by Adam Frost
“Skunk?” said Sybil, and then her eyes lit up. “Skunk!”
“Hand me your notepad,” said Wily. “This is your criminal.”
Wily took Sybil’s notepad and drew a sketch. Then he showed it to Sybil. It was Paulo Polecat.
“But that’s not a skunk,” said Sybil.
Wily used the rubber to make a thin white line on Paulo’s back.
“Now it is,” said Wily.
“OK, but what has all this got to do with perfume?” asked Sybil.
Wily briefly explained what had happened at the Smellissimo launch.
“Paulo was Adolfo’s head of security,” said Wily. “He’s the only one who could have switched the bottles. He used his own nasty skunk scent to make a horrible concoction. Then he mixed in other stinky smells to cover it up.”
“OK, but how did he steal the Utopia recipe?” Sybil replied.
“Easy,” said Wily, “he must have been told the combination of the safe. In his haste he got it wrong, which is why he left teeth marks on the edge of the safe – he was frustrated. But once he’d got the recipe, getting away was easy.”
“Why?”
“Because he was the only animal in the whole building who wasn’t searched. I can’t believe he fooled me. He painted his white stripe out with black face paint! I should have suspected something when he resigned the day after the recipe went missing.”
The van hit a bump and Sybil said, “We’ll be at the police station in a few minutes. What do you want to do?”
“What do you think?” said Wily. “You’ve got to get me out of here.”
“You know I can’t do that,” said Sybil. “Besides, you’ve told me how this Paulo Skunk guy is involved in your case. But how’s he involved with mine?”
“I don’t know yet,” said Wily, “but that phone you found is covered with his scent. He was in that bank.”
Sybil didn’t say anything. She was thinking.
“This is serious, Sybil,” said Wily. “I’m certain he stole those hai lee niffi flowers. And it must have been him that broke into Rou Red Panda’s lab this morning. To steal all the equipment he needs to make Utopia. But why does he need to make it here? What’s he got planned? We’ve got to find him.”
Sybil thought for a few more seconds. Then she undid Wily’s handcuffs and opened the back of the van.
“I’m doing this on one condition,” she said. “That you take me with you.”
“Deal,” said Wily with a smile.
And out they jumped.
Sybil and Wily tumbled out of the police van and came to rest by a lamp post. They stood up and brushed themselves down. At that moment, a manhole cover by their feet lifted up and a mole’s head popped out.
“Albert!” said Wily. “How did you know where I was?”
“There’s a tracker in your phone,” said Albert. “I’ve been listening to police radio. Apparently you’ve been arrested. Again.”
“That’s her fault,” said Wily, grinning at Sybil.
They jumped down through the manhole and landed in a wide sewage pipe. Albert had set up base at the end of a narrow tunnel. It contained a laptop, a workbench and a range of small gadgets covered in buttons and blinking lights. There were two upside-down milk crates on the floor.
Wily sat down on one of them and quickly explained his new theory to Albert.
“We need to go through the evidence again,” he said. “Work out where Paulo might be and why.”
“Where shall we start?” asked Sybil.
“Maybe with the perfume. If they’ve started making it, you’d expect to see police reports of people collapsing or falling into a trance. And then check the air-quality office. They might see traces of unexpected gases and smells.”
Albert started typing away at the computer. He held one headphone up to his ear.
“Nothing on any of the police frequencies – except about you two escaping,” he said.
At that moment, there was a strange bang in a distant tunnel.
“Ignore that,” said Albert. “It’s just maintenance work. Been happening since I got here.”
Then he typed something else into the computer.
“Checking the Beijing air-quality statistics. Nothing unusual so far,” he reported.
“Let’s think about my case, then,” said Sybil, “and how the perfume might be linked to the bank robberies.”
“Good idea,” said Wily. “Albert, can you hack into every bank security camera in Beijing? Check for anything odd.”
“Piece of cake,” said Albert. He brought up one grainy security picture after another, clicking through them at lightning speed.
“Nothing … no … nope … not a thing … no.”
“OK, so they’ve not stolen anything yet,” said Wily. “Sybil, can you tell us anything about their methods?”
There was another bang in the distance.
“Sure,” said Sybil. “But this is the weird bit – they’ve broken into about five banks, and so far they haven’t stolen much.”
“What?” said Wily and Albert together.
“Yeah, it’s strange,” said Sybil. “They’re great at shutting down the alarms and getting into the safe. But then they take maybe one bag of cash or nothing at all. They leave a really strong scent, though. That’s why we’ve been able to track them.”
Another bang sounded in a distant tunnel – even louder this time.
“They sound like terrible bank robbers,” said Albert.
But Wily was listening to the echo of the explosion.
“What is this maintenance work?” he asked.
“Something over at the Forbidden City,” said Albert. “That’s where it’s coming from.”
Wily looked thoughtful. “Forbidden City … Forbidden City…” he murmured.
“Yes,” said Albert, “it’s the most famous place in Beijing. A huge walled palace where the Emperors used to live and—”
“I know what the Forbidden City is,” said Wily. “Sybil, can you let me see that message again? The one from the bad guys. Albert, check to see if there’s any planned maintenance work going on in the sewers of Beijing today.”
Sybil handed Wily the slip of paper.
Wily looked at the words FORBIDDEN and CITY and then started muttering again.
“What is it, Wily?” asked Sybil.
“It’s code all right,” said Wily, “but it’s got nothing to do with the first initials. Paulo must have done that to try and set me up. Read every third word.”
Sybil read:
At the same time, Albert said, “There’s nothing planned. It can’t be maintenance work, after all.”
“Someone’s blowing things up underneath the Forbidden City,” said Wily. “And I bet it’s Paulo. What’s the quickest way there, Albert?”
“Well, it would be on my old rocket-powered Vespa, but you broke that,” said Albert.
“OK, the second quickest, then.”
“The self-driving rickshaw, but—”
“I know, I broke that, too. What’s the third?”
“Running,” said Albert. “Really fast.”
“Humph,” said Wily. “OK, which way?”
Sybil and Wily followed Albert as he trotted through the sewers, turning down side tunnels, scurrying into dark hatches.
After a few minutes, Wily’s nostrils were hit by a wave of strong perfume. He blinked and for a second his eyes went misty.
“We’re on the right track,” said Wily, “I just got a whiff of Utopia. Be careful – if the scent gets too strong, we’ll have to turn back.”
But the smell soon passed away.
There was another explosion and the walls of the sewer pipe shook.
“What do you think they’re doing?” asked Sybil.
“They must be breaking into the palace,” said Wily. “Maybe they got fed up with banks. But I can’t work out how it links to Utopia.”
“Can’t anyone else hear the noise they’re making? Isn’t there
any security at the Forbidden City?” asked Sybil.
They turned a corner of the sewer and saw a row of guards slumped against the tunnel wall. They were all staring into space, with smiles on their faces. There was a faint smell of Utopia in the air.
Albert leaned over and peered into their eyes.
“They’re still alive but…”
“In a trance,” said Wily. “And I guess we’ve got our answer – that’s what Utopia is for. Knocking out anyone who gets in their way.”
They walked on and found themselves in a large underground cavern. Above, there was a hole and light was streaming in.
“This must be the sewer underneath the Forbidden City,” whispered Albert.
“And that must be the hole they made with all those explosions,” Sybil whispered back.
At that moment, something was lowered through the hole. Wily, Sybil and Albert hid behind the nearest object they could find – a workbench covered with test tubes and bottles of liquid. It tinkled slightly as they scrambled behind it, but then everything was silent.
Wily and Sybil peered out.
A guard was being lowered through the hole in the roof. He had a rope tied firmly round his waist and he was smiling. His body hit the bottom of the cavern and then he slumped to one side.
A skunk shimmied down the rope after the guard. He whistled, and a second skunk slid down.
“Boss! Boss!” the first skunk called out.
At the far end of the cavern, a shape emerged from the shadows. Wily recognized his outline immediately. It was Paulo Polecat.
“OK, that was the last guard, boss,” the skunk said.
“You’re sure?” asked Paulo.
“Yeah, the Forbidden City closed to the public half an hour ago. They put on five evening guards. Four are in the tunnel back there. This is the last one.”
“Good,” said Paulo. “Now grab the swag bags and the tools. Let’s get back up there and start looting.”
Albert looked at Wily.
Wily held up his hand and mouthed, “Stay right here.”
A split second later, Sybil’s police radio came to life with a loud crackle:
It was Julius’s barking voice.
Wily put his head in his hands.
Sybil tried to find her radio, desperate to switch it off, but instead she bumped into the workbench. A test tube rolled on to the ground, shattering into hundreds of pieces.
Julius’s voice was still crackling:
But now Paulo and the other two skunks were standing over them.
“Hello, Wily Fox,” growled Paulo. “Been playing with Rou’s chemistry set?”
His voice was rougher and meaner now.
“Hello, Paulo,” said Wily, standing up slowly.
“Nah,” said Paulo, “it’s Duncan Skunk. Paulo’s just a name I made up.”
The two other skunks started to snigger.
“Are you a clown in a circus or something?” asked the first skunk.
Wily glanced down at his fire-eater’s outfit. “You’re the only clown round here, pal,” he replied.
The skunk snarled and lurched forward, but Paulo – or Duncan – held him back.
“Easy,” said Duncan. “Wily Fox, please meet my brother Sam and my cousin Simon.”
“Otherwise known as the Black Paw Gang,” said Wily.
Duncan Skunk’s eyes narrowed. “Not bad, Fox. What else do you know?”
“That you’ve been trying to get your dirty paws on Utopia for months,” said Wily. “First, you disguised yourself as a mysterious stranger and tried to persuade Princess Parmigiano to give you her bottle. Then, she insisted on getting married.”
“Actually, she wanted a two-year engagement,” Duncan said. “I couldn’t wait that long.”
“So you targeted Adolfo instead,” Wily continued. “You knew Adolfo’s father had made the perfume and that the recipe was locked in a high-security safe in the Aroma mansion. So you disguised yourself as a polecat, painting out your white stripe with black face paint, and pretended to be a security expert.
“On the launch night of Smellissimo, you switched the bottles and when everyone was passing out, you stole the recipe. You hung around afterwards to avoid suspicion, but as soon as I’d left, you resigned, pretending to be ashamed of yourself.”
“Which you should be,” huffed Sybil, shaking her tiny fist at Duncan.
“You knew I was going to Venice,” Wily continued. “You were the only person I told except Albert and Adolfo – so you followed me there.”
“Uh-uh,” said Duncan, waving his finger. “I was still at Adolfo’s, remember. Couldn’t be in two places at once.”
“That was me behind the hyena mask,” said Simon. “Duncan warned me you were coming.”
“I guess you tried to hack my phone, too,” said Wily.
Duncan nodded. “It worked for a couple of minutes. Until your pint-sized pal cottoned on.” He nodded at Albert. “Then I had to be friendly to you to get the information I needed. Fortunately you fell for my nice-guy act.”
“What about Bianca Badger? Did she fall for it, too?” asked Wily.
“So you worked that out, eh?” Paulo said.
“Sort of,” said Wily. “I know she was at the Leaning Tower.”
“Yeah,” growled Simon, “trying to blackmail us.”
“She’d discovered something fishy was going on under the Leaning Tower,” said Duncan, “but she didn’t know what. We told her. Then we knocked her out with our stinky spray, tied her up and put her on a slow boat to Rio de Janeiro. She should be there by now.”
“Well, it threw me off the scent,” said Wily. “For a day or two. But I picked it up again. And I’ve caught you now.”
“I don’t think so, Fox,” said Duncan, and he held up a bottle of purple liquid. “Welcome to Utopia.”
“You’re going to have a nice sleep,” said Sam.
“Then we’re going to nick every jewel in the Forbidden City,” said Simon.
“And nobody will ever know we were there,” said Duncan.
“Ah, I see. NOW I get it,” said Wily.
“What do you get?” Duncan sneered.
“I thought you needed Utopia to knock everyone out,” said Wily, “but you can do that already with your stinky scent – just like you did to Bianca. You need Utopia to cover your tracks.”
“Not bad, Fox,” hissed Duncan. “Do go on.”
“You’re awful. You’re rubbish,” said Wily. “You’re the worst bank robbers in history. Sybil told me how you never managed to steal anything. Now I understand. When a skunk sprays, you can smell it miles away. Only the most beautiful smell in the world could hide a skunk’s stupefying scent.”
“I still don’t get it,” said Albert.
“Whiskers has cracked it,” said Duncan with a grin. “Shame you’ll be drooling like an idiot for the next two weeks. Yeah, we ain’t had much luck with the bank robbery lark. What happens is, we break in – fine. We crack the safe – fine. Then one of us gets nervous.”
“Usually you,” said Sam to Simon.
“Usually you,” said Simon to Sam.
“And we’ll spray,” said Duncan. “Everywhere. Then we have to split. There’s no point in stealing anything and hoping to get away with it. Best chance we’ve got is to hop it. That way, it won’t look serious and they won’t put their best animals on it.”
“Charming,” said Sybil.
“Of course, now we’ve got Utopia,” Duncan went on, “we can spray when we like, where we like. Utopia masks everything. We could be ten times as stinky and you’d still never pick up our whiff. Nose pegs on, boys,” he said.
Duncan put a long black clothes peg on his nose. Sam and Simon did the same. Then Duncan opened the bottle of Utopia.
“You might have noticed,” he said. “Utopia has this side benefit, too. As well as masking any smell we make, it also knocks everyone out – for much longer than our spray ever could.”
Wily could sense the
beautiful smell tingling his nostrils.
“Sweet dreams,” said Duncan.
Albert hit the floor with a bump. He was grinning like a maniac and murmuring, “Time … to … hi-ber-nate…”
Sybil was fighting it, but her eyes had rolled back in her head.
Wily could feel images crowding into his head – a warm den, a crackling fire, hot chocolate with marshmallows…
“Come on, lads, they’ve nearly gone,” said Duncan. “Let’s finish the job.”
Wily put his hands in his pockets and pinched his legs, trying to stay awake. And in his right-hand pocket, he felt something. Something important.
He realized that it wasn’t over yet.
He had a plan.
As Wily was rummaging through his pockets, he had found the pair of earplugs he’d been given on the aeroplane. The moment the skunks turned their backs, he whipped them out and stuck them up his nose – one in each nostril. Immediately his mind cleared and he snapped back to reality. He could hear the skunks hauling themselves up the rope into the Forbidden City, but he kept staring straight ahead, pretending to be in a trance.
As soon as they were out of the room, Wily leaped to his feet.
He shook Albert – there was no response.
He shook Sybil – she just stared into space and dribbled.
He grabbed Sybil’s police radio.
“Julius! Julius!”
“Wily?”
“Call an ambulance. And get to the sewer beneath the Forbidden City.”
“The sewer? What are you up to?”
“Just do it. And send your officers to the Forbidden City itself. It’s an emergency.”
“But – the Forbidden City – it’ll take us half an hour to get there.”