The Crystal Code

by Richard Newsome

  Sam motioned with a nod of his head and they retreated back to the main road, well out of earshot.

  ‘What do you think?’ he whispered. ‘Someone on guard duty?’

  ‘It has to be,’ Gerald whispered back. ‘You hardly need razor wire in a hedge. Someone’s hiding something here.’

  ‘How do we get past them?’ Felicity said. ‘That gate looks like the only way in.’

  From his jacket, Gerald pulled the wrench that he’d taken from the hangar. ‘We could rush them,’ he said. ‘Take them by surprise.’

  Sam and Felicity looked at him doubtfully. ‘That’s not exactly a plan, is it?’ Felicity said. ‘Pretty hopeless, actually.’

  Gerald dropped his shoulders. ‘So what do we do?’

  Sam peered back up the laneway. ‘Tell you what. I’ll sneak back there to get a closer look. At least see how many guards we’re dealing with. Okay?’

  It was Gerald’s turn to look dubious. ‘Just be quiet,’ he said.

  Sam gave him a broad grin. ‘Have you ever known me to be anything else?’

  He ducked across the lane and climbed into the paddock opposite the farm gate. Once he was behind the hedge, he was hidden.

  Felicity let out a weary sigh. ‘I’m exhausted,’ she said.

  ‘We all are,’ Gerald said. ‘I can’t imagine how Ruby is going.’

  Felicity turned to face him. ‘And Alisha,’ she said.

  Gerald looked at her blankly for a second. ‘Yeah, of course,’ he said. ‘Alisha too.’

  Felicity held his gaze for a moment, then Gerald looked away.

  Sam returned moments later, ducking through the hedge and scampering over the lane.

  ‘There’s just one,’ he said, puffing. ‘But he’s a big unit. Dressed in full-on security gear.’

  ‘Any idea how to get past him?’ Gerald asked.

  Sam shook his head. ‘This hedge seems to go right round the farm, with razor wire all the way I’d reckon. Only way in or out is through the front gate, and past our new friend.’

  The sound of a whinnying horse carried on the still night air.

  Felicity raised her head and looked back the way they had come. She got to her feet and brushed herself down. ‘Listen up, boys,’ she said. ‘I may have a plan.’

  Gerald and Sam edged along the hedge line, as quiet as overly considerate mice. Gerald winced at every footfall as it squeaked into the snow. Cloaked in the shadow of the foliage at their backs, he and Sam took an age to advance to ten metres from the gate.

  Gerald could just make out the dim outline of a pair of heavy metal gates, set between two large trees. Beyond, a pale light glowed in the window of a poky gatehouse. Gerald couldn’t see any sign of the guard. He turned to Sam and gave him a quizzical look.

  Sam shrugged.

  Gerald checked his watch. He was about to crawl a little closer to the entrance when a sound came from back up the lane—the sound of a horse’s hooves.

  Gerald froze. He watched as the riderless horse approached, walking slowly down the middle of the laneway. It was a large grey with a heavy rug over its back. In the silver moonlight, it seemed to glow with a ghostly sheen. The horse let out a gentle whinny as it passed Sam and Gerald.

  It ambled right up to the farm gate.

  Then it stopped.

  Seconds passed.

  A giant of a man emerged from the shadows. His black fatigues blended into the night and it was only the rattle and clank of equipment dangling from his belt that confirmed he was a real person and not an apparition.

  The horse bobbed its head and pawed the ground. The guard looked up and down the path. His hand rested on the butt of a pistol in a holster on his right hip.

  ‘Where did you get loose from, eh?’ The man inched forward. ‘Who let you out on such a cold night?’ The horse turned its head towards the man. The guard slowly raised his left hand and stroked its muzzle.

  The horse blew two shots of steam from its nostrils and nuzzled up to the man’s touch.

  ‘That’s a girl,’ he said gently. ‘Everything’s all right.’

  Then Felicity popped her head up from behind the horse’s flank and yelled, ‘Surprise!’

  ‘Wha—?’ The guard recoiled, shock plastered across his face.

  Felicity swung up onto the horse’s back. She dug her heels into its ribs and the beast reared onto its hind legs. The guard stumbled backwards, his arms spinning as he tried to regain balance. The horse neighed and lashed out with a front leg.

  The hoof collected square on the guard’s jaw, knocking his head back and sending him flying into the snow. Gerald and Sam scrambled out from the hedge and pounced.

  The guard was out cold, laid out like a body in the morgue. Gerald grabbed the pair of handcuffs on the man’s belt.

  ‘Help me roll him over,’ he said to Sam. Together, they strained to get the guard over onto his front. The handcuffs barely reached around his meaty wrists.

  Felicity guided the horse between the trees and jumped down to help drag the guard into the gatehouse.

  ‘At least it’s not too cold in here,’ Sam said with a grunt as they heaved the man through the door.

  Gerald looked around the sparsely furnished room. There was a table with a two-way radio on it, a chair, a sink, and a bar heater struggling to hold back the cold. Gerald unclipped the man’s belt and dragged it out from under him. He found a second pair of handcuffs and manacled one of the guard’s ankles to a pipe under the sink.

  ‘That should hold him for a bit,’ Gerald said.

  ‘Nice riding, Felicity,’ Sam said. ‘I would never have guessed you were hanging onto the other side of that horse.’

  ‘Thanks. A little trick we used to play at pony club,’ she replied.

  Sam shook his head and looked from Gerald to Felicity. ‘Flying lessons and horse riding. I’ve got to find me a better school.’

  Gerald went through the guard’s pockets. He handed a stun gun to Felicity and a truncheon to Sam. Then he pulled out the pistol from its holster and held it in his palm. They all stared down at it.

  ‘Have you ever used one before?’ Sam asked, his eyes raking over the sleek lines of the handgun.

  ‘No.’ Gerald swallowed. ‘I’m not sure I want to.’

  ‘What? No gun club at St Cuthbert’s?’

  Gerald stared at the pistol in his hand. ‘Yeah, there is. I just haven’t joined yet.’

  ‘Then let’s hope you don’t need to use it,’ Sam said. ‘Come on. We need to find Ruby.’

  Gerald stuffed the radio into his jacket and followed Sam and Felicity out into the night. He locked the gatehouse door as he left.

  A broad path, bordered on either side by a line of trees, led up a slope towards the farmhouse.

  ‘That’s strange,’ Felicity said. Her voice was barely louder than her footsteps. ‘There’s no light in any of the windows.’

  Gerald squinted into the gloom. The building was more a cottage than a house. A thatched roof and whitewashed walls. Two rooms wide at the front, with the door in the middle like a nose on a face. The windows were blank eyes. The only sign of life was smoke curling from a chimney at the back of the building.

  ‘Someone is keeping that fire going,’ Gerald said.

  ‘And there’d be no point having man mountain on the front gate if no one was at home,’ Sam said, nodding back towards the gatehouse.

  ‘Let’s sneak around the back,’ Gerald said. He tightened his grip on the pistol.

  They kept to the shadows and cut a path wide around the building. A cluster of trees at one end of the house provided some cover. Gerald motioned for Sam and Felicity to stay put, and he crawled across the frozen ground right up to the cottage. He pressed his back against the wall and glanced up. There was a win
dow right above him. Gerald felt the weight of the gun in his hand. He rose up on his knees and peered inside.

  It took a second for his eyes to adjust well enough to recognise a tiny farm kitchen: ancient timber benches, an old wood burning stove, a stone sink with a water pump beneath the window. But there was something odd about the scene. Something not quite right. It took a moment for Gerald to realise what it was. He ducked down and beckoned Sam and Felicity.

  They scampered across and plopped down next to him.

  ‘What is it?’ Felicity whispered.

  Gerald frowned before replying. ‘I don’t think anyone’s here,’ he said.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Sam said. ‘What about the smoke from the chimney? What about the gorilla at the gate?’

  ‘Follow me,’ Gerald said. ‘I’ll show you.’

  He crept along the wall until he reached a door. He tried the handle—it opened easily—and he ducked inside.

  The kitchen smelled of neglect. Gerald ran a finger along a timber bench. It left a shiny trail in a layer of dust.

  ‘There’s nothing on the shelves,’ he said to Sam and Felicity. ‘No food, no packages. There’s no fridge. There are cobwebs in the sink.’ He scanned the room. ‘This place hasn’t been used in ages.’

  Sam ducked through a doorway on the far side of the kitchen. ‘Come and look at this,’ he called.

  Felicity and Gerald followed him into an empty room. There was no furniture, no pictures on the walls, no rug on the floorboards. The entire cottage consisted of just four rooms and they were all bare.

  ‘It’s like a ghost ship,’ Felicity said as they completed a circuit of the house and returned to the kitchen. ‘Like no one has lived here for a hundred years.’

  ‘Do you have to use that word?’ Sam shivered.

  ‘What word?’

  ‘Ghost.’

  Gerald shook his head in frustration. ‘I don’t get it,’ he said. ‘Why the security if there’s nothing here to guard.’

  ‘Maybe there’s another building on the property,’ Felicity said. ‘We should keep looking.’

  Gerald leaned his back against a wall and slid to the floorboards. ‘I just keep thinking about Ruby and how she—’ He stopped mid-thought. A strange expression washed over his face.

  ‘What is it?’ Felicity asked him.

  Gerald cocked his head to the side. ‘My bum’s warm,’ he said.

  Sam narrowed his eyes. ‘Pardon me?’

  ‘My bum’s warm.’ Gerald put his palms flat to the wooden floor. ‘The whole floor is warm.’ Then he jumped to his feet. ‘The chimney!’

  Sam still looked confused. ‘What about the chimney?’

  ‘There shouldn’t be one,’ Gerald said. ‘Did you see a fireplace? There aren’t any. It should be as cold as death in here.’ He jumped to his feet and pulled open a pair of doors under the sink.

  ‘What are you looking for?’ Felicity said.

  Gerald had a quick look inside the bare cupboard. ‘Answers.’

  Felicity and Sam exchanged puzzled looks and followed Gerald into the next room. He pulled open a broom cupboard and dropped to his knees to inspect the floor inside.

  ‘Gerald?’ Felicity said.

  ‘The smoke from the chimney outside,’ Gerald said, running his fingers around the edge of the walls. Then, to himself, ‘Nothing here.’ He darted into the next room. ‘The heat under the floorboards must be coming from somewhere.’ He looked around the space and shook his head. Then he went into the final room, which could at one stage in the house’s history have been a bedroom. In the corner stood an ancient timber wardrobe. Gerald turned the handle and opened the door. His eyes lit up.

  ‘Here we go,’ he said.

  ‘What is it?’ Sam asked, looking over Gerald’s shoulder.

  Gerald knelt down and poked an index finger through a knothole in the wardrobe floor. He lifted clear a large square of timber sheeting. A burst of heat funnelled up through a square opening in the floor, as if he’d opened an oven door.

  Gerald, Sam and Felicity peered down a narrow shaft that disappeared deep into the ground.

  Chapter 33

  Gerald stuffed the pistol into the waistband of his pants and lowered himself into the hole in the floor. They had agreed that there would be no more talking. And that they would not leave until they had found Ruby.

  A metal ladder ran down the length of the shaft. Hand over hand, Gerald started the descent. Warmth radiated from the rungs. Gerald hated the cold as much as anyone, but he couldn’t imagine why Brahe would need to have it so hot, especially the way he sweated.

  Gerald glanced up to see Felicity and Sam following him. The shaft emptied out to a bare antechamber, carved into the island bedrock. Gerald jumped to the ground and unzipped his jacket. The heat was oppressive.

  Sam and Felicity joined him. They were both perspiring. Sam wiped the sweat from his forehead and gave Gerald a ‘what’s this all about, then?’ look.

  Gerald shrugged, and pointed to a door in the far wall. There was a window in the top half. The three of them edged across to peek through.

  A gasp escaped Felicity’s lips.

  On the other side of the door was a scene straight from a medieval torture chamber.

  An enormous brick furnace, like a giant circular kiln, dominated the room. There were half a dozen arched doorways around its circumference. Flames licked its insides, painting the chamber blood red. A single chimneystack poked from the top and soared up and through the high vaulted ceiling.

  Little wonder there was so much heat radiating up to the cottage above, Gerald thought. The only thing missing from the scene was a ring of horned demons fashioning horseshoes on hell-blackened anvils.

  The chamber walls were lined with wooden pens, housing an array of animals: horses, cows, goats, pigs. It was like someone had sunk a barn into the mouth of a volcano.

  Then Gerald saw them. Locked in an iron cage at the far end of the chamber.

  Alisha.

  Ox.

  And…

  Gerald couldn’t help himself. He saw her face, pink from the heat. He broke his silence. ‘Ruby.’

  Without thinking, he pulled the door open and ran. It was a good twenty metres across to the cage but Gerald couldn’t remember his feet touching the ground. He skidded up to the iron bars and thrust his arms through, wrapping them around his startled friend.

  ‘Oh my gosh, Gerald.’ Ruby’s voice came out muffled through the folds of Gerald’s jacket. ‘Let me go.’

  Gerald squeezed her harder. He was never going to let her go again.

  Ruby pummelled punches onto Gerald’s chest. ‘Let. Me. Go!’

  She pushed hard and finally broke free of his grasp.

  Gerald stumbled back a step and was shocked by the look on Ruby’s face. All colour had drained from her cheeks. ‘What?’ he said.

  Ruby swallowed and pointed over Gerald’s shoulder. ‘Behind you,’ she whispered.

  Gerald was turning as the words left her mouth. His eyes filled with the sight of a coal shovel swinging fast at his head.

  Gerald ducked. The shovel blade brushed the top of his hair as it whistled past. Pugly nearly smacked himself on the head with the follow-through. He swung again. Gerald threw himself backwards, avoiding a hit to the chin by millimetres.

  Gerald sprawled across the floor, wriggling left then right as Pugly rained blows down at him. Each time, the metal blade hit stone, striking sparks into the air. Gerald was vaguely aware of his name being shouted, of the rattling of iron bars. But all his attention was directed towards avoiding a fatal meeting with the back of the shovel.

  He tried to scramble to his feet. But a hefty swing of the blade connected with his ankle. A searing pain bulleted up his calf as his legs were swept fro
m under him. He landed heavily on his right shoulder. His eyes popped at a sharp crack.

  Gerald knew in an instant—his collarbone had snapped. His left hand shot to the opposite shoulder as he rolled onto his back. Fire pulsed through his body. He looked up to see Brahe’s man staring down at him, a glint of triumph in his eyes.

  Gerald took in a huge breath. With the last of his strength he rolled to the right. Rockets of pain exploded in his eyes as he put weight onto his busted shoulder. His left hand ducked around to his waistband to grab for the pistol.

  It wasn’t there.

  It must have fallen out during the struggle. Gerald rolled flat to the floor, spent.

  His breath came in painful bursts. Pugly loomed above with the shovel poised over his shoulder like a batter at home plate. He tensed, about to take one final swing, when Felicity appeared behind him. She pressed the stun gun into Pugly’s neck, and pulled the trigger.

  The result was instantaneous. A crackle of electricity sent Pugly into a violent convulsion. He hit the floor like a sack of coal with a twitchy leg.

  Felicity dropped to her knees at Gerald’s side, placing a hand on his injured shoulder. He winced at the touch.

  ‘Are we quite finished?’ The voice was calm but assertive. Gerald turned his head. Tycho Brahe was standing by the furnace. He had the pistol, and he held it pressed into Sam’s ribs.

  Brahe’s face was awash with sweat. He reached into his pocket and tossed a set of keys to Felicity. ‘Open the cage,’ he instructed. He shoved Sam towards Ruby, Ox and Alisha. ‘I expect you have some catching up to do.’

  Chapter 34

  Gerald sat propped against the stone wall. His right arm was strapped across his chest in a makeshift sling fashioned from Sam’s jumper. Ox, Alisha and Ruby had stripped down to T-shirts but were still perspiring in the heat. Felicity sat by Gerald’s side, worry written on her face.

  ‘We were grabbed by Brahe’s men right after we escaped the avalanche,’ Alisha said. She reached out and took Ox by the hand. ‘Oswald and I were thrown into the back of a helicopter, and then into a private jet. We’ve been down in this hellhole for I don’t know how many days. It’s been stifling.’