by Lauren Child
‘I don’t think that’s it Clance. We’re not talking about some accidental murder here, or some heat-of-the-moment crime. This plan was thought through in triplicate; this plan is about locating something and stealing it. This gang want to get away with it… Why wouldn’t they? But maybe someone else doesn’t want them to; perhaps the mastermind of this plan wants them to get caught.’
‘What do you mean by that?’ said Clancy, trying to wrestle himself out of the beanbag. He was in arm-flap mode, but his arms were restricted by the beanbag and he resembled a beetle flailing on its back. ‘You saying the mastermind criminal mighta set up the rest of the gang?’
‘Yeah, I guess that’s exactly what I’m thinking, but then I’m thinking why?’
‘Revenge?’ suggested Clancy.
‘Then why not take the treasure too? Getting the pirates caught means losing the booty – makes no sense. There has to be something bigger, far more valuable, that this top guy wants. He must know we’re onto him, watching the waters, so he’s using the little guys as a distraction; if you like, they’re the bait, the sprats, and this guy is fishing for sharks.’
Inevitably though, Clancy only registered the word ‘shark’ and immediately looked panicked.
Ruby rolled her eyes. ‘It’s an expression dummy. What I mean is this guy is most likely looking for the real treasure.’
‘Meaning what?’ Clancy was scrunkling his brow.
‘Meaning the Fairbank rubies,’ said Ruby.
‘But I thought that was just some legend,’ said Clancy. ‘No one really believes they actually exist.’
‘I do,’ said Ruby. ‘Martha Fairbank said they were left in that cave and I believe her.’
‘Why?’ said Clancy.
‘Because,’ said Ruby, ‘she couldn’t tell a lie.’
‘Why not? Little kids often come up with crazy ideas. Take my sister Amy – she thinks a pixie lives up the chimney.’
‘You’re missing the point Clance. Martha couldn’t tell a lie because she had ingested a truth serum.’
‘Now you’re talking crazy Rube. Martha was born in the eighteenth century, and correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think she would have just happened to swallow a truth serum.’
‘Well, that’s where you are wrong my friend; that’s exactly what happened, just like it happened to Pookie, the Gruemeisters’ dog, and possibly to Francesco Fornetti the famous marine biologist.’
Clancy was staring at her in disbelief.
‘Quit with the face would you Clance?’
‘I’ll quit with the face if you explain what the Sam Hill you’re going on about.’
‘OK,’ said Ruby. ‘You’ve heard of the Sea Whisperer?’
‘Of course,’ said Clancy.
‘So what I’m saying is this creature actually exists, not a devil but a giant octopus.’
‘What?’ said Clancy. ‘A giant what did you say?’
‘Octopus,’ said Ruby. ‘The sea devil, the creature Martha Lily Fairbank heard those pirates shrieking about, not the same actual octopus obviously, but the same one Red heard, the same one I heard, and all those other kids and possibly the same one that Francesco Fornetti saw ten years ago.’
‘Octopuses only live for a maximum of four to five years,’ said Clancy. He was sure on this point.
‘Yeah, but this octopus isn’t like others, it’s bigger for a start. Most giant octopuses have a thirty-foot span, but this one, according to Fornetti, is more like fifty feet wide.’
‘Geez,’ said Clancy. ‘You saying a giant octopus has been terrorising the sharks?’
‘And strangling unfortunate fishermen,’ said Ruby. ‘Remember the guy found strangled in his boat?’
Clancy nodded.
‘The octopus did it,’ said Ruby.
‘Huh?’ said Clancy.
‘There’s this seafarers’ legend about the Sea Whisperer,’ said Ruby. ‘“They say it can lure a child to a watery grave, that it can strangle the breath from the strongest man…”’
Clancy chimed in.
‘“Some say it can persuade a stranger to tell his darkest secret.”’
‘You know it?’ asked Ruby,
‘Yeah, I know it,’ said Clancy. ‘It’s mentioned in one of the myths of the ocean books I got.’
‘Of course, why am I surprised? I am speaking to the boy who knows everything about the ocean, but never dips a toe in it. Anyway,’ said Ruby, ’the Sea Whisperer must have pulled the fisherman out of his boat, dragged him underwater, strangled him and then dumped him back.’
‘Why didn’t it eat him?’ said Clancy.
‘I don’t know Clance. I’m not sure what makes a giant octopus tick, but it killed that diver by dragging him under until he ran out of air. “It can strangle the breath from the strongest man.” The strange marks on his ankle were from where the tentacle – or rather octopus arm – grabbed him. Also, the legend says, “They say it can lure a child to a watery grave.” Well, that’s true too, in part anyway. It makes this sound, you see, like a siren calling out for help – only the young can hear it and if they follow the sound, they end up drowned or in its clutches.’
Clancy wasn’t feeling so good. This was meant to be fiction, just a legend.
But Ruby hadn’t finished. ‘“Some say it can persuade a stranger to tell his darkest secret.” There’s a truth serum in its ink; if you swallow it, even a little, it will make you talk and talk and for a while every word will be the truth. Francesco Fornetti experienced it for himself.’
‘OK, so let’s say you’ve convinced me, and I’m not saying you have, but just say for argument’s sake that the sea monster is real, the rubies exist, the arch villain wants the rubies, the rubies are in a cave. And this villain has sent Spectrum off chasing the pirates to get everyone out of the way.’
‘Uh huh,’ said Ruby.
‘So how did he know Spectrum had broken the Chime Melody code?’ asked Clancy.
Ruby frowned. She thought about the question for a couple of minutes and then replied. ‘Because he saw us that day when we were diving the Seahorse wreck.’
‘How do you know?’ said Clancy.
‘Because I saw him, at least I saw a flash of light, his binoculars catching the sun maybe. He was watching us that day – he saw me and Hitch and Kekoa turn up. He must have known we’d cracked the Chime code otherwise why would we be there in that exact spot? He must have been standing there on the island; he must have found a way into the caves.’
‘OK,’ said Clancy. ‘If all that’s true, then where’s the cave?’
‘That’s a question and a good one,’ sighed Ruby. ‘That part I haven’t figured out. Somewhere in the smaller of the two Sibling Islands, but if Martha was right, it was most likely covered by a landslide, that’s why no one ever found it.’
‘So you don’t have any way of proving your theory?’
‘Not yet,’ said Ruby, exhaling heavily.
Neither of them said a thing, not for several minutes. The silence or near silence was broken by Clancy suddenly becoming aware of the static tape playing in the background. ‘What are you listening to by the way? It sounds like white noise. It’s pretty boring and it’s giving me toothache.’
He reached over from his reclined position to switch off the tape, but instead clicked play on the second cassette. Two static sounds played one on top of the other, making an eerie sort of noise. ‘Oops,’ he said. ‘Even worse.’ He reached for the off switch, but fell backwards into the beanbag, his hand landing on the portable player to his left and so triggering the play button on that machine.
Now all three static sounds were hissing at once, but it wasn’t static Ruby and Clancy could hear any more – it was jumbled words.
They looked at each other, utterly speechless.
Chapter 39.
Your mother's jewel
RUBY REWOUND EACH CASSETTE TO THE VERY BEGINNING then she held her fingers over the two play buttons on the double cassette player. C
lancy held his finger over the play button of the portable player. When Ruby gave the nod, they both pushed all three buttons at once and then Ruby and Clancy sat there in amazement, listening to the clear voice that the three simultaneously playing static tapes had magically turned into.
A golden bird sits above the tidal pool where the Sea Whisperer lurks.
Look up and you will find your reward – I don’t need to count on your loyalty, just remember you cannot tell a lie.
The three static messages weren’t three different messages, they were just one. Played together, the sounds layered on top of each other to form words.
All of a sudden Ruby sat bolt upright, realising something else too. The lullaby that for so many years had sent her to her dreams had now woken her up. The words – not just empty sounds but a message.
A golden bird guards over you…
Without explanation she raced downstairs and flung open the door to the living room.
‘Ruby!’ her mother hissed. ‘I’ve just got him to sleep!’
Ruby tried to whisper, but her heart was pounding. ‘I just have to know, where did that lullaby come from? Did you make it up?’
Sabina looked surprised. ‘Oh no, it was handed down from my mother.’
‘And where did she get it from?’ said Ruby.
‘From her mother,’ replied Sabina. ‘It dates right back to your great-great-great-grandmother Martha Lily Fairbank. She’s the one who made it up. I just changed the word rubies to Ruby!’
Ruby stood there in the doorway stunned by this revelation. All these years the location of the Fairbank rubies was singing in their ears, just waiting for someone to really listen.
When the stars begin to fall,
You will hear the ocean call.
In other words, when the asteroid comes, the currents fall still and it’s possible to get to the cave.
When you hear that whispered sound,
You will know that you are found.
A reference to the Sea Whisperer, which according to the criminal mastermind’s static code message, lived in the tidal pool below where the rubies were hidden.
A golden bird guards over you
My little gem my words are true.
In other words, the cave was just below the bird shape on the rock of the smaller Sibling Island – Martha had told the truth.
Ruby was breathing hard and her mother was looking at her anxiously.
‘Honey, you OK?’
Ruby nodded, turned and closed the door. She stumbled back upstairs. Clancy by now was on his feet and his arms were flapping uncontrollably. ‘What is it?’ he asked. ‘What’s going on?’
‘I gotta talk to Spectrum.’
Ruby radioed through to the only agent she could think might actually still be at HQ.
‘Froghorn,’ she said, trying to catch her breath. ‘Listen, this is real important.’
‘Look little girl, the grown-ups are busy right now. Try calling back tomorrow.’
‘Yeah, well, they wouldn’t be busy if it wasn’t for me.’
‘Rather full of ourselves, aren’t we?’
‘Look Froghorn, I’m trying very hard here not to call you a potato head so could you help me out with that by not behaving like a potato head? I need to get some important information to Hitch, and unfortunately, I gotta talk to you to do this.’
‘They’re out of range,’ came the reply. ‘You should know that. All radio transmission is dead. Besides,’ he said unhelpfully, ‘they are a little bit too busy catching pirates to chat to schoolgirls. I—’
Ruby cut him off before she felt compelled to go over there and sock him on the nose.
She walked to her closet and pulled out a huge carryall bag that was already stuffed full of something bulky looking. She opened it, checked inside and zipped it back up.
‘What are you doing?’ asked Clancy.
‘What does it look like?’ said Ruby. She was pulling on her hooded sweatshirt and scanning the room for her boots. ‘I’m going out.’
‘But it’s eleven thirty at night,’ said Clancy.
‘Eleven twenty-eight I think you’ll find,’ said Ruby, checking that the rescue watch was secured round her wrist – it still kept coming loose.
‘Darn this strap,’ she cursed. She grabbed the limpet lights and rummaged around for the sea-sting antidote, finally finding it in her desk drawer. She threaded it though an elastic hairband and pulled it onto her right wrist – she didn’t have time to fiddle with clipping it to a zip right now, she was in way too big a hurry.
‘Now, where’s that breathing buckle?’ she said, looking around.
‘This it?’ said Clancy, picking the silver buckle from a heap of discarded clothes.
‘Yeah, that’s it.’
‘OK,’ said Clancy. ‘Just where are you thinking of going at eleven twenty-eight at night?’
‘Don’t you mean where are we going?’ said Ruby, slinging the carryall over her shoulder. It was heavy.
‘I’m not going anywhere,’ said Clancy.
Ruby shrugged. ‘So I’ll go on my own.’
‘Are you crazy? You can’t go on your own, wherever you’re going.’
‘So come with me,’ she called as she climbed out of the window.
‘Oh brother!’ grumbled Clancy as he scrambled to his feet. ‘Sometimes I really hate you Rube, you know that?’
Chapter 40.
Looking for trouble
CLANCY AND RUBY WERE WALKING down the harbour road: it was dark and though a few of the bars were still open for business, on the whole it was pretty quiet.
‘What’s in the bag?’ asked Clancy.
‘You’ll see.’
‘So apart from trouble what exactly are you looking for?’
‘Rubies,’ replied Ruby.
‘What, you’re gonna rob Keller’s jewellery store?’ said Clancy in a rather sarcastic tone.
‘Ha ha, funny,’ said Ruby flatly. ‘I might bust a gut laughing.’
Clancy stopped walking. ‘Don’t tell me you’re going alone on this. Man, are you totally out of your mind? You don’t even know if the rubies actually exist and if they do, then they’re most likely in the hands of a psychopath.’
‘So?’ replied Ruby.
‘So you just get a kick out of doing stupid things?’ said Clancy.
‘As a matter of fact, I think I would be pretty stupid not to.’
‘Really? How dya figure that?’ Clancy was standing with his hands on his hips; he looked somehow comical when he was all indignant, like an angry teapot.
‘Look Clance, what you gotta see is that there’s a pretty villainous guy, in fact at least two of them, who seem to think there’s something to this legend. Now, what you gotta ask yourself is why?’
‘’Cause they know something we don’t know? Is that what you’re trying to suggest?’ said Clancy. ‘Have you not considered that these guys are as crazyfied as all those other folk who believe in the Twinford treasure?’
‘I have considered that Clancy, yes, I have,’ replied Ruby calmly. ‘But even if these “bad” fellows are mistaken about the gems and gold, even if there is no treasure to find, it doesn’t change the fact that these bad guys will be there in the caves looking for it and, correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe we are looking for bad guys.’
‘You are looking for bad guys,’ corrected Clancy.
‘OK, I am looking for bad guys and if I locate the treasure caves, I’ll find them.’
Clancy frowned. ‘Have you considered just how bad these bad guys might be?’
‘I have; as a matter of fact, I have a feeling I know one of them quite well.’
Clancy shivered. ‘You’re not thinking of a certain someone are you? Italian shoes, beady eyes, slow, agonising deaths?’ His voice sounded thin.
Ruby nodded.
Neither of them wanted to actually say his name, but they were both thinking of him. Count von Viscount: a man so deadly that once caught in his clutches,
few ever escaped. In fact only two, just Bradley Baker and Ruby Redfort and Ruby hoped that she’d never lay eyes on him again.
‘Why are you so sure?’ said Clancy.
‘A couple of things,’ replied Ruby. ‘First all that drama of the pirates and the old-fashioned-looking pirate ship – like from some old B-movie. It’s the Count’s style, theatrical, cinematic.’
‘OK,’ said Clancy, ‘but that doesn’t make it him.’
‘No,’ agreed Ruby, ‘but that last message, the static one, it was like an order the way it said, I don’t need to count on your loyalty, just remember you cannot tell a lie. I think it’s a message to the Count not from him, warning him to be careful. Don’t double-cross me because I can make you drink the truth serum so you cannot tell a lie.’
It made perfect sense and as a result, Clancy wasn’t feeling so good. Just a few weeks ago the Count had almost succeeded in burying Ruby alive under several tons of sand. When that didn’t work out for him, he’d given permission for one of his cohorts to cut her throat. And Clancy wasn’t forgetting his own narrow escape from extinction by the hand (or rather diamond revolver) of Nine Lives Capaldi, the Count’s most deadly assassin. Though at least now she was all out of lives.
‘So will you come with me?’ asked Ruby.
‘Uh uh, no way.’ Clancy was sure on this point. ‘You’re not getting me in a little sailboat hunting for a crazy murderer and that’s final.’
‘But it isn’t a sailboat,’ assured Ruby.
‘It isn’t?’ said Clancy.
‘No,’ said Ruby. ‘It’s what they call a dinghy.’
‘What!’ spluttered Clancy. ‘You have to be kidding! No way. Not now, not ever.’
‘Oh, come on Clance, live a little,’ said Ruby in her best Ruby Redfort persuader voice.
‘Yeah, well, that’s what I want to do and that’s why I absolutely am not coming. You’re not using me as fish food.’
They walked out to the furthest part of the harbour, past a tramp who was settling in for a night sleeping rough on a wooden bench. He was busy securing his bag of possessions underneath the seat and took no interest in these kids who should be all tucked up in bed by now – why should he care?