the jewel back in its case.

  “Why’s it called ‘star,’ then, when it’s shaped like a pear?” Johnny asked innocently.

  “Well, what kind of name is The Pear of Gilbeyshire?” Nina jammed the pigskin case into her deepest jacket pocket.

  They searched some more and found nothing but piles of moldering old junk. And no clues about what had happened earlier that day. They were getting ready to head back to Mel when Johnny heard a tiny voice saying, “Brother? Sister?” He pointed his flashlight in the direction the voice came from.

  There, slightly protruding from the cave wall to his left, was Bao—wide-eyed and looking frightened.

  Johnny shouted her name and ran over to her, with Nina right behind.

  He offered his hand to the little ghost. Bao reached out from the coral stone and took it. He gently pulled her out, then squatted down, facing her.

  “Are you all right?” asked Johnny.

  “Yes, Brother.”

  “Where are the men who came with you?”

  “Grandmother was not here. We went looking for her, to the places that I know about. We were attacked. I fell from the horse and ran away. I did not know what to do, so I came back here. I am sorry, Brother. I am so sorry.” And she began to sob and quake.

  Feeling a little embarrassed, Johnny set down his camera pack, put his arms around the diminutive ghost, and gave her a long, tight hug. “Umm, that’s okay, Bao. Really. You couldn’t help it. Don’t worry, we’ll figure out what to do.”

  Several moments later Johnny and Nina dashed out of the cave entrance, back toward their hiding place in the rocks. Bao flew along behind. Johnny almost overshot the gap in the coral stone where they had hidden.

  “No,” he groaned, when they darted into the space. “I don’t believe it.”

  Mel had vanished.

  Chapter 41

  On the chance that Mel had retreated back down the stony path, Johnny and Nina crept carefully in the same direction. It wou
ldn’t do to sprain an ankle now. But Mel was nowhere to be seen.

  “How long were we in that cave?” Johnny asked with exasperation.

  “Long enough for Mel to get captured, I guess,” Nina answered glumly, balancing delicately between two rocks.

  The thing that Johnny feared most had happened. It was all his fault. He had stupidly run off to check out Dame Honoria’s cave. And this was the result. If anything really bad happened to Mel, he would never forgive himself.

  With uncanny clairvoyance, Nina said, “It’s not your fault, Johnny. If we’d been here, they’d probably have caught us, too. And be logical. If they had killed Mel, her body would be here. There’s still a chance she’s alive, still a chance we can rescue her.”

  They paused to catch their breaths. Both took sips of water from Johnny’s canteen and nibbled on the graham crackers they had requisitioned from Dame Honoria’s larder. Floating up above, Bao kept watch.

  Johnny tipped back his straw fedora, mopped his sweaty brow with his damp, red handkerchief, and broke the silence. “Hey, Sparks,” he said quietly, “thanks for putting up with me.”

  “Aw, you’re not so bad,” Nina replied. “For a boy.”

  Johnny flashed her a grin. “Now listen. I have a plan. Tell me what you think of it. You too, Bao.”

  * * *

  While it might have made sense to wait until dark, and not gamble on being seen by Steppe Warriors, Johnny felt that speed was of the essence. Now they had two to rescue. It might already be too late, but he and Nina had to assume that Mel and Dame Honoria were both still alive and unharmed.

  First, they sent Bao out into the open, to check for ambushes and traps. The diminutive ghost returned a little while later, reporting that the way looked clear. Rather than darting along on the shell road, Johnny and Nina crept through the undergrowth. The going was definitely slow. But before long they arrived at a long tin shed, a few hundred yards from the main cluster of buildings. Bao called it “the hut where all the ghosts disappeared.”

  “Where they made the bomb,” Johnny told Nina.

  After Bao checked out the building, they tiptoed inside. The long room was almost empty, except for a few pieces of stainless steel tubing here and there, and a rusty folding chair. Empty metal brackets were screwed into the wooden floor.

  I still have a job to do, thought Johnny, taking off his backpack and pulling out his Zoom press camera. He figured that using a flashbulb would be dangerous—some passing Steppe Warrior might notice it going off. So he kneeled down and set the camera on the seat of the folding chair. That enabled him to make a long, slow exposure of the room with natural light.

  When he had finished, Bao sidled up to him. “They came in here,” she said, wearing a fierce scowl. “All the ghosts. They came into this place and never came out. I saw my friend Evvie come in and he never came out.”

  “Master Graphic!”

  Adrenaline suddenly surging, Johnny pivoted toward the voice.

  “Lieutenant Finn!” he gasped. Then a broad grin broke out on his face. “You scared me half to death. But am I happy to see you!”

  The ginger-bearded specter strode toward them. “Pleased to find you well, young sir, young lady. And you, too, missy.” He winked at Bao, who giggled. And though his gesture wouldn’t be seen by her, he nodded companionably at Nina.

  “Where are the boys, Lieutenant?” asked Johnny. “What in the devil happened?”

  The ghost shook his head dejectedly. “Nothing good, alas. We met in the cave, as planned, all seven of us, along with Miss Bao. But no one was there. No Dame Honoria, no guards. So we aimed to sneak over this way. Well, they came down on us like wolves onto sheep. Dozens of them. Those Steppe Warrior fellows. The little lady here, she fell off the saddle in the midst of the fight. Glad she’s all right. The rest of us scattered. Nothing else for it.

  “As for the missing men, Master Graphic, I’ve located only a couple of them. The other four, including the sergeant, their well-being I cannot vouchsafe. Not hacked to pieces, I can only hope.”

  The horse soldier glanced from Johnny to Nina to Bao, looking suddenly puzzled and concerned. “If you’ll pardon me, Master Johnny—where’s Commander Melanie?”

  * * *

  Johnny and his friends withdrew to a spot in the jungle that Lieutenant Finn had specified that morning as a “rally point”—a place to meet, in case the troopers got separated.

  One by one, the missing horse soldiers reappeared.

  Sergeant Clegg, a string bean of a man with a prominent nose and bobbing Adam’s apple, gave Johnny the most encouraging news. “I don’t know for sure,” he said, “but I have a notion where Commander Melanie and Dame Honoria might be.”

  Johnny’s face brightened and for the first time in hours he started to feel as if this might all turn out okay. “That’s fantastic! Where do you think they’re holding them?”

  “I suspect that they’ve been confined in the headquarters building of the old plantation, several hundred yards up that shell road. A few of the Steppe Warriors are lollygagging around outside by the front entrance, with a lot more inside. Thirty or forty of them. Makes sense to imprison the ladies in such a place.”

  “Assuming they’re there, how do we rescue Mel and Dame Honoria?” Johnny asked with urgency.

  “A diversion might do the trick,” suggested Finn, stepping up next to the sergeant. “I say Clegg and a couple of the boys stage a sneak attack on the fellows loitering outside the headquarters. Knock off a head or two. I’d bet my last paycheck that the other guards pile out of that place like angry fire ants, hot to chase after Clegg and his lads. With any luck, that’ll even our odds in the event of a fight inside the building. Those of us who remain with you and the young ladies, well, we force our way in there and release our people.”

  “First, though,” said Johnny, “I think we send in Miss Bao to get the lay of the land and make sure that Mel and Dame Honoria haven’t been moved somewhere else. Nobody would ever suspect her of being a spy.”

  Chapter 42

  Bao poked her head up over the teak floorboards—just barely. Only her eyes, ears, and headdress showed. She surveyed the room.

  Except for some crumbling furniture, nothing was here. Brother Johnny and the ghost with the startling red beard had asked her to find where Grandmother and Sister Melanie were being kept. She had already slipped in and out of five different rooms. In one of them several Steppe Warriors were playing some kind of game with dried bones. The other chambers had been empty.

  She was about to sink silently through the floorboards of the sixth room, when the door creaked open and two living people stepped in. Bao recognized them instantly. She had seen them back on the much smaller island, where they had made the first bomb. And she had seen them here. She ducked beneath the floorboards, scooted back to a wall, then floated up again. From that vantage point she peeked out through the rotting plaster.

  The woman had golden hair that was crammed helter-skelter under some kind of leather helmet with earflaps. She was pretty, Bao supposed, but did not look kind. In fact, that hard, cruel face promised nothing good.

  The other person was the khan—dark, hulking, brooding. Bao didn’t often judge people just by appearances, but this man was not anyone she cared to ever see again. He looked even crueler than the woman, if that was possible.

  Bao eavesdropped very carefully, in the event that Johnny and the ghost soldier with the red beard might want to know what this menacing pair had to say.

  “Time for us to withdraw, Pamela,” pronounced the khan in a hoarse, gritty voice. “We’ve accomplished everything here that we set out to. The second gizmo is ready. Burilgi and Checheg know how to set it off. Mummy shall be well looked after and find her way home. Temur and his Steppe Warriors will have their fun with those vile little creatures, Mel and Johnny Graphic. Assuming we get hold of the boy, as well.”

  “Percy,” the woman said with a tone of impatience, “why don’t you just sho
ot Miss Graphic, so long as you have her in hand?”

  The khan looked slightly hurt by the query. “Pamela, you know how I abhor the sight of blood. Temur will handle it when we’re safely away.”

  The woman sighed, obviously disappointed. “Well then, I think I should prepare the floatplane. We oughtn’t to dally.”

  The grim, hulking man nodded. “I have a few things here to finish up, my dear. Documents to destroy and whatnot. I shall join you as soon as I can. Fire up the engines the moment you see me paddling out.”

  “You really ought to come with me, Percy. Miss Graphic’s Border War troopers could come back to bite us.”

  The khan took the woman’s hand and looked as if he were trying to smile. But it seemed that his face didn’t know how. “Most considerate, Pamela. But these files cannot fall into the wrong hands. I’ll be just fine. You get the floatplane in order, and off we’ll go to the mainland. We’ll be back home before you can say ‘Bob’s your uncle.’ And we can rest easy, knowing that our friends Burilgi and Checheg have safely departed and are even now arranging the next little blow-up.”

  As soon as the pair left, Bao sank once again through the teak flooring.

  In the next room she went to, her headdress went up through the floor and bumped into something soft but solid. She heard a girl’s muffled voice mutter, “What the—?”

  Bao moved sideways and emerged partway through the teak. She looked up into Melanie’s startled face. Johnny’s sister was sitting cross-legged and looked as though she had been through a terrible ordeal.

  With a tone of urgency Bao whispered, “Quiet, Sister! Listen to me. Johnny sent me to find you. Your soldiers will be coming very soon.”

  Grandmother was lying on the floor a few feet away, snoring loudly. There were three other people there, as well, all of them wearing dirty white coats. Bao had seen them before, going in and out of the building where they made the bomb. Now they looked tired, hungry, scared—and curious about whom Mel was talking to.

  “When are they coming?” asked Mel.

  “Very soon, Sister. Best that you keep still for now. You do not want to alert the Steppe Warriors to our plan.”