Alice-Miranda in the Alps (22 page)

‘Can we breathe in those boxes?' Millie asked doubtfully.

‘They are climate-controlled and well ventilated. You will be fine,' Marius assured her. ‘And I will get word to Anton to notify your parents that you are safe.'

‘Is he an Interpol agent as well?' Sep asked. ‘Because he's a really convincing train conductor.'

Marius nodded. ‘Trains are his hobby. This was the perfect assignment for him.'

Sep raised his eyebrows. ‘Whoa, I want to be an agent when I grow up – imagine getting to catch bad guys and ride the Glacier Express for months on end.'

‘Seriously, we're in mortal danger and that's all you can think about?' Sloane shook her head in disgust.

‘Now, make sure you cry out every so often, otherwise Andreas will become suspicious. Listen for my directions.' Marius closed the door, and the children heard a key turn in the lock.

The train pushed on through the mountains for hours. When Marius returned to their carriage, the children and Herr Dettwiller did exactly as they were asked, curling themselves into the empty Fanger's boxes. It was lucky the old man was quite small and that the boxes were so large. Just as Marius had told them, the train stopped in the mountain siding and he unhitched the second wagon, leaving behind nothing but fruit and vegetables which had been bound for some Alpine restaurants.

As the train came to a halt at St Moritz station, an army of workers began to unload the cargo. A dozen men heaved the boxes into the back of two waiting vans that were headed directly to Fanger's Palace Hotel to be deposited into the vault. Remarkably, the children kept as quiet as church mice. Not so much as a whimper escaped their lips.

The vans travelled the short distance to the hotel and soon the familiar beeping of a reversing vehicle signalled their arrival at their destination.

‘Good evening, Frau Doerflinger,' Andreas said, jumping out of the first van.

Marius got out of the other van, which contained the children and Nina's grandfather.

‘You have the entire shipment?' the woman asked stiffly. ‘No thanks to your investigative skills, Roten. I can't believe in all this time you couldn't locate the entrance to that underground station and yet my niece knew it all along.'

Marius grunted in response and began to unload the boxes onto several large trolleys.

‘Ouch,' Millie yelped as her bottom was bumped.

The rest of the children and Herr Dettwiller winced, hoping the smugglers wouldn't notice. Caprice was about to tell the girl off for making
a noise when she realised doing so would give them all away. She clamped her hand over her mouth just in time.

‘What was that?' Delphine barked.

Marius held up a finger. ‘Jammed it between the boxes.'

The woman rolled her eyes. ‘Hurry up. My associates are waiting to receive their goods.'

Millie, who had been holding her breath, exhaled with relief.

Delphine followed Andreas to the lift with the first trolley of boxes. ‘We will be back soon. No slacking off,' she ordered, glaring at Marius.

As the lift doors closed Marius heaved the top box back to the ground and unsnapped the locks.

Alice-Miranda looked up at him. ‘What do you want me to do?' she asked.

‘We need to get everyone out,' Marius instructed. ‘Quickly!'

Alice-Miranda clambered onto the side of the trolley and released the locks on the box that contained Millie. Marius staggered under the weight of another, which he placed gently on the floor. Sloane almost leapt out of hers like a jack-in-the-box. A minute later all of the children and Herr Dettwiller were free.

‘What do we do now?' Millie asked, her green eyes darting all over the storeroom.

‘I have to get to the vault. Anton is coordinating backup around the hotel,' Marius said, leading them all to the lifts. ‘Do you know the way upstairs?'

Alice-Miranda nodded. ‘We accidentally came down here the other day. You should go. I assume the vault is in the basement.'

‘Yes,' Marius said, checking his watch.

He reached out to press the button for the lift just as the bell dinged and the doors slid open. Andreas stood there facing them.

For a moment no one said a word.

‘What is this?! Liar!' Andreas screamed, charging at Marius's middle. The two men went flying into a pile of green linen sacks. A struggle ensued, with Andreas throwing punches and mostly missing his target.

‘Alice-Miranda, Millie, get downstairs and lock them in before it's too late,' Marius shouted. He threw the token to Alice-Miranda while fending off Andreas with his other hand. ‘Use the key to scramble the code!'

Alice-Miranda nodded and ran into the lift, with Millie by her side. She pressed the button and the doors closed.

Meanwhile, Sep had spotted a net among the bric-a-brac in the corner of the storeroom. He pointed at it and called to his sister. Sloane and Caprice raced to get it while Lucas and Jacinta launched themselves at Andreas, who had pinned Marius to the ground.

‘Get off him!' Lucas yelled, wrestling Andreas to the floor.

Jacinta catapulted herself backwards out of harm's way as Marius rolled out from underneath the scuffle and leapt to his feet. Lucas jumped up too just as Sep and the girls threw the net over Andreas.

‘Let me out of here!' the man demanded.

Andreas struggled and kicked, landing a blow against one of the trolleys with its tower of Fanger's Chocolate boxes. They wobbled and swayed.

‘Look out!' Herr Dettwiller shouted as the boxes toppled. One smashed open and a stray bar of gold flew through the air, striking Andreas on the head and knocking him out cold.

Without so much as a whisper, the elevator doors slid open to reveal a room with a steel ceiling and walls. A couple of metres in front of Millie and
Alice-Miranda was a giant round door, at least fifty centimetres thick. It was wide open, and the girls could see that Delphine Doerflinger was standing inside it next to a man and woman.

‘It's the couple from the ski lift,' Millie whispered.

The man's head snapped in their direction. ‘Who is there?' he called.

The two girls scurried behind the door.

‘Marius?' Delphine stalked over to the entrance. ‘Where is that stupid good-for-nothing –'

‘Vincenzo, how much longer do we have to stay down here? Gold is so boring unless I can wear it,' Sancia whined.

Alice-Miranda nodded to Millie. ‘That's her, all right.'

Delphine walked back to resume her conversation with the man, discussing weights and quantities.

‘Where is the rest of it?' he demanded.

Deciding that the coast was clear, Alice-Miranda and Millie leaned against the door. They pushed and shoved with all their might but it refused to budge. Just as Millie gave one last heave, she lost her footing and skidded across the marble floor.
Vincenzo looked up again and this time he locked eyes with her.

Millie froze. ‘Oops.'

‘Get her!' the man shouted, running to the vault door.

Delphine's head swivelled around to face the girl, who was sprawled in front of them. ‘What! How did she get in here?' she squawked, charging after Vincenzo.

‘Not so fast, you two!' Sancia somersaulted past Delphine and, with one swift kick, knocked the old woman back inside the vault.

Alice-Miranda pulled Millie out of reach as the woman grabbed Vincenzo's arm and launched him backwards.

‘Who is she?' Millie gasped.

‘I don't know but I think she's on our side,' Alice-Miranda said, her eyes the size of dinner plates.

‘Sancia, what are you doing?' Vincenzo shouted.

‘Quickly, girls, help me,' Sancia ordered, the characteristic whine gone from her voice. She put her back against the vault door and began to push. Slowly, it started to move.

‘Don't do this! You know who I am!' Vincenzo's voice echoed through the vault as the door clanged
shut. Alice-Miranda grabbed the token from her pocket and pressed it into the coin-sized slot on the keypad, then pushed every button. Delphine's face appeared close up on the video monitor beside it. ‘You cannot lock us in. I have the key.'

Alice-Miranda pressed the intercom button. ‘So do we.'

‘That's not possible,' Delphine screamed. A volley of words unfit for children's ears spewed from her lips.

Millie plucked the token from the keypad and held it up for the woman to see. ‘Is too!'

Delphine fainted on the spot.

‘You will pay for this, Sancia!' Vincenzo threatened.

The woman curled her lip and whined like a three-year-old. ‘No, Vincenzo, that's the price
you
pay for not giving Sancia everything she wants.' She winked at the girls before pressing the button to make him disappear.

Alice-Miranda looked at the woman. ‘Who
are
you?'

‘Italian Secret Service,' the woman replied.

‘You were amazing,' Millie gushed. The woman had leapt and twirled all over the place in three-inch heels. ‘So, all that whining was just an act?'

‘Yes, and I can't tell you how glad I am that it is over,' the woman said, dusting her hands.

The lift doors slid open, and Marius and the children spilled out.

‘Frau Doerflinger and Vincenzo are locked inside,' Alice-Miranda told them excitedly, jigging on the spot.

Marius eyeballed Sancia. ‘What is she doing out here?'

‘Her name is Sancia,' Alice-Miranda began.

‘She's Italian Secret Service,' Millie said proudly, ‘and boy, can she kick it.'

The woman pulled out a badge and held it up for Marius to see. ‘I am sorry. I had no idea until today that you were on Vincenzo's trail as well. We should have been working together,' she apologised.

The lift doors opened again and this time Anton appeared with Alice-Miranda's and Millie's parents as well as Herr Fanger.

‘Darlings, are you all right?' Cecelia rushed over and hugged her daughter, then proceeded to hug every one of the children.

Hamish and Pippa raced to embrace Millie too.

‘Your children are very brave,' Marius said. ‘They have helped us to bring down Signor Grande, the world's most brazen gold smuggler.'

‘What about Frau Doerflinger?' Hugh asked.

‘Yes, what has my Delphine got to do with all this?' Otto Fanger asked, clutching Gertie to his chest.

‘Herr Fanger, your wife has been a rather unfortunate player in this whole business. From what we have discovered, she borrowed a large sum of money from Signor Grande to cover the costs of running the hotel. Of course, she did not realise the potential consequences of doing so. We know that she has tried to free herself from the deal, but Signor Grande is a persuasive man. He threatened to harm you and your dog if she did not do as he wished.'

‘Oh my goodness,' Otto said, shielding Gertie's ears.

‘If Frau Doerflinger is borrowing money to run this hotel, how can she afford to buy Uncle Florian's?' Alice-Miranda asked.

‘Vincenzo wanted the railway station beneath the Grand Hotel Von Zwicky for his smuggling operation,' Sancia said. ‘He would have been able to move far greater amounts of gold right under everyone's noses, so to speak. Frau Doerflinger was obliged to follow, and she had her niece run down the Baron's business to force his hand to sell. As part
of her payment she would get the hotel, paid for with his dirty money.'

‘Alice-Miranda, you were right all along,' Cecelia said, shaking her head.

‘Will my Delphine go to prison?' Otto sniffed.

‘We can strike a deal if your wife is willing to testify against Signor Grande,' Marius said solemnly.

‘My poor Delphine,' the man wailed.

‘Poor Delphine?' Sloane wrinkled her lip. ‘Poor Herr Fanger for being married to her.'

‘Where is Herr Dettwiller?' Millie asked, looking around the room.

The police have taken him upstairs to speak to his son-in-law and granddaughter,' Anton said. ‘They are over the moon that he has been found, thanks to you children.'

‘Well, if it's all right with the police, I think it's time we got going to the airport,' Hugh suggested.

‘I'm glad I stayed with you guys,' Caprice said. ‘You have way more exciting holidays than my family.'

Millie arched her eyebrow at the girl. ‘That's not what you were saying a couple of hours ago.'

Hugh shook his head. ‘I don't know if we can cope with this much excitement again.'

The group turned to leave.

‘Millie, aren't you forgetting something?' Alice-Miranda said, but her friend looked at her blankly. ‘I think Herr Roten might need the key.'

‘Oh, that.' Millie reached into her pocket and pulled out the token. ‘I wasn't going to take it with me, promise.'

Alice-Miranda grinned. ‘It really did turn out to be your lucky charm, didn't it?'

‘Not just mine,' Millie agreed.

‘If we're in the business of returning things, I think you might like to have these back, Herr Fanger.' The Italian Secret Service agent pulled two sparkling diamond hairclips from her pocket.

‘Look, Gertie, you will be Papa's beautiful girl once more,' Otto trilled. Gertie's tongue shot out and licked him on the nose.

Sloane grimaced. ‘Still gross.'

A chortle of laughter rang out around the room.

‘I can't believe I thought the Cresta Run was going to be the most dangerous thing we saw on this trip,' Lucas said, as they all walked towards the lift.

‘I thought it would be my sister's skiing,' Sep teased.

Sloane glared at her brother and poked out her tongue.

‘One thing's for sure, when Mrs Oliver and Shilly find out about all this, I don't think they'll ever let us out of their sights again,' Alice-Miranda said.

Cecelia laughed. ‘I suspect you're right about that, darling.'