The French Code (5 page)

‘
Bon
. I will have the photo examined. For now, we 'ave finished our forensic investigation at ze Louvre and I 'ave decided it is time to bring Veronique 'ere. We need 'er to look around ze office of 'er papa to see if zere iz anyzing unusual zat will lead us to where 'e iz. 'Ave you finished wiz ze zinging?'

‘Well and truly, we'll zing her right over,' Max answered. ‘But we'll need to go home first and change. There's been a little …'

‘You will bring 'er 'ere now.' The twitching eye filled the screen. ‘From where you are it should take forty minutes.'

Max felt the cold hard black of the screen slam against her. ‘Looks like we're going to the Louvre. Now.'

In a darkened corner of the auditorium, an overcoated figure watched the agents move towards Veronique. He drew heavy, drudged breaths. When they had left, he turned and disappeared through the darkened exit.

‘You're late.'

The agents found themselves in the same dim corridor of the Louvre that was shown to them in the security camera footage.

Max looked at her watch. ‘By one minute.'

‘One minute still makes you late, delayed, behind schedule. And zat is somezing I do not enjoy.' Commandant Tetu's eye twitched.

‘Ah, you 'ave brought your fluffy little friend.' He patted Fifi like he was patting a slug. ‘Hello, doggy.'

Max and Toby swapped stifled smiles as Fifi ran behind Veronique's legs.

Tetu straightened and wiped his hands on a hanky. ‘Welcome, Mademoiselle Marceau. Are you well?'

‘As well as I can be, Commandant.' Over her dress, Veronique wore a long coat that she now pulled around her. ‘I am trying to carry on as normal, as you requested.'

‘I know zis is a very 'ard time for you, but we won't keep you long.'

Tetu sniffed the air in disgust, his nose gravitating towards Max. ‘What iz zat smell? Actually, don't tell me. We don't 'ave time. Follow me.' He spun on his heels and clipped down the corridor.

‘That man has got to relax,' Max said. ‘And does anyone else find that eye twitching thing annoying?'

‘It started after he was shot trying to save the president,' Veronique said. ‘He could easily have died. The whole of France thinks Commandant Tetu is a hero.'

‘So, he's a hero,' Max shrugged. ‘Would it hurt to crack a smile?'

‘The bullet severed a nerve in his face, which means he can no longer smile.'

‘Oh,' Max bit her lip. ‘That's too bad.'

The commandant stood at the entrance of an office. ‘Your speaking iz slowing us down.' He eyed Max like he was lining her up in crosshairs on a safari hunt. The others hurried ahead.

‘I still bet he was no Mr Jolly before the accident,' Max whispered.

‘Zis is Monsieur Marceau's office.' Tetu held his hand out reverently.

Veronique stepped inside, followed by the others. It was crammed with carved stone statues, amber amulets with fossilised bugs, broken clay pots and jars. In every possible space were piled papers, books, folders, maps and wooden boxes of chisels, brushes and trowels. Veronique's bottom lip trembled.

‘I 'ope you understand, Mademoiselle, 'ow important it is zat you are 'ere. We 'ave examined everyzing and taken all ze fingerprint and forensic evidence we need to find your papa, but as you know him better zan us, you may find somezing we 'ave overlooked.'

‘I will do all I can to help, Commandant Tetu.'

‘You can touch anyzing, but please put everyzing back where you found it.' He held her chin gently. ‘You 'ave nozing to fear. My men and I will be outside ze second you need us.'

Commandant Tetu gave a brief nod before leaving the room. Fifi whined and curled herself onto an old lounge chair in the corner. Veronique walked slowly to her father's desk. It was a rubble of papers, books, stone scarab beetle paperweights and piles of bus timetables and maps of Cairo and Egypt smudged with dirt.

‘What exactly does your father do?' Linden asked.

‘He's an archaeologist and an art historian. Ancient art, mainly. He goes on digs, finds ancient treasures, writes papers, lectures at museums here and around the world. Papa loves what he does.' She picked up a handmade clay sculpture of the Eiffel Tower from a shelf crowded
with trophies, awards and medals. ‘I made this when I was little.'

Toby smiled. ‘Who said that the Eiffel Tower always has to be straight?'

‘It was my first art project and Papa says it's more valuable to him than any of his awards. He keeps it at the front.' Her smile fell.

‘That's where I'd keep it,' Linden said.

‘Me too,' Toby added. ‘Maybe not right at the front.'

Veronique laughed. ‘You're very funny.'

‘Finally.' Toby threw his hands in the air. ‘Someone on this mission admits the obvious.'

Max rolled her eyes and flicked through a pile of old travel guides of Jordan and Tunisia.

‘It must be a good job working at one of the best museums in the world.' Toby turned a page of a book made of stiff papyrus.

‘He loves the museum, but for him the dust and heat of an archaeological site in Egypt or Greece was where he was happiest.' Veronique wiped dust from the tower. ‘It feels like he's away on another dig, not …' She bit her lip.

‘They'll find him,' Linden said. ‘And any time you want to leave or freak out, just let us know. We're here for you.'

Max looked up from searching a wooden box filled with rocks and ancient fossils.

‘I will try not to freak out.' Veronique smiled.

‘Even if you do, that's okay. We're good with people freaking out.' Max frowned and Linden pulled a hanky from his pocket. ‘Take this. My mum always said it's good to keep one close. In case.'

‘You are a true gentleman.' Veronique placed her hand on Linden's.

A snail-like ammonite fossil slipped from Max's hands into its box.

‘You must be careful with those,' Veronique's voice strained. ‘They are some of Papa's favourites.'

Max winced. ‘Sorry.'

Veronique moved to a small table in the corner of the room. It was similarly piled with maps, charts and rose stone paperweights, but it was a gold and marble cylinder with hand-carved letters circling it that Veronique reached for.

‘What's that?' Linden asked.

‘It's a cryptex.' Toby approached Veronique and looked closely. ‘A device used to hide secret messages. I've seen a couple in the last few months, but this one is a real beauty.'

‘Papa had a fascination with them.' Veronique smiled. ‘How did you know what it was?'

‘I've been studying them in cryptography class, which, as Spyforce have discovered, I have quite a knack for.' Toby winked at Veronique and, for some reason that Max failed to understand, she fell for it with a girlish giggle.

‘What is a knack?' Veronique asked.

‘It means he thinks he's a genius,' Max explained.

‘How does a cryptex work?' Linden asked.

‘See these rings of letters around it?' Toby explained. ‘You turn them so that they line up to form a code word. This is a five-letter cryptex, so the code word has to be five letters long. Once you've done that, the cryptex will open and reveal the secret message inside.' Toby turned to Veronique. ‘Only it won't be that you're pretty,' he smarmed. ‘That's no secret at all.'

Veronique giggled again.

Max's eyebrow squirmed up her forehead. ‘I suddenly need to use the bathroom.'

‘Down the hall,' Veronique said. ‘It's the first side passage on your left.'

Max's trainers stepped silently over the floor. She walked past the rigid face of Commandant Tetu and his men, who blended in perfectly with the stone statues around them.

When she came out of the bathroom, Tetu had moved away from the other officers and was whispering into his phone. Max slunk into a shadowy corner behind him.

‘Don't worry. We are watching 'er carefully. Ze two of zem are very close. If Antoine 'as left 'er a message, we will know about it. I will call you wiz any developments.'

He ended his call. Max waited a few seconds before creeping up behind him and coughing loudly. Tetu jumped.

‘Sorry to scare you, Commandant.' She smiled broadly. ‘Even the toilets are great in this gallery. No wonder the French are so proud of it.'

Max shivered through Tetu's Antarctic stare. ‘Just do your job and make sure nozing 'appens to zat girl.'

Max backed away from Tetu's skyscraper of a body. ‘Did you find out who is in the picture I sent you?'

‘No-one of interest to us.' Tetu's words were like a slammed door. Veronique appeared at the office doorway and he hurried to her side. ‘Did you find anyzing?'

‘Nothing. I'd like to go home now,' Veronique answered with a quiver in her voice.

‘Of course. Your driver is waiting.' He bowed his head.

‘You will find him, won't you, Commandant Tetu?'

‘Absolutely.'

The small group made their way through the corridor to the exit. Max turned once to see Tetu's face harden before he pulled out his phone to make another call.

As the limousine glided through the darkened Paris streets, Veronique took the cryptex from inside her coat.

‘We were told to put everything back where we found it,' Max said. ‘Tetu's been through that office. He's going to know we took it.'

‘You didn't notice,' Veronique challenged. ‘So I doubt Tetu will. I was very discreet – and Papa would have wanted me to have it.'

‘I guess one souvenir can't hurt,' Toby said.

‘Thank you, Toby.' Veronique turned away from Max. ‘You are so understanding.'

Max held out her palm computer with the photo of the man from the audition. ‘Do you know who this is?'

‘Yes,' Veronique said. ‘It's Regi.'

Max leant forward to escape Fifi's panting dog breath. ‘As in, Reginald Strangways?'

‘Yes. Why?'

‘He was at the audition today.'

‘He was probably making sure I was okay.'

Max frowned. ‘Why didn't he come up and say hello?'

‘He is a very busy man.' Veronique curled into her seat and cradled the cryptex to her chest.

‘Why wouldn't Tetu tell me who he was when I showed the photo to him?'

‘Because Regi has nothing to do with Papa's disappearance.'

‘Strangways was with your dad when he was kidnapped,' Max said. ‘They must have been discussing something important for them to have met that late at night. That makes him part of it.'

Veronique spun round. ‘And your questions make you really annoying. Reginald Strangways and my father have been friends for years. He's always been like an uncle to me. If he knew anything about Papa's disappearance, he would have said.'

She turned away abruptly. Fifi barked. Max went to say something more, but Linden shook his head.

The air of the limousine became thick with the blurred streaks of light and shadow from passing street lamps and headlights. And the bruised mood between the two girls. The car pulled into the long driveway of the Marceau house. Veronique leapt from the car as soon as it stopped.

‘Do you think she knows something she's not telling us?' Max grabbed her pack and stepped out of the car.

‘No, I just think she's upset because her dad has been kidnapped and you suggested his friend might be involved,' Toby answered.

‘We should go easy on Veronique, Max,' Linden said. ‘Our mission is to make sure nothing happens to her. It's up to Tetu to solve the kidnapping.'

‘But don't you think she's acting a little secretive?' Max asked softly.

‘Maybe she's not used to being open with people.'

‘Maybe.' Max frowned. ‘And while we were at the Louvre, I overheard …'

Fifi barked from inside the car. ‘But of course the world has to revolve around old fluffball here.' Max slipped on her pack and undid Fifi's seatbelt, but the dog didn't move. ‘What? Do you want me to carry you?' Fifi barked and held out one paw. ‘Now, you're really pushing it.'

Max picked up Fifi and carried her inside where a housemaid had laid out a table of chicken stew, duck sausage, crunchy bread rolls and tall glasses of chocolate mousse with layers of fresh strawberries and cream. Fifi jumped into her special chair that had been placed beside Max.

‘Something wrong, Max?' Veronique asked.

‘I'm a vegetarian.' Max looked at the sausage and chicken dishes. Her stomach rumbled.

‘How quaint.' Veronique smiled. ‘I've never met a vegetarian before. Well, there's always the bread and mousse.'

Linden and Toby cheered Veronique up with stories of missions around the globe and rides in the hyper-fast Invisible Jet, peppered with a few heroic exaggerations and dramatic re-enactments thrown in. Max heard none of their rambling chit-chat as she recalled Tetu talking secretively on his phone and brushing her off when she asked him to identify Strangways. She waited for a break in the laughter.

‘Do you think there's any way your father could be involved?'

Veronique dropped her fork on her plate. ‘In his own kidnapping?'

Everyone stopped eating, even Fifi lifted her head from her personally engraved bowl.

‘Max?' Toby held up his hands. ‘What are you doing?'

‘When I left the bathroom at the Louvre, I heard Tetu say he was watching Veronique to see if her father had left her a message.'

‘How would he be able to leave a message when he was kidnapped?' Linden asked.

‘I'm not sure,' Max answered, ‘but Tetu must think Veronique's dad is somehow part of what happened or at least up to something suspicious.'

‘Never.' Veronique jumped up. ‘If you knew my Papa, you would know he could never do anything wrong.' She ran from the room, sobbing. Fifi growled at Max before running after her.

‘Nice one, Max. Just when she was starting to feel better, too,' Toby said.

There was a prickly silence.

‘After what Tetu said, I had to ask.'

‘And I think you got your answer,' Toby said.

Max looked at Linden. ‘I just don't understand why Tetu isn't treating this as a missing persons case. I mean, he's one of the top police officers in France. Don't you think that tells us something bigger is at stake than a missing archaeologist?' No-one answered. ‘I didn't mean to upset her. Really. I just don't think she's telling us everything she knows.'

‘She's had a big day, Max,' Linden said.

‘Yeah, and with us here she has more people to push around than usual.'

Linden turned on her. ‘She's lost her mum, Max, and now maybe her dad. Why can't you get that?'

Max recoiled as if she'd been hit.

‘She lost her mum?' Max asked.

‘She died in a car accident when Veronique was a kid. It was in the notes on our computers.'

‘I didn't read that part,' Max said softly.

Linden stood up. ‘I'm going to see if she's okay.' He climbed the stairs and disappeared into the upper level.

Toby looked at Max. ‘He'll calm down.'

‘Linden never gets angry,' Max said quietly.

‘Yeah, that's your job.' Toby nudged Max and smiled. Max's breath grew short.

‘He's worried about Veronique,' Toby said. ‘That's all. He'll be fine in the morning.'

 

Linden found Veronique and Fifi huddled together on a cushioned lounge in a bay window in the upstairs corridor. The night streets of Paris spread beneath them. ‘Any room on that lounge for me?'

Veronique nodded before turning back to the view outside.

He sat beside her. ‘Max didn't mean to upset you. She's a good spy and usually has a good gut feeling when something's wrong.' Fifi growled. ‘Even though she could be a little more subtle in how she says it.'

‘Papa wouldn't leave me deliberately. I know it.
Not after what happened to Mama. I'm all he has. He hates leaving me alone.' A quick breath caught in her throat.

‘Dad was like that too, when my mum died.'

Veronique looked around. ‘Your mum died?'

‘Yeah. It's almost three years ago now. Dad wanted to stay with me all the time to make sure I was okay,' Linden said.

‘What happened?'

‘I told him that sometimes I needed to be alone. I reckon that's how he felt, too.'

‘It doesn't get easier, does it?'

‘Not really,' Linden said. ‘But I remember the good things more easily than I did at first. Mum's cooking, her singing and the way that even when things were really bad, she always knew what to do.'

‘Mama was a singer in jazz clubs. She was very popular. Everyone loved her. I want to be as good as her one day,' Veronique whispered. ‘Sometimes I miss her just as badly as the day it happened.'

Veronique wiped her eyes with Linden's hanky.

‘It was a car accident. She'd finished singing. It was late. She stepped into her car when a delivery truck lost control coming around a corner. The
doctors told us she wouldn't have felt anything. I always wondered how they could be so sure.' Veronique ran her fingers over Fifi's curls. ‘Can I tell you something?'

‘Anything,' Linden replied.

‘Papa was working on something very secret before he disappeared. Normally he'd tell me everything about his projects,' she laughed. ‘Actually, he'd get so excited you couldn't stop him. But he said this project was different. That there were people who were searching for the same thing, and if they had what my father was looking for, it would cause great trouble.'

‘What kind of trouble?'

‘He didn't say. The night he disappeared, he came into my room, as he usually does, to say goodnight. He said he had to go to the Louvre for something important. That he wouldn't be long. He wasn't quite himself that night and now, after what has happened, I think he knew something was going to happen to him.'

‘Did he say anything else?'

‘No. He kissed me on the forehead and it instantly put me to sleep.' She smiled. ‘When I was a little girl, he used to say it was his special sleeping kiss – and it still works.'

Fifi whimpered and Veronique nestled into her cheek.

‘And Max is right about Tetu.' She took the cryptex out of her coat pocket. ‘Papa
has
left me a message.'

‘In the cryptex?'

‘Yes.' She slowly rotated the cylinder in her hands. ‘We had this game where he'd leave notes for me around the house whenever he was away on a dig. When I found one note, it gave me clues about where the next one would be. At the end was a gift. That way, he said, it was like we were both on searches for hidden treasure.'

‘How do you know he left you a message?'

‘When we found the cryptex, the letters lined up to spell VERON. He is the only one to call me that; it is my pet name.'

‘Do you know the code word to open it?'

‘No. I haven't worked it out yet.' Veronique looked down again. ‘Maybe this proves he is involved.'

‘And maybe it's your dad sending you a completely innocent message. Like he always does. With a gift at the end.'

Fifi laid a paw on Linden's leg.

‘Do you think?'

Linden smiled. ‘Pretty much.'

‘Does pretty much mean yes?'

Linden nodded. ‘Pretty much.'

Veronique put her head on Linden's shoulder just as Max reached the top of the stairs. She stood there, out of breath, her eyes scrambling over the scene. Her throat seized up like it was in a vice. ‘Come with me,' she whispered. ‘And Linden, put on your MP3. There's something you both need to hear.'