“Dad!” he yelled. “Over here! It’s Lewis!”
“I hired him to open the lock,” Grumpel murmured, “but caught him snooping for proof that I killed your mother. Even now he refuses to help, and that’s why you’re here.”
“Dad! Speak to me! Are you okay?”
“There’s no point yelling,” Elizabeth jeered. “He can’t hear you.”
“Let him go!” Lewis cried. “Let him go or I’ll —”
“You’ll do what you’re told!” Elizabeth said sternly, rubbing her charm more violently than ever. “You’ll go to Yellow Swamp and then we’ll free your stupid father. Otherwise he’ll die, and you can be sure we won’t use our elixir vitae —”
“Quiet!” Grumpel cried, touching the charm around his neck for an instant. He then added to Lewis, “Your father’s life is in your hands.”
Lewis stared at Grumpel. Although he was sick with worry about his father, he wondered how people could be so evil. Had Grumpel banged his head perhaps and dashed his conscience into a thousand pieces? Maybe he had been born an evil genius and there was nothing that would change this awful fact. Unless he had lost both his parents as a child and decided to take revenge on the world …
“If we do open that lock,” Lewis finally said, “how do I know you’ll release my father? I mean, afterward we might run to the police —”
Grumpel threw Lewis a terrible look. “Once the lock is open, you can run to the police and tell them anything you please. At that stage I won’t care, believe me. Just do this job and I’ll free your father and you can go back to your normal routines.”
“But —”
“That’s enough talk. You have your instructions. My daughter will take over from here.” Grumpel turned away and stared at his globe.
“This way,” Elizabeth said. With her charm between her fingers she led the group across the room. Off in the distance the door stood open and, barely visible, the guards were waiting. Wordlessly, the group followed in her wake. Only Lewis paused for a moment to take a final look at Grumpel.
The chemist was on his feet and embracing the globe. His head was thrown back in a posture of triumph, as if the entire world were his plaything now. The sight was … horrific. Lewis hurried after his friends, relieved to leave the evil genius to himself.
CHAPTER 7
It had been half an hour since they left Grumpel’s office. The group was seated in a transport helicopter in immaculate white outfits and with packs around their waists. Elizabeth and twelve guards were stationed at the front, eyeing their prisoners with obvious scorn. The craft was barrelling through a pale blue sky, and New York City was just a speck in the distance.
Everyone was silent. They couldn’t believe they were off to Alberta. Just that morning they had awakened in Mason Springs, and now they were up to their necks in danger.
Gibiwink flicked his tongue in and out. He and Todrus had cast their disguises aside and were dressed in white like everyone else. That meant they really looked like frogs, only ones that were a hundred times larger than normal. Adelaide studied them with open fascination.
For his part Lewis was dwelling on his father. With his limbs frozen in that prison of his, he had seemed so thin and vulnerable. How long could he last?
“Attention!” Elizabeth shouted. She was in the aisle rubbing her charm as usual. “It’s time I explained your supply belts to you.”
Alfonse glared at her. “Never mind the belts! I hate these outfits and want my old clothes back.”
“Your tie and jacket were stupid,” she said. “More to the point, these outfits have been treated. They’ll regulate your temperature, whether it’s hot or cold outside. They’ll also keep your bodies clean and bandage minor wounds.”
“Very clever,” Lewis said. “What’s inside these belts?”
Elizabeth yawned. “You can open them. But be careful with their contents.”
Curious, the group worked their waist packs open. Inside they found a series of compartments, each bearing a letter from A to Z. Unzipping one compartment, Lewis spied a row of vials — some holding pills, others containing finely ground powders, and still others filled with liquids of varying colours. Each vial was carefully labelled with words that were long and hard to pronounce. There was also a manual thick with instructions.
“The number one item,” Elizabeth went on, “is your food transformer. You’ll find it in your pack’s front pocket. That’s it,” she added as Lewis took out a vial like the one she had used at breakfast. “Spray it on anything and you’ll never go hungry.”
“And these?” Todrus asked, pointing to the vials in his belt.
“I won’t go into details,” Elizabeth drawled. “But if you’re faced with an emergency, consult your booklet. It has ‘recipes’ you might find useful. Okay?”
“I don’t know,” Todrus said, inspecting a label that read PLECTALIENORITHAMIN. “I’ve never handled chemicals like —”
“I’m not a teacher!” she snapped. “Figure it out for yourself!”
She stormed off to the front of the craft. The friends closed their belts and tried to relax.
To distract himself from brooding on his father, Lewis studied the landscape below. The helicopter was flying over an endless lake. Twenty miles to their right was a cluster of buildings and, higher than the rest of them, a large concrete tower.
“Where are we?” Alfonse asked, squeezing his head beside Lewis.
“We’re over Lake Ontario and crossing into Canada. On our right is Toronto — that structure you see is the CN Tower. My mother installed a Dunbar Module in Toronto’s airport, the first of its kind in North America.”
Alfonse whistled. “You really know your geography.”
“My mother said Canada was my second home. That’s why we were always travelling to Quebec, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Alberta. We even camped in Yellow Swamp the summer before that chemical spill.”
“Why do you think Grumpel built that lock in Yellow Swamp?” Alfonse whispered so their captors couldn’t hear.
For the next few minutes they discussed the possibilities. Alfonse argued he was safeguarding a treasure — diamonds, gold, that sort of thing. Lewis disagreed. Why would Grumpel store his loot in Alberta when a vault in New York City would serve just as well? And why would he make the region so unstable? And then there was that egg-shaped boulder the frogs had seen his henchmen drop. No, something else was at stake.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Weapons maybe or something illegal …”
Their conversation faltered. Alfonse returned to his seat, while Lewis studied the land as it passed. He found it comforting to be in Canada again — it made him feel a little closer to his mother.
The helicopter was travelling at a terrific speed. In no time at all Lake Huron was below them, then Sault Ste. Marie and the sprawling mass of Lake Superior. After that there was a continuous mass of forest, lakes, and wilderness for as far as he could see.
Another city soon appeared on the horizon. Lewis guessed this must be Winnipeg. He remembered a souvenir his mother had given him once. It was a model of Winnipeg in a plastic bubble which, when shaken, created a whirlwind of mosquitoes. MOSQUITO CAPITAL OF THE WORLD was written on its base.
The memory stabbed him like a six-inch blade.
He wondered how it would feel to forget. If he could erase his memories of his mother, would he do it? They had spent such happy times together studying locks, reading books, camping out and going on picnics, but that was the problem, wasn’t it? As joyful as those memories were, at the same time they triggered such a terrible longing, reminding him as they did that she was gone forever, that she would never show him her designs again, never thrill him with her songs, jokes, and laughter. He would be better off, wouldn’t he, without those thoughts to remind him of the treasures he had lost? If he could delete those memories, he would do so in an instant.
Mercifully, he drifted off.
“Wake
up!” Elizabeth called as a guard shook Lewis roughly.
Outside, the sun was nearing the horizon. The land below was flat and dusty. Here and there brown specks appeared, and Lewis assumed these were herds of cattle. They were flying over mid-eastern Alberta.
“We’re heading north,” Elizabeth said. “And should be there very soon.”
“And then?” Todrus asked.
“We’ve discussed that already. You’ll look for the swamp, find the lock, and complete your mission.” She rubbed her charm. “Of course, it won’t be easy.”
Gibiwink yawned. “Why’s that?”
“Our chemicals destroyed a wide area,” she admitted, “and we’re not sure where the original swamp’s located. The one thing we know is that it’s bleeding ion clusters — that’s a harmless type of radiation — and we’ll drop you where our sensors pick these up. The swamp itself is easily recognized.”
“How?” Alfonse asked.
“You’ll see a hill with two large crests. These sit in the middle of a blood-red lake. The lock lies at the foot of this formation.”
There was a buzz on the intercom. The pilot announced they were nearing the Yellow Swamp region. Hearing this, everyone flocked to the windows.
Lewis felt his stomach churn. There, in the distance, a black mass screened the horizon, as if a dragon were disfiguring the sky with its breath. It wasn’t like a normal bank of cloud, but looked permanent and … menacing. Anything could happen in a fog like that.
He scanned his friends’ expressions. They were obviously thinking along similar lines — Gibiwink had wrapped his tongue around Adelaide’s shoulders. Always a polite girl, she pretended not to notice.
“Challenging, isn’t it?” Elizabeth asked, pulling a package from an overhead locker. “It’s a good thing we brought these patches along.”
“This fog covers a large area,” Lewis marvelled.
“It’s a hundred miles by a hundred miles,” Elizabeth said, removing a stack of patches from the package. She peeled a strip off one of them and disclosed a sticky surface.
“Does it bother you,” Lewis asked, “that your father ruined such a huge piece of land?”
“No,” Elizabeth said evenly, slapping a patch onto his back. “Canada’s enormous. So what if a tiny part of it’s polluted? Besides, it’s partially your mother’s fault. She suggested we build the lock in Yellow Swamp. She knew we were looking for a secluded place and was convinced Yellow Swamp would fit the bill. Not that she knew we were going to transform it. Her one concern was to build an unbreakable lock.”
Elizabeth’s observation took Lewis aback. An unbreakable lock — that sounded like his mother. So her one great ambition had brought about her death. As he wrestled with a knot of sadness, Elizabeth slapped patches on everyone’s back.
“What’s this for?” Adelaide asked, examining the patch.
Before Elizabeth could answer, the helicopter lurched forward. Gibiwink was hurled to the front of the craft and, because his tongue was around Adelaide still, he yanked her in his wake. Unfortunately, the pair bowled Alfonse over, who bashed into Lewis, who crashed into Todrus, who knocked Elizabeth into the henchmen.
“We’ve entered the fog,” Elizabeth wheezed, pinned beneath Todrus’s left flipper. “Frog! Let go! You’re cutting off my breath!”
Slowly, everyone regained his or her feet. Moving to a window, Lewis glanced outside. There were black clouds around them forming a solid wall. If it was like this above, what was the land like below? How would they —
“My charm! It’s gone!” Elizabeth wailed, feeling her neck frantically. “It must have fallen off when we were knocked together!”
Adelaide shrugged. “Your dad will replace it.”
“That charm’s unique!” Elizabeth cried. “Search around everyone! I want it back!”
A whistle intruded, and a light started flashing.
“Our sensors have picked up ion clusters,” she said, biting her lower lip in frustration. “The charm will have to wait. You have to get to the swamp.”
“You can’t see anything,” Todrus observed, a flipper in his pocket. “How are we going to land in this fog?”
“That’s why I put those patches on,” Elizabeth said. “They’re filled with helium and —”
“Like Zapper Dash!” Alfonse cried. “He wears an outfit that lets him float on air!”
Elizabeth laughed, her tone uncharacteristically warm and friendly. “That’s right, squirt. In fact,” she added, steering him a few feet to her left, “how’d you like to fly like him?”
“That sounds okay …” Alfonse said warily.
As he spoke, Elizabeth grabbed hold of a lever, the floor gave way, and Alfonse was pitched into the fog.
“Alfonse!” everyone yelled above a screaming wind.
“Who’s next?” Elizabeth asked, standing by the hatch.
“That was cold-blooded murder!” Lewis shouted.
“Say your prayers!” Adelaide growled, advancing on the chemist’s daughter.
Elizabeth chuckled. “Relax. Landing in this fog is out of the question, and that means all of you have to jump. If I’d warned you in advance, you might have chickened out. Whereas now —”
“He’ll die!” Lewis fumed. “He hasn’t any parachute!”
Elizabeth smirked. “A parachute requires skill, while the Heliform patch lets you coast like a feather. Now let’s get moving!”
“How do we communicate?” Todrus asked. “Are you giving us a radio?”
“They won’t work in this region,” Elizabeth said. “As soon as you jump, you’re on your own. But you’d better hurry. Your friend is waiting …”
“All right,” Lewis said, nearing the hole in the floor. “But when all of this is —”
He didn’t finish. The craft lurched wildly and toppled him outside. “Lewis!” he heard his friends cry out until their voices were drowned in the encompassing fog. He fell like a brick for a couple of seconds and was just about to yell in terror when the helium in his patch kicked in. As Elizabeth had promised, it slowed his fall.
Lewis looked around him. Every so often a cloud erupted and waves of gas crashed against him, causing him to cough or hold a hand to his nose. The patterns formed were spectacular: blues, reds, and yellows jumped forward, then receded quickly like beads in a kaleidoscope.
After several minutes, the clouds parted abruptly. One moment he was swimming in a storm of black cotton, the next he was tumbling through an iron-grey sky. He was a thousand feet above the earth … or what was left of it at least.
The devastation was awful. Where there should have been trees, meadows, and streams, there was nothing but a sea of mud and steaming geysers. It stretched as far as the eye could see — drab, hideous, bleak, and lifeless, its surface swaying back and forth at the touch of each breeze. Had he really camped in this region once?
Then he spied something big hurtling skyward like a missile. It looked like a boulder. Yes, that was what it was — a mass of stone the size of a truck. It was muscling straight toward him. It was a hundred feet away, eighty, sixty … Flecks of mud spun off its surface. With a cry of panic Lewis twisted right as the rock rushed forward to crush him like an insect!
Whoosh! It missed him by a couple of feet, and the backdraft twisted him head over heels. The mass then gradually came to a stop, plunged back down, and punched a hole in the chaos.
Lewis continued his descent. He wanted desperately to stay afloat — the ground was one vast puddle of mud — but gravity had other ideas. Moments later he crashed into the earth.
He sank fifteen feet. The mud was heavy and sucked him downward. He thrashed and kicked and splashed, but to no avail. Just as his lungs were beginning to burn, again the Heliform came to the rescue. Like a giant hand, it dragged him to the surface. Even as he gulped in mouthfuls of air, he heard a cry from somewhere in the distance.
“Lewis! Over here!”
“Alfonse!” he coughed back.
“Le
t’s swim to each other! We’ll meet halfway!”
For the next few minutes they swam together, shouting to keep each other on track. Both smiled with relief when they came face to face.
“Are you okay?” Lewis asked.
“I am now. For a while I was scared I’d be stuck here on my own. And you?”
“I’m fine, though I could use a shower. But over there! That’s Adelaide falling!”
“That’s her all right. This place is bad enough without her tagging along.”
“Let’s call to her. That way she can steer her way over.”
“Are you sure? Imagine if she got lost in this mud …”
“Alfonse! Quickly, while she’s still falling!”
The two of them shouted and caught her attention. By twisting her arms and legs in mid-air, she was able to steer herself roughly above them. A minute later she was floating beside them, coughing and gasping from her bath in the mud.
They repeated the process for Gibiwink and Todrus, who had jumped together and were clutching each other. Once the frogs were bobbing beside them, their circle was complete.
“What now?” Gibiwink asked.
“Those ion clusters mean we’re close to the swamp,” Lewis said.
“I’m afraid,” Todrus moaned. “We’re nowhere near it.”
“They dropped us in the wrong place,” Gibiwink agreed.
Lewis craned his neck and surveyed their surroundings. For miles and miles in every direction there was nothing but mud to greet the eye. Certainly, there was no sign of any two-crested mountain. And in the distance, beyond the tar-coloured clouds, he could hear the rumble of the helicopter receding.
He nodded grimly. The chances of returning home were one in a million.
CHAPTER 8
Whomp!
“That makes it an even fifty,” Todrus said.
“Fifty-one,” Gibiwink corrected him.
“I’m telling you, it’s fifty,” Todrus insisted.
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