The Case of the Wayward Professor (8 page)

‘I'm sorry, Petal,' said Mr Brooker, the corners of his mouth curling into a smile. ‘No note, no excuse. Let's go, my people.'

He ran round and herded the reluctant class like a sheepdog, guiding them along the side of the football pitch to the perimeter fence, where he explained that the run would take about forty-five minutes to an hour. ‘If you run too slowly,' he added, ‘you'll be late for lunch. There's your motivation.'

He blew a whistle and they set off, some of the class running full pelt, others jogging at a more sensible pace. Inevitably the class soon became spread out, naturally splitting into pairs or threes.

Not having any friends, Holly ran alone.

She saw Petal running ahead of her with two girls. She was pleased that Petal had been forced to do the run. It was miserable. The sky was dark and the raindrops were getting larger every minute, soaking their clothes. The ground softened and soon Holly could feel mud beneath her trainers.

She decided to overtake Petal, speeding up to run between her and the fence. As she approached she
could hear her saying, ‘Fabio says running without a running machine is like wearing boot-cut jeans to a launch party. No one does it any more … A-choo.' She sneezed. ‘That's it. I'm catching a cold. As soon as I get back I'm calling my lawyer. I'm going to sue the school.'

Holly drew level with Petal, who looked round and said, ‘Oh, hi, Holly. How's your boyfriend, Crackers Callum?'

‘He's not my boyfriend,' replied Holly.

She sped up, but Petal kept level, saying, ‘Holly loves crazy Callum, the Prime Minister's son.'

The other girls giggled.

‘I do not,' yelled Holly.

She ran faster, but Petal and her friends kept up.

‘Stands to reason,' said Petal. ‘They're both freaks.'

‘At least I'm not a …' started Holly, but her retort was cut short as she felt something collide with her shin. She stumbled and fell, losing her balance and landing face down in the mud.

The three girls laughed and Petal shouted, ‘Enjoy your trip?'

A pair of boys ran past her without stopping to check that she was all right. Holly felt miserable. She was wet. She was cold. She was muddy. She felt lonely
and humiliated. Then she heard a voice say, ‘Stay where you are. Let the stragglers pass.'

On the other side of the fence two large yellow eyes were staring at her.

‘Dirk?' she gasped. ‘Is it really you?'

Holly let the last few runners pass. None stopped to ask if she was all right or if she needed a hand up.

Once they were gone, she said, ‘What are you doing here?'

‘I was in the neighbourhood,' said Dirk, before adding, ‘I can see you're as popular as ever.'

‘I'm so glad to see you,' said Holly. ‘Not that I can see you really.'

She could just about make out Dirk's outline, although his skin was perfectly blended with his surroundings. He shifted and the colour returned to his body.

‘How's that?' he asked.

‘Be careful. They have cameras everywhere.'

‘It's a blind spot,' replied Dirk.

Holly checked. It was true. A large tree overhanging the fence blocked the nearest camera, and a high hedgerow stood between them and the school building. Holly saw that he had slipped his tail through a hole in the fence to trip her up. Patches of dark green liquid oozed from Dirk's tail and legs. Some of it had rubbed off on her shin when he tripped her. She touched it. It was sticky and thick. Instinctively, she put it to her tongue and, in spite of its colour, recognised the metallic taste as blood.

‘You're bleeding,' she said. ‘What happened?'

‘I ran into another one of Vainclaw's little armies.' Dirk sounded tired, his breathing was heavy and the smoke from his nostril had an unhealthy yellow hue. ‘Tree Dragons. Vicious creatures.'

Holly heard a dog barking nearby.

‘Did you make that hole?' she asked.

‘Yep, bit straight through.'

‘We haven't got much time. The guards are coming. They can tell when the fence has been cut.'

‘I should get out of here,' said Dirk.

‘What are you going to do?' said Holly, worried. She hadn't seen Dirk look so bad since he was knocked
unconscious after swallowing poisonous Amphiptere blood.

‘Don't worry about me. I've looked worse than this. Dragon skin is tough stuff. It'll heal as I sleep. There are some caves on the other side of the forest where I can lie low long enough to heal up. A good night's rest and I'll be fine. Why don't you come with me, help me solve this case?'

Holly wanted nothing more than to go with him, but she touched her wristband, sighed and said, ‘I can't. They'll track me down. Come to Little Hope on Thursday. There's a big concert and I'm going to escape then.'

The barking dog was getting nearer.

Holly said, ‘I did write to you, but they stopped the letters.'

Dirk smiled. ‘I thought you'd forgotten about me.'

‘Forgotten about you?' said Holly. ‘You're a red-backed, green-bellied, urban-based Mountain Dragon, who works as a detective. How could I forget you? Besides, we're friends, aren't we?'

‘Sure we are,' replied Dirk.

They could hear the static crackle from the guard's radio.

‘Hide,' urged Holly and Dirk's skin blended with the ground.

‘Hey, lassie, what are you doing?' shouted a voice.

Holly looked up to see a thickset man with a black bushy moustache in a security uniform.

‘I fell over while running and sprained my ankle,' she said.

In one hand, the guard had a walkie-talkie. In the other, he held back a rather angry-looking poodle, which barked at the invisible dragon he could smell on the other side of the fence.

‘Did you make this hole?' asked the guard.

‘Aren't guard dogs usually German Shepherds or Rottweilers?' said Holly, looking at the poodle.

‘Oh, aye, but one of the dogs attacked a student last week, nothing serious, just a wee bit of mauling. But the school board has insisted we use less-aggressive dogs. He's called Bruno.'

‘Hello, Bruno,' said Holly to the perplexed poodle.

‘Does it noh look stupid, me with a poodle?'

‘Not at all,' lied Holly. ‘He seems quite … well, barky.'

‘Aye, Ah've bin trying to increase his aggression levels, using North American war chants and a sophisticated Pavlovian behavioural technique involving energy bars, Irn-Bru and spam.'

‘Looks like it's working,' said Holly.

‘Noh really. Shut up, Bruno. Now, did you make this
hole?' asked the guard pointing to the fence.

‘No, it was here when I fell,' said Holly truthfully.

‘I see. It's probably another wee creature gnawing through it again.'

Holly smiled, thinking if only he knew what sort of ‘wee' creature it was that had made the hole.

‘Right, come on, then, let's get you back to school.'

She followed the guard back and noticed that his name badge read ‘Hamish Fraser'.

‘So, Hamish,' she said, ‘how do you know when there's a hole in the fence?'

‘An alarm goes off in the security cabin,' he replied.

‘What else can you control from the cabin?' she asked innocently.

‘Almost everything,' said the guard.

‘But the cameras are activated by movement, aren't they?'

‘Oh, aye, but you can override everything from inside. It's like the bridge of the starship blinking enterprise in there,' he said. ‘Noh like in my day. All this electronic nonsense. You can't beat a man with a good pair of eyes and proper guard dog. Sorry, Bruno.'

After an afternoon of boring classes, during which Petal took every opportunity to make some snide
remark about Holly being in love with crazy Callum, it was band rehearsal, so Holly picked up her trumpet and headed for the rehearsal room.

Standing outside, listening to all the instruments warming up, she felt the unmistakable flutter of nerves. Focusing on the plan she took a deep breath and entered.

The large rehearsal room was full of students and instruments and noise. In one corner a group of older girls in flowing skirts practised trills on their flutes. In another, three large boys were making fart noises with trombones and laughing very loudly. She spotted two boys holding trumpets, and introduced herself.

‘Hi, I'm Holly,' she said, opening her case. ‘I'm third trumpet.'

‘Hello,' said one of the boys, offering his hand formally. ‘I'm Julian. This is Sandy.'

Holly shook his hand.

‘I am second trumpet because I can reach top C and Jules is first trumpet because he can reach F above top C. What's your highest note?'

‘Er …'

Holly was grateful that Miss Gilfeather entered the room, holding a baton and saying, ‘Everyone take your places, please.'

The band assembled. Holly looked at the French horns and saw Callum smoothing down his hair, avoiding eye contact with anyone.

With everyone settled, Miss Gilfeather addressed the band.

‘Welcome everyone. As you know, this Thursday is our school concert and tradition dictates that this takes place at Little Hope, even though we have perfectly adequate facilities here. This will attract the usual media hullabaloo and Mr Palmer has asked me to remind you to look smart. Personally I don't care if you dress up in monkey costumes as long as you play the notes correctly. Now, let's begin with the music you have on your stands.'

Everyone lifted their instruments, but before they could start, the doors swung open and three men in dark suits and dark sunglasses moved quickly and purposefully into the room.

‘What is it?' snapped Miss Gilfeather.

One of the men whispered something in her ear, while the other two surveyed the room.

‘Can't it wait until after rehearsal?'

Again the man said something inaudible. Miss Gilfeather replied, ‘This is very inconvenient,' before announcing, ‘Callum Thackley. Please come forward.'

Holly looked over to Callum, who had shrunk down in his seat, smoothing his hair and looking at the floor.

The men marched across the room towards him. One snatched the French horn from his hands, while the others grabbed Callum, holding him between them, dragging him towards the door.

‘No,' screamed Callum, kicking and screaming. ‘Don't let them take me. I don't want to go.'

Miss Gilfeather said, ‘Oh, for goodness' sake, Callum. They work for your father. They are taking you to a photo call at Number 10.'

‘I don't want to go. They can't take Callum. I don't want to miss the concert.' He kicked and struggled, but the man lifted him and carried him across the room.

‘They've assured me you'll be back for the concert.'

Callum wasn't listening. He was screeching, ‘The tree creatures. They're coming for me. Don't let them take me. They want me.'

Tree creatures
, thought Holly and something clicked into place. Dirk said that there were Tree Dragons in the forest. What if Callum wasn't making it up? What if the tree creatures that kidnapped him weren't inventions of his troubled imagination but real dragons? What if these men weren't from the government at all, but working for the Kinghorns? What if they were
kidnapping Callum again?

‘Leave him alone,' she shouted, making Julian and Sandy jump.

‘Holly Bigsby, sit down,' ordered Miss Gilfeather.

The three men had got Callum out of the room, and Holly could hear his pleas for help down the corridor.

‘If you ask me he's one note short of a full scale, that one,' said Julian, causing Sandy to giggle.

‘Now, if we could please start rehearsal,' said Miss Gilfeather, raising her baton.

Holly lifted her trumpet to her lips, but when the band started she missed her first note, so mimed along with Julian and Sandy. Her mind wasn't on the music. It was on Callum. She had to help him. If Callum had got mixed up with the world of dragons and everyone thought he was mad then Holly was the only one who knew the truth. Dragons did exist.

She had to get out and find Dirk and she could no longer wait until the concert on Thursday. But if she was going to make a clean break, she would have to find a way of removing the non-removable wristband.