The Case of the Missing Cats (8 page)

‘Why do I need these?' she asked, catching them.

‘They're not for you. Come on, let's go.'

‘Hold on,' said Holly and she opened a carton of milk and poured it into a bowl in the corner of the room. A cat miaowed and Willow appeared from under the table.

‘Why is there a cat in my office?' asked Dirk coldly.

‘She's safer here,' replied Holly. ‘You wouldn't want her to get stolen again, would you?'

Dirk groaned. ‘As long as she doesn't
do
anything,' he said, eyeing the animal suspiciously.

‘What, like mess up the place?' laughed Holly. ‘I don't think you need any help with that.'

Dirk pulled up the blind and checked the street. A grey Mercedes with a white stripe was parked illegally on the double-yellow lines. Next to it stood a man in a long raincoat and a wide-brimmed hat. He looked up and Dirk backed away from the window. One of the reasons he liked the spot was the fact that cars couldn't park below. It lessened the chances of being seen jumping out of the window. Luckily the traffic wardens were a voracious lot and no one ever got away with it for long. Sure enough, after a moment Dirk saw two of them hurrying towards the car. The man in the long coat dived into the car and drove away, leaving the disappointed traffic wardens to head off in search of their next victim.

‘Come on, let's go,' said Dirk.

‘Are we going back to the warehouse?' asked Holly.

‘No. Here, hold these.' And he grabbed a couple of bags of assorted liquorice sweets and handed them to Holly. She stuffed them in her pockets and climbed on to his large, red back, carefully positioning the hat
and coat between her and the dragon.

Dirk pushed open the window, glanced down again and then leapt on to the neighbouring roof.

Bathed in the reddish glow from the setting sun, the rooftops of London looked even more magical to Holly this evening. She was doing her best to think tough like a proper detective, but looking down at the yellow lamps and the people below going about their humdrum lives, unaware of the dragon leaping over their heads, she couldn't help but feel excited and special.

Dirk decided it was time to tell Holly about the catnapping dragons he had witnessed. As they travelled, he described how he had followed the Mountain Dragon to the warehouse and then narrowly avoided being seen by the Sea Dragon shortly afterwards.

‘Wow, so there are loads of dragons in London,' said Holly. ‘What do you think they're doing with the cats?' she asked. ‘You don't think they're eating them, do you?'

‘Not likely,' replied Dirk. ‘Unlike humans, dragons don't eat other animals,'

‘Not all humans. I'm a vegetarian too,' said Holly.

‘You choose not to eat meat. For us it's death to
consume the body of another living creature.'

Holly looked around at their surroundings. She was lost. ‘Where are we?' she asked.

‘We're in Greenwich,' replied Dirk.

‘What's in Greenwich?'

‘Well, there's a nice market, a naval college, a couple of good pubs and a lovely park,' joked Dirk.

‘I mean, what's in Greenwich for us?'

‘The underground.'

‘We're getting the tube?'

‘Something like that,' replied Dirk and he jumped on to a large clock tower and scampered up its side, gaining enough height to spread his wings and glide down on to a row of houses. He ran across the houses then sailed over a glass-topped market place. One more jump and he landed on a flat pub roof next to a concrete concourse beside the River Thames. Holly stopped herself from squealing with excitement like she was on the best roller-coaster ride in the world ever.

She dismounted and looked down. In the middle of the concourse was an old tall ship that she remembered was called the
Cutty Sark
and by its side a cylindrical concrete structure with a green dome-like top.

‘That's the entrance to the pedestrian tunnel under the Thames,' said Dirk, pointing to the structure.

‘I know,' replied Holly. ‘I came here on a school trip once.'

‘
You
went on a school trip?' said Dirk disbelievingly.

‘It wasn't my school. I'd had an argument with my dad's wife, so I ran away and then I saw a coach and just jumped on it. It turned out to be a school trip, so I pretended I went to their school.'

Dirk laughed, ‘You're growing on me, kiddo. Now, give me the hat and coat.'

Holly handed him the giant coat. Laughter rose up from the pub garden below. Someone dropped a glass. It smashed on the ground, receiving a round of applause and a drunken cheer.

Dirk pulled the coat over his shoulders, covering his wings. He tucked his long nose under his chin and buttoned it up. Next he put the hat over his head and pulled it down. He swished his tail twice and then curled it up behind him, making the coat taut and strangely shaped. He took a step back and said in a muffled voice, ‘How do I look?'

Holly looked at him. Although he had succeeded in hiding his distinctive dragon features he still
looked pretty bizarre. Even with his tail tucked in and his head bowed he was still taller than the average human adult. Then there were the large yellow eyes that glowed from under the wide-brimmed hat. Not to mention the bulges of his nose and tail, which made it look as though he suffered from terrible growths.

‘This normally works, does it?' asked Holly doubtfully.

‘Well, tell me,' muttered Dirk, ‘do I look like the sort of person you want to strike up a conversation with?'

‘No,' said Holly honestly.

‘Then it works,' said Dirk. ‘Come on.' He looked over the edge of the building and, sure that no one was looking, grabbed Holly round her waist and jumped down, landing heavily on the concrete ground without the use of his wings to ease the impact.

He put her down and they walked quickly to the tunnel entrance, moving with the shadows and avoiding eye contact with passing strangers. Dirk led them down a large spiral staircase that encircled the lift.

At the bottom they headed down the long tunnel
under the river. The lift opened behind them and a young couple got out.

Dirk slowed his pace. ‘Let them overtake,' he muttered.

As the couple passed they glanced back at them and it occurred to Holly how strange they must look. She tried to act normally but it was difficult with the strange figure in the overcoat towering above her.

Dirk kept a slow pace and it wasn't long before the couple had disappeared round the corner. He stopped. ‘Through this door,' he said.

‘What door?' asked Holly.

Dirk pulled an old rusty key from his jacket pocket and pushed it into a hole in the wall, where it looked like a couple of tiles had fallen away. He turned the key and pushed the wall with his shoulder, revealing a door. ‘In,' he said.

Holly looked into the darkness then entered. Dirk followed. He pulled the door shut, plunging them into darkness. He turned on a torch and handed it to her.

‘Follow me,' he said, discarding the hat and coat and disappearing down the dark corridor.

The corridor was narrow and winding. Holly could hear their footsteps echoing and the continual swish of the river above them. She kept her eyes fixed on the small circle of light created by the torch, trying not to look into the darkness, where her imagination was able to summon up all manner of scary beasts. She didn't want Dirk to know that she was scared, so she made up a tune to the rhythm of her footsteps and whistled it to calm her down.

‘Stop that,' said Dirk.

‘Stop what?' asked Holly.

‘Whistling. No whistling.'

Holly hummed the tune instead.

‘Or humming,' snapped Dirk.

Holly stopped humming. For a moment she made no noise at all and then in a clear voice she sang the tune: ‘La de da da da da daah.'

‘Look, no music at all, OK,' said Dirk, turning round. His face was deadly serious.

‘Don't you like music?' she asked.

‘No, I don't.'

‘Don't dragons have songs?'

‘Oh yes, we have songs all right,' Dirk said grimly. ‘But for dragons music isn't for fun. It's the deadliest weapon of all.'

‘Oh,' said Holly. ‘Remind me never to go to a dragon disco.'

‘Very funny,' said Dirk stonily. ‘Come on, there are some stairs, coming up.'

They continued walking until they came to the top of a flight of stairs, which they followed downwards. At the bottom was a small stone room. Holly followed Dirk in.

‘Hold on to me,' he said. ‘And don't be scared.'

She started to say that she wasn't scared but got as far as ‘I'm not sc–' before she was cut short by a strange growling, muttering noise, syncopated by clicks and barks. Before she could ask what it was
she realised that the noise was coming from Dirk. He was talking, but not in a language that she had ever heard before. This, she supposed, was Dragonspeak. Before she could begin to wonder whom he might be talking to, she felt her stomach lurch. The room was moving downwards. She grabbed on to Dirk and shone the torch at the doorway. The stairs had vanished, replaced by a solid stone wall, rushing past.

‘It's a lift,' she said.

‘Of sorts, yes,' replied Dirk, as the room took them deeper and deeper into the bowels of the earth.

‘Where will it take us?'

‘To Karnataka.'

‘What's Karnataka?' The constant motion of the lift was making her feel sick.

‘Who, not what.'

‘Who's Karnataka, then?'

‘Well, until a few days ago Karnataka was the only other London-based dragon that I was aware of. Only he lives deep down here, underneath the city. He's a Shade-Hugger. They're not big fans of sunlight.'

‘And why are we going to see him?'

‘Because he doesn't just keep his ear to the ground.
Karnataka lives in the ground. If an earthworm wriggles in Ealing, Karnataka knows about it.'

The room stopped moving. Holly pointed the torch out of the doorway and saw that they had arrived at a large dimly lit tunnel in front of a giant door carved in the shape of a dragon's head, with a huge ring through its nose. The air tasted stale and humid, and lacking in oxygen. She followed Dirk out of the lift towards the door. He jumped up, grabbed the huge metal ring between his teeth, pulled it back and let it go. The bang reverberated off the rocks, echoing seemingly for ever into the darkness. With a painful creak the door edged open. Dirk entered, followed by Holly, desperately trying to feel brave.

On the other side of the door was a great hall. Along each side were giant stone pillars, carved into the shapes of various creatures, each one more terrible and ferocious looking than the last. Some were dragons, like Dirk, others more serpent than dragon, or strange half-breeds like a cockerel crossed with a snake, or half cockroach, half vulture. Each figure sat upright with its mouth wide open, and from each mouth a constant jet of bright-red fire lit the great hall.

‘Wow,' said Holly. ‘Karnataka must be fairly important to live here.'

‘You're confusing important with ostentatious,' replied Dirk.

‘What does ostentatious mean?' asked Holly.

‘He's a show-off,' said Dirk.

The fire from the pillars died away and an orotund voice spoke, each syllable emphasised by a burst of flame from the statues' mouths. ‘Who dares enter the hall of Karnataka?'

‘It's me, Dirk Dilly,' Dirk replied.

‘And what does Dirk Dilly want that he dares to disturb the great Karnataka at his humble home?'

Holly stared into the darkness. Two large, red eyes watched them.

‘Information,' said Dirk.

‘And what payment do you have for me?' said the eyes.

Dirk pointed at Holly. ‘I bring the sweetest human produce of all,' he said.

The lights dimmed then went out completely. Holly looked desperately at Dirk but it was too dark to see his face. The room was filled with the sound of echoing footsteps, charging towards her. Holly turned to run, but felt a great weight land heavily on
her back. She fell forwards.

‘Get off me, get off me,' she yelled, kicking and screaming. ‘I'm not your payment.'

‘Payment?' said a high nasal voice. ‘Just give us the liquorice and no one will get hurt.'

Holly felt something reach in her pockets and pull out the bags of liquorice that Dirk had given her earlier, and she was free again. She jumped to her feet and the lights flared up, revealing a dragon with a dark-brown back and caramel-coloured underbelly, greedily throwing the sweets into its mouth and munching happily.

‘Sorry,' said Dirk to Holly. ‘Karny likes his grand introductions.'

‘You could have warned me,' said Holly. ‘I thought he was going to eat me.'

‘I keep telling you, dragons don't eat meat.'

‘Yes, but . . .'