2-Power: the Korski Code

by Pete Johnson

  ‘I don’t think Professor Forbes would do that,’ said Ella. ‘And I don’t believe he sent someone to search my room either.’ She picked up her school bag, looked casually inside it, and groaned. ‘Oh, there are the professor’s glasses,’ she cried, waving the case in the air. Then she smiled at Sam and murmured, ‘The same aftershave – oh, honestly.’

  Sam didn’t reply, just looked as if he’d swallowed something very bitter. Then he snatched the case and put the glasses on. ‘Oh, give them back,’ cried Ella. But Sam began prancing about in them. Only they were so big they kept falling off his face.

  ‘They’re huge,’ cried Sam, ‘and I can’t see a thing through them.’

  ‘That’s because you don’t need glasses,’ said Ella, grabbing them from him. ‘And I’ll take these before you break them.’ She put them back in the case. ‘I’m going to pop them back to the professor now – and find out how much our coin –’

  ‘I really don’t think you should go back in there,’ interrupted Sam.

  ‘Now you’re being silly,’ said Ella.

  ‘Yes, of course I am,’ sneered Sam. ‘And what do I know compared to you?’

  Ella flushed angrily. ‘I just can’t talk to you today.’

  Without another word she stalked off.

  ‘That’s the last time I help her,’ muttered Sam. ‘She thinks I’m a real turnipbrain anyway.’

  But before he reached the Jolly Roger, Sam stopped. A thought had come to him like a thunderclap. Those massive glasses he’d put on, which kept sliding down his face… well, Professor Forbes wasn’t much bigger than him. So those glasses wouldn’t have fitted on his face either!

  A shiver ran right through Sam. Those glasses couldn’t belong to Professor Forbes at all. But why was he pretending they did? And why did he want them so desperately?

  Maybe that was what the burglar had been searching for in Ella’s room!

  He wondered if he should call Ella and tell her this. He hesitated. And then he heard a deafening shout. It was Uncle Mike yelling at him through the window. ‘Stop idling about – and get in here now!’

  When he told them Ella had stayed behind at school and would be a bit late, Aunt Joy collapsed in a chair and moaned. ‘She thinks she can leave all the work to me. Have you ever known a more ungrateful girl?’

  Sam was immediately set to work cleaning the kitchen floor (usually Ella’s job). Then he heard the familiar humming noise down his ear. This would be Ella telling him she was on her way back to the Jolly Roger. He waited for her to speak.

  But she didn’t say a word. And then she was gone.

  A few seconds later she called again.

  ‘Ella,’ he said at once.

  This time she did speak.

  She said just one word: ‘HELP!’

  11

  Ella in Danger

  Only a few minutes earlier Ella had walked confidently up to Professor Forbes’s door. It was opened by a stern-faced Mrs Saunders.

  ‘I’m back,’ said Ella a little breathlessly. ‘You see, I found Professor Forbes’s glasses in my bag…’

  And then Professor Forbes came forward in small, shuffling steps.

  ‘Ah, splendid, I told Mrs Saunders our young friend would not let me down…’

  He was interrupted by a very loud banging noise from upstairs. Ella looked up sharply. She could hear someone shouting as well. It sounded like, ‘Let me out!’

  She saw Professor Forbes and Mrs Saunders exchange tense looks but then he said easily, ‘I’m afraid a colleague of mine is not at all well – been overworking. He is resting upstairs but he has these terrible dreams. Mrs Saunders, will you see if you can help the poor chap?’ Mrs Saunders raced up the stairs while Ella followed the professor into his sitting room.

  ‘Now do make yourself comfortable, my dear,’ he said. ‘And I do hope my colleague’s bad dreams didn’t alarm you unduly.’

  ‘Oh no,’ said Ella, but suspicion was growing in her mind now. The professor insisted that Ella have another orange juice and went on being as friendly as possible. But then Mrs Saunders started hoovering right outside the door again. Was that to cover up the noise upstairs? But surely the professor couldn’t be involved in anything bad? Or could he?

  The professor’s whole face lit up when Ella handed him his glasses.

  ‘How I’ve missed them,’ he cried. Then, to Ella’s surprise, he called Mrs Saunders. She stopped hoovering and practically ran inside. He gave Mrs Saunders the glasses. ‘Will you take them to the shed for me?’ He waved airily to a shed which Ella could just make out at the end of the garden. He explained, ‘That’s where I do most of my research… and the glasses are especially useful for close work.’

  Then he started talking to Ella about her Roman coin. He said he had wonderful news for her. But when she asked him who the emperor was on her coin, he didn’t seem to know. He talked on and on without answering a single one of her questions. Ella was getting more and more suspicious. She took another sip of her drink. And suddenly she wanted to yawn, but that would be terribly rude.

  Instead, she announced, ‘I think I’ll be going now.’

  She staggered to her feet. Her legs felt heavy, as if they were made of stone. She was dizzy as well. She clutched the arm of the chair she’d been sitting on. ‘I’m sorry,’ she began. Then she noticed two other people had come into the room: Mrs Saunders and another man. Could he be the burglar Sam had seen? She peered blearily across at him.

  Then everything began to whirl round and round…

  The next thing she knew, Mrs Saunders was picking her up. She struggled to get out of her grip. ‘Professor,’ she mumbled, ‘what’s happening?’

  But he didn’t answer her, just said to Mrs Saunders, ‘She’ll be out for at least two hours – plenty of time for us to get away.’ And his voice sounded so different – tougher and much younger. Then she almost lost consciousness, but was dimly aware of being carried upstairs and flung on to a bed.

  ‘She’s out all right,’ said Mrs Saunders to someone Ella couldn’t see. In fact, Ella was still drifting in and out of sleep. And she knew she had to call Sam. But it took every ounce of her concentration. And the first time she heard Sam say, ‘Hello,’ her head felt so incredibly heavy she couldn’t even think.

  She tried her hardest to concentrate. This time one word came out with great difficulty: ‘Help!’

  ‘Ella, what’s happened?’ cried Sam.

  ‘Been drugged… shouldn’t have come back… you were right… better tell Aunt Joy.’

  ‘No way,’ cried Sam. ‘I’m coming to get you.’

  ‘You can’t,’ gasped Ella.

  ‘I bet I can when I’m super strong,’ replied Sam. ‘But for that to happen I need you to stay awake. The second you fall asleep, all our special powers will vanish.’

  ‘I’ll stay awake,’ said Ella shakily. ‘But when you get there… here –’ she was getting confused now, ‘– I mean, what will you do?’

  ‘Don’t know exactly,’ he said. ‘But don’t worry, I’ll have you out of there very soon – if not sooner.’

  Sam sounded really confident but that was a bit of an act for Ella’s benefit. Actually, he felt scared and nervous. What could he do?

  But then he thought of his sister lying drugged inside that house. And he felt a hot surge of anger. He had to get her out and there wasn’t a moment to lose.

  Sam squared his shoulders and rapped on Professor Forbes’s door.

  ‘I’m going in now, Ella,’ he said.

  There was no answering voice in his head.

  ‘Ella,’ he cried. ‘Ella!’

  But there was still no reply.

  12

  Who Is in the Loft?

  Ella must have fallen asleep, he thought. That was terrible. He had no super powers at all now.

  ‘Ella!’ he cried. ‘Wake up, please.’

  Still no answer.

  Then Professor Forbes’s door was pulled open. Sam had been expectin
g Mrs Saunders. Instead, this mountain of a man peered down at him. And he absolutely stank of aftershave.

  ‘Hello,’ said Sam, his voice sounding very squeaky. ‘I’ve come to get my sister, Ella.’

  ‘She’s not here,’ snapped the man.

  ‘I think she is,’ cried Sam, his voice sounding even squeakier.

  ‘She was here about half an hour ago,’ admitted the man, ‘but she left. You’ll find her at home waiting for you.’

  Sam knew this was a total lie. In his head he was frantically calling his sister’s name. Suddenly his nose started to tickle.

  Never had a tickling nose filled Sam with such delight.

  Then the buzzing sound filled his head, and Ella’s voice, anxious and fearful, came through again. ‘Sam, I must have fallen asleep for a few seconds… very, very sorry. Where are you?’

  ‘At the door.’

  ‘Oh, be careful,’ she cried.

  Meanwhile, the man was saying he was very busy and was trying to close the door in Sam’s face. But Sam could now feel all this new strength surging through his body. He stopped the door closing and jumped inside.

  ‘What are you doing?’ demanded the man. ‘Get out!’

  ‘Not without my sister.’

  The man lunged at Sam as if to push him out. But then Sam sent his fist flying towards the man. It reached the guy’s stomach, where it landed with a crisp, smacking noise.

  He gazed at Sam for a moment in total surprise. Then his knees buckled and he fell back.

  ‘You should have seen the punch we just gave him,’ cried Sam to Ella. ‘And now he’s passed out – with shock, I think.’

  ‘Well done,’ cried Ella.

  ‘Oh, no one messes with us,’ said Sam. ‘The house seems to be empty right now,’ he went on.

  ‘Yes, I think the professor and Mrs Saunders are both in the shed,’ said Ella.

  ‘Excellent. So here I come.’

  He bounded up the stairs, and then stopped. ‘Ella, I can hear noises coming from the loft.’

  And with her new super-hearing powers, Ella could as well. ‘I think someone might be trapped up there… Be careful, though.’

  Sam couldn’t see a ladder leading up to the loft. So, with one bound, he leapt on to the banisters. Then he pushed open the trapdoor and went flying into the loft.

  It was dark and gloomy (like all the other rooms in this house) but in one corner was an elderly man tied to a chair. Sam sped over and hastily untied him.

  The old man gazed up at Sam. ‘I’m extremely grateful to you,’ he said. ‘Even if I have no idea where you’ve come from or who you are.’

  ‘I’m Sam and I’ll explain the rest later. But we haven’t a moment to lose.’

  ‘I understand,’ said the man. ‘My name, by the way, is Professor Forbes.’

  Sam let out a gasp of astonishment. ‘So that man downstairs –’

  ‘– is a total impostor,’ said Professor Forbes firmly. ‘Now, please tell me how to get out of here.’

  ‘Just follow me,’ replied Sam, chuffed at the way Professor Forbes saw him as the leader.

  He found the loft ladder and let Professor Forbes go down it first. He was telling Ella what had just happened, when Professor Forbes let out a loud groan.

  Sam stared down. What he saw filled him with horror.

  Three figures had now appeared on the landing: the man he’d sent flying a couple of minutes ago, Mrs Saunders and the fake Professor Forbes – who was brandishing a gun.

  13

  Escape

  ‘Down you come, young man, but very slowly,’ ordered the fake Professor Forbes.

  Sam obeyed.

  ‘Do not move, either of you,’ continued the fake Professor Forbes. He looked much younger now, and had abandoned the tinted glasses. He turned to Sam. ‘You are surprisingly strong for your age.’ There was a grudging note of approval in his voice.

  ‘He took me by surprise, that’s all,’ muttered the man, highly embarrassed at having been knocked out by someone a third of his size, and he lumbered up into the loft.

  ‘I’m afraid I must ask you both to follow him,’ said the fake professor. ‘Then you’ll both have to be tied up. But soon we will have gone and I’m sure you will be rescued… eventually. Now I insist you follow my instructions immediately.’ He waved his gun threateningly.

  That gun changes everything, thought Sam. He didn’t dare risk shots being fired. ‘It looks as if we’re beaten after all,’ he said gloomily to Ella.

  Ella opened her eyes and then hauled herself to the door. The fake professor and Mrs Saunders had their backs to her, as they watched the real professor clamber up the steps. They weren’t bothered about her, as they assumed she would be asleep for ages yet. And without her super powers Ella would have been.

  So here it was. Her chance to escape.

  ‘Sam,’ she said, ‘I’m going to make a run for it.’

  ‘Too dangerous,’ he replied at once.

  ‘No, I think I can do this, if you just keep them talking a bit longer – and stay online, of course.’

  Then she heard the fake professor say to Sam – and how sharp and cold his voice now sounded – ‘Right, boy, your turn to climb back into the loft.’

  ‘Just before I go,’ cried Sam to the fake professor, ‘why aren’t you wearing your glasses?’

  Ella had slowly edged towards the stairs now. She felt quite wobbly with tiredness – and nerves. And suddenly her feet seemed stuck to the floor. She began to tremble. ‘No, come on, you can do this,’ she said softly to herself. And then she was off, tiptoeing down the stairs just as the fake professor was saying, ‘You’ve no idea, boy, just how important those glasses are. In fact, I’d say they are the most valuable glasses in the world. And please don’t think we’re not grateful to you and your sister for finding them for us. Of course we are.’ He laughed loudly, mockingly. Mrs Saunders and the man Sam had knocked out joined in.

  And then Ella couldn’t hear any more, as she was out of the door!

  Sam cheered when she told him. ‘Now I just need to find the police station,’ she said.

  Sam was sending her directions but she still got muddled. And in the end she asked a teenage boy. He pointed her in the right direction, and then let out a whistle of astonishment as Ella shot off. ‘Faster,’ as the boy said afterwards, ‘than any Olympic runner.’

  Ella fell into the police station, where she started talking so agitatedly the sergeant at the desk told her to take some deep breaths and start again.

  This time she told her story to a policewoman in a small room. Something Ella said must have impressed her, because she rushed off. A few moments later she returned to tell Ella the police were on their way to Professor Forbes’s house.

  Ella looked up at her, smiled, and promptly fell fast asleep.

  14

  The Most Valuable Glasses in the World

  Four days later, Ella, Sam and Professor Forbes were having their picture taken outside the Jolly Roger.

  ‘That’s perfect,’ began the photographer. But then Uncle Mike blundered right in front of them.

  ‘Could I ask everyone to move back slightly, so we can get the Jolly Roger sign into the picture as well? Thank you all so much.’

  After the picture was taken, Uncle Mike gave a revolting smile, showing off all his brown teeth. He turned to the reporter and said, ‘You might add that we offer a warm welcome here every single day and have special weekend rates.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ murmured the reporter. She was quite new at doing this but she knew a pompous windbag when she saw one.

  She went over to the professor. ‘You’ve been through an awful experience,’ she said.

  ‘I certainly have,’ he said. ‘Imprisoned in my own house for nearly a week, while criminals stole my good name.’

  ‘And would you just explain to our readers exactly why they did that?’ asked the reporter.

  ‘No, I won’t, actually,’ he replied. ‘I shall leave tha
t to my new young friends.’ He beamed at Ella and Sam. He’d visited them every day since they’d rescued him. And now they both felt very at ease with him. ‘So who would like to start?’

  ‘You can,’ hissed Sam to Ella.

  So she gave a nervous little cough and then began.

  ‘Earlier this year the biggest jewel robbery for ages took place. It was committed by just one man – an international jewel thief called Anton Korski. He’s clever and cunning, but he needed a gang to help him get the jewels out of the country. And he didn’t dare write down the secret information that revealed where the jewels were hidden. Instead, he had some glasses made up with a very special prescription.’

  Ella turned to Sam. ‘You tell the next bit.’

  ‘Once his glasses were found,’ said Sam eagerly, ‘you just had to work out the prescription – and by the way, Mrs Saunders had once been an optician – because hidden in that prescription was a secret code –’

  ‘Giving the exact map reference where the jewels could be found!’ exclaimed the reporter.

  ‘That’s right,’ said Sam. ‘He was going to hand over the glasses to the gang on the cliffs. But then he saw the police closing in on him so he buried the glasses – just before he was captured. Ella and I saw him being captured, by the way,’ Sam added, with a little swagger. Then he continued with his explanation. ‘So the gang knew he’d buried the glasses out on the cliffs, but hadn’t a clue where. The gang were also being watched by the police so, if they started a big search there, they would arouse suspicions right away. They needed a cover story. You tell the last bit, Ella.’

  ‘So then,’ said Ella excitedly, ‘they heard about the rare Roman coin found on the cliffs and how this local archaeologist – who hardly anyone ever saw – had begun searching for more coins. Well, that gave them the perfect cover. One of the gang members even looked a little like the professor.’

  ‘A very little,’ said Professor Forbes with a shudder.

  ‘He pretended to be the professor, although he was careful not to be seen too closely – that’s why the house was always so dark. Meanwhile, the gang let on they were working for the professor, searching for rare coins, when of course they were looking for something quite different – which we discovered.’