The House of Puzzles (15 page)

‘This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint,’ Gerald said. ‘We may as well take
our time and do it logically.’

Sam looked at Gerald as if he had lost his mind. ‘Were you not listening?’ he said.
‘There’s a hot meal on offer here.’

Gerald took a beanie from his pocket and pulled it onto his head. ‘Do you think Professor
McElderry will be tucking into a home-cooked meal tonight?’ he asked. A piercing
wind whistled through the ramparts above
their heads. Sam studied the tops of his
boots. Gerald could not make out his mumbled reply.

Ruby pointed to the far corner of the yard. ‘Let’s start over there and work our
way around,’ she suggested. She took Gerald’s gloved hand and led him towards the
ramshackle remains of a stone outbuilding. Granite blocks lay scattered on the ground
like a giant child’s discarded playthings. ‘Look, I know you’re worried about the
professor,’ Ruby said to Gerald. ‘We all are. But don’t be too harsh on Sam, okay?
He’s trying to help.’ She cast an eye back to her brother as he trudged along beside
Felicity. ‘Well, his version of help anyway.’

Gerald kicked at a rock and sent it skittering across the ground. ‘I just feel this
weight,’ he said in a low voice. ‘This weight of—’ he sighed, ‘— this weight of expectation.
We’re not playing for a plate of baked beans on toast. Professor McElderry’s life
depends on us deciphering a coded message and a challenge that no one has ever completed
before. It’s too much.’

Ruby tightened her grip on Gerald’s hand.

They walked in silence for a moment. Then Ruby spoke. ‘Do you ever wonder what Mason
Green wants so badly that he’s willing to kill to get it?’ she asked.

‘The last thing he wanted was to rule the world,’ Gerald said. ‘It’s hard to imagine
this will be a big step down from that.’

‘Then maybe we shouldn’t be helping him.’

Gerald brushed his thumb across the back of Ruby’s
hand. ‘Tell that to Professor
McElderry.’

Gerald stooped and picked up a rock about the size of a cricket ball. He brushed
it clean of dirt and moss, then wound up and tossed it as hard as he could over the
battlements. A second after it cleared the top rampart they heard the sound of shattering
glass, followed by a shout of anger.

Gerald’s eyes popped. ‘Crud. I must have hit a bus.’ He looked back towards the main
gate and saw Sam and Felicity bolting towards them. He cast about and his gaze fell
onto a set of stone stairs that disappeared into the ground. ‘Quick,’ he said to
Ruby. ‘Down here.’ Gerald stumbled down the slippery steps, his boots shuffling across
years of undisturbed moss and muck. A dozen steps down and he came face to face with
a tangle of dead vines blocking the way.

‘What’s the holdup?’ Ruby asked. Felicity scrambled down to join them. ‘The bus driver
is coming,’ she said, catching her breath. ‘And I don’t think he’s very happy.’

Gerald grabbed a handful of vines and yanked them to one side. ‘You didn’t happen
to pack a machete, did you?’ he asked.

Sam bundled down the stairs right into Felicity’s back. ‘Careful!’ she called over
her shoulder.

‘Sorry,’ Sam said. ‘But one of the drivers has just stormed into the courtyard and
he looks mighty cross.’

Gerald buried both hands into the curtain of foliage and shoved hard. He did not
want to be pulled out of the
challenge because of a broken bus window. He squeezed
through the vegetation and blundered further down the stairwell with the others behind
him. An earthy aroma of damp decay filled his nostrils as he fished the headlamp
from his pocket. He flicked the switch and strapped it on. Yellow light fell onto
the grimy steps ahead.

‘Where’s this taking us?’ Ruby’s voice followed Gerald as he ventured deeper into
the dark.

‘Away from grumpy bus drivers seeking revenge,’ he said. ‘I think there’s an opening
up ahead.’

The torchlight fell on an ancient oak door set into an archway in the stone. Gerald
took hold of a heavy iron ring bolted into the timbers. He tensed his shoulders and
pushed. The wooden portal disintegrated in a puff of dry rot, showering dust everywhere.
Gerald staggered through the opening still clutching the iron ring. Ruby, Felicity
and Sam stumbled in after him.

‘What did you do to that door?’ Ruby asked, gaping at the splintered remains, piled
up like termite droppings on the floor.

Gerald looked back at her in surprise. ‘I don’t know my own strength,’ he said. ‘Remember
that the next time you choose to annoy me.’

Three more beams of light filled the room as Sam, Ruby and Felicity flicked on their
torches. ‘I suppose this is as good a place as any to start looking for the symbol,’
Gerald said.

A quick scout of the room turned up nothing.
‘The only thing you’ll find in here
is a potential case of pneumonia,’ Ruby said. ‘Let’s keep going.’ She led them through
a doorway in the far wall and into a narrow tunnel carved through the bedrock.

The four headlamps shone down a passage and disappeared into the darkness. They walked
single file into the unknown.

‘I bet no one has been down here for years,’ Felicity said from the back of the line.
‘Maybe decades.’

‘Maybe centuries,’ Ruby said. Her boots scuffed through a carpet of dust.

Sam tapped Gerald on the shoulder. ‘You don’t suppose there would be any rats down
here, do you?’ he asked.

Ruby laughed from the front of their little caravan. ‘I’ll keep an eye out for you,
hero,’ she said.

They passed a series of deep alcoves on either side of the tunnel. The headlamps
illuminated racks of decaying wine casks and even a rusted suit of armour. But there
was no sign of the egg-shaped symbol.

After what seemed hours of fruitless searching along the dank tunnel, Ruby suddenly
stopped. The others piled into her back.

‘What is it?’ Felicity whispered.

Ruby squinted into the gloom ahead. ‘I thought I heard something.’

‘Rats?’ Sam asked.

Ruby shook her head. ‘You and your stupid rats.
No, numbskull. Voices. Come on.’

Felicity, Sam and Gerald bunched together behind Ruby as they crept along the passage
to a narrow opening. Ruby paused. She flicked off her headlamp and motioned for the
others to do the same. Darkness surrounded them.

Ruby peered through the gap, her eyes struggling to adjust.

Sam craned his neck over her shoulder. ‘What do you see?’

Ruby shot up a hand and pinched her brother’s lips together. ‘Ssshhh.’

Gerald strained his eyes but could make out nothing.

Then Ruby’s urgent whisper filtered back to him.

‘I think it’s Alex Baranov,’ she said.

Chapter 16

Dim light seeped through from the opening at the end of the tunnel. Gerald crawled
forward, crowding in behind Sam, trying to get a better view. They looked into a
cavernous chamber hewn from the subterranean granite. Six battery-powered lanterns
were dotted around the floor, barely illuminating the immense space and the vaulted
brickwork ceiling. But it was enough for Gerald to see a rickety assembly of scaffolding
shaped like a wedding cake teetering up to the ceiling. Halfway up the structure
was Alex Baranov. Millicent, Owen and Gretchen stood at the base, staring up at him.

‘Come down,’ Millicent called. ‘You’re going to hurt yourself.’

Alex ignored her and clambered higher up the
scaffold, his headlamp lighting the
way.

‘What’s he doing?’ Gerald whispered to Ruby. This earned him a sharp
shush
and a
clip around the ear.

Alex climbed on until he stood on a platform at the top of the scaffolding. He steadied
himself with the palms of his hands flat to the ceiling beneath the apex of the central
arch. His headlamp shone a pool of light onto the keystone that held the arch in
place.

Ruby gasped. She grabbed Gerald by the collar and yanked his head up next to hers.
‘Look,’ she hissed, ignoring his grunts of discomfort. Gerald followed Ruby’s pointed
finger to where Alex Baranov was inspecting the face of the keystone.

And then he saw it.

The outline of an egg-shaped symbol was carved into the front of the keystone.

‘Are you sure you locked the door behind us?’ Alex called down to his teammates.
‘I don’t want anyone walking in on this.’

‘Don’t worry. No one is going to find you,’ Gretchen called back, sounding bored.
‘Can’t we just record this on the satellite thingie and get back for dinner. I’m
starved.’ She plopped herself down on a low strut, sending a wobble up the wooden
frame.

‘Careful!’ Alex cried, pressing his hands harder against the ceiling. ‘This thing
is unsteady enough without you sitting on it.’

Gretchen scowled up to him. ‘Are you calling me fat?’

‘No, I’m calling you stupid.’ Alex carefully removed his backpack from his shoulders
and, balancing precariously twenty metres above the stone floor, opened the top
flap.

‘What’s he taken out?’ Ruby whispered.

Gerald shoved her to one side, pushing her face into a wall. ‘It looks like a mallet,’
he said. ‘A rubber mallet.’

Ruby pushed back, cracking skulls with Gerald. They both emitted muffled yelps.

‘What’s he want with a rubber mallet?’ Ruby asked. Her eyes squeezed shut and her
hands wrapped around the back of her head.

Gerald’s eyes jolted wide. ‘The symbol,’ he said. ‘I bet he’s going to knock out
the stone with the symbol on it.’

‘Why would he do that?’ Felicity asked.

‘Alex said the symbol represents something,’ Gerald said. ‘Something that’s really
valuable. I think it might be the same thing that Mason Green wants us to find.’
He rose to his knees.

‘What are you doing?’ Ruby asked.

‘I’m going to stop him,’ Gerald replied. ‘Or Professor McElderry is—’ He didn’t finish
the sentence.

Gerald shot from cover and into the open. He was across the cellar floor in an instant,
brushing past Millicent and Owen where they sat, bored rigid, on the floor. He shouldered
Gretchen out of the way, sending her spinning onto her backside in the dust, and
launched himself up the scaffolding.

The structure creaked and juddered as Gerald clambered hand over hand up the wooden
struts.

Alex, lining up to take a swing at the keystone, was almost shaken from his perch.
He dropped to his hands and knees with a startled cry, landing on all fours amid
a mess of off-cut masonry blocks and ancient wooden tools. A chisel tipped over the
edge and tumbled to the floor. It ricocheted off a beam just above Gerald’s head,
missing him by centimetres.

Alex clung to the top planks and unleashed a stream of abuse. ‘Stop it, you bloody
fool!’ he cried. ‘You’ll bring the lot down.’

Gerald paused halfway up, breathing hard. There was a manic gleam in his eyes. ‘Tell
me what’s so important about that stone block and I’ll stop,’ he said. He did not
take his gaze off Alex for a second.

Baranov glanced up to the stone that locked the arch in place, then down to Gerald
clinging to the scaffolding below. ‘Not a chance,’ he said. Their eyes were locked
in a wrestle of wills.

Gerald’s mouth stretched into a grim smile, and he shook the bars like a wild chimp
trying to escape from the zoo. Alex dropped to his belly, still clutching the rubber
mallet. Chunks of stone tumbled from the top platform. Bodies dived for cover as
the falling masonry exploded on impact.

Gerald looked down and saw that Ruby, Felicity and Sam had emerged from the hidden
passage to watch
the show. Gerald gave the scaffolding another almighty shake. A
timber brace snapped free and cartwheeled to the floor. Then a cry echoed down from
the ceiling.

‘It’s yours!’ Alex’s voice cracked with fear. ‘You can have it!’

Gerald stopped the shaking. Alex peered over the edge of the top platform, his eyes
showing white. ‘You’ll give it to me?’ Gerald called up.

Alex glared death at him, but nodded. Gerald resumed his steady ascent. When he reached
the top he found the other boy sitting amid a litter of building rubble, his arms
wrapped around his knees.

‘I’m sorry I had to do that,’ Gerald said.

‘You could have bloody killed me,’ Alex spat back.

Gerald shook his head. ‘I wasn’t thinking clearly,’ he said. ‘But trust me—I have
to complete this challenge.’

Then Alex—bluff, confident Alex Baranov—did something that took Gerald completely
by surprise.

He started crying. Swollen tears rolled down his cheeks.

Gerald looked at the boy sceptically. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked.

Alex tried to swallow the sobs. ‘Why do you even want it?’ he asked, his voice cracking.
‘What good is it to you? My father is going to kill me if I don’t get it for him.’

Gerald pulled himself the last few steps to the top of the scaffolding. ‘I hardly
think your father is going to—’

Alex lashed out a hand and grabbed Gerald’s jacket.
‘You saw him,’ he said. ‘In Rice
Crispies’ office. You saw what he’s like. You don’t make a fortune in Russian oil
by playing by the rules. He’ll do anything to get his hands on it.’ Alex clenched
his teeth. ‘Anything.’

Then realisation dawned on Alex’s face. ‘You don’t know what’s inside this stone,
do you? Or what the symbol means.’

Gerald said nothing. He could feel his advantage slipping away.

Alex wiped his hand across his eyes, smearing tears down his cheeks, and laughed.
‘Weren’t you listening in that history lesson?’ he said. ‘This was James VI’s summer
house. A friend of his left something here for safekeeping.’

Gerald fumbled for a response but he was cut off by Alex’s triumphant cry: ‘It’s
Cornelius Drebbel’s perpetual motion machine, you idiot!’

Chapter 17

Gerald’s mind spun, whirring and buzzing as quickly—and about as effectively—as
Sam’s perpetual motion machine.

This is what Sergei Baranov was after, and the reason he did not want Gerald to try
for the Triple Crown: a mythical contraption stolen from the collection of Rudolph
II of Bohemia?