Amanda Lester and the Orange Crystal Crisis

by Paula Berinstein

  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 into 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.”

  “Wink is dead?” he said.

  “You know perfectly well he was murdered,” said Amanda.

  “Really?” said Blixus. He seemed genuinely surprised. “Well, well. It wasn’t me, but whoever it was I’d like to thank him.”

  Amanda felt confused. Was it possible Blixus hadn’t killed Wink Wiffle after all?

  She turned to Nick. “You didn’t—” He shook his head. For some reason she believed him. He hadn’t killed David’s father either.

  They stared at each other for so long that it felt like time had stopped. Finally she spoke. “Why?”

  “Don’t be naïve,” he said. “You know why.”

  He turned and all three Moriartys got into the vehicle. Then they sped off, raising a plume of dust so irritating that everyone who was left sneezed ten times in a row.

  As the van raced toward the road, Editta dashed out in front of it and screamed, “Nick! Take me with you!” The van screeched to a halt. The back door opened and she threw herself in. Then, to everyone’s horror, the door closed and the van sped away.

  They were all so shocked and exhausted that no one said a word. Holmes kept looking at Amanda, who was staring at the spot where the van had stopped. Ivy and Amphora were holding each other with Nigel in between. David limped off into the boulders. Simon supported Clive and walked him back to the tram. Despina and Hill tended to their injuries while Eustace sat on a rock feeling his scalp. Puppybreath and Niven were nowhere to be seen. It was so dark that if they were more than a hundred feet away, no one would have been able to see them.

  Suddenly Holmes said, “The virus!” and ran fo
r his computer. It was so dusty that he had to wipe off the screen, and for a moment it seemed that the keys wouldn’t work. Then he yelled, “Got it!” It took a couple of seconds for his words to register.

  “You hacked it?” said Simon at last.

  “Yes,” said Holmes. “I got into the whole network. Unless he’s got the formula somewhere off the grid, it’s gone.”

  Amanda burst into tears. Holmes looked at her with pain in his eyes, closed the computer, and walked away.

  34

  Debriefing

  The kids retrieved the remaining crystals from the tram. They glowed a lovely orange in the darkness, but Blixus had stuffed them so full of light that Ivy could hear their pain and covered her ears. Amanda, Simon, Clive, and Amphora each took one at a time onto their laps and caressed them gently until they had turned a healthy apricot once more and their sounds of distress abated. As the excess light drained off, the sky grew just a little bit brighter. Ivy exhaled with relief and Nigel stopped trying to hide his head. The kids wrapped the crystals in Simon’s jacket and placed them on an empty seat. Nineteen had survived.

  Eustace managed to get the vehicle started again and drove them all the way to the school. On the ride back no one said a word—not even Despina Lester. Holmes sat by himself and Amanda cuddled up with Ivy and Nigel. Amphora sat behind Eustace and leaned her head back. Simon attended to Clive, who was definitely not in good shape. Hill and Despina sat together in the last row with their eyes closed. They had searched for David and his roommates to no avail.

  When they had returned to Legatum, Simon took Clive to the hospital and the other friends plopped down in the common room. It turned out that Clive didn’t have a concussion, but both of them needed to be patched up and by the time the two boys returned, an hour had gone by. Now it was time to turn their attention to the elephant in the room.

  “We have to tell Thrillkill,” said Amanda. “We can’t keep this from him.”

  “I wish we didn’t have to,” said Amphora. “He’ll kill us.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” said Ivy. “We’re going to have to take whatever punishment he gives us. Whatever it is, it can’t possibly be as bad as what he’s going to do to David.”

  “I don’t know,” said Simon. “Thrillkill and David’s father were tight.”

  “Yes,” said Amanda, “but the Bible means the survival of the school. Or it seems to, anyway. Thrillkill is responsible for lots of people. He’s not going to sacrifice everything for one friendship.”

  “I didn’t even know Thrillkill had friends,” said Clive. Everyone looked at him. It seemed they hadn’t expected such a remark from nice, quiet Clive.

  “He doesn’t seem like the type, does he?” said Amphora, giggling.

  “You never know about people,” said Simon.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” said Amphora.

  “Nothing,” said Simon.

  “Where’s Scapulus?” said Ivy, who seemed not to have noticed the two arguing again.

  “Dunno,” said Simon. “I haven’t seen him since we got back. He didn’t answer my text. Anyone hear from him?” He looked at Amanda, who shrugged.

  “That doesn’t sound good,” said Amphora. “I hope he at least went to the nurse. He was beat up pretty bad.”

  “I don’t think he did,” said Simon. “We didn’t see him there, did we, Clive?”

  “I didn’t,” said Clive.

  “If we don’t hear from him soon, can you see if you can find him, Simon?” said Ivy.

  “Yeah, sure,” said Simon.

  “We’d better go,” said Amanda. “I want to get this over with.”

  Thrillkill bent over and rested his head in his hands. Then he punched his phone. “It seems we have a problem,” he said to whomever was on the other end. “Yes, now.” He rung off.

  “We’re going to mount a search for Wiffle, Puppybreath, and Niven,” he told the kids. “And then we’re going to go after the book. It has to be there. What we’re going to do about Miss Sweetgum I don’t know. You’re sure she’s with the Moriartys?”

  “She was,” said Amanda. “Whether she still is we don’t know.”

  “Did you get a license plate?” said Thrillkill. There was a knock at the door. “Follifoot?”

  “Yes.” So that was the teacher Thrillkill had called. It was a good choice. Professor Buck was strict, but he was tough, well organized, and always had your back, although he hadn’t been at all nice when Amanda and Nick had found the pink sugar in the secret room. He’d really taken them to task for leaving a murder scene, even though what they’d found by doing so had turned out to be critical.

  “Come in.”

  Professor Buck entered the office and closed the door behind him.

  “We’ve got three students missing up at the quarry,” said Thrillkill. “And one with the Moriartys.”

  “With the Moriartys, sir?”

  “Yes, Miss Sweetgum. Apparently she’s run off with them.”

  “You mean it was voluntary?” said Professor Buck.

  “So it seems,” said Thrillkill. “Some kind of misguided infatuation. I’m about to notify her parents.”

  Professor Buck whipped out his phone and made a call. “Quarry. Three students. Now.” He put his phone away and said, “About Miss Sweetgum.”

  “Yes,” said Thrillkill. “White van. License plate, children?”

  Amanda hated being called a child. She certainly didn’t feel like one.

  “No, sir,” said Simon. “Maybe Scapulus got it.”

  “Your classmate was kidnapped by the most dangerous criminal in the country and you didn’t get the license plate, Mr. Binkle? Let’s get Holmes in here at once.” He sent off a text.

  “It wasn’t his fault, sir,” said Amphora. The other students looked at her with their mouths open. Ivy gasped.

  “And why didn’t you get the plate, Miss Kapoor?” said Thrillkill.

  “It all happened so fast,” said Amphora. “We’d been fighting, and David had destroyed the book, and—”

  “What book?!” said Professor Buck. “Please tell me you don’t mean what I think you mean.”

  “I’m afraid so, Professor,” said Amphora. “The original Detective’s Bible.”

  “You mean you found it?” said Professor Buck incredulously.

  “David did, actually,” said Amphora. “But his roommates stole it and tried to give it to Blixus Moriarty, and . . .”

  “What?!” thundered Professor Buck. “Do you mean to tell me that two Legatum students got hold of the Bible and gave it to our worst enemy?”

  “They tried to,” said Amphora. “But David took it away from them. Unfortunately, he kind of lost his mind and drove a bulldozer over it, then threw it in a pit full of water.”

  “And where is it now?” said Professor Buck coldly.

  “We think it’s still down there,” said Amanda. “Scapulus and I tried to dive for it but we couldn’t find it.”

  “So Moriarty might have doubled back after you left and got it,” said Professor Buck.

  This possibility hadn’t occurred to Amanda. It was a horrifying thought.

  “We don’t know,” said Amanda. “He might have. He was so mad at Nick, though—”

  “Nick Moriarty?” said Professor Buck and Thrillkill at the same time.

  “Uh, did we forget to tell you that?” said Amanda.

  “You’re not telling us that Nick Moriarty is alive, are you?” said Thrillkill.

  “I’m afraid so,” said Amanda.

  Thrillkill and Buck looked at each other as if to say, “What else aren’t you telling us?”

  “Let me get this straight,” said Professor Buck. “Blixus and Mavis Moriarty escaped from prison. For some unknown reason they ended up at a quarry near here and kidnapped Editta Sweetgum. Their son, Nick, who died in the explosion at their London factory a couple of months ago, magically came back to life and showed up there with him. Meanwhile, one of our students s
tole Legatum’s most prized and critical possession, and two of our other students stole it from him and almost gave it to our worst enemy. However, the first student ended up destroying the book, and now all of those people are missing.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Amanda weakly. “That’s part of it, anyway.”

  “Part of it?” roared Professor Buck. “You mean there’s more?”

  There was another knock at the door. “Mister Holmes?” said Thrillkill.

  “Yes, sir,” said Holmes from outside the door.

  “Come in and sit down,” said Thrillkill.

  Holmes entered and sat on the far side of the group, next to Professor Buck. He avoided Amanda’s eyes. Clive looked from one to the other and a light bulb seemed to go on.

  “Mister Holmes,” said Thrillkill. “Your classmates are telling us about what happened at the quarry. Did you by any chance manage to get the license plate of the Moriartys’ van?”

  “No sir,” said Holmes.

  “Let’s see, you’re going to tell me there was too much going on, are you?” said Thrillkill.

  “Well, sir, there was a lot, but actually there’s no excuse. I take full responsibility.”

  Amanda couldn’t believe Holmes could be so generous. She grabbed Ivy’s hand. Ivy squeezed and she squeezed back.

  “You cannot take responsibility for what the other students did or didn’t do, Mr. Holmes,” said Thrillkill. “Let’s not grandstand.”

  Holmes looked stung. Amanda felt sorry for him.

  “There is one thing, sir,” said Holmes.

  “What’s that?” said Thrillkill.

  “It’s possible someone else got the plate.”

  “Someone else?” said Thrillkill. “What someone else?”

  “The tram driver,” said Holmes. “Or Amanda’s relatives.”

  “What?!” Thrillkill exploded. “What tram driver? What relatives?”