by Ruby Loren
“A pit?” I said, thinking back to the story which had been pasted beneath the Serpentine Emerald. “I thought things like snake pits had been abolished ages ago. They’re a terrible way to keep snakes.”
George gave a surprisingly world-weary sigh. “No, it’s not like an old fashioned pit. It’s just an open enclosure, really and we’re at the bottom of it. The snakes seem to like it on sunny days when the roof is open. It's an experiment that’s being run.”
My eyebrows shot up. “An experiment?” I frowned, thinking about the layout of the manor. "Where exactly are we?”
“Beneath the garden. There’s a tunnel that leads out here. Where all the hedges are, there’s a big summerhouse that only Lord Snidely and Trinity have the keys to. In the summerhouse, he does his experiments. Things like figuring out if a snake prefers live food to dead food, or if sunlight has a positive effect on their health. You know, slightly unethical experiments that might get him in trouble if he did them out in the open.”
“He showed all of this to you?” I asked and George nodded.
“Yeah. When I first came here and agreed to take the job, he showed me round everywhere. It was only later that he sort of seemed to, I don't know… lose interest. Come to think of it, it was around that time that Trinity showed up.”
“Oh,” I said, privately thinking that Lord Snidely must have realised that his heir was not the next Albert Einstein. While there was nothing wrong with not being a genius, I could see how someone as sharp witted as Trinity would capture his attention, and possibly be let in on the deeper workings of Dracondia Manor.
“So, we’re below the summer house,” I mused.
“Yeah, I never saw this bit of it before I got dropped here, but it makes sense. The pits are set into the ground and I suppose every now and then they need to clean them out and do maintenance. It makes sense to have the access down here and they also have these cool lights in here that sometimes shine through the glass and keep the snakes warm and make the plants grow and stuff.”
I tried the door handle again and pulled a little. It really was unlocked!
George slammed his hand against the door, wedging it fully shut again. “Did you not hear what I just said? There’s a bunch of venomous snakes on the other side of this door! I know a thing or two about them.”
I threw him a sceptical look. Him not knowing about snakes was precisely the reason I was currently stuck in a basement, awaiting probable death at the hands of a crazy distant relative of the Snidely family and her cronies.
“We’ve got to find a way out of here, or they’re going to kill us,” I said, baldly.
He stared at me. “But if you try to get out that way, you’ll die.”
“As soon as you sign that emerald over, we’re all dead in some way or another. I don't even know why we were brought down here. The missing money seems petty in comparison to the emerald,” I admitted.
George looked thoughtful for a moment. “You know, the snakes in these cages aren’t normal. I know I said about the experiments that Lord Snidely was doing but I don’t think that’s all there is to it. I saw some chemistry things when he showed me around…”
The door to the basement swung open so hard it hit the opposite wall and rebounded off, juddering. Trinity Snidely stood at the top of the stairs.
“Well done, George. I really didn’t have you pegged for figuring out nearly as much as you did. As for you Madi, you’re a regular little sleuth aren’t you?” She smiled.
So, she did bug the place! I thought and wished I’d slung around a few more insults. I’d have to make up for it by being rude to her face.
“What about Lowell? How did he get the illness?” I asked, wondering if he’d woken up in a cell. I wondered if he’d even remember that he didn’t kill Marie and who the true criminals were.
Trinity laughed. “That wild goose chase couldn’t have ended better if I’d planned it. I now have a rough idea of the location of the heirlooms and Mr. Private Detective is looking very guilty indeed right now.” She examined her nails. “Ah, yes… the mystery illness. It’s rather pertinent that you’re down here, at the heart of all of the experiments when you learn the truth. There’s no mystery illness, just some rather smart security measures.”
She leant against the railing at the top of the stairs, the light shining in from behind her. “Our experiments go way beyond the effects of sunlight and live vs. dead food sources. The Snidely family have always loved snakes, especially the venomous kind, and the snakes have always earned their keep. Even since the Victorian times, Snidelys have been experimenting with snake venom, distilling it for strength and working out its composition in order to make something new - something better.
“Back when the Snidelys started, they tested their venom on unsuspecting thieves.” She smiled. “It never ended well for the thieves. You read the story on the side of the emerald case? When the thief in question picked up the emerald from its stand, he didn’t disarm it, having no idea he had to. A tiny needle would have shot out and punctured his hand, or wrist. He probably wouldn’t even have noticed. Well, until several minutes later.”
Trinity paused, clearly loving the attention we were giving her. “Then he’ll have felt all kinds of nasty things. Even way back then, the Snidely family knew a thing or two about chemistry. Black mambas were always a favoured snake of the family, prized especially for their venom, which has some truly interesting neurological effects when you…” She shook her head. “I’m getting ahead of myself. Back then, the work done with venom was still fairly rudimentary. The most that had been done was to mix venom from multiple snakes with neurotoxic and hemotoxic effects and then strengthen it, so that the effects were felt much faster. The moment that thief was jabbed with the needle, he was dead. He just didn’t know it.” She flicked a strand of her short hair back behind her ear. “I’m actually impressed he made it as far as the pit. Then all Lord Snidely had to do was push the thief in with the snakes and everyone would think he’d met his end in a rather karmic turn of events.
“It was great. The death just furthered the stories of the jewel being cursed. It put thieves off for decades.”
She smiled again and her eyes took on a distant look. I realised she was relishing the chance to rub all of this in our faces. We were people she could spill her plans to, because she knew we weren't going to live to tell our stories. My last hope that George was right and signing over the jewel would get us out of here vanished.
“Since then, we’ve developed a better understanding of how venom works. When Joan invited me here to work with the family, after we’d got on so well at a tea party, Lord Snidely spotted my potential right away. I have a degree in chemistry and he had a great idea. Things were being stolen from the manor. They turned up on the market and he was able to buy them back, using his connections, but it was rather tiresome and naturally, he felt that there should be some justice for those who abused their employer’s trust.
“He showed me around the summerhouse and explained about the low-key experiments he had going on, hidden from the public eye. He also told me the story about the thief but these days we can’t go around killing people who dare to steal from us. Someone would be bound to notice. That was where my knowledge came in handy. I was able to work with various venoms until I'd created a substance that created some interesting effects, without killing anyone. On the whole, it was an adaptation of a neurotoxic venom. I just twisted a few things to create confusion that made the subject act out of the ordinary. Then it would work on the nervous system and cause unconsciousness.”
She smirked. “I actually surpassed myself on this. I was so focused on my experiments that I didn’t realise what I’d created had many chemical similarities with drugs available on the street. When people started acting strangely, the doctors immediately assumed drugs were being abused. It was brilliant!”
“How did you administer it?” I asked, hoping to cut off her self-congratulatory spiel.
“That was the masterstroke! The needle armed emerald stand was pretty good for its time, but our plan needed modernising. I worked out a way to make it so that the venom would be absorbed by skin contact. It was even strong enough to eat through latex, so even if a thief was covering their fingerprints, they’d still get a shot of it. The venom takes about half an hour to work.”
She frowned. “To be honest, that might have been its downfall, but we were lucky. The thieves operated at all times of day. Thanks to Lowell, I now know why - they stashed it all onsite! Every time they went back to collect items to sell on, they'd get dosed. I guess they must have figured out what was happening, because suddenly none of the items were turning up in the usual places. That was when the plan really backfired. We knew for sure which people had been in contact with the goods, but we didn’t know where they were keeping them and we could hardly go and interrogate them. If anyone found out that we were responsible for booby trapping our own heirlooms, we’d be in more trouble than the thieves.
“I’m guessing they must have figured out something was wrong - hence why they didn’t sell. But they could hardly return the items or come clean, so they must have abandoned them.” She brightened. “I’ll be able to go and get them now.”
“The cleaning company, did they know?” I asked, remembering one of Lowell’s lines of enquiry.
“Our whole reason for employing them was that they didn’t ask questions. We supplied the cleaners with gloves that wouldn’t be breached by the venom and warned them to never take the gloves off.” She shrugged. “They probably just thought we were being picky about fingerprints, but it meant the ploy worked. After the weekly clean, I’d just pop round after hours and spritz on some fresh venom.”
Silence fell in the basement and I knew the time had come to learn our fate. Trinity waited expectantly and I broke, the need to know getting to me. “What happens to us now?” I asked her.
The smile jumped back onto her face. “Well, obviously you know too much. You’ll have figured out that we’re responsible for Jackie’s death. Eleanor was about to get in George’s car and drive away after Harrison had picked up George, but she heard a noise and went back into the building to investigate and saw Jackie snooping around. Eleanor figured she and George had something worked out in case anything happened to him and he must have been able to alert her. She grabbed a cleaver from the food prep room and, well… it seems her actions were rather misjudged.”
She tilted her head, examining us all, as we stood beneath her. I felt like an animal in a cage - one that’s destined for the slaughterhouse.
“You wanted to know what’s going to happen to you. Well, we still have lots of work to do with snake venom and you know what they say - human subjects are always best. Just think of it as helping science,” she said with a nasty smile.
My hands balled up into fists - something which Trinity must have observed because she laughed.
“Or, you may have noticed the doors to the enclosures aren’t particularly secure. So, by all means, feel free to take that way out. I’m sure our observations of your death will also be very interesting. Ta ta!” She said, and shut the door, cutting off the stream of light and leaving us in the deepening gloom.
“I haven’t even got anything to do with this,” Mr Crawley muttered.
I felt sorry for him. He hadn’t been the one snooping around. We were both well within our rights to want to lynch George Ashdown. If he hadn’t reneged on the original deal - dastardly though it may be - and then force fed his poor snake the Serpentine Emerald, we wouldn’t be in this situation. As it stood, we could pick between becoming a lab rat, or walking out into the sea of venomous snakes, only to die when they administered their venom directly.
It wasn’t much of a choice.
I sank down with my back against the wall, trying to think. I knew I wasn't going to be anyone’s lab rat. I would do everything I could to find a way out of here, or die trying. Trinity hadn't spelt it out, but I suspected she was going to find a way to pin mine and Mr Crawley’s disappearances on Lowell’s alleged drug abuse - as well as the murder of Marie.
It certainly painted a picture. Everyone would be so busy condemning him for his atrocities and asking him to reveal our location, no one would even consider that he’d been framed. And all the time, we’d be rotting away beneath Dracondia Manor - alive, but only in the scientific sense of the word.
My fists were still clenched from when Trinity had pronounced our fate, but it would not be mine.
I shut my eyes and did my best to think of all the snake facts I had learnt during my time spent at Snidely. As the night wore on, I could only pray that it had been enough. My life would depend upon it.
My mind drifted to Lucky and I dearly hoped that someone was looking after him. I couldn’t contemplate anything bad happening to the little kitten. I’ll get out of here, don’t you worry, I whispered to him in my head.
As the first few streaks of grey dawn filtered through the frosted glass on the basement walls, I opened my eyes.
It was now or never.
Mr Crawley and George were still sleeping and I decided to let them lie. They couldn’t do anything to help me. Mr Crawley was too injured to risk bringing with me, and I simply didn’t trust George - even with his own life.
I was pleased I’d managed to wake up at dawn. I vaguely remembered the weather forecast saying that it was going to be a warm, late August day. If I waited any longer, I'd lose what little advantage I had.
There weren’t many tricks when it came to walking through a pit of venomous snakes. The best advice would be ‘don’t do it’. That wasn’t an option. Trinity and her minions couldn’t be allowed to get away with what they had planned for the three of us and the despicable framing of Lowell. I had to do something. I had to try.
The only thing I'd been able to think of that might help was the fact that snakes are, on the whole, sluggish before the day has warmed up. Being cold-blooded, they lie in the sun to get warm. I was hoping that during the early hours, they’d be less predisposed towards biting me. It would have been better to go at night, but with no way to see the supposedly sleeping snakes, it would have been ten to one that I’d tread on someone’s tail.
I also hoped that no one would be watching the CCTV. Trinity may have implied that walking through the pit was a ‘way out’ but I knew she hadn’t meant that if I did reach the opposite side, she’d shake my hand and send me on my way with her best wishes.
The first thing to do was to check the different enclosures. I was still harbouring hopes that one would contain fewer ‘kill you in half an hour’ type snakes.
“Let’s see what’s behind door number one,” I said, making my way to the first door in the glass.
A sea of king cobras lay behind door number one. Not the best of starts. Door number two revealed a mass of Inland Taipan and door number three…
“Black mambas. Of course,” I muttered, remembering the family's affiliation for them. After what he and Trinity had said, I had my suspicions that they might be even more venomous than the average variety. Not all chemistry took place in a lab - one of the best ways to make venom more effective would be to change the snakes’ diets.
“Well, obviously not door number three…” I started to close the tiny crack of door I’d opened to peer through but something caught my eye.
Now that I thought about it, the other pits ended with a blank concrete wall. I’d been mentally forming a plan of using the bits of tree branch and undergrowth around the edges of the pit to climb out, but I’d known that my efforts would likely be in vain. This was a beacon of hope in an otherwise bleak situation.
I should have known the ladder would be in the mamba pit. Someone was probably taunting me.
I shut my eyes for a moment, thinking about all I’d learned about mambas. They were diurnal. In the wild, they stayed as far away from humans as possible. While they had a reputation for aggression, they actually acted out of fear when humans
got too close. I knew that if I were bitten, it would most likely be on my upper body and incredibly fast, perhaps multiple times. In Africa, they called a bite from a black mamba the kiss of death.
I blinked. I hadn't realised I'd picked up all of these facts from my research, but among them, nothing stood out that would boost my odds of survival. I would have to turn that inner instinct I used to work out when animals weren’t happy and use it on these mambas - an animal I wasn’t nearly familiar enough with.
“Here goes everything,” I said and opened the door.
12
Snakes and a Showdown
Fortunately, no snakes were near the entrance when I pulled open the glass door. I stepped through and shut it behind me, pausing to take in what lay before me.
The pit was an abstract shape with walls that resembled chiselled rock, but I suspected were merely concrete. I still thought pits were an unorthodox way to keep animals - especially when so many were confined together - but whoever had designed the pits had done so with a mind for creating a suitable environment for the snakes. Shrubbery had been planted, dead branches and rocks provided ample hiding spaces, and the floor itself had been left as bare earth, meaning that the snakes could presumably burrow. I was hoping that in these burrows was where the bulk of them were right now.
I scanned the ground in front of me and found it wasn’t as crowded as I’d feared. I could see a few tails of the grey and brownish mambas, but it looked as though I might be lucky. I’d got up earlier than the snakes had.
Up above, the sky was still only just lightening, giving me visibility, but no perceptible warmth. I mentally shook myself. I could analyse this situation all day. In the end, I would still have to run the gauntlet - and the sooner, the better.
I took a step forwards, and then another. Before I knew it, I was three quarters of the way across the enclosure and nothing had happened. A little smile graced my face. I was going to make it! Trinity had been so wrapped up in her experiments with venom, she’d never paid attention to the snakes’ natural behaviour.