Locksmith

by Nicholas Maes

  The guards closed in, but Lewis ignored them. He was kneeling beside Atara, who was frozen in a case of yellow. “I’m so sorry,” he murmured. “As for you,” he said, facing the chemist, “you may think you’ve accomplished a lot, but you’re really just a cold-blooded killer! From now on no one’s going to talk about your talents. Instead they’ll remember just how lousy you were and will curse your memory forever and ever.”

  “Freeze him!” Grumpel ordered his guards.

  The guards were about to pull their triggers, but it was exactly then that the alien stirred. She had shifted her weight several times already, but this movement was different … less restrained. With the receiver gone Grumpel couldn’t issue her orders, and she was waking up to this fact. Twisting backward, she inspected the crowd — Grumpel on his platform, the salamander guards, Elizabeth, who was standing again, and Lewis, who was tending to Atara.

  Grumpel was the first to recover, worried that his schemes were about to collapse.

  “Don’t just stand there!” he bellowed at his henchmen. “Capture those eggs before the creature flies off! And the rest of you, forget the intruders and hold this creature back until the eggs are clear!”

  “You heard him!” Elizabeth cried. “Open fire on this brute!” She retrieved her rifle, aimed at the alien, and squeezed off several volleys.

  The guards did the same, firing pellets at the alien’s flanks. At the same time the extraction unit crew moved in and shoved the nozzle deep into the egg sac.

  Lewis was going to attack Elizabeth, while the frogs were preparing to battle the guards. But there was no need. The creature herself was part Alienus, and the Petriglobes proved useless against her. With a single kick she scattered her attackers, then bent her neck toward her tail and grabbed the extraction unit with her lips. With one quick flick she tossed the machine out to sea — it landed near a freighter and soaked a sailor on deck.

  Lewis was about to cheer. Before he could get a sound out, however, the creature brought its “rainbow” band to his face. There he was, reflected in its waves, dancing lines of yellow, orange, and purple. It was impossible to tell what the creature was thinking, and for a moment Lewis thought she would crush him like an insect. Just as swiftly he sensed in her a wisdom that predated human thinking and understood that she hated violence through and through. The sooner she went home, the happier she would feel.

  “Go,” he murmured. “The way is clear.”

  As if responding to his words, she rose on her hindmost legs, spread her wings, and lifted off.

  “No!” Grumpel shrieked as the alien departed, her wings creating such a powerful draft that for a moment everyone was pinned to the spot. Lewis watched as she soared a hundred feet, then gasped as an egg suddenly fell toward them. It turned out her wound had closed, but not before one egg had slipped free.

  With a heave of her sinews, the creature vanished. A second later there was a soft explosion and, almost immediately, a blue powder filled the air, covering Lewis and everyone around him.

  “Gather up that dust!” the chemist cried, clambering down the platform three steps at a time. “Hurry, you fools! Each teaspoon’s worth a billionaire’s ransom!”

  It was useless. As much as his workers scrambled about, the powder was too delicate to trap. It melted before their eyes and sank into the roof. At the same time — or was it Lewis’s fancy? — the salamanders began shrinking and grew confused.

  “Trap it! Hold it!” Grumpel hollered, chasing a blue spiral until the wind broke it up. Elizabeth was pursuing the powder, too, but apart from the dust that had settled on her outfit, she wasn’t faring any better than her father. The sight of them spinning in circles like that caused Lewis and his friends to howl with laughter.

  “So much for your plans!” Todrus jeered, rubbing his stomach where he had been struck with a rifle. His head was covered with so much powder that he might have been dipped in a pot of blue paint.

  “I have my army!” Grumpel snarled. “Kill them, guards! Do you hear? Attack!”

  They couldn’t. Grumpel had been chasing the powder so intently that he hadn’t noticed the change it had triggered. Each henchman that the substance had touched — and it had spattered every guard on the roof — was changing back to its normal appearance. From tall, intelligent, and capable of speech, they were shrinking to their usual size and losing all signs of their mental adeptness. In fact, mere minutes after the egg had exploded, every guard was a simple reptile again, and outfits and metal rings lay scattered at random.

  Grumpel’s army was no more.

  “You’re finished!” Lewis cried as salamanders scurried in a crowd from the roof. “You’re out of chemicals and your army’s gone.”

  “I may have lost, but you haven’t won!” Grumpel roared, racing to the helicopter in the roof’s far corner. “Elizabeth, quickly!”

  As fast as everyone moved to stop them, father and daughter reached the helicopter first. A moment later the propeller was turning and they were hovering ten feet in the air.

  “Say goodbye to your father!” Grumpel snarled over a speaker. “If my tale ends badly, yours will, too!”

  Before Lewis could reply, the helicopter barrelled off to the west, its blades spitting insults into his ears.

  CHAPTER 19

  Lewis wanted to yell at the helicopter, but he had other, more pressing concerns. The egg’s blue powder was changing everything. Besides transforming Grumpel’s army, it was seeping into the building’s foundation and reducing it to a jelly-like substance. From one end to the other the roof was shaking, and the towering panels were glowing all over.

  “We’ve got to leave!” Todrus cried.

  “How?” Adelaide demanded. “The roof isn’t solid!”

  “This is like The Bombardier’s battle with the Slime,” Alfonse said as everyone sank to their knees in jelly. By now the building had lost much of its shape.

  “I hear sirens,” Gibiwink said. “Help is on its way!”

  “It had better come soon,” the Stranger advised, “because this building isn’t going to last much longer!”

  Lewis wanted to kick himself. So Grumpel had won. The chemist had lost the Alienus and his empire was in ruins — the powder was “jellifying” his underground towers. On the other hand, Lewis’s father would die and the group would drown in this liquefied stone.

  “Eek!” something cheeped from on high.

  “Atara?” he asked hopefully.

  The bat was suddenly hovering above him, along with all his relatives. They were bruised, bedraggled, and covered in powder, but alive and kicking nonetheless.

  “Raise your arms!” the Stranger called. “They’ll help us track that chopper down!”

  “How did they escape?” Alfonse asked. “Weren’t they frozen?”

  “It’s the powder!” Todrus cried. “It’s neutralizing everything — the guards, the Petriglobes, the underground towers. It’s a nucleonic inhibitor that —”

  “Will it affect us, too?” Gibiwink groaned.

  “Never mind!” the Stranger insisted. “Lift your arms!”

  The bats took action. One moment Lewis and his friends were on the verge of drowning, the next they were a hundred feet above the chaos. And as soon as they were airborne, Grumpel’s building collapsed. Above ground and below it, the structure splattered apart, flooding the streets with “gooified” stone. As a line of fire trucks arrived at the scene, the “jelly” hardened to the earth it had been, obliterating every trace of Grumpel’s fortress forever.

  “What do we do now?” Alfonse asked, smiling at the sight of this ruin.

  “The bats can’t hear the chopper,” the Stranger observed.

  “It was flying west,” Adelaide declared. “Maybe we’ll spot it if we fly that way.”

  Everyone agreed. The bats headed west at an impressive speed but without their usual energy, as if an unseen force were holding them back. And what was true of them was true of the others. The frogs looked worn a
nd the Stranger was fading — its tentacles were drooping and its eye had swollen over.

  Lewis felt awful. He wanted to give his friends a rest, but he had to track his father down. They might be headed in the right direction, but Grumpel had a huge head start, and if he reached his father first, he would kill him for sure. Where was he? Where? There were a million possibilities, and they didn’t have time —

  “In episode 9, The Bombardier’s after the Mould,” Alfonse told them, clueing into Lewis’s thoughts. “He finally finds him in an obvious spot.”

  “So?” Adelaide snapped.

  “So we’re heading west,” Alfonse continued, “and Grumpel owns businesses in Mason Springs. Maybe he’s hiding Mr. Castorman in one of them.”

  “That’s … that’s … smart,” she conceded. “If I were him, I’d keep my prisoner close by.”

  “So we’ll fly to Mason Springs,” Todrus said, “and search those businesses. Ugh!”

  “Todrus! What’s wrong?” Gibiwink cried.

  “It’s nothing,” his friend whispered. grimacing. “Just a cramp from all that exercise.”

  The bats by now had crossed the Hudson River, and the lights of New Jersey lay directly below. They were flying at four hundred miles per hour and would reach their destination soon. The only problem was that they were utterly spent. Their passengers were just too much for them.

  “Eeek!” Atara’s uncle said — he was moaning that his wings were about to drop off.

  “Eeek, eeek!” Atara replied. That meant “We can’t let Lewis down!”

  Even as Lewis was on the verge of despair, part of him burst with pride. He had friends who would risk their lives for him. Never mind his fancy cars, Grumpel didn’t have any companions like these and that meant he would never be as rich as Lewis.

  A familiar sight dispelled these thoughts. It was 4:00 a.m., and the streets were empty, but Lewis recognized his town straightaway. They were directly over the central strip, and below them Grumpel’s Bank appeared, as well as Grumpel’s Clothes and Books, and Food and Flowers, and Cars and Hardware — all the businesses the chemist owned.

  “Look around!” Adelaide yelled. “We should see signs of the chopper!”

  The bats made several sweeps, moving west a mile, then returning east, not just once but several times. There was no trace of Grumpel.

  “The bats are finished,” Alfonse said.

  “The others are, too,” Adelaide murmured.

  It was true. The bats were trembling and panting with exertion, while the frogs and the Stranger were deathly pale. They had to land soon and let everyone rest.

  “Eeek!” Atara whimpered, convinced the bats were disappointing Lewis.

  With a smile Lewis stroked the bat’s ears. He was about to steer him to the ground, in fact, when he caught sight of their school. Lewis sat up straight as his dream returned, the one that had haunted him on several occasions, about the trophy case and doors to the pool and gunmen and …

  “That’s it!” he yelled, startling the others. “Atara, one last favour. Can you set us down by that building over there?”

  “He says he can,” the Stranger answered, even as the bats veered ninety degrees.

  “But that’s our school!” Alfonse cried. “Why —”

  “It’s the perfect hiding place,” Lewis explained. “Its pool has been abandoned these past few years and no one would think of looking inside it. All along I knew there was something suspicious — its lock was rearranged the day we cleaned those letters — but I didn’t put things together … until now.”

  “When we last saw your dad,” Adelaide said thoughtfully, “he was seated below his guards and water was dripping — just what you’d expect if he were trapped in a pool.”

  She might have added more if the bats hadn’t faltered. They were landing on the school’s front lawn, but this feat was just too much for them. One by one they fainted away, upsetting their passengers and pitching them forward. The Pangettis wound up in a tangle of bushes, while Lewis collided against the trunk of an oak. By the time the group recovered from their tumble, the bats were gone.

  “Where —” Lewis started to ask.

  “Look! You were right!” Todrus shouted, motioning to a shape beneath a green tarpaulin. “Grumpel’s helicopter.”

  “We have to get inside!” Lewis insisted, his thoughts returning to his father. He hurried to a door and fumbled for his picks.

  Todrus coughed, heaving his bulk into action. “Let me.” Although he was unsteady and wheezing like a bagpipe, he approached the letters that spelled the name of the school. With a twist of his flipper he pried the G in Grumpel loose. Then he took careful aim.

  “Now this I’m going to enjoy,” Alfonse gloated.

  There was a crash. Lewis and Alfonse couldn’t help but smile as a window smashed into a million pieces.

  “Todrus?” Gibiwink asked, clutching his friend. The frog was swaying and clutching his head.

  “Never mind me. Let’s rescue Mr. Castorman!”

  Lewis climbed the windowsill and passed inside. The others followed in his wake, though the frogs and the Stranger needed assistance.

  There was a half-open door at the room’s far end, and light was entering from the hall outside. Lewis exchanged nods with Alfonse. They were in their classroom — Ms. Widget’s ruler lay across a desk beside a stack of compositions. Lewis tiptoed to the door. Glancing around, he motioned the group into the hall and led them toward the school’s main foyer. Only half the ceiling lights were on and the place was unfamiliar in the gloom. Portraits of Grumpel hung on the walls, and his eyes seemed to watch them as they stumbled forward.

  They reached the hallway’s end. Turning right, they heard a disturbance in the distance. There. Past the cases with the chemist’s trophies, past the clippings, photos, and seven-foot statue, the Grumpels were huddled by the pool’s twin doors. There was a third party with them. Winbag, of course.

  The school principal was dressed in a pair of lemon-lime pajamas that called attention to his strange dimensions. He was missing a slipper, and his glasses were absent. This last detail was important — without them he couldn’t see which key would open the lock.

  “Hurry!” Grumpel yelled. “I’ve been waiting five minutes!”

  “My humblest apologies,” the principal crooned. “I’ve forgotten which key belongs to this lock. Just one more minute —”

  “In another minute you’ll be fired!” Elizabeth growled.

  “Right you are. And may I say, Miss Elizabeth, you look most fetching.”

  “Can it and get that lock unfastened!”

  “All right. There. Now we’re getting somewhere.”

  Winbag had slipped the proper key into the lock, but the pins were rusty and it wouldn’t pop open. At the same time Todrus had a coughing fit, and the sound attracted the trio’s attention. Grumpel’s mouth dropped open in horror. For once in his life he was badly outnumbered. Hiding behind Winbag, he took hold of the key.

  The principal examined the newcomers. From friendly and ingratiating, his expression had hardened. “You!” he roared, glaring at Lewis. “What are you doing here?”

  “Your boss is about to kill Lewis’s father,” Alfonse snarled.

  “Wait!” Winbag fumed, ignoring Alfonse. “The doors are locked. How did you get in?”

  “We broke a window,” Adelaide answered. “To rescue Mr. Castorman.”

  “Broke a window?” Winbag squealed. “That’s flagrant vandalism!” Behind him Grumpel sniggered as the lock snapped open. Elizabeth began unwinding the chain.

  “Step aside,” Lewis said. “There’s no time to explain.”

  “What? You dare?” Winbag’s face was fire-engine red. His hands outstretched, he rushed at Lewis. Before he could touch him, the frogs interfered and hurled the principal the length of the foyer. He crashed into the trophy case where a large gold-plated chemical beaker — the Carston J. Plugman Award — bonked him on the skull and knocked him senseles
s. Just in time, too, as the doors wheeled open.

  “After them!” Lewis thundered, charging forward and jamming his foot in the door. On the door’s far side stood three hulking guards — they were the last of Grumpel’s army. Determined to bar their passage, these goons strained at the doors, while Lewis and his friends tried to shove them open. Normally, the frogs could have handled the job, but their strength was failing.

  “Push!” Lewis screamed, eyeing Grumpel through a crack. He was twenty feet away with two vials in his hands. One contained its stopper still, but he was emptying the other into the pool at his feet. “Use all your strength! He’s killing my father!”

  There were gobs of powder on Gibiwink’s flippers. He held one to his mouth and blew its dust at the henchmen. With a shriek they retreated, and the group burst in.

  It was much like any room with a pool — fifty yards long and ten yards wide, with tiles underfoot and a cathedral-like ceiling. The space hadn’t been dusted in ages, however, and the only light was coming from the pool itself, from the lamps that ran the length of its sides. The effect was eerie.

  “Stay where you are!” Grumpel warned. He was several yards away at the edge of the pool. He looked … murderous. His eyes and forehead were cast in shadow, and his expression was mocking, hard, and vicious. In one hand he held an empty vial; in the other he clutched a tube with a pale, pinkish substance — a deadly mixture, to be sure. Elizabeth was beside him, glowering like a wolf.

  “What have you done?” Lewis yelled, not daring to attack. He was too far back to see the pool’s bottom, but assumed his dad was below Grumpel.

  “It’s not what I’ve done,” the chemist sneered, “but what I’m going to do. This first brew melted the Petriglobe’s membrane, while this one …” He shook the pinkish brew. “One drop will change your father forever!”

  “Let him go!” the frogs and the Stranger mumbled. They meant this as a threat, but it sounded … insubstantial. The three of them were trying to hold on to the guards.

  “Lewis? Is that you?” another voice broke in, frail but recognizable still.

  “Dad!” Lewis cried, taking one step forward. “Watch it! Grumpel’s about to hit you with some poison!”