The Paradise Trap (20 page)

‘
Mum! Jake! Come back!
’ he bellowed. ‘
It’s our lift!
’

He hurled himself into the little beige box, landing on his hands and knees. The carpet beneath him was bone dry. Glancing around, he saw a hissing, churning, bubbling wall of water arrested on the threshold by some invisible barrier. It was freakish – unnatural – but Marcus didn’t have time to wonder what it meant. Because a stainless steel panel was already beginning to clank across his view of the chaos.

‘
Hurry, Mum!
’ He caught the door just in time. Then he reached past it and snared Jake’s suitcase.

He was amazed to find that he could lean into the water as he would have leaned into a curtain.

‘Marcus!’ yelled Holly. She was being towed along by Jake, who was half-wading, half-swimming towards the lift. Marcus dragged Jake’s suitcase over the threshold before tossing it behind him. Then he braced himself against the edge of the door, using his whole body as a doorstop.

‘Oh, God! Thank God!’ Holly was coughing and gasping. When Jake pushed her inside, she tripped over her son’s leg and fell down. But Jake soon yanked her up again. He’d burst into the lift like a breaching whale, almost thudding off its rear wall in his eagerness to jump ship. Once he’d steadied himself, however, he turned back to help Holly.

Only after she was on her feet did he throw himself against the door, adding his weight to Marcus’s.

‘Where’s Sterling? Where’s Edison?’ Marcus demanded. ‘Mum? Where are they?’

‘They’re coming,’ Holly replied. Sure enough, Coco suddenly appeared, framed in the doorway; she was paddling in their direction. So were Newt and Sterling – though Sterling, being taller than Newt, wasn’t so much swimming as ploughing through the waves.

He was giving Edison a piggyback.

‘Edison! Hey! Do you still have Prot’s hand?’ Marcus called out across the surface of the deluge. ‘We can’t lose Prot’s hand!’

Edison’s arms were wrapped around his father’s neck. But as Coco collapsed into the lift ahead of them both, her stepson unlocked one arm and raised Prot’s hydraulic hand with an air of weary triumph.

He was still clutching the hand firmly when he slid off Sterling’s back onto the lift floor. ‘Still got it!’ he wheezed.

By now the level of the water was way above Marcus’s head. It didn’t matter, though; all he had to do was let go of the door and retreat a few steps, tugging Jake along with him. A steel curtain was immediately drawn across the doomed ship’s final moments. There was a grinding, snapping, rending sound. Then blessed silence fell.

At first no one spoke. Holly couldn’t stop hugging Marcus. Jake was sitting slumped in a corner. Sterling had crouched beside Coco, who was sprawled across the carpet, her hairdo ruined and her herbal mask completely expunged. They were all shaky, breathless and dripping wet.

At last Newt opened her eyes, lifted her head and croaked, ‘So how do we get out of
here
?’

43

WHERE TO NOW?

I
T WAS A WHILE BEFORE ANYBODY ANSWERED
. M
ARCUS FELT
too drained to talk. Edison was retching up seawater and Coco was sobbing pathetically.

At last Jake said, ‘What was that number? The one for the office?’ ‘Zero-zero-zero-zero-one-zero-zero-zero-zero-zero-zero-one,’ Sterling recited.

‘Are you sure?’

‘I’m sure.’ Though Sterling looked pale and wrung out, he sounded absolutely confident. ‘I’m good with numbers.’

Marcus, meanwhile, was trying to wriggle out of his mother’s vice-like hug. ‘That might not have been the real office,’ he warned. ‘It might have been a fake.’

Jake shrugged. ‘So what?’ he rejoined. ‘It was better than this.’

No one tried to argue. Even Marcus couldn’t disagree. So Sterling gently took Prot’s hand from Edison and used one lifeless steel finger to key Miss Molpe’s office code into the panel of wall-mounted buttons.

But the lift didn’t respond. It just sat there.

‘Oh, God,’ Newt groaned. Holly buried her face in Marcus’s shoulder. Coco snivelled and Edison looked anxiously at Sterling.

‘Dad?’ Edison squeaked. ‘It’s going to work, isn’t it?’

Sterling hesitated. He was clearly at a loss. Marcus, however, refused to give up. After playing so many computer games, he knew that there was
always
another way out. You just had to know the secret password, or complete the right sequence of tasks.

‘Try another code,’ Marcus suggested. ‘That one might be a dud. I don’t trust Miss Molpe.’

‘What code should I use?’ asked Sterling. ‘Does anyone still have a pamphlet on them?’

There was a sudden murmur of protest. ‘Oh no,’ said Jake. ‘No, I’m not going back to Diamond Beach.’

Holly muttered something about homicidal pink cats. Only Edison seemed open to the prospect. ‘I did promise those clowns that I’d be seeing them again . . .’ he reminded the assembled company.

But Marcus had a better idea.

‘Pick any set of numbers,’ he advised Sterling. ‘Just pull them out of your head.’

‘
You
try.’ Sterling offered him the robot’s hand. ‘It might work for you.’

‘Okay.’ Marcus was finally allowed to break away from his mother, who let him go so he could take Prot’s hand from Sterling. ‘I’m not going to
choose
anything,’ Marcus announced, upon reaching the panel of buttons. ‘I’m just going to shut my eyes and wave this hand around until it lands on a number.’

‘What if it doesn’t land on a number?’ Newt objected. ‘What if it lands on the alarm button?’

‘In that case I’ll try again,’ said Marcus. Then he closed his eyes and jabbed Prot’s finger at the panel. After connecting with blank steel a couple of times, he finally hit plastic.

‘Six,’ Sterling muttered.

‘Shh.’ Marcus scowled without opening his eyes. ‘Don’t tell me, okay? I don’t want to know. This is meant to be random.’

Again and again he poked at the wall, as the others whispered together behind him. Sometimes he was lucky. Sometimes he missed. It was a tedious and time-consuming process, but at last the lift sprang to life.

It shuddered, bounced and began to ascend, while the people inside it erupted into a triumphant cheer.

‘Yay, Marcus!’ cried Edison.

‘Well done,’ said Jake.

‘Oh Marcus, I’m so proud of you.’ Holly wrapped her arms around Marcus all over again. ‘You’re such a clever boy . . .’

Marcus flushed. He was trying not to grin. But Newt promptly spoiled the mood of congratulation by observing, in a sour tone, ‘Don’t get too excited. We haven’t arrived yet.’

Silence fell. Jake sniffed. Sterling cleared his throat. Coco said, ‘Where
are
we going, anyway?’

‘We don’t know,’ Newt snapped. ‘That’s the whole point.’

‘I hope it’s somewhere with lots of food,’ whined Edison. ‘Because I’m really, really hungry.’

All at once, without warning, the lift stopped. Jake jumped to his feet. Newt stood up more slowly. Everyone turned to face the door, which slid open to reveal a big log cabin set on a mangy patch of grass. Behind the cabin lay a basketball court; in front stood a rack of fibreglass canoes. The sign over the cabin’s screen door read ‘Dormitory B’. There were other identical cabins nearby, scattered around a lightly wooded clearing.

The setting sun cast long shadows across the peaks of a distant mountain range.

‘Uh – you know what?’ said Marcus. ‘This is no good.’

Heads jerked around. Jake blinked. Edison goggled.

‘What do you mean?’ Coco asked.

‘This is no good,’ Marcus repeated. ‘We should leave. Right now.’

‘Why?’ Newt spoke crossly. ‘It looks fine.’

‘It’s not,’ Marcus assured her. Holly, meanwhile, was carefully studying his face.

‘What’s wrong, Marcus?’ she said. ‘Do you know where we are?’

‘I sure do.’ Marcus swallowed before adding, ‘It’s
my
nightmare holiday.’

‘Your what?’ Holly was puzzled – but Edison wasn’t. His jaw dropped.

‘
Camp
is your nightmare holiday?’ he spluttered. ‘Boy, that’s weird. Don’t you like having fun?’

‘It’s not just any old camp,’ Marcus explained. ‘It’s Vampire Camp.’ He pointed at the closest log cabin. ‘See the way all those windows are boarded up on the inside?’ he continued. ‘See how there’s no dining hall? It’s Vampire Camp, all right. I used to dream about it a
lot
.’

There followed a long, tense pause. Then Jake said tersely, ‘Let’s get out of here.’

Luckily, he didn’t have to push any buttons. The lift door closed of its own accord, responding to some in-built timer.

After which, once again, nothing happened.

44

‘THIS IS A JOB FOR THE
EMERGENCY SERVICES . . .’

M
ARCUS WAS STUMPED
. H
E DIDN
’
T KNOW WHAT TO DO NEXT
. Clearly, things had changed since Miss Molpe’s escape. Her trap had once worked automatically, churning out dream holidays without her direct input. Now, however, she was back in the driver’s seat. Now the horror was becoming visible, like the piles of bones in the fake caravan. And her evil essence was beginning to taint the world of her creation, the way the bones of her victims had transformed the fake caravan from a cheerful haven into a charnel house.

‘Great. Terrific.’ There was a hint of panic in Newt’s voice. ‘As if our dream holidays weren’t bad enough, now we have nightmares!’

‘What’s
your
nightmare holiday, Newt?’ her brother asked. He seemed genuinely interested.

‘This is,’ she spat. ‘What’s yours? A giant brussels sprout?’

Edison had to think for a moment before answering. ‘My fairground, I guess. Except that all the clowns and aliens and dodgem cars would have been tortured by Miss Molpe because they let me go.’

Coco shuddered. ‘Well, we certainly won’t be going back to the fairground,’ she decreed. ‘I couldn’t cope with
that
.’

‘My nightmare holiday would probably be a skiing trip with my ex-wife,’ Sterling suddenly volunteered. ‘Last time I went on one of those, I had to be airlifted off a glacier.’ Seeing his son’s slightly hurt expression, Sterling hastened to add, ‘My ex-wife’s much braver than I am. And a lot fitter, too.’

‘Oh, no. No way. No ski trips with Janice.’ Though scared and bedraggled, Coco was still able to put her foot down with a fair degree of force. ‘I couldn’t cope with that, either.’

‘I could,’ growled Jake. ‘A ski trip sounds fine to me.’ He was hovering on the sidelines, looking sullen. Marcus was about to point out that a pair of shorts and a rope belt weren’t the right kind of clothes for a ski resort when Holly jumped in.

‘Before we do anything drastic,’ she declared, ‘I’ve had an idea.’ She then produced her mobile phone. ‘If Jake’s suitcase was more powerful than the witch, maybe my phone is too,’ she continued. ‘I mean, we haven’t tried it yet, have we? Maybe I should just call someone.’

‘Oh my God,’ breathed Newt. ‘Oh my God, you’re
right
!’ Her face lit up. Sterling, however, simply frowned.

‘Are you sure it’s working?’ he asked Holly.

‘I don’t know. We’ll soon find out.’ When Holly turned it on, the phone beeped in a reassuring kind of way. ‘Looks okay to me,’ she remarked. ‘And the reception’s pretty good.’

‘But who should we call?’ said Coco. ‘Who’s close enough to get us out of here?’ Without waiting for a reply, she offered to call her Diamond Beach massage therapist. ‘Except that I can’t remember her details . . .’

‘We’ll call the police,’ Holly interrupted. She was already tapping a three-digit number into her keypad. ‘This is a job for the emergency services.’

Marcus wasn’t so sure. Wouldn’t his mother just be luring another set of victims into Miss Molpe’s trap? He was about to suggest that they call Directory Assistance to ask if there were any paranormal investigators living nearby when Holly caught her breath.

Marcus saw her grim expression dissolve into one full of hope and excitement.

‘Oh – oh, yes!’ she cried into the phone, which was pressed to her ear. ‘Yes, we need help! It’s an emergency! We need to talk to the police!’ A pause. ‘What? You
what
? Oh . . .’

Everyone stared at Holly as she listened to the voice at the other end of the line. Though Marcus couldn’t hear what was being said, he deduced that it was both puzzling and unexpected – because the light in her eyes was slowly replaced by a dazed, disappointed look. ‘Well, yes,’ she finally admitted, ‘we can’t get back. We’re stuck here and – what?’ Another pause. ‘I see. Well, yes, I suppose so. But how . . . ?’ She glanced towards the panel of buttons. ‘But there
isn’t
a minus one,’ she protested. ‘How can we . . . hello?
Hello?
’ She blinked and lowered the phone. ‘He hung up on me!’ she complained.

‘Who did?’ Newt seemed confused. ‘Was it the operator?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t think so.’ Holly swallowed before reluctantly adding, ‘He told us to go to the embassy.’

‘The
embassy
?’ Coco’s tone was shrill with disbelief. ‘What embassy?’

‘
Our
embassy,’ Holly replied. ‘Because we’re stranded tourists.’

‘That’s weird,’ said Jake.

‘And where exactly is our so-called embassy?’ was Newt’s next question. ‘Did he tell you that?’

‘It’s on level minus one.’ Seeing the blank stares that greeted this news, Holly burst out, ‘I told him there
wasn’t a
level minus one, but he wouldn’t listen!’

‘There’s no minus-one button . . .’ Edison began.

‘I know!’

‘Maybe it was the siren,’ Marcus suggested. ‘Maybe she’s teasing us.’

‘It was a man. I told you. A man with a foreign accent.’

‘Wait a second!’ Sterling spoke so sharply that everybody else jumped. He put a hand to his forehead and stood for a moment, thinking hard. Then he whirled around and pointed at the panel of buttons. ‘That exclamation mark!’ he said. ‘It’s an upside-down
i
!’

‘So?’

‘So the square root of
i
is negative one!’ Sterling paused, as if expecting an eager chorus of agreement. When no one reacted, he sighed and began to explain. ‘It’s an irrational number, like pi. If I press the alarm button, and then I press the emergency stop button, and then I press the alarm button again, it’s
i
x
i
– which equals minus one!’