by Petra James
She put her hand to her ear to try to contact TJ via Lexi but the clip-on earring wasn’t there. Arkie checked her whole ear frantically. It was definitely missing. The girl must have knocked it off when she’d put her hand over Arkie’s mouth.
Arkie had no way of contacting TJ.
It was getting colder and colder. Their breaths formed clouds of ice before them.
The shaft ran parallel to the main corridor. Arkie could sense they were going back the way they had come in. As the space became smaller and smaller, they crawled and edged their way through the shaft.
Arkie tried to think of the sky. Big. Blue. Wide Open. She would see it soon. Just a few more metres.
Finally, they came to a small grate. The girl kicked it open with her feet and they slithered out of the tunnel into the outside air, breathing deeply.
The girl pulled Arkie to her feet. ‘NOW RUN,’ she shouted. And run they did. Fleeing across the ice – as far away as possible from the vault and the sirens shattering the air around them.
Arkie’s breath burned in her throat as they fled through the icy mist that had now descended into a thick fog.
‘Stop. Rest,’ gasped the girl as they saw a small clump of rocks ahead, at the edge of a cliff where the land plummeted into the Arctic Ocean.
They slumped beside the rocks – gulping air, unable to speak.
As soon as she could, Arkie lifted her head to look at the girl.
She was dressed in a black ski suit with a ski mask but Arkie recognised her immediately.
‘YOU!’ she said.
It was one of the thieves from the Great Wall of China – the one who had stolen her backpack and pushed her to the ground.
The girl took off her ski mask.
She had long dark hair tied back in a ponytail and dark brown eyes. Freckles ran across the top of her nose.
Arkie had never seen her before. But, still, there was something familiar about her.
‘Who are you?’ said Arkie.
The girl stared at her without smiling. ‘I’m Cate,’ she said. ‘Cate Sparkle.’
Freefall
‘WHAT?’ said Arkie. ‘Cate Sparkle? But does that mean we’re —’
‘Yeah, we’re related,’ interrupted the girl. ‘Brilliant deduction.’
Her voice was as chilly as the air around them. She took off her backpack and started to rummage in it.
‘But how can we be related?’ said Arkie.
Cate stopped searching inside the backpack. ‘You don’t know much, do you?’ she said. ‘The Great Arkie Sparkle. Not so great at the moment. You’d have been caught in the storage vault if I hadn’t rescued you.’
Arkie blushed. ‘Well, it’s true I don’t know what’s going on at the moment,’ she said. ‘But you obviously do. So what are you doing here? And who are you really?’
‘I’m your first cousin,’ said the girl.
‘But I’ve only got one first cousin,’ said Arkie. ‘TJ.’
‘Well, you’ve just got yourself another one,’ said Cate. ‘I’m your lost and found cousin. My father is Sebastian Sparkle. Your father’s brother.’
‘No,’ said Arkie, struggling to piece the information together. ‘I don’t believe you. Dad’s never even mentioned a brother. Or you. How old are you?’
‘I’m nearly thirteen,’ said Cate. ‘I’ll be thirteen on 28 June. Why? Are you planning to send me a present? After all these years.’
‘But why don’t I know anything about you?’ said Arkie. ‘Or your father? Do you know about me?’
‘Of course,’ said Cate. ‘We’ve heard about do-gooders Ted and Martha Sparkle and their treasure-hunting prodigy Arkie for years. Joining THinc and finding your first treasure when you were two. Being chosen for an “Archaeologists of the Future” delegation to Scandinavia when you were eight. Topping your class at the Treasure Hunters’ Summer School when you were ten. My father doesn’t like your family very much, you know.’
‘Well he doesn’t even know me,’ said Arkie. ‘How can he be so sure he doesn’t like me? He should at least get to know me first and then he can decide not to like me.’
‘Well, he sure hates your father,’ said Cate, ‘and strong feelings like hate tend to transfer from one generation to another.’
‘But I don’t understand,’ said Arkie, her brain in a complete frenzy, trying to unscramble the words she was hearing. ‘I didn’t know Dad had a brother. Just a sister, Edie. And why are you even here in the first place? And what were you doing on the Great Wall of China? Are you following me?’
Cate Sparkle grinned. She had a gap between her two front teeth. ‘You could say that,’ she said. ‘I’ve got a job to do. Same as you.’ She put on her backpack and looked at her watch. ‘And now I’m late,’ she said. ‘Rescuing you was an unexpected chore. Goodbye, Arkie. It’s been interesting.’
She swung her backpack over her shoulders and started running to the edge of the cliff ahead.
‘WAIT!’ shouted Arkie, running after her. ‘You can’t just leave. I’ve got more questions. Lots of questions.’
But Cate Sparkle was fast on her feet. Too fast. She was already hurtling away from Arkie.
Arkie remembered the sparks that had flown from her shoes on the Great Wall of China. She could see them again now – scorching the snow and leaving a trail of melted ice.
Arkie couldn’t keep up with her. She watched as Cate ran faster and faster, heading towards the edge of the cliff at breakneck speed.
Arkie looked on, horrified, as Cate jumped and hurled herself into the air – her feet still in the motion of running.
Time seemed suspended as Cate spread her arms out wide, like a bird in flight, her feet now locked together, her head thrown back.
Arkie had only just met her cousin and now she was going to watch her die.
She thought about her book Amazing Survival Stories and Vesna Vulovic, a flight attendant who had supposedly fallen 10,000 metres when a jetliner exploded and hit a mountain.
Miraculously, she was the only person to survive the crash.
Maybe Cate would be lucky like her?
But then Arkie remembered. Cate was falling onto ice. Ice that might crack and open into the freezing, hypothermic, die-in-a-few-minutes Arctic Ocean.
As Arkie’s mouth opened in a scream, a large red balloon suddenly burst from Cate’s backpack, halting her freefall with a jolt and yanking her up into the sky.
Arkie watched as Cate attached a harness to the balloon and settled into the ride.
She glided across the ocean until the red balloon became a tiny dot.
Then it disappeared.
Bear Stare
Arkie felt very alone.
She was in the middle of a frozen landscape without TJ and Cleo, and no idea where she was.
The fog had now closed around her completely. The ice was grey and sludgy beneath her feet.
Cate Sparkle – her cousin (the words still sounded strange) – had rescued her in the Doomsday Vault but for what?
To let her die here?
To let her die from confusion?
Arkie wasn’t sure which would happen first.
Better activate my shoe sensors, she thought. If TJ is out there somewhere, she might be able to get a fix on them.
As the rim of her shoes began to sparkle with light, she took out her Super Enhanced Goggles from her backpack and put them on. As she strained to get some kind of bearing on her landscape, she realised she wasn’t alone after all.
There was a polar bear about 10 metres away, sitting on the ice, watching her.
She hadn’t seen it at first because it was blending in so well with the ice and the fog. Camouflage 101, she thought.
Unfortunately, Arkie’s fake fur was so black against the ice she was incredibly visible.
Black and white, she thought. Prey and predator.
Everything was simple out here in the wild. If you were hungry you ate what you could find. It was eat or be eaten.
> Arkie wished it wasn’t quite so simple. She’d love an extenuating circumstance like, ‘Please don’t eat me, Mr Polar Bear, because I’ve got really important things to do. People are depending on me.’
She tried to remember what TJ had said about polar bears. This one looked very big. And very hungry. He was watching her with more interest now.
Maybe he thought she was a seal? Polar bears loved to eat seals. She had watched a David Attenborough program on seals last week. She could hear his voice now:
The polar bear is the natural enemy of the seal. As a seal lounges on the ice, a polar bear will crouch low and stalk towards it. The polar bear creeps closer and closer and then charges.
Arkie stood very still. Not moving a muscle, not daring to take the heaving breaths she needed to calm her beating heart.
Maybe he’ll think I’m a tree, she thought, except there weren’t any other trees in sight.
Maybe Cate Sparkle would drop in again on her red balloon?
No, I can’t rely on Cate Sparkle for anything. I know she saved me but I don’t trust her.
It was a stare-off. The polar bear and her.
Arkie was so cold now she wasn’t even trying not to move. She was frozen to the spot.
And then, just as David Attenborough had described, the polar bear began to creep towards her.
‘No wait,’ shouted Arkie. ‘I’m a girl, not a seal!’
She closed her eyes. She could almost feel his great big jaws and his sharp teeth biting into her. Ripping her flesh apart, limb by limb. Her bright red blood staining the ice and seeping sorrowfully into the sea.
She moved her hand slowly into the pocket of the fur coat. She needed a weapon. There was something in the far corner. She pulled it out slowly and looked at it. A nail file. Not the weapon she would have chosen for a showdown with a polar bear but at least it was something. Something between her and the jaws of death.
Arkie crouched into a fighting pose – nail file in her hand, ready to defend herself.
The polar bear was low on the ice, edging towards her.
Then, it stopped and swung its heavy head to the right. And then to the left.
It could hear something.
Arkie could hear it too. It was the sound of a motor. Coming closer. Something was speeding across the ice.
Arkie fixed her SEGs to ZOOM. She could see it was a snow scooter. And she could see who was on it.
TJ.
Arkie didn’t know how TJ had managed to escape the vault and find a snow scooter, but she didn’t care. There was only one question in her head right now: would TJ reach her before the polar bear?
She could see the polar bear asking itself the same question.
The question was like a link between them, binding them from movement.
But instinct doesn’t pause for long and, suddenly, the link snapped.
The polar bear and Arkie both began to run.
Arkie pushed herself through the sludgy ice, stumbling, running. The bear was loping behind her – slow but determined. She could hear his raspy breathing. It would just take one swipe of that paw to flatten her. Forever.
Polar bears are heavy but surprisingly agile. Just as it was positioning itself to attack, TJ sped in between Arkie and the polar bear, skidding to a stop with a flourish of ice that sprayed the bear in the face.
‘No lunch for you today,’ she said. ‘Quick, Arkie. Jump on behind.’
Arkie was on the scooter in a flash.
As they raced away, the polar bear howled hungrily into the wind.
Arkie squeezed TJ around the waist.
She couldn’t speak just yet. She just wanted to enjoy the complete relief that was flooding through her.
Finally, she found some words. ‘TJ. I thought you were – I thought I was —’
‘Yeah, me too,’ said TJ. ‘Too many close encounters for one day.’
‘But where’s Cleo?’ said Arkie. ‘Is she okay?’
‘I sent her to get backup,’ said TJ, turning around so Arkie could hear her words. ‘I thought we might need it. These scooters aren’t really built for two. I think they’re —’
‘TJ,’ shouted Arkie. ‘ROCK AHEAD. WATCH OUT!’
There was a large black rock in front of them, half buried in the snow.
TJ saw it too late. They were heading straight for it.
‘HOLD ON,’ she screamed as they went sailing up the side of it, into the air, falling, falling, crashing into the snow.
They lay sprawled on the snow in a shocked tangle of limbs, not moving.
‘Are you okay?’ said TJ, untangling her legs.
‘I think so,’ said Arkie, shaking the snow off her fur coat. ‘But I don’t think the scooter is.’
The scooter had broken into two.
‘I knew it wasn’t going to last,’ said TJ, pulling out something yellow that was stuffed inside her backpack. ‘It’s a twister tube,’ she said as she unfolded it onto the ice. ‘Like a lifejacket on a plane. Quick inflation.’ She looked ahead. ‘It’s downhill for a while so this will at least get us some of the way back to BLUR.’
TJ and Arkie jumped into the twister tube and held on to the sides as they twisted along, then dropped down the side of the steep valley, screaming all the way down.
At the bottom of the valley, the terrain levelled out and the twister tube stopped. Arkie tried to stand up but her legs were too wobbly. Her head and stomach were spinning.
TJ pulled out her stopwatch and scanned the landscape in front of her. ‘Any second now,’ she said.
‘What are we waiting for?’ said Arkie.
‘You’ll see,’ said TJ. ‘And there they are.’
Arkie followed TJ’s gaze. Cleo and a pack of Siberian huskies were pulling a sled across the ice.
‘Good girl, Cleo,’ said TJ, as Cleo came bounding up to her. ‘Your timing is impeccable. I’m giving you an A+ for this rescue. Now let’s get out of here.’
Cleo put her head in the air and led the huskies in a happy chorus of barks.
As Arkie and TJ climbed on board the sled, they could hear a helicopter flying overhead and see floodlights sweeping across the ice.
‘They’re still looking for us by the vault,’ said TJ. ‘I think we might have created an international incident. Time for another quick exit.’
‘How did you and Cleo get out of the vault?’ said Arkie as they settled into the sled, piled high with blankets.
‘When they couldn’t find you in the storage area,’ said TJ, ‘they must have thought you’d made it outside somehow, so they shut off the alarm and rushed out of the vault to search the surroundings. Cleo and I walked out the front door. It was the easiest escape ever.’
‘And the scooter?’ said Arkie.
‘I found a whole cupboard of them at the entrance so just borrowed one.’
As they approached the airstrip they could see it was empty of planes and snowmobiles.
‘They’re all searching for us and they’ll soon realise we’re not near the vault,’ said TJ. ‘Time to vanish.’ She deactivated CamOp 7a and BLUR reappeared in front of them.
As Cleo barked goodbye to the huskies, Arkie buckled herself in and TJ programmed BLUR’s turbo-charged start – to be used for quick getaways.
Then they were ready to depart.
With a roar of BLUR’s engines, they rose steeply into the air – their heads pulled back by the velocity of their ascent.
As BLUR levelled out after 60 seconds, Arkie sank back into her seat.
There were so many gaps to fill in but, for now, she just wanted to go home, have a hot bath. And sleep.
Debrief
‘So she’s your cousin?’ said TJ. ‘Like me?’
Arkie had filled TJ in on everything that had happened after they were separated in the vault. Arkie had taken a replacement Lexi from the I SPY box and they were speaking through Lexi’s THink.
‘There’ll never be anyone like you, TJ,’ said Arkie, ‘but that’s what she sai
d. Not that I trust anything Cate Sparkle says. She doesn’t like me – she made that obvious – and I don’t like her.’
‘But what was she doing there?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe she’s following us for some reason. First, she turns up on the Great Wall and now she’s in the Doomsday Vault. And somehow I think we’ll be seeing her again.’
Arkie thought of the clue in Braille. They were following the clues from the kidnappers blindly –with no idea of what was going on.
‘But the kidnappers have made their first mistake,’ she said.
‘They have?’ said TJ.
‘We know the house is bugged. We can use that to our advantage.’
‘You mean feed them wrong information?’ said TJ.
‘Exactly,’ said Arkie. We’re going to be smarter than them from now on. Have you got the seeds?’
TJ pulled them out of her pocket and rolled them all out on the table.
Arkie took a photo and emailed it to the kidnappers at [email protected]
The reply came quickly:
Treasure No. 3 verified and credit registered in treasure bank.
Post seeds back to Doomsday Vault.
Await further instructions.
‘We’ll be waiting all right,’ said Arkie, grimly. ‘We’ll be waiting and ready.’
What next?
At 11 o’clock that night, the THinc hotline rang.
The red mobile was reserved for AEs – Archaeological Emergencies. It hardly ever rang.
Arkie stared at it through sleepy eyes, waiting for her brain to tell her what to do. Finally it did:
THE PHONE IS RINGING. ANSWER IT.
Arkie picked it up and pressed the green button. Her hands were trembling. ‘Hello,’ she said. ‘Who is it?’
There was silence on the other end of the phone – just a faint mechanical sound, as though some kind of generator was running in the background.
‘Who’s there?’ Arkie repeated in a louder voice, her heart pumping inside her chest.
‘Arkie,’ said a faint voice on the other end.